Adventures on The Tropicbird, December, 2013

Adventures on The Tropicbird, December, 2013

Another chapter begins as we head to the Tropicbird to set sail.  On our bus ride to the yacht club, where the Tropicbird was docked, I sat down beside an incredibly courageous young man.  He looked at me, and smiled with his entire face.  He was so kind and gentle, and had a beautiful smile.  He was missing the top right part of his skull.  We chatted about many things. Eventually, he spoke about how he had been given a second chance on life, and he thanked God that he'd been given that chance.  He'd had a problem in his brain and was paralyzed on his left side. His left arm still looked to have some difficulties, and he was using a cane. But here he was now laughing, talking with a stranger, and walking off that bus.  The human spirit can be incredibly inspiring.  

Eventually, we made it to the Tropicbird,

where we met Captain,

and Matt and Rhiannon.

Tropicbird is a wooden boat with an interesting beginning.  She started life as a wooden building and was repurposed into a 50 foot ketch in South Africa.  Captain purchased her in the Caribbean and sailed her to the South Pacific.  

Jim had no problem assuming the role as crew.

The sailboat slept 10, and we had nine people onboard when we arrived in Thailand.

 Settling in for the night.

Jobs were shared among us all.  This is Alison and I in the galley prepping a meal.  

 We were rarely that serious.  

No need for long sleeves, or pants.  It was always hot..really hot.

All of our meals were eaten at our outside table.

It wasn't all work…we read…played cards…took turns taking watch…had movie nights under the stars…and we swam…

sometimes we jumped in at night and stirred up the incredible bioluminescence. 

We weren't alone on the sea.  Fishing boats, shrimping boats, tug boats and barges were some of the other vessels we encountered.

We had to be on watch not only for vessels, but also for debri that might be floating in the sea. 

The scenery was breathtaking.  There is quite a sense of awe and tranquility of being at sea, on a tranquil, tropical day.  

We would anchor at some of the many islands off the coast of Malaysia. We would jump off the boat and swim, or jet off in the dinghy to explore the shores once we had anchored.   

We discovered many things while taking this journey.  We realized we were all, yes all 7 of us, really crappy at throwing at frisbee…so we worked hard to perfect our skills.  Jim and Alison turned pirate as they "borrowed" a paddle boat to explore one of the inland lakes.  We saw monkeys on the beach early in the morning. We had the stars and moon at night.  And we laughed…and we developed incredible friendships.