There are Jackasses Everywhere

Originally posted on July 25, 2014, by cruisingrunner

We’ve observed, and we’re not the only ones, that the cruising community as a whole is more friendly, relaxed, and fun to be around than society at large. There is less stress and more free time (except for all the boat projects) than back at home, and it really shows. Unfortunately, as with any cross-section of society, there are jackasses out here too. But at least for me they stand out more, and I also find them more amusing now than irritating, which may be a reflection of my own shift in outlook since becoming a cruiser.

Well, there is this one particularly amusing fellow on one of the morning SSB radio nets [note 1] that just has me floored. We first noticed him the morning they announced that they would be starting up a new net for all the boats west of Bora Bora. This makes a lot of sense as the fleet gets more spread out over more time zones, and it will also make each net a bit shorter in duration, and people can decide if they want to listen to one or both or neither. I was immediately on board, not that it mattered, even if I wasn’t it certainly wasn’t my place to make any judgments, and I certainly would never have complained. Well, this amusing fellow was obviously not happy about this at all. He made sure that he was, “on the record,” as severely disagreeing with this decision. He kept saying, “Why are you trying to divide the community!?!” He wasn’t constructive. He wasn’t nice about it. He was just sour. We listened to him rant on and on, and Tim astutely observed, “What a jackass!” I have a real problem with people who complain over volunteer activities when they themselves aren’t doing any of the volunteering. It used to irk me back in our Little League days, and it irks me now as well. And now we notice him when he checks in, and wow, what a jerk. I hope we don’t ever run in to that guy.

I was a little bit cranky during my run today, which may be why I’m a bit spun up about the jackass. I’m sure I was partly cranky because it was so hot out, about 31 deg C. But also a bit because we are preparing to leave Suwarrow tomorrow. Not that I’m particularly attached to Suwarrow, I mean it’s very nice and everything, but so is everywhere we go these days. It’s just that I’m getting a little dissatisfied with the pace we are having to move. When we were in Mexico, we had all the time in the world, and we got the chance to plant ourselves in a few places for awhile. Here it’s go, go, go, because it’s a big ocean, and there’s so many places to go and only so many months in the cruising season before we have to leave the tropics to avoid the cyclones.

We will spend a couple of months in Tonga, and I am really looking forward to that.

-D.

[note 1] SSB stands for Single Side Band and it’s basically a type of HF radio, just like a HAM radio. We use it for long range communication out here, and cruisers often organize daily radio nets where we can connect and share information on weather, destinations, or whatever.

For a follow up see Who’s the Jackass Now?