Slowing to 5 knots

You may have gathered that I usually run a fast pace.  That pace gets things done, and combined with my trademark stubbornness it can achieve outcomes against the odds.  Often that’s positive, but like most things it will become unbalanced and unhealthy if not kept in check.

The prep and early days of even this adventure have continued that pace.  By necessity.

But I now believe I’ve nearly saturated the Darwin docks with my story, and so I’m in a waiting zone.  The people I meet now tend to say “oh you’re that guy with the bike…!”  The recommendations for next conversations are almost all looping back on previous suggestions.

That’s a good thing – it seems to suggest I’ve got the word out there.  Almost everyone has been generous and many (not all) have been encouraging.  So now I’m waiting to see if someone has an epiphany, or if there’s an unexpected boat heading my way, or if something else crops up.

All of that leaves me slowing down.  There’s little more I can do towards Timor passage.  I’ve agreed to keep this holding pattern until the end of this week, and then reassess.  I’m trying to enjoy the process, but that takes more unwinding of tightly coiled springs than I’ve achieved so far.  I enjoy progress far more than process.  I’m better at doing than at being.

Meantime staying on Allan’s boat has been a great blessing, and we’re enjoying each others’ company.  He’s been so generous with accomodation, and I’m keen not to be a loafer so helping with the dry-dock maintenance where I’m able.

This morning’s grand plans to paint (to “anti-foul”) the yacht hull were put on pause with Melbourne-style rain (Darwin seems to usually be hot and still most of the day, and then dump a storm-full of rain in a few minutes, whereas Melbourne can drizzle right through).  So I read a bit more of “Chasing Francis” for the morning on the deck, and we did a bit of tidy up around the mast – lying horizontal near the yacht awaiting new stays.

A dry afternoon let us get into the anti-fouling, which we nearly finished:

The next major task will be re-rigging the mast.  It has had heavy steel ropes (“stays”), now being upgraded to “dyneema” rope – stronger, much lighter, and significantly easier to work and to maintain.  That’s on back order, with a quoted wait of “1-2 weeks” from last Thursday.  Apparently this particular provider is likely to have underestimated our wait time.  But I’m praying for a record speedy delivery.

Once the dyneema arrives, it’ll take days to splice each section together – a task that’ll stay with Allan given the stakes if it were to go wrong!  Then the mast will be assembled.  A crane will be hired to hoist it into position.  Each of these steps will have effort associated, but probably more pertinent is the delay likely as they’re scheduled.

With Christmas less than 4 weeks away, those delays push the likely earliest possible “splash” back into the ocean to next year.  It is usually tricky to get much done in January, so that probably means Feb before the hoist could be scheduled to move the yacht from dry dock.

Allan has been (appropriately) very clear that he’s making no promises of taking me to Timor.  But if I’m reading right, he’d love to.  He’s talked very generously about the possibility of resequencing the planned maintenance with some of it done on water rather than on land.  That would then facilitate a quick trip up to deliver me and my bike to Timor in the middle of the maintenance.

While I haven’t admitted it to Allan (who may well read this post! 🤣🧐), I feel like this is currently the best of my options.  Possibilities #2 and #3 are that my posters ferret out another boat heading NW, or that we find an appropriate boat for sale at a crazy-cheap price.  So I’m helping Allan because I want to, and because I am keen to contribute; but also because it works towards the likely best of the options.  No guarantees though.  Of that I’m clear.

I’d still like a miracle-speedy dyneema delivery, a mast installed and a yacht splashed in the next couple of weeks.  That’d keep open the possibility of being in Timor before the year is out.  But it is a very long stretch.

Allan’s yacht Huey has a motto… “living life at 5 knots.”  That’s about Huey’s cruising speed, and it isn’t fast – at least not fast if a speedboat or car were your point of comparison.  It is motto worn with pride, and it stands in stark contrast to my default approach to life.

It feels emblematic of this adventure to challenge my “bull-at-a-gate” with “living life at 5 knots”.  I feel a need to let some of that seep into my pores, and to soak in that less hurried approach to life.  I’m told “good things come to those who wait”.  I wouldn’t know.  I’ve never really waited.

Let’s see if “they” are right.

7 Comments

  • Cam B

    Sounds like some good lessons to learn in the waiting

  • Amy B

    As someone who sprained an ankle this very morning and has already had to learn how to wait (and be waited on) unexpectedly, I encourage you in the tricky situation. Learning to lean on God and onto shillelaghs/walking sticks!

  • Pete

    Lessons for all of us in this DM. Thanks for your writing and sharing. Loving every post.

  • In my coaching people who are waiting for God to resolve something, I sometimes get an interesting response when I ask “Who is waiting for who? What if God is waiting for you?”.
    Keep looking to him and keep sharing your journey. Maybe the days are more important than the km…

  • Dean

    Wow, Daniel. This is beautifully written. I sense that God may be in this … getting you to ‘change gear’, from 5th Gear to 2nd.

    • Jenny van den Bosch

      Agree, especially the ‘beautifully written ‘

  • Gerard van den Bosch

    If the clip of antifouling is anything to go by, living at 5 knots seems very frantic to me! Enjoying your posts and keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.

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