The week before last I brought my sailboat down the coast from Seattle to San Francisco Bay.  I had been both looking forward to it and dreading it for months.  On the upside, it was going to be my first open water experience, and I needed that to see what my future for sailing around the world might be.  On the downside, I was wondering how the mechanics of a nearly thirty-year-old boat would behave in the open ocean.

In the end, everything worked out fine.. and it was an amazing experience.  But as the trip progressed, I found that everyday had something both amazing and stressful...

On the first day out, one of the older batteries fried out.  On the second day, there was air in the hydraulic line for the helm.  Three days brought water in the bilge from a bad check valve.  Leaving port after two nights of bad weather with everything fixed, the bow thruster batteries boiled over.  The next day, a leaky o-ring on a fuel filter, this after running in fog for a day and a half.  Fortunately the last day brought only burned out light bulbs...

On the other hand, the first day also brought an amazing sunset.  The next day a pod of orcas.  Leaving Newport, Oregon we were followed by a pod of white-sided dolphins.  Coming around Point Reyes it was breaching humpbacks.  And then coming under the Golden Gate Bridge. Every night was filled with stars and bioluminescent oceans... amazing.

So even through every day had it's trouble.. every day also had it's reward.  I think every day is like that.. whether on land or sea.  At sea, it stressed me out more than my days on land.. even though I was able to fix everything, it just worried me that we were so far from land.  But I'm sure similar thing happen here at home every day as well.. I just don't worry about them as much.

I guess the question is not whether things are going to happen.. they are.. it's more a matter of what do we focus on.. the amazing things life is showing us.. or the other things we worry about.. probably too much.  I admit.. looking back on the trip.. I worried too much about what might happen.. an didn't allow myself to enjoy what was going on as much as I should have.  I tend to live my life like that all the time.. and need to work on it.  Things will happen.. but good things might happen only once.  If you're too busy watching the engine gages.. you might miss the whale breeching just past your bow.

My goal.. take my eyes off the worries and look forward into the adventure.  Sure, things will happen, and I know I can fix them.  But in the meantime.. I don't want to miss a single thing that might be coming down the road...