Sahalee Sail

Another week has gone by, lots of advances and some unexpected discoveries on the big’ol Quick Silver.

The good part is that I’ve been getting more familiar with the sailing and very familiar with my new franco-family: Pat, Mê, Paci… getting to find out all the family dynamic and seeing where I can fit in to complement and stay out of the way when it is none of my business.

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I joined Billy and his friends for a sail with his boat "Sahalee" this past Thursday. It was quite a windy day and the sea, while not bigger then 4 feet, the waves were not far apart, which made for quite a choppy ride. Ups and downs, I started to feel very heavy and ultimately, useless. That was followed by a strong sense of upset stomach as I decided to relocate my carcass to the stern (back) of the ship as I prepared for the inevitable... As I lay there, I had time and creativity to make up and sing some lyrics to a blues melody that played in my head. I love these moments of “creativity V.S. vulnerability”.

Port side of Sahalee
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As my final moments of integrity drew to a close, I began to pollute the deep blue waters with a mixture of bile and that morning’s breakfast. In between each upward throttle of my stomach, I seamed to find the energy to shout in amusement of the situation and pure physical relief!

Me recovering...
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The rest of the ride was even better and we put up the jib (front sail) so we were moving twice as fast and soon we entered the Boot Key Harbor from where we had left several hour back. That was a good day to learn many realities of sailing, and when Melanie offers me some tricks to prevent sea-sickness I will gladly accept such a gracious offer. Thanks in advance Mê.]

So it is looking like there is a window opening up Tuesday or Wednesday. If all goes well, we will set sail at that time. However during this month I have been disillusioned several times, as I was always thinking that we would leave and every time ended up staying longer. Above everything, the last 3 months, especially February, has been a great lesson of PATIENCE. Every few days it surprised me again, to find out that I had been deceived once again. I saw this as a learning opportunity and concluded that patience is indeed a virtue.

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Blessings to all…

USA Reflections:

Saturday was the official day we were to depart from Marathon and set sail to Cuba, but once again, the weather has shown us otherwise and it seems we still have business to do here. So I decided to write some reflections of my experience in the United States of America. I realise that I won’t be able to please everyone, everything I write is from my personal experience and networking with friends. This is not an attempt to define, judge, or discriminate anyone in any way.

This is where I was born and grew up - Farm Satori, Brasilia, Brazil

I spent my childhood in Brazil then moved to Toronto, Canada as a young teen. I never visited the US before; so most of my knowledge and opinions were based on the distress and mass destruction that the US has inflicted on all corners of the globe. I developed a bias to avoid any transaction with the States, whenever possible.

As I started to formulate the idea of this odyssey (Infinity Cycle), I became aware that the US was not only geographically essential but I also needed to get rid of preconceived ideas and find out for myself, through its people, and first hand experience. It also tied in nicely with the intention to experience both extremes and unite South, Central and North Americas together as one.

Sunrise in the state of Delaware, late October 2008

As I cycled through the states of the east coast (NY, NJ, DE, MA,VA, NC, SC, GA and FL) I intentionally let go of pretensions and negative thoughts that came up, trying to absorb it all for what it is. I found most of the people I met to be very welcoming and generous in lending me a hand by offering camp/shelter, shower, food and/or most importantly their friendship. In between a number of set destinations to friends, friends of friends, friends of friends of friends houses and so on, I had wonderfully unexpected experiences meeting new friends, who would in turn give me more contacts of their friends in places further along the road.

A deer near the Hudson river, Stoney Point, NY

I feel it is also important to talk about my impression of the “American way of life”. How in this country, almost everything is disposable. Many of the places I went through I found its people to be disconnected from each other and their environment. Small cities have lost their sense of community and are dependant on oil and technology to survive. Only a handful of villages had a little character of their own and most had multi-national chain shopping centres as their only source of food and other living essentials, putting most small/family operations out of business. It made me very upset to find that the ONLY place I could buy camp fuel was in Wal-Mart, one of the multi-nationals I boycott. I tried to buy my daily food from local farmer’s road stands and small grocery stores whenever possible, but sometimes had no option but a big chain store.

My bike in the morning before hitting the road - Tifton, GA

I was told by friends that in school children are taught that the USA is the BEST country in the world (wealth, health, power, etc). Strategically, to some degree it promotes patriotism, which can be a good thing when it is combined with common sense. But the frustrating part is that most of the population doesn’t even have the curiosity to find out for them selves, and instead choose to live arrogantly ignorant without ever leaving their home country.

Flying on an Ultra-Light in up-state New York

I felt privileged to be present at such a glorious moment when the people of the USA elected their first African-American president, Barack Obama. This marks a great milestone in history and gives hope to the rest of the world for a future with peace. I hope he can pull the integrity of this country back together to make peace not war, environmental responsibility with recycling/composting programs, better education, free health care, strengthen communities, teach the public about the importance of holding ourselves accountable for our actions.

Finally I am glad I had the opportunity to see and experience for myself the reality of the American life. This way I will be sure to remember the contrast with other nations of the south, where resources are not such a privilege and material goods are not wasted in vast quantities. Thank you to everyone I came in contact with during my stay in the USA.

Peace and respect,

Lalo

After having written this text, I came across a documentary movie that I highly recommend.

Zeitgeist Movement - please take some time to watch it...

The wind decides when

It will be a week tomorrow that I have been in full commitment to Patrick and Melanie's sail boat. We are working hard to get everything in order, and we are basically ready to go but we missed the last window to cross the gulf stream, because we are still waiting for a specialized part to arrive in the mail. We are in the mercy of the direction of the wind to tell us when to go, a window usually opens up around every 7 days, so it seams we will be here for another few day still, which will be useful to get the last details sorted out.

All the sails where open, that boat catches a lot of wind
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This past week has been great. Every day I go from "Otarie" Sail Boat to where Quick Silver is docked. we work for the days and then I go back to Otarie to eat and sleep... It has been a true pleasure to be doing this everyday. I got to meet the crew of a Canadian Sail Boat called Ghost Dance. Gram, Rob and Joanne very friendly peeps from New Brunswick, Canada.

Quick Silver's first ride on open waters... It was very foggy that day, .5 km visibility. This is Jameson, Pat's friend who was working with us.
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It takes about 25 minutes to row from Quick Silver to Otarie that is anchored at the end of the harbour, and it is usually a very enjoyable ride weather in the morning, dusk or night time...

This is the v-birth of Otarie, where I sleep at night, that window allows for the moonlight to shine thought on my face... delicious nights!
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I'm hopping I get to see my friends from Conch key before I leave the states for good.

Moments before the sunset, I was rowing under the Boot Key Bridge on my to Otarie!

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Getting ready...

Since last friday I had been cycling from Conch Key to Marathon to help prepare the sail boat, for our trip to Cuba then Guatemala. I took Sunday off to say goodbye to my friends at Conch Key and as of Monday, I have been sleeping on a boat. It is called Otarie, she belongs to Patrick and Melanie before they aquired QuickSilver, they one we will cruising on.

Otarie is a much smaller sail boat and it is really comfy for one or two people. Last night was the first night I have ever spent on a boat. I cooked a couscous dinner, eat it outside looking at the stars. Then later I fell asleep to the full moon light shinning on my face. I Slept like a baby....

The other day I went up the Mast of Quick Silver to change a light bulb, it was a nice view up there...

I think that I have come upon another passion of my life that had been dormant, as I had never been exposed to it before. Many thoughts of living and travelling on a sail boat with my dear, have come rushing through my mind several times the last 20hrs. I'm super exited for this leg of the journey and have been working hard for it.

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We are aiming to sail to Cuba this Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Stay tunned!

I have been back in Marathon for a couple of days and have been going to meet my Quebecois friends, to help on the boat, Quick Silver. There is still a lot of work to be done before we can go anywhere, but I figure that the more help, the sooner we'll be sailing away. The plus side is that these extra days will allow us to become familiar with each other before hand, they are really friendly and fun to be with!

Patrick inside Quick Silver

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I wanted to thank Leroy and Cindie for giving me a ride from Key West to Conch Key on Wed, and Katrina and Bill for their never ending generosity and offering me their beautiful apt at Sunset Villas free of charge for 3 nights. Today I'm moving back next door (where I stayed when I first arrived in Conch Key), at Gerri and Ron's place next door for a couple of nights... Thank you for your friendship and hospitality!

Sunset in Grassy Key, as I was ridding to Conch Key last night
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By the beginning of next week I will be sleeping in Pat and Mel's small boat that is anchored just outside of the Boot Key Harbour. This way I'll see what it is like to sleep on a boat, and be a 30min rowing dingy ride away from the Quick Silver (instead of an hour ride by bike).

Today on my ride to Marathon, I met Paul on the road, he has been bicycling zigzags across US and Canada for a couple of years. He is 64 years old and very friendly, hauling his bike trailer everywhere he goes. It was a pleasure to meet you Paul, Happy trails!!!

Just after sunset in Key West

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A Letter of Apology

This letter goes to Laurie from Downsville, in New York state western Catskill region. Please click here to read the original post and comment.

Dear Laurie,
About 24 hundred miles after I had the pleasure of your acquaintance, Now in Key West as I was browsing older blog posts, I stumble on your comment.

First off, I am so sorry that you felt under appreciated on the blog, after re-reading it, I can see how you did. However, The blog only represents a small percentage of my feelings on the road, the feelings of gratitude and friendship I felt for you after being welcomed so well at Pepacton Natural Foods, were beyond what is in the blog. However I can also add that after all these miles on the road I have really been learning about the power of reciprocation, I notice that my posts now days are much more detailed to thanking those beautiful human who help me along the way. So what I can tell you now is that you are a fundamental part in my journey of human-ness. For this I salute and thank you.

The factual details of how I drank 10 litres of fabulous free coffee and hogged your only internet connection for 3 hours that you had to chase an UPS truck down the street. I'm sorry. I hope that you don't hold yourself back from offering your hand to others because of the experience your had with me. If being on the road has tough me anything is that accessing ones human-ness by offering help, trust and friendship is the best thing we can do to another that goes way beyond physical/factual/minor details, and it has a profound impact on us, consciously or unconsciously.

wishing you all the best,

Lalo

=====================

Come swim with me!

In current news, I decided to order a new quality fork for the bike it should arrive Wednesday by noon. Advance thanks to the professional and friendly service of Patrick and Raymond at Fixed Gears, soon after I'll make my way to Marathon to dedicate time and labour for preparing Quick Silver for the sea... Cuba here we come!!!

Wonderful organic eco-friendly wholesome food joint on Fleming St in Key West

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The End of the Road

Everyone had told me that a cold front was coming in on Friday afternoon, and that it would be windy. However I was set on riding to Key West that day. I left at 9h00 and there was strong headwind the whole way. The sun was very hot and I felt my skin burning after a few hours... The cold front came as promised and at 13h40m there was a heavy down pour of rain, as I rushed to put on my rain gear I noticed that cars seam to honk at you more, as if saying "Good luck!", "Be careful" or "These crazy cyclist!". I like riding in the rain, it is a whole different world when it is all wet!

There was a huge tropical rain shortly after this shot was taken
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I arrived in Key West and had a little accident causing me to fall off my bike, I didn't get any cuts or bruises, but my bike suffered some damages, the front brakes were bent then broke off, so I'll probably need to replace the front fork which will be over my budget, but I have the feeling I better do it while I'm still in the States. Any thoughts? I've called a couple of places here and there is this guy who specializes in fixing quality bikes, I'll see what he has to say. I would like to go to marathon the latest on Tuesday, so I can be close to "Quick Silver" and help them in preparation of crossing to Cuba...


These tourist trains, ride all over town. Reminds me of childhood vacations in Guarapari, Brasil - It appears Santa takes his vacation in Key West!!
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Thanks to Katrina's networking job, John and Jacob are hosting me at their beautiful state here in downtown Key West. Thank you both for your friendship and generosity!


a more artistic approach to photographing this peaceful pond garden...
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Key West is a Beautiful Big town / Small Town feel, kind of Town. In the main Streets like Duval, it feels you are walking in downtown Manhattan, with lots of people/turists, light, pubs, cars, bikes etc... But as soon as you turn the corner into a side street, you are transported back to beautiful Victorian age homes, and an intimates feeling with your neighbours. It seams everyone rides a bicycle as the city is full of bike lanes and you could rent a bike in just about every corner.

Duval Street, early Saturday afternoon...
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