Italy Archives - La possibilità di un'isola

Does this sailing thing make sense?

By fabio@lapossibilitadiunisola.com | March 24, 2020 | Comments 2 comments

It is forty days since departure deadline, and things start to look busy here at the boatyard.

The Covid-19 arrived in the US in full blown mode as it is in the rest of the World. Italy just confirmed that school will be closed till April 15th. They have been closed since February. Friends from Hong Kong tell me that the country is fearing a second bout of infections brought by people coming from abroad. As I am writing the Azores are closed to arriving vessels, as many other countries are denying arrivals to sailors. This concerns me a little since the Azores are my next port of call.

I’ve been dodging this Coronavirus since my departure from HK in February. Then I got out of Italy just in time before the great lockdown. Now it has finally caught up on me, even if in this dire scenario my life changed very little. I noticed that by talking with friends whose life have radically changed since it has been confined between four walls. For one time I feel my experience to be more similar to other people’s.

Maybe the difference is just that I was already self isolating in an old boat in rural Georgia. My day goes by tending to a small vessel by myself, I move stuff around, build things, repair objects, redesign systems. I consume my meals alone or seldomly with other self isolated sailors. My life changed very little because my plan to upgrade Tranquility and cross the Atlantic is still underway.

The past weeks were key in trying to get everything here, materials, tools and equipment, and I am still planning ahead and guess what I exactly need in case distribution grinds to a halt, a remote possibility to be frank but I prefer not to take chances. Now I am finally putting things together slowly and painfully as usual, trying to cram together way too many projects.

It is a process I know well since it is the fourth time I take apart and put together this boat in order to make her better. The first time was when Kate and I bought Tranquility as an unfinished restoration project in Fairhaven, MA. The second time in the marshes of Glynn where we performed the heaviest rebuilding. The third one in Panama where it became clear that this crazy project was becoming mine only as I could not stop messing around with this boat despite my failing marriage. Maybe because of my failing marriage I found solace in even more boat projects. It is hard to tell which. The current refit is getting bigger than expected, which is not a surprise as my imagination often gets wild when it comes to boat improvements.

This thing called sailing

After ten years of this sailing life spent repairing boats and sailing them I still struggle to explain to others what is this thing I am doing. My family has still not gotten used to it either, in fact they met this whole idea of an Atlantic crossing on a small boat with skepticism, worry and even anger.

What is this thing I am doing?

I feel I am moving between an obsession that forces me to isolation and a blissful existence in Nature that for one time help me stay away from the danger of human contact. It makes financially no sense as the money poured into my old boat will never come back and it keeps me away from employment for long bits. It is not a socially relevant quest as it involves mainly myself and I. It adds very little to the progress of human knowledge as sailing is an obsolete technology. All these sound like red alerts and yet I can’t keep away confronting this questionable choice.

To be honest I am not completely alone. Bill my neighbor is doing exactly the same thing. He is also fixing his boat all over again, to take it across an ocean once again. The same is true for some people I have met of that I am aware of. We are a small number but we tenaciously stick to this nonsense.The comfort of knowing that others are engaged in a similar pattern is not enough and questions keep showing up.

Even if I can’t understand what this is, I know where it comes from.

It comes from visions inside my head, daydreams which I am not fully responsible for that clog my judgement and hijack the focus on building a socially respectable life. Those are visions that taken literally would drive you to madness but if harnessed with caution can propel you to great achievements. Or at least this is my hope.

The technical finesse behind the discipline of sailing is a never ending climbing route to perfecting many skills. It is so incredibly vast involving knowledge that span through so many departments that an expert sailor becomes close to be a master-of-all-trades. I like this idea.

Sailing takes you in the heart of the present moment, as you insert yourself in the ever changing reality of water and air, the breathing apparatus of planet Earth. This experience reminds me that I grew out of it and I am equipped to find my way between wind, waves and currents. I can say that I have the biggest home there is.

It can be done. Necessary knowledge can be acquired, discomfort and fatigue are a just transitory moments and we as humans can adapt and thrive in many situations. These experience are good tests to take and help building personal resilience. Resilience and resourcefulness is becoming so important in the current world where reality changes at a very fast pace and we are often not prepared for what comes next.

Despite the isolation from common human experience and the difficulties of this life I take great pleasure and pride in what I am doing. The effort of writing and documenting my experience are an attempt to fill this communication gap. So maybe for one time my family or friends will tell me: ”I understand what you are doing and I am proud of you”.

In the meanwhile I look for other signs that tell me I am on the right route. I think I found one in the irony of sailing. Contradiction and Paradox are the essence of life and the ironies of sailing, one of the most expensive way to feel uncomfortable and risk your life, expose its nonsensical nature.

If years ago sailing was the only way to move people and goods across long distances, today sailing loses its meaning and role. Is sailing a sport or a hobby? Is it both? If so, why all this discomfort and even danger? Despite these drawbacks sailing did not disappear in history because it still has a lot to say about us as human beings. There is a community of people involved in this nonsense, so there must be a little sense after all.

And if all this fails to provide sense, I will stick with Good Old Gandhi, who seemed to have learned quite few things about life and humans beings:

Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

7 ways to waste your time during Coronavirus lockdown

By fabio@lapossibilitadiunisola.com | March 17, 2020 | Comments 2 comments

“THERE IS NO WAY OF WASTING TIME BECAUSE WHAT ELSE IS TIME FOR EXCEPT TO BE WASTED?” Alan Watts

Some friends made me notice that I am very well equipped to face a quarantine lockdown during a group video call. Italy and other countries are in lockdown and people cannot leave their homes if not for very special cases. With many people working from home or not working at all these group video calls became a nice reality for me. It is usually hard to pin down friends on a phone because everybody seems to be too busy for that. Well thanks Covid-19!

I read a certain implication in those statements about my ability to comfortably be in a confined place with nothing to do for long periods of time. I suspect it has something to do with the fact I am very well versed in wasting my time. Maybe I am a bit paranoid here but this could likely link to my habit to spend a lot of it messing about on boats for no particular good reasons.

So yes, being forced to be home and not having important or socially valuable things to do does not scare me at all. I could go ahead and tell that this has always been in my chords and that wasting time is one of my many talents. Now that many people are forced to live this reality in first person I finally feel that my uncommon way of life can bring valuable lessons. Paradoxically it can be used for the social good.

Here are 7 ways to waste your time during a coronavirus lockdown for people who are forced home. To everybody else whose life continue despite this grave situation goes all my respect and solidarity, particularly to workers of public health systems in all capacities for spending so much energy to save as many lives as possible.

DAYDREAM

DISCLAIMER. Daydreaming is dangerous and can use up a lot of time and resources. Use with care.

First of all let’s be honest, everybody daydream. We may have different reactions to it, from shushing it away to complete abandonment. But when there is nothing left to do, when windows are shiny, dishes done, squeaky doors oiled and so on, there is a good opportunity for daydreaming. Daydreaming can be disturbing, daring, too exciting. But when you are in a safe space and with time on your hands it is nice to watch your mental television. At least I enjoy mine. Before smartphones it was my only resource against waiting in any line, and waiting has never been a problem to me. So relax grab some popcorn and let the show begin.

CLEAN

Have you noticed that when you spend more time home, the house gets dirtier? Or maybe it is because the domestic helper is in lockdown as well and working from home is not very useful? Maybe only boats require constant cleaning and you are sitting in a spotless home with no cleaning chores. Although I spend a good amount of time cleaning I am not a pro and it seems things never get clean. I know some tricks passed down from family and learned from various online videos by expert cleaners but it is not enough. Lockdown seem like a good opportunity to step up your cleaning game, or to learn how to make yourself like tidying up, because you need it more than ever.

COOK

We tend to make sumptuous meals only when we have somebody to impress, like a new date, a group of friends or coworkers. Why is it so? Because cooking takes time, especially if we are trying something new or going for multiple courses, and there is nothing better that share a delicious meal with people. During a lockdown time is not an issue (provisions could but this makes for extra creative challenge) so I see no excuses for not cooking. Living alone or sharing the house with a small family is an opportunity to treat yourself more often than usual. I have many memories of cooking the most delicious food just for myself. I often regretted not having anybody to share it with but the culinary joy nonetheless invaded my tongue and body. I remember a peculiar one. I had just finished a trip with guests on a sail boat in the San Blas Islands. I had some tomato sauce I cooked fresh caught lobsters in the night before. An indigenous fisherman sold me a giant red crab for 5$ while going home from fishing. With those ingredient I concocted a Crab and Lobster red sauce I poured over spaghetti. It was two to three star Michelin restaurant worth. This memory still gives me joy. Cooking can at times be considered an art so check the next way of wasting time to know more.

MAKE ART

Another activity that does not require a public is art. It may sounds strange but you don’t necessarily have to show your art. Why very little people see what I draw? It takes me maybe an hour just to draw a face if I try to make it right. And the result is still quite ugly. The ongoing trauma of growing up with a truly genious sister who graduated in Illustration and Design makes it even harder. So I don’t share my drawings but I do draw when I have time. It takes very long to create something very basic when we are not competent in an art. Many of us have unfulfilled passion or dreams because it’s hard to find time for it. Please thank the Covid-19 for another opportunity and get going with your creativity.

LEARN

Nowadays resources for learning are basically infinite and free. I am pretty sure there is always something you wanted to learn but never had time for and many education providers are offering online resources for free, for both solidarity and marketing reasons. It is an opportunity to take advantage of because learning takes time and effort and we are usually short on those in non Covid-19 times. I am currently studying Celestial Navigation because I want to get an upgrade of my current sailing license. I am glad I have time to do it, rather than trying to study while having a job, and falling asleep on the course.

SOCIAL CHANGE

Homo Sapiens is often called “the social animal”. This definition always show up in scientific works on human behavior and biology. Lately in human history it appears that our sociality became a great problem for the system which supports us. Many understood that and tried to course correct our behavior acting on the institutions that oversee it with very little success. Movements, activism, ideologies and political theories all failed to slow down our innate frenzy despite being armed with the most obvious and self evident truths. The Covid-19 an invisible short sequence of genes inside a protein shell was able to slow down the economy, grind to a halt air traffic, decrease pollution, and convince many businesses that smartworking is a viable way of conducting transactions and get things done. I find this pretty remarkable. There is an opportunity here and we are using it against our own will. The opportunity to learn from this forced stop. This could only happen if we see the benefits of this situation, instead of only crying out its downsides. The opportunity of Social Change is a present we get from a fellow microbe, instead of a brilliant idea coming out from our human mind.

MEDITATE

Never meditated before? Then you should know that meditating is a very good way of taking time off your long and boring day. The secret is to stop everything you are doing and make it even more boring. Bathe in your own boredom! Of course there are courses and tricks and classes ready available at no cost to learn meditation. Just look for it. If you don’t mind a little swearing here and there I kindly suggest this short guided meditation (10 minutes). It is easy yet powerful. I started leaning into meditation when I was alone on a boat in a tropical paradise (the same where the Lobster Crabetti dish happened). With some time on my hands I would sit still on the bow of the boat at anchor to watch the horizon. Now It is almost ten years that I try to meditate and even if it’s still hard to build a continuity in the practice you get nice presents from this very boring activity.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

I had a vision during the meditation time I give myself every Sunday evening. I saw myself as a beautiful root, with many branches expanding rhizomatically into the universe. Each branch touched a person, a place, an object. Every point of contact was a relationship. Every relationship, even painful and difficult ones, had a mutual exchange of resources, a “do ut des”. This root of mine, this branch of Life itself, is extremely intelligent and it follow its principle of growth. I ended up thinking that as a branch I am not fundamental, I am rather expendable, and I become valuable for the whole if I develop my unicity so I can bring novelty to the system, if I do what I was conceived to do which is happening as we speak. At the same time when I am too old or if an accident happens I will disappear and make space for the new and this won’t stop things. It will create space for the new. The network will mourn and incorporate what learning I created then things will continue to grow. The same as when you cut a branch of a tree, there is pain but in the end it is not a big deal. Life goes on.

This thought made me feel nonessential and instead of being terrified by this perspective I felt a relief as I am able to pursue my own growth, I am free to experiment. The Covid-19 experience is not only confronting us with social distancing. It is making us face our own mortality. That’s why it is so scary and moves us from within.

It is certainly our duty to do everything we can to live a healthy life, this will increase our chances against any illness that would hinder growth. It means following the rules that experts are constantly studying to minimize the impact of this new disease. We are a distributed intelligence and should act likewise.

However there are moments when despite all our efforts death cannot be prevented. We are mortal beings even when we try not to think about it. The Covid-19 as many other deseases is killing people. Somebody’s mother, brother, friend or colleague will not make it. If not the Covid-19 something else will at a certain moment take life away from individuals. That’s why we should not panic, and enjoy the life we are having right now, even when it feels boring and when it goes against our own will. A free mind does not see any prisons

I suspect this vision came as I was working on the problem of trusting my own’s decisions. A little over a month ago I left a well paid job and moved across two continents to end up again in a small boat, bleeding money and having to figure out a lot of difficult problems that contribute little to the life of our species. I don’t let judgements clog too much my mental space, as often decisions are just the storytelling of actions that spring freely. However I do watch my own actions and receive feedbacks about them. Doubts sometime arise.

Learning that Life is intelligent and that I am just a branch growing on its path of unicity helps me letting go and trust my feelings and instincts. They keep pointing me in the direction of making this little boat safe and beautiful and to sail her across the Atlantic Ocean to rejoin with Sara, to visit new beautiful portions of this planet and enjoying every bit of it. If this vision does not happen for any number of reasons I won’t feel that I wasted my time.

Because I truly believe there is not such a thing.

San Giuan fa minga ingan (Saint John does not deceive)

By fabio@lapossibilitadiunisola.com | January 28, 2017 | Comments 3 comments

Today January 27 is dedicated to San Giovanni Crisostomo. I know that because it brings me back to the stories I heard from my Grandmother Imode. San Giovanni Crisostomo is the protector of the town of Asola, where my Grandmother was born. Every year on this very day the silver torso of the Saint is put on display for the people to honor.

S.Andrea Cathedral in Asola (Photo by Massimo Telò)

My Grandmother was a great storyteller. She was born ten years before WWII started and she lived through the fascist regime of Mussolini. Particularly she had to endure and participate as other school kids at the time to the events of the Fascist youth organization. During these infamous events , she and her companions would mock secretly the pompous chants and ceremonies of fascist indoctrination. I can’t imagine anything less coming from school kids. A child-like mind it’s the best antidote against fascim.

I also learned from other stories how her brother Vigilio refused to enroll in the army, and hid in the country. The women of the family would bring him food in his hiding spot. Imode had not met her husband Giuseppe at that time. My Grandfather was a little older than her and during the War he joined the Partigiani faction (the resistance army who contributed in fighting the Fascist Regime and their Nazi allies). He and other partigiani were taken as hostage by German troops and released in exchange for safe passage during their retreat through a Partigiani controlled territory. Because he safely made through that dangerous situation I am here alive today.

The collection of her stories was not limited to the the serious and harsh times of the War. She had also plenty of funny and incredible stories told in a combination of mantuan dialect and italian. Today I can still understand perfectly the dialect but for some weird brain circuitry if I try to speak it my Spanish gets in the way.

She told me so many times about St.John’s celebration that one time, roughly twenty years ago, I insisted to go. I was in high school at the time and I had to take a couple of days off to do the trip. After all it was a family event, so skipping school was not a big deal. I was also too young to drive and my Granma never learned to, so we took a train from Milan Central Station, and got picked up by relatives in Asola. I remember reading a volume of Father Brown Mysteries from G.K.Chesterton during the train ride and looking out the windows to the farmland of South Lombardy.

That day 20 years ago, I went to mass with my Granma and observed the Priest and the Major opening the shrine where the torso of the Saint is stored, each with his own key. Then we walked through the busy fair and hang out a bit in town, but the spirit of my Grandmother’s tales was gone. Asola had already lost the magical rural character, agriculture got eventually more dependent on machines and peasants had to find other means for sustain themselves. The service industry was about to be created to absorb them. This is the reason why some 50 years ago my grandparents, moved to the north of Milan to seek employment bringing their two young daughters with them. Urban life and job security took place of the magic tales I used to hear.

In the rural culture this moment of the year was crucial. It’s the end of January, days are starting to get longer and the extended daylight time allows for more working hours in the field. It’s time to get ready for spring, ten days earlier bonfires were made in honor of San Antonio. It’s time to go back and clear the fields, make ashes, prepare for the sowing. Winter’s reach is far from gone and the temperature are still low. In fact, according to another legend the three coldest days of the year (28-29-30 of the month) called “Giorni della Merla” are about to come. But somehow the worst is behind and people look at the upcoming Spring with hope and expectations.

Even if the magic was gone, I always like to go back to Asola, visit my relatives and enjoy the culinary treats of the Mantova region. Everywhere in Italy food is amazing, but I have a little suggestion: next time you go there visit the City of Mantova and the adjacent territory. You won’t be disappointed.

Going back to my grandmothers tales about rural life is in real resonance with this period of the year. Similarly to old times rural culture,life on the boat is dependent on seasons and daylight time. Short days mean for us long night watches when sailing, and shorter work days at anchor. In the morning it is dark and cold it’s hard to get out of bed, and when night comes early it prevent us to do much work other than sitting in the cabin and cook meals.

Today January 27th is also new beginning for us. We are not making any bonfire, or honoring relics, but if feels like a new chapter. We came to Jascksonville to get all squared up with Basic Safety Training. Sea Survival, Fire Fighting, First AID, Personal Safety and Social Responsibility, and we succeeded.

We took care of bureaucracy and established a new domicile. Days are longer and temperatures are mild to warm. The steps to get ready seem infinite, but we keep knocking a few off the list. I can’t wait till there will be only excuses on the list. I am trying to make 2017 a NO EXCUSES year. Wish me good luck!

Subscribe to our mailing list