Thoughts on time

I think my favourite part of cruising is how time is very different for me.

At home time is structured – everything has an allotted time – wake up to the alarm, start work, have lunch, go home and so on. The weekdays are hectic and busy and then the weekend would roll around and it was equally hectic – as we tried to make the most of every free second before the weekdays came back. Everything had to be efficient, effective and planned out. There was no time to waste time.

Now time is fluid. Time is not measured so much by the actual number, but by our relationship to the day itself. Time to go to shore, time to go home, time to get off the boat, time to eat dinner, time to fall asleep. Time to relax, time to work. Having a toddler we still have some sort of fixed schedule – mostly around dinner time and bed time, but mainly our time is flexible.

Take this for example. We are waiting in La Paz for some wind to come, so we can make our crossing to Mazatland. It has been so windy forever we can’t believe that there is almost no wind in the forecast. The irony is incredible, especially considering that we don’t particularly like La Paz, or want to be stuck there. Anyway here we are waiting. The first day is a Monday. We snuggled in bed and watched a movie, hung out a the playground then spent the afternoon walking around looking for a new bucket. We literally spent an hour and and a half to purchase a $5 plastic bucket. And that was just fine. The next day was Tuesday, market day. After that was laundry and chatting to fellow boaters. We invited a young sailing family from Seattle to stop by on their way home that afternoon. And when their day got sidetracked and they didn’t show up till 5:30 that didn’t matter – we had them over for dinner. We planned to leave Wednesday morning, but decided last minute to offer a ride to a biker looking to get to Mazatland. He would be ready by 1:30 and we needed more groceries. So we left Wednesday afternoon instead. And it didn’t really matter much at all.

I’m sure I will adapt to the life of schedules and efficiency again, as I will need to. But I also hope that I will remember to let go a bit more and just let time flow.