Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Blogging (Or Why You Haven’t Heard Much From Us Out Here)

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about why I’ve blogged so little out here.  I mean, this is the “trip of a lifetime,” right?  And we’re having a grand adventure, living on a sailboat in the Caribbean, right?  So why are we not writing about it more?

Best I can tell, three reasons.

First, until about one month ago, when we installed a wifi amplifier antenna, we had very, very limited access to the internet.  Basically, we could get a signal if we went to shore and bought something at a restaurant or bar.  But that really didn’t pan out so well for blogging, because we would have just enough time to check email for super high priority items and then have to leave (see #2 below).  Of course, we could have written posts offline and then posted once we got to the applicable bar/restaurant, but please see #2 below.
Second, we are very busy – I think we are often as busy out here as we were back home.  There is the boat and her systems to care for (electrical, water maker, refrigeration, outboard, heads…), which is AT ITS VERY, VERY BEST a very full part-time job.  Then there are the kids.  What we’ve discovered is that, at least on the boat, our kids require our direct attention/supervision/redirection/encouragement a HUGE portion of any 12-14 hour day. 
Third, I realized at some point out here that I wasn’t very interested in writing because it felt good to give my Left Brain a holiday.  My Left Brain isn’t so good at taking holidays (or really any kind of break from its 24/7 highly attentive self), and I didn’t want to spoil the fun that I and the rest of my brain was having by bringing it online unnecessarily.  And how does that tie into blogging?  As I mulled the lack of blog posts, I realized that I had this idea about what a blog was supposed to be: pithy, well-written, clever, insightful, poignant, etc.  Oh, and it should give readers an accurate insight into what it’s like to be cruising.  And all of those requirements would definitely cause the LB to crash the RB’s good time out here.

So after all that Left Brain analysis of why I’m not blogging much, I’m going to try to start blogging more.  That should be easier for the rest of our time here in Grenada (about one month) since we have good wifi and the kids are at school.   And I’m going to try to keep the Left Brain a bit less involved in the posts so that there might be more.  So watch out, there might be pictures without captions.  Or uncorrected typos.  Oh my.

And here is your Random Shot of the Day.  Taken a while back in the Bahamas, but a pretty good shot nonetheless.

3 comments:

  1. Oh my Susan - I can SOOO relate! After likewise nearly a year of exotic adventuring (and trying to share even an Nth of it in my TL blog), I so empathize with the whole LB/RB thing.

    Indeed, it's a constant struggle with my critical, perfectionist LB taskmaster making me feel like every blessed post needs to be deliciously pithy and insightful, when... all I really want to do is somehow share how it felt to milk that yak in a grubby, smoke-filled ger heated with dung. ;)

    A constant struggle. Yet really, your readers don't care if your words are few, and filled with typos. Just jot stray thoughts from your heart, and trust that we'll all be enchanted! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, that was tough. I've been reading this, but never before passed through the gauntlet that allows commenting...

    ReplyDelete