WORDS o f WISDOM 2025
Don’t let fear and doubt steal your dreams.
“You can’t change the circumstances, the season, or the wind, but you can change yourself.” Darren Hardy
Years ago, as many of you already know, I lived on a catamaran in the British Virgin Islands. It was everything one would expect it would be and more. The sea was turquoise blue, glorious weather all year round, unspoiled reefs with an abundance of fish, and plenty of lobsters in coral cracks and caves. Pure paradise! But even paradise could be threatened. That’s right, hurricanes. We tracked all tropic depressions leaving Africa heading our way. You could not afford to be caught unprepared because that meant “bye, bye” boat or even worse, being “lost at sea.” Many yachts “hauled out” when the reports got too bad. They put their boat on dry land and would continue their travel on the mainland. Others would ride the storm out.
My friends who chartered and lived on yachts and I had contingency plans for “the big ones.” These strategies included several back up plans that would be implemented depending on where you were when you first heard the hurricane alarm. If you were dropping off guests far away
from the docks, you faced many dilemmas. Where was the safest place to secure the yacht? Would there be enough space at the docks for your vessel? Did we need to be on the east or west side of the island to avoid the hurricane’s path? If we were in the swamp area, would we have to dive down into the muddy, turbulent water to dig a trench to get the rudders through safely? The list of variables was endless, even with meticulous planning.
Fear always swept rapidly across the islands when the hurricanes hit. It was interesting to observe how people reacted. For the most part people panicked. Gas stations ran dry. Supermarkets and convenience stores were picked clean. The mood around the docks was tense with high activity. Everyone would run around getting extra lines and anchors, taking down mainsails, and waterproofing any possible port hole in preparation. After five years with 8 to 10 strong hurricanes under our belts, we became experts at the drill.
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