Position Report: November 22, 2016

November 22, 2016

Position: 26º 0.882′ S 32º 53.748′ E
Summers in Round Pond, looking out over Muscongus Sound, I imagined the world as fictitiously vast. My horizon was bounded tightly by Loud’s Island to the East, and New Harbor to the South. Once, when my father took me on an overnight sail to Boothbay Harbor, I was fairly confident that we had reached the edge of the known nautical world. It was an adventure, first class.

At the time, I was fully aware of the limitations of my perspective but, in that way of all children, I could not comprehend any other scope as real-real. The knowledge that there were continents and oceans beyond my horizon was as a fiction, and as with other children, fiction and reality seemed to have a permeable boundary.

Fast forward to last night. Vick and I were enjoying a rare margarita, unwinding after a long few weeks. Our conversation turned to the end of our adventure. Coming into Boston Harbor, then the passage up to Portland and on to Round Pond. I drew, unintentionally, on my childhood perspective and imagined weeks long duration. Then I broke out the chart plotter and found, to my amazement that Boston to Portland is 100nm (just under 24hrs of sailing) and Portland to Round Pond is 47nm, an easy day sail. PORTLAND TO ROUND POND is an /easy/ day sail. Portland might as well have been Istambul to fourteen year old Tucker. Mind. Blown.

It’s amusing to me, that at 41 years old, I am still subject to my 14 year old self’s perspective. Even after traveling the majority of the world, I find myself gleeful at the realization that I can sail my boat from Boston to Portland in a weekend.

All is well.

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