August 11, 2012
“What are you hoping to see out there?” we were asked about our upcoming cruise. Wow, we really didn’t have a good answer. There are the easy answers… beautiful water, mountains, quaint Polynesian towns, sunsets, fish, forests, waterfalls, rainbows, coral, and a lot of Cyndi but that didn’t really seem to answer the question for me.
Now I think I know the answer. I think I know what the biggest reward of cruising has been for me. All that stuff, the sunsets, fish, coral, mountains are great, spectacular even, but for me, they don’t really compare to the joy that making new friends has brought me. Case in point; we just spent a wonderful week in Raiatea and during our stay we met Marlies, Alain, Kathy and Richard at the marina, Ivan and Louise on the boat Brio and Roz and David on the boat Bare Foot, among others.
We’ve been out here for a little over three months (and almost a month of that has been with just Cyndi and me alone at sea) and yet I think we’ve made more friends in that short time than in years living in Southern California (I’m not saying this to imply that there’s anything wrong with Southern California, it’s just where we last lived a land-life).
It’s still amazing to me that within a few hours of meeting new people out here, I feel like they’re life-long friends. Cruising friendships develop fast, maybe because they have to as your time together is often very short, or maybe because you have so much in common, including the many joys and hardships that cruising entails.
We had a tearful goodbye with our new friends today as we sailed off to Taha’a. It was one of our hardest goodbyes yet but I know that we will see these people again. I believe that they are part of our true family – that being “family” doesn’t just mean sharing a lineage – that we have many true family members scattered around the world just waiting to be discovered. The rate at which our family increases while cruising is undoubtedly the biggest joy of cruising for me. “What are you hoping to find out there?” Wonderful people to share life’s journey with. -Rich
Alain, Kathy, and Marlies
