Boat Explosion and Giving Myself Permission to do Nothing

Fort Lauderdale – 2 kilometres walked, 4 kilometres by paddle board

A Christmas morning unlike most. I woke up with a plan, and the plan was to do nothing productive. No boat jobs, no errands, no difficult things – just do whatever I felt like doing, as a Christmas gift to myself.

 

I began the day with some writing, then peanut butter toast and cereal, then a long and sometime strenuous paddleboard ride through the neighbourhood of waterways, and upon my return I spotted a pair of Morning Manatees passing by the bow of SeaLight, which just made my day. I had a Christmas call with Ana, Stella, and Magnus, my buddy Andrew, my dad (Mom was yesterday..) and then I rowed over to our neighbours to offer season’s greetings and suggested late afternoon drinks and apero on SeaLight, which they happily accepted.

 

After a light lunch I dug out the hammock, which I believe has not seen a single use this trip, and slung it across the solar arch, then planted myself in there with a novel and read for a good long while, possibly nodding off for a moment or two between chapters. To wake myself up I walked down to the beach, full of people enjoying the holiday warm weather, and finished my novel as I laid on a towel in the sand, then went for a refreshing dip in the ocean. I returned to the boat, learned Sweet Child ‘O Mine on ukulele, smoked a Black and Mild cigar accompanied by a shot of iced Sailor Jerry’s rum, then got the apero organized for my guests. Ana is the master of snack plates and charcuterie boards and is always in charge of this, but I think I did pretty good with this one. 

 

Corey, Marie, and their daughter Alice hung out with me all night and we had a whale of a time snacking, drinking, and talking. The hours melted away as we covered all the basics – where ya from, where ya going, where ya been, whaddya make of the world. Alice made me a beautiful, custom Christmas card so I slipped her a bag of gummy worms and snakes at the end of the evening to show my appreciation. She winked at me and slid it into her pocket. They are a lovely family and I expect we’ll be seeing lots of each other in the coming days.

 

Despite not being with my loving family for Christmas, I have enjoyed this time alone. Yes, I missed not being at the annual Christmas Eve get together at my brother-in-law Mark’s place to see him and Stella, Ana’s folks, and my beautiful nieces, and I also missed the Christmas day rituals - morning stocking opening at our house with just the four of us, then turkey lunch at Ana’s parents’ place with the same crew. I missed all that. But I also enjoyed being here on my own, in the beautiful warm weather, walking on a beach, swimming in the ocean, doing things at my own pace on my own schedule. It felt liberating. It felt peaceful. Christmas at home is fun, but it is not peaceful. It’s a lot of work, costs a great deal of money, it’s stressful, and it is rarely relaxing. Most people typically race from house to house, event to event, getting in all their seasonal visits, in a mad frenzy to get as much done in the time available, which is always too short. Fun, but not peaceful.

This year, Christmas for me was very peaceful and I feel exceptionally fortunate to have had the chance to experience this.

To finish up on a less happy note, I’ve had a few queries from people about the boat that exploded in Fort Lauderdale. It was about two kilometres away from where we are anchored and I did not hear the explosion or see the smoke. But I knew something was happening as a police helicopter was circling overhead for at least an hour and the sounds of emergency vehicle sirens were everywhere. It’s a horrible tragedy and my heart goes out to the families of the victims.