Je connais des bateux<\/a><\/p>\n<\/h5>\n
The \u201cIdea of Self\u201d has given me trouble since I had memory. When sailing became an unexpected reality in my life these identity troubles got complicated.<\/p>\n
The very first time I sailed it was on a 51ft sloop with a dead engine that we took 136 miles away from departure to give her a brand new propulsion apparatus. I still remember that as no biggity, even though I should ask Fernando (the skipper) about it. All the work needed to push the boat with the dinghy through a swinging bridge in a choppy channel in front of a crowd of waterfront breakfast eaters was just new fun activity for an incompetent sailor like me.<\/p>\n![\"Sailing](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lapossibilitadiunisola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/bicho.jpg?resize=640%2C480\")
Ignorance can be a bliss<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThen there was the first dream about taking off on my own boat: it was a sailing Cayuco (dugout canoe type) from the Kuna people, my belonging stuffed in watertight barrels, coasting South American shores and pulling on the beach every night to enjoy a bonefire and a sound sleep on a hammock. No mosquitos were bothering me in those fantasies. I even dared picturing some offshore sailing in such a craft. It remained a dream when other events dragged me away from Kuna Yala before I could accomplish it.<\/p>\n![\"My](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lapossibilitadiunisola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/sanblas-1.jpg?resize=480%2C640\")
My Dream Boat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWhat is left of that naive man today? Training and experience, in one word knowledge, added layers of complication to the art of sailing. The present is filled with words like safety equipment, ideal ground tackle, auxiliary mean of propulsion and proper sized elecrical wiring, as well as a lot of gadgets and products that \u201cyou can\u2019t sail without\u201d pushed by marketers and opinion leaders. It is extremely hard to make order in all this crap.<\/p>\n
Since Tranquility owned our lives, I experienced shifts in what was to be expected from a boat, oscillating from \u201creally just a hull that don\u2019t take water in\u201d to \u201csafe, unsinkable, performance-oriented sailing machine\u201d, sometimes being happy to fall in the first category, sometimes working hard to achieve the latter.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to tell why Tranquility chose us, she won\u2019t tell. Being far from the \u201cperfect boat\u201d she challenged our own Idea of Self, our needs and our goals. She proof tested our skills and endurance, she took the majority of our money, forcing us to visit places we had not planned to, before leaving us stranded in an unknown point on the chart. She made ask ourselves if we were ready and when that will be. In synthesis, she changed us.<\/p>\n
I am happy I am a different myself, even only for the fact that there was a path in these years, any path really. I can still look behind, look at me now and think about what will come ahead. When past and present look alike, there\u2019s a chance that the future won\u2019t be different. So in the end I am happy about this incongruity.<\/p>\n
I usually welcome change. Helping others going through change was part of my career back in pre-financial crisis Italy, so I can\u2019t exclude I suffer from the prejudice that sees change as inherently good, necessary and unavoidable. Sometimes I look back with nostalgia to the man that wouldn\u2019t hesitate to embark in an unsafe, uncertain journey on an ill-equipped vessel, and I wish I hadn\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n
Knowledge and experience can be a heavy and safe anchor, but when it grows too big it could block any movement at all. The restoration chapter of Tranquility has gone through the same pattern. We started performing the quickest cheapest and unfinished jury rig repairs to be able to leave before the winter gales, and now we would spend a considerable amount of time and money to make things \u201cthe best we can\u201d.<\/p>\n![\"Tranquility](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lapossibilitadiunisola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/tran-surgery.jpg?resize=640%2C360\")
Tranquility undergoing surgeries<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThere are definetely good learning coming from this endeavor, but the more we remain attached to a dock and in the range of hardware stores, marine suppliers and Amazon Prime, the poorer we become and the less likely we are to unmoor as the perfect boat is nothing but an illusion.<\/p>\n