Happy Tuesday, Mentally Sailing friends!
This week, I’m writing to you from one of our favorite coffee shops in Norfolk – COVA! It has a long history with Steve and I; having opened in 2020 when we met and being the first place Steve asked me to go to and I turned him down (oops). It all worked out fine, obviously, and now we go here all the time. It’s about a 10-15 minute walk from the boat and it always has something going on like live music or food trucks. Yes, this is a shameless plug for our NFK friends.
Anyway, I’m really pumped to be here, working with good tunes, and drinking coffee with my guy. It’s the little things.
We’ve had a busy week, though I feel that I say that every week. We’ve put in one of our new permanent windows (WOOHOO) and we’re hoping to put the second one in today or tomorrow if it doesn’t rain on us. This weekend was full of fun. We went to COVA for their “Cova’s gone country” night and enjoyed the beer and live music. We then left Sunday morning for a sail to Hampton. We spent the night at an anchorage that we pass every Thursday on our way to game night with friends. It was really fun being one of the boats out there rather than wondering what it was like from the car. Perspective is everything, you know?
Although a lot happened this week, I really just want to talk about our sail. I’ve realized that I always have a lot more to write when we’ve gone sailing. It’s like the fire gets lit again, and all I want to do is be in that moment of wind in my hair and sun on my skin. It brings me into the moment and makes me be absolutely present.
I was reading a post by another sailing couple and really resonated with something they said. “Sailing is about everpresentness.” It’s true. If you don’t stop and look around, watch the water and find the dolphin fins in the waves, you’ll miss it. It makes you smile and brings joy to your heart. Not many things can do so that quickly and feel so pure.
I’ve always appreciated the pureness of the ocean, and its simultaneous angry and vast nature. There are ways that it cleanses you and ways that it wrecks you, but it always brings you back to the moment you’re in. You have to watch the wind constantly, making sure the sails are full and your heading is good. You have to let the ocean do what the ocean does, and in turn it will bring you to things that light you up.
One of those things for us was a dolphin visitor. We saw many this weekend, but one broke off from its friend and put on a show for us. They swam over, Buoy in full whining mode, and would show themselves every now and then. Right when we weren’t expecting it, Steve saw the dolphin’s outline under the water right next to the port side of our hull. With his camera ready, the dolphin beautifully jumped out of the water just in time for Steve to snap a photo. It was unreal. It was beautiful. It reminded me just how much I loved that moment and this life and the world we get to explore.
Around the same time, a motor boat zoomed by and completely missed the dolphins. “I’m glad we go slow so we can see the dolphins,” said Steve. I asked him to text that to me so I wouldn’t forget to include it in this week’s blog. I wanted to remember that statement, because I agree with him on so many levels. It’s so nice to go slow and get to appreciate the beauty of the ocean and the creatures within it. This goes for more than just dolphin sightings and boat speed. Going slow, appreciating the ride instead of focusing on the destination, you experience so much more than you could imagine. I encourage you to try it sometime, taking it slow, because you never know what you might see!
Every blog I write is a documentation of our life, thoughts I’ve had over the last few days, things that bring us joy, etc. Sometimes I think about how fun it will be to one day look back at all of these posts and see how far we’ve come, all of the crazy boat projects (successes and failures), and every adventure written into this blog. This week, it became very clear to me that these blogs are love letters. They’re a love letter to Steve, to myself, to our life together. There is something so wonderful about that to me. I’m so happy to have started this journey, this blog, so that I can reread these adventures one day and remember how much we loved this life on our boat, and this life together.
So, cheers to the adventures and the memories, and getting all that I can down in writing so that we will never forget the absolutely crazy, wonderful, and lovely life we’ve lived and continue to live.
Happy Tuesday,
Skye
Mentally Sailing 