The crew of this boat, SV Pablo, has been our neighbor, adventure buddy, crappy boat job helper, inspiration, idea generator, simply everything for the past three years since Covid started and across several thousand miles of sailing. There have only been a few brief periods that we weren’t anchored near each other. We watched their kids learn to read and do math and they watched ours turn into adults and leave for college. To me, Salty and Matey are “the kids”, not “their kids”.
We met through our mutual friendship with SV Totem, and grew close thanks to the craziness that was Covid forcing us to form a buddy boat bubble and stay in Mexico instead of crossing the Pacific. You just never know when your favorite memories will happen or you’ll meet your best friends.
Of all the things that have been rewarding about cruising, this friendship is the most important to me. Yesterday they signed Pablo over to new owners and they fly away to start their next adventure living on land in a new place in just a few days. But we’ve been apart for a few weeks now when they sailed east back to Tahiti to prep the boat and we continued west.
I’m equal parts sad and happy, it’s a great loss for us to not have them nearby, I miss seeing the kids’ smiles, Cass laughing at stupid things I said, and Sam laughing at silly ideas I had. I miss having someone to say “did you see ___?!” And of course they did, because Sam watches the anchorage all day and Cass wakes up to the slightest wind shift, just like me. But I’m so happy they get to move to the next adventure on their terms, and that Sam gets to leave behind a boat for another sailor that has been fixed up and now so carefully cared for, something he said was his goal way back three years ago when we met and bonded over being crazy about the boat maintenance. They poured their heart into Pablo and it shows.
I don’t really have an ending for this, I guess because I’m not sure why I started typing a few minutes ago to begin with. I’m just sitting here at 7am in a stormy anchorage that blew so hard and had such big wind waves in the middle of the night that we turned on the motor to relieve pressure on the mooring (we inspected it, but you never know what’s lurking beneath the sand where you can’t see!). We’ve never felt the need to do that before in five years on the boat. I’m wishing I could message my buddy boat and say “did you see that?!” but of course they didn’t, they aren’t here :(.
I didn’t really think this post through before I started typing. I guess that feels fitting, since I don’t want my time with my friends to end either. But that’s cruising, always leaving, always arriving. The other awesome part of friendship is getting to be part of the amazing new memories, like how when the boat papers were signed they messaged us, and I just felt so happy for my friends. I’ll be excited to hear about how their new place is right where they wanted to be, how their new espresso machine makes such good coffee, the kids first day at regular school, etc. I guess that’s the way to end it, by not. 🙂
I’m not crying, it’s just the rain!
-Graham
S/V Pulsar 