R. Bird
Was it the last rush of youth or the desperateness of age, which coursed two people through a sea quest, a love story and their tragedies? Or maybe, the unlikely alliance fashioned by feelings of the heart bolstered their unique life-altering plan; a plan, which included the breaking away from the disciplines and comforts of successful corporate careers, and the transformation to an unconventional lifestyle. Possibly, it was their passion that compelled them to sail from Terra Firma in search of their destiny, to do what most people only dream of doing and few ever succeed in accomplishing.
It is the unconventional discoveries and tribulations of two individuals who sailed a forty-two foot sloop in excess of four thousand nautical miles and journeyed to seven different countries. A voyage demarcated by the serendipity of their togetherness in the remote tropical coves of the out islands of Belize, and the serenity of secluded paradise in the blue clear waters of Cuba. The adversities of sailing across the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the incursion into the incongruous Mississippi River, of dangerous storms, fires and groundings and the sufferings and calamities in the mountains and rivers of Guatemala.
It is a story of passions satiated and novelties lost, and like the collapsed walls of Jericho the tumultuous demise of a dream.
In 1998 I left a corporate executive position to pursue my some day; to wander the oceans at will. I sailed from Terra Firma with a woman who had passions of her own, and together journeyed for several years through a chaotic relationship and a harrowing sea adventure and survived their misfortunes.
My sailing skills, which I developed through a life-time of experiences and our relationship, which was nobly conceived and nurtured, became the background to this saga. I lived through the moments the narrative describes, which made the novel less troublesome to construct; certainly to publish was appropriate as the story needed to be told.
I am currently living in San Antonio Texas, and pondering a second book.
Leaving Terra Firma
The throbbing in my right leg and the sound of the engine, as it roared above my head, brought me back to the immediate danger and I told myself I needed to go deeper. I struggled with the pain and the physical requirements of my lungs, which commanded me to surface – conflicts that I fought to ignore. The fear of pollution and water intake were also miseries that quickly abated with the more pressing agony of not knowing the whereabouts of Dee. “Did she hear me? Did she react in time?” were unanswered questions that displaced my physical torment. I began to feel a shadow of darkness descend upon me and I consciously turned my head and kicked and pulled towards the light.
Unaffected by the surrounding chaos, I searched in earnest for my partner across the watery landscape and shuddered at her missing presence. To have come this far, only to have lost Dee, was a torturous thought that bore deeply into my heart. It was imperative that I find her!
