Leonard - Blue horizons: dispatches from distant seas

Blue Horizons

Dispatches from Distant Seas

Beth A. Leonard

Copyright 2007 by Beth A. Leonard. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-178247-0

MHID: 0-07-178247-8

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This book is dedicated to three people who taught me about living life fully and facing death with grace and courage.

Walker Vought (b. March 29, 1942; d. September 9, 2002): I would live my life with your unbounded enthusiasm and infectious good cheer, and approach every new project with your unflagging energy and steadfast determination.

Eric Dahn (b. September 30, 1945; d. February 28, 2005): I would face my death as bravely and defiantly as you did, with your unflinching honesty and total lack of self-pity right to the very end.

Helen White (b. April 16, 1929; d. November 4, 2005): I would find within me the pluck, fortitude, and faith that carried you to the very ends of the Earth in the seventh decade of your life.

Thank you for all you gave, all you shared.

Id like to thank my sister, Leigh Leonard, for all of her support and encouragement on my long voyage toward becoming a writer. This book was her idea. Id also like to thank my parents, Joyce and Harsey Leonard, for raising me to value experiences over material possessions, character over conformity. I appreciate their assistance in deciding which columns to include and their help with editing. Thanks also to Bruce Atkins for giving me the courage to become a writer and setting me on the path I will spend the rest of my life traveling. And, finally, thanks to the staff of International Marine for believing in this book and to Jon Eaton, Molly Mulhern, and Ben McCanna for challenging me with their insightful comments and thorough editing.

All but one of these pieces first appeared in Blue Water Sailing as monthly columns in a series called Blue Horizons. They ran on the last page of the magazine from September 1999 to October 2005. Id like to thank George Day for giving me the opportunity to write the column and a free rein to say what I wanted to say. Thanks also for permission to use the name of the column for the title of this book.

Evans, there is so much to thank you for, I dont know where to begin. Let me just say I am honored to be your partner, in life and in our voyaging. I look forward to many more adventure-filled, challenging, rewarding years together.

At the end of Memorial Day weekend in May 1995, my partner, Evans Starzinger, and I sailed our 37-foot Shannon ketch, Silk, under the Newport Bay Bridge to enter Narragansett Bay, in Rhode Island. We sailed in company with dozens of other boats heading back to their berths after a pleasant day on the water or a holiday weekend at Block Island. But we were returning from a bit farther afield. We had last seen that bridge three years less three days before, when we set sail for Bermuda at the start of a circumnavigation of the globe.

Our voyage had spanned 36,000 nautical miles, thirty-five countries, and three continents. Our literal voyage measured in miles and landfalls was accompanied by a figurative voyage that tore up our roots; challenged our values; and tested our boat, our relationship, and our deepest selves. The literal voyage was written in Silks salt-scrubbed toe rail and battered dinghy, in our deep tans and the fine wrinkles around our eyes. But the real voyage was written in our hearts, and on that day we did not begin to understand how irrevocably we had been changed by it.

A few weeks later, when we said good-bye to Silk and left her to her new owners, we really believed we were finished with offshore voyaging. We both thought we could simply turn the page and move on to a new chapter. By October of that year, Evans was working in strategic planning for General Electric and I had started writing. But after three years of cruising, life ashore seemed dull, monochrome. Something was missing. The words for the things we had found sailing the worlds oceans sound trite, almost clichd: self-reliance, belief in humanity, trust in each other, respect for the natural world, confidence in ourselves