{"id":6301,"date":"2016-11-12T17:11:19","date_gmt":"2016-11-12T17:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=6301"},"modified":"2016-11-13T00:26:04","modified_gmt":"2016-11-13T00:26:04","slug":"live-it-once-talk-about-it-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=6301","title":{"rendered":"Live it once. Tell the story forever."},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the best things about “experience” is that while living it may sometimes be, shall we say “interesting”, the “telling” is nearly always fabulous\u00a0for years and years afterwords. \u00a0Brenda’s sister Sheryl once said “experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want”. \u00a0However, sometimes experiences are indeed what you had hoped for too. \u00a0And that’s makes for an even better story.<\/p>\n

For sure, the telling is even better when it’s actually fun from the beginning and with each telling later bringing back all of those great memories, again and again. \u00a0Of course, each time you tell\u00a0the story it somehow becomes even more amazing. \u00a0“You should have seen the one that got away…” or “that storm was so strong, the waves…”. You know the drill…<\/p>\n

Our trip to Cuba last winter has been perhaps the pinnacle of “experience it once, talk about it forever…”.<\/p>\n

Of course, we wrote about our trip as we experienced it (see March and April posts on this site and Brenda’s www.argoknot.com<\/a>) at every opportunity we got, some 30 posts in all. \u00a0 And the telling has gotten even better as since returning home to CT as we have talked about our trip to whomever would stand still\u00a0and listen. \u00a0Fortunately for us, nearly EVERYONE is interested in hearing about Cuba.<\/p>\n

We have given talks to many groups, 13 at last count including my upcoming talk to the Pelagic Sailing Club<\/a> in Boston this coming Thursday. \u00a0 It’s a thrill for me to talk to groups and I have jumped at nearly every opportunity I have been offered to tell our story including the members of the Essex Yacht Club and The Corinthians within the last week, both groups that have been a big part of our lives. \u00a0 EYC wins the prize for the best poster. \u00a0That’s Chef Michael at EYC with us who prepared a wonderful Cuban dinner to cap off the evening. \u00a0Well done Michael.\u00a0\"11-12-16c-010\"For me, the only thing better than speaking to a group about our voyages, is speaking to a group that I know personally.<\/p>\n

Each time I give my presentation, just seeing this photo of Pandora tied up at Marina Hemingway brings back a flood of memories. \u00a0\"OLYMPUSAnd, nothing gets a rise from the audience like this photo of me holding lobsters that we purchased from Cuban fisherman. \u00a0Brenda and I “ate” this particular memory at home just the other night as we had a freezer full of lobster tails aboard Pandora when we returned home from Cuba. \u00a0“You…Keep your eyes on the crustaceans!”\"4-16-16b-006\"Anyway, it seems that everyone tends to tell stories of the worst conditions and how they “almost….”. \u00a0Brenda likes to forget those\u00a0moments and prefers to focus on “being anchored” as the memories that suit her best. \u00a0Lobster is good too.<\/p>\n

Another story that always gets a rise is talking about our experience of going to\u00a0the Rolling Stones concert in Havana<\/a>. \u00a0Now, that’s a memory and a half, with the “half” coming from several of our traveling companions who drank plenty on the way to the concert. \u00a0They were hung over before we even got to the concert.
\n\"OLYMPUSAll and all, visiting Cuba was a really wonderful trip with only a few tears along the way. \u00a0And, speaking of “tears”, we encountered more than a few no-se-ums\u00a0one evening, not the happiest memory of Cuba but still a great story<\/a>\u00a0and one that’s more fun to tell than experience. \u00a0As my mother used to say, “into every day a little rain must fall” but even rainy days and no-se-ums make for great stories to be told for a lifetime.<\/p>\n

A good friend from way-back-when, Chris Blossom the marine artist, did a painting of our first boat,TAO as a birthday present to me in 1980. \u00a0At that point Brenda and I had only been married for three years. \u00a0Yes, we had a boat before we had a house. \u00a0“Brenda, what were you thinking?”<\/p>\n

It’s \u00a0a wonderful painting and brings back a flood of memories of that evening, and many others spent sailing with Brenda. \u00a0Chris captured the experience perfectly\u00a0as we ghosted along off of Penfield Beach in Fairfield CT one summer evening. \u00a0Now, that’s Brenda’s kind of sailing, err, becalming.\"11-12-16b-003\"Don’t we look like we are having a nice time? Brenda thought it was ALMOST like being anchored. \u00a0How about a little closer view? \u00a0It’s such a terrific treasure to us, both memory and picture. \u00a0 And, it looks just like us. \u00a0Well, to me and Brenda it does.\"11-12-16a-009\"And, if you think I am making the “birther” thing up, there’s proof in the lower right hand corner. \u00a0“Happy Birthday Bob” \u00a0Chris was in his early 20s when he painted this 36 years ago. \u00a0Another lifetime.\"11-12-16b-021\"Russell\u00a0Jinishian<\/a>, the well known marine dealer, told me a while back that Chris is one of the five finest living marine artists. \u00a0 Chris has an enormous body of work, but doesn’t have a website of his own. \u00a0I guess that’s because he paints pictures of “old stuff” and the Web for Chris, well it’s just so “new”.<\/p>\n

I’m biased perhaps, but he does great work and he did one for me. \u00a0 However, you can see his work, and there’s plenty, on Chris’s page at\u00a0Russell’s gallery link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Well, as I was saying, we love to remember the perfect times in our lives. Perhaps less so, the times that we’d rather forget. \u00a0However, some are so exciting that we recall them anyway, and always with a a growing\u00a0fondness, if only because we lived to tell the tale, as the years go by.<\/p>\n

Cruising Cuba was not what I would call “easy” as you are really “on your own”. \u00a0 However, as a class A “you should have been there” sort of experience! \u00a0It was without peer, and what memories it has made for us.<\/p>\n

While I wasn’t there, the image in this painting I mean, this painting, also from Christopher, certainly depicts an “experience” that Brenda would likely want to forget if she had been there. \u00a0We have this painting too, over our fireplace in the den. \u00a0It’s “on loan” from Christopher. \u00a0I sure hope he never “calls” the loan. \u00a0 (forgive me but this isn’t the best photo Chris)\"11-12-16b-020\"Great detail and\u00a0you can almost hear the gunfire.\u00a0\"11-12-16b-015\"The painting is actually a book cover that Chris did for an old Bantum softcover book, I think, “The Last Action of the Calcutta Lighthorse”. \u00a0This link tells the story of their amazing true story<\/a> of the sinking of a German freighter in WWII. \u00a0It was later made into a movie. \u00a0Here’s the trailer. \u00a0Yes, a bit of a random link I admit, but here goes.