Lugging in the Caribbean and Working with Water
I have just returned from a much needed and rejuvenating trip to the Windward Islands in the West Indies. After a challenging few years of family bereavements and general strangeness of the dreaded C**** years, my partner Ed set sail back in July 2022 to do the trans-Atlantic crossing to the Caribbean. I joined him at the start of February for a short sabbatical from the workshop.
I spent some beautiful time in St. Lucia before flying down to Grenada to join friends from Cornwall on the good ship 'Eleanor B', a traditional Cornish lugger. We then sailed through the Grenadines stopping along the way at many of the islands including Carriacou, Union Island, Bequia, and St Vincent back to St Lucia where my Caribbean adventure concluded with a new personal adventure just beginning….. You can see a short clip of my sailing adventures on Facebook and Instagram.
Glamourous though it all sounds…there were also some challenges in this trip. Water is not my natural element, which may sound strange for someone who has lived on a boat for 13 years! I am defihttps://www.abigailbrown.co.uk/demonstrations-and-talksnately more of an Earth element, wondering in the woods person than a setting sail for the seven seas adventurer. The fabulously coincidental timing of an opportunity to sail in the Windward Isles was a ridiculous privilege, and one that many people would have on their bucket list…but sailing scares me!! This presented some serious personal challenges for me and I fought every urge not to get off the boat. I knew if I got off the Eleanor B I would be disappointed in myself in the long run….so I stared at the sky, pulled on the ropes and sang a lot of folk songs as loudly as possible to distract myself from my fear. I dug deep and I was the bison who faces into the storm and sailed towards the next island, and the next sunset, and the next rum…. And it was absolutely worth it!
I could definitely become a fan of winter sunshine and rest, returning to the upsurge of the Green Fire and the coming of Spring…