From time to time, an amazing thing happens in my life, and I have heard others say that sometimes it happens to them as well. I am referring to those times in our life when everything just seems to miraculously line up for an incredible outcome. Sometimes, it is the outcome we expected or hoped for, but oftentimes, in fact most times, the outcome is more, much more that we could have ever anticipated. I have come to think of these incredible chains of coincidences as the Cosmic Path. When you are in the midst of these "cosmic coincidences," that are almost mathematically impossible to conjure up, then I truly believe, the Universe, the Cosmos and yes, God, are pushing you in the right direction. It is very akin to the phrase, "Do not fight the open the door. It is open and waiting for you for a reason. You are the reason."
Perhaps the best way to illustrate my point is by relaying a set of events that recently occurred in my life. This series of events began many months ago – maybe four or five months ago. Karla and I had just finished our purchase of a new boat, and we were very keen on getting a tender (otherwise known as dinghy) for the boat as well. Our new to us boat is 49 feet long, and with our sights set on the Bahamas (retirement beckons), we would absolutely need a tender to explore the shallower waters, head to the various ports of call and well, just enjoy the freedom that a having a tender affords when you are traveling abroad on our aptly named, Stay The Course.
Immediately after the purchase of Stay The Course was concluded, we began the search for a used tender. It couldn't be too old, but I am way to cost conscious to purchase something new. Some people, who shall remain unnamed, say that I'm cheap, and they are probably right which gives me a very satisfactory inward chuckle. So, the search for the tender began, and I came up with zip. Nada. Zero. The big goose egg. I engaged the help of some trusted yacht brokers who have an extensive network within the boating community, and to my surprise (and theirs), they too came up empty handed. We were very surprised, and interestingly, we came to find out that the tender industry had quietly crept into an inventory shortage over the last two years, and consequently, this shortage had driven prices up. Well, prices going up is my kryptonite! Please recall that I am, well, cheap.
So, the search continued. Month after month, I kept getting feeds from my online searches. From time to time I would get a lead showing a sad little, inflated bag of hypalon or pvc that some poor soul claimed was a tender. The seams fraying, the transom barely hanging on with the D rings pretending to offer security… and a price that would knock the wind right out of your sails. It got so bad that I just started laughing when these leads would come to my electronic inbox. Needless to say, I laughed frequently and loudly. In summary, the tender search was not going well.
Well, the date was drawing near when Karla and I were heading up to Paducah, KY to provision the boat and bring her back home to Chattanooga, TN, our home port, and this meant we needed to resolve the tender issue. It is here, at this exact moment that my tender fortunes took a turn in the right direction. I reached out to the America's Great Loop Facebook group, referred to by most as "Loopers," and asked for a little help in finding a tender. Immediately two responses came back (we are tight knit group by both necessity and friendships forged on the water) telling me that I should contact Bourbon City Yacht Tenders. The owner was named Dustin Kidd, and I quote from their texts here, "He is fair. He is professional, and he is awesome."
I reached out to Dustin via text and within minutes, we had the outlines of a plan to get a tender purchased and loaded onto my boat, but it was the way that it happened that was so interesting. I called Dustin on a Thursday and needed a tender either Friday or Saturday in Paducah. Sadly, he couldn't do it. He asked when I was leaving which was Monday. Tentatively, he asked if Monday would work as we were scheduled to depart Monday morning. I called the harbormaster at Green Turtle Bay Marina in Paducah, and I explained the situation to him, and without hesitation he agreed we could stay until 12 midday and not to worry.
The reason he asked if I could wait until Monday is because he was already delivering another tender to Green Turtle Bay that same Monday! Go figure we both thought and lucky us! After we had settled on a new tender, we then needed to get an engine as he did not have the one I wanted. He referred me to OutboardOnline and after much discussion and searching, they came up with the exact engine I was looking for and lo and behold, there was also a $1,000.00 discount on the engine to boot. They needed to get the engine to me ASAP, so I asked if they could get the engine to me before I began my drive on Saturday. They said they would do their best, but no guarantees.
When Saturday morning rolled around, keep in mind this the day we are scheduled to leave, the driver of a big 18 wheeler called and asked where we could meet so I could grab my engine! It was actually incredible that they had somehow lined up the shipping to get the engine to me that fast… but they did. I began to see that things were lining up in a peculiarly positive way, and I began to feel that undoubtedly, things were going to work out just fine.
So, off we went with our rented van filled to the brim with "boat stuff" and a short shaft Suzuki 20HP outboard engine with a pearl white paint job. We were thrilled to be headed to the boat, and we were even more excited that our tender issues were about to be resolved. Eight hours later, we were sitting in the aft cockpit deck on Stay The Course enjoying a well deserved docktail.
The following morning the real work began. As anyone on the docks that day will tell you, I made many, many trips back and forth between the marina dumpsters and our vessel as we cleaned, provisioned, prepared and then cleaned some more. Well, it is a boat after all… During this process I met an enormous number of Loopers that were also docked at Green Turtle Bay and one in particular caught my eye. The boat, wonderfully named "Who Dat," had an absolutely gorgeous Highfield 360 on the back platform. The owner and I got to chatting and I explained how our tender was getting delivered Monday morning and he exclaimed, "Mine too!" You see, Who Dat was the other boat getting a new tender from Dustin! Well, after much laughter, we still could not believe it! We were five slips apart, and we joked about what an easy day Dustin had lined up for himself.
Who Dat's tender was being replaced under warranty due to a scratch in the paint. I took a look at it, and I exclaimed that the scratch wouldn't make a bit of difference to us due to our freshwater location in Chattanooga. The owner noted that Dustin had already sold it, and I didn't think it would fit on my platform anyway. But, wow, it sure would have been nice. She was a beauty! I headed on back to Stay The Course where I told my wife the story. She was amazed at the chain of events and just shook her head in disbelief at the series of closely related events that had taken place.
Later on that Saturday evening, as I sat in the aft deck savoring some well deserved wine, I texted Dustin and told him that I had met the owners of Who Dat and how I wished I had known that the tender had been for sale. Within minutes, which is one of Dustin's trademarks, he texted back, "Make me an offer." I was stunned as his text was very unexpected. After getting the specs on the boat and the hours on the engine, I made Dustin a fair offer that would include him taking the engine that I had purchased for the other tender – the first tender. Incredibly, he needed the engine as well for another boat he was selling. He accepted the offer. We could not believe our luck! But, there was still the issue of whether or not it would fit on our hydraulic swim platform, but only time would tell, and I needed to install the Weaver cholks as well that the tender would sit on.
The next morning I got busy installing the new cholks and to my dismay, the receiving brackets were turned 90 degrees in the wrong direction. The cholks were not going to work! It was a disaster, and this brought the entire tender operation to a sudden and anti-climactic halt. While all of that had been going on, I was also giving away various pieces of furniture, linens, kitchenware and so on that we were not going to be using. We had a custom teak table which we could no longer use, and it was being picked up by one of the staff at the marina, and I was explaining to him what had happened with the cholks. He asked to see them and studied them carefully and then handed them back to me.
"When is the tender getting here?" he asked.
"It’s supposed to be here at 9am tomorrow and we are outta here at 11:30am," I answered. I was feeling very disheartened at that moment, and he probably thought I looked fairly sullen.
He smiled a bit and said, "Well I would cut them, rotate them 90 degrees and then weld them back on if I were you." I laughed.
"Well, that would required a welder wouldn't it?" I asked, but I was just being sarcastic.
He smiled. "Yep. And that's me. I can have him back to you by 8:30pm tonight. Will that work?"
My jaw hit the deck (I was on a boat, so that is literal), and I thought I was hearing things. Once I composed myself, I hastily accepted his offer, and began the easy work of removing the cholks from the platform. 10 minutes later the cholks were on their way to his shop and he reminded me that he would be back at 8:30 that night.
Sure as the shine suns each and every morning, Chuck arrived just before 8:30 with the reworked cholks. The work was fantastic and to this day, you cannot tell that these cholks were cut in half and rewelded back into place at 90 degrees. They look brand new.
My wife and I were simply amazed, and as we sat on the deck that night resting and getting ready to retire to the aft stateroom, she turned to me and said, "Looks like everything is lining up perfectly for the tender." She smiled softly at me continuing, "It seems that the right thing is happening."
I smiled, nodded and said, "Let's see if it fits on the platform tomorrow. Then we'll know." We sat in the silence, but I already knew the tender was going to fit, and I smiled.
The following morning went quickly with Dustin moving the tender from Who Dat's swim platform and over to ours. Within minutes the tender was loaded with only two inches to spare on either side. It was the absolute maximum size for the swim platform, but fit she did, and she never budged from her cholks the entire trip from Paducah to Chattanooga. It was the perfect ending to a our five month tender search.
As I reflect on the many different people, events and timelines that culminated in the functionally beautiful Highfield 360 sitting on top of our hydraulic platform, ironically named "Off Course," I have no doubt in my mind that it was that very specific tender that was destined to be sitting there. It was a very forthright and dramatic reminder for me that when life opens a door for you, don't spend your time beating down all the other doors that are closed. Walk through the open door knowing that is open for a reason, and that reason, is you.
Photograph of the Week: Alaskan Huskies
I took this photo a few years back. As we traveled through Alaska, we accidentally ended up getting into an incredibly small plane that then flew to the top of a glacier. After manually hand cranking the sleds down on either side of the wings, the pilot landed on the snowy glacier, the runway lined on either side with a varied assortment of boxes, cones and what can I can only describe as “litter.” After we hastily exited our new set of sky skis, we came face to face with some very excited, friendly dogs that were part of an Iditarod racing team. To our amazement, we were suddenly standing in the sled behind them as they pulled us along the glacial trails at a brisk 9mph. It was exhilarating, and the dogs… ahhh, the dogs… breathtakingly beautiful.
Tips, Tricks and Tidbits For Success
5 Surprising Ways To Get Motivated
One of my favorite websites when it comes to motivation is Very Well Mind. In this article by Kendra Cherry, MsEd (use link above), they highlight 5 suprising ways to get motivated; however, my favorite part of the article is about indroducing challenges. At first it seems counterintuitive; however, upon closer examination we can see that it gives us the opportunity to overcome, become better, push our limits, and in the end, feel better about ourselves, improve our self esteem and our ability to cope with difficult situations in the future.