Recently we anchored in the Bight, the harbor of Norman
Island. Norman Island is sometimes referred to as “treasure island”, less owing to its marked resemblance to Robert
Louis Stevenson’s famous setting as to its actual history. In
August 1750, the crew of a Spanish treasure galleon
named Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe mutinied
and the ship’s treasure, said to include
55 chests of silver coins, was buried on
Norman, some of it having been found over the years. It is buried treasure that holds the allure of the sailing
life, though not of the shiny dubloon nature, and to find it requires a certain temperament.
Patience is fundamental to sailing. A sailboat moves slowly,
even when it is moving fast. There is not enough room for two people to change
their clothes at the same time. You have to tolerate each other’s idiosyncracies because you are crammed together. Alot.
The Caribbean operates at a different pace. Everything
happens on Island Time. Meaning: slowly. No one is in a hurry. Checking out
groceries can take a half hour. You can finish half a novel waiting for the
laundry lady to finish your clothes. In America, riots would break out if things
operated at this pace. So you learn to be patient. Things will happen when they
happen, and not a minute before.
You have to be organized. There is so little space, that
everything has a place and it has to be put back exactly in that space as soon
as you are done with it.
You have to pay attention to rules. Things must be done
meticulously and in a particular order, or something bad will happen. If you do
not turn off the nonessential powered items at night, you will awake without
power. If you do not rinse briefly , then turn off the water while you lather
up, then rinse briefly again, you will run out of water. If you do not hand up
things from the dinghy with two hands and grasp them with two hands, they will
be lost to the proverbial drink. Rules are everything.
Many people would find this lifestyle intolerable. You are
hot and sticky and mosquito bitten and there is always a stubbed toe or banged
finger or swimmer’s ear. Those of us who look past those things and love this
life, do so because of the remarkable rewards. You wake up and study the
barometer and the tides and wind and then choose a new and unexplored
destination. Then, if you have been patient, stayed organized and followed the
rules, you get to sail off and discover rare corners of this planet. It is those that are for us, the
true buried treasure.
