Make Sure It’s Your Dream

Bob Bitchin

Living the Adventure

I was locked in a cell that measured about six feet by six feet. There was a concrete floor, no windows, and no furniture. In the middle of the floor was a hole about two inches in diameter. I could only guess at what that was for.

The temperature in the cell was about 100 degrees. That figured, as we were not far from the equator. Two guys dressed in very loud Aloha shirts walked into the outer area holding Uzi automatic weapons. A third, the largest of the three, motioned for me to turn around and put my hands behind my back. A few minutes later I was being led through the jungle to an awaiting Land Rover. A bad dream? A movie I was watching? Nope. This was real. As the Land Rover drove off with me in the back seat between two men holding their guns on me, I saw Jody coming

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Starboard Attitude across the street holding a pizza. It looked like I was about to miss dinner. I really hate it when that happens! Sitting here, years later, I look back on this event and, believe it or not, I actually think of it with fondness. Even though at the time I was not the happiest of people, when it was all over it was just part of our world cruise. For years afterwards, and for years to come, I will recount the story of how I was arrested in Costa Rica because I was mistaken for someone else, and how much of an adventure it was. Yes, I know I am always spouting off that the difference between an ordeal and an adventure is attitude, but when I think back on this “ordeal” I realize there is another saying with equal truth. The difference between an ordeal and adventure is also time. Here’s what I mean. No one in their right mind (which may let me off the hook!) is going to enjoy being arrested, thrown in a third world jail, not knowing what it’s for or what will happen. I don’t care what kind of attitude you have, this is not a joyous occasion. It is an ordeal. But a few months down the line, assuming you lived through your ordeal, you start to look back at the trials and tribulations of a storm, or of a bad crossing, or (God forbid!) of being thrown in the slammer, and it becomes a true adventure. No, not an adventure like watching

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Bob Bitchin Indiana Jones save the damsel in distress and walk away with the golden idol. A real life adventure. One you never would have lived had you stayed warm and safe in your harbor. Ever wonder why more people don’t get out there cruising? It’s because they are afraid of what might happen. There might be a storm. They might get arrested and thrown in the can. They might run out of wine and cheese! Mark Twain once said, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover!” The man knew from whence he spoketh. You can’t live the dream until you live the nightmare. Sure the boat is safer tied up in the harbor, but the fun starts once you pull away from that safe harbor. Do you know what’s going to happen out there? No, of course not. If you did you wouldn’t have to go to find the adventure. The truth is you have to drop the dock lines and sail away from your safe harbor to live the adventure. For years you will be able to re-live each and every ordeal, only with the passage of time, they become an adventure. Remember a particularly bad ordeal from your sailing past? Something that, at the time, made you wish you were back in port tied to a dock? Think back on it now. Think of all

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Starboard Attitude the times you have told and re-told that story to your friends, to acquaintances, and even to total strangers. You lived the ordeal, and in the re-telling there is the true enjoyment of the adventure. Therein the transformation takes place.

I know that the tale of my being mistaken for the nation’s most wanted fugitive while in Costa Rica was an ordeal of the highest order when it was happening, and I honestly don’t think, if I had the option, I would like to re-live it. But I can also say, with as much honesty, that I am glad it happened. I think of all the great times I’ve had recounting the story, at bars all over the world and at parties when the conversation would lag. But most of all, watching the look in my grandchildren’s faces as I tell the story, makes me feel, even if only slightly, that I have lived the adventure that most people only dream.

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