Cruising life just started today.

We were all ready to go to our next stops down the Baja, the boat was ship shape on deck and below, when Radu turned on the engine and noticed that the oil level was very low. Not sure if this was because the engine was cold, we decided to run the engine for a bit and upload pictures and videos to the hard drives in meantime. Then we heard a knock at the boat and somebody calling out. A fellow sailor anchored near us in Bahia Tortuga came to visit. ‘Call me Hal.’ Hal had arrived in the bay a day earlier, but we hadn’t seen him on his boat, because he had been sleeping since his arrival. He had been sailing by himself, going North from our next destination point, had been pounded by oncoming winds and waves all the way, in 48 hours he had 3 hours of sleep – he was exhausted by the time he arrived.

Now he was ready to be around people and for a chat about the state of the world in particular and at large. And for lending us a hand and a bucket for the oil change. The reality of cruising life intervened in our plans: ‘fix what you can today’ and ‘don’t pass up great company’!

Needles to say, we were staying a bit longer to do the oil change together and to hang out with Hal past dinner. We resumed our talks during the oil change, which didn’t go without a hitch and took forever. Hal confirmed what we knew already ‘You gotta understand that nothing on a boat is fixed easily’ and a while later ‘You do have to have some masochistic tendencies to want to live this sailing life’. It took so long, that we didn’t even make it to shore, because the North winds came up strong from the shore and both of our outboard engines were not very reliable at that moment, so we cooked dinner on our boat instead.

Hal brought over a chicken he had on his boat, Radu broiled it and added Romanian mamaliga (polenta) with feta cheese and sour cream. To round out the meal, we opened a Coppola Chardonnay to celebrate our chance encounter. At 78, Hal was amazingly limber, jumping in his dinghy from the toe rail and is still easily getting around on a boat. He promised us that sailing life will make us leaner and renew our faith in humans. He had travelled the past five month along the shores Mexico, visited many small fishing villages and enjoyed it immensely. He sailed and was a writer all his life and was a great conversationalist.

Now he was on his way back to San Francisco to publish his two books, already available on Kindle for a couple of years, in paperback (link to Hal’s webpage). His following was growing, more and more people were interested in his writings, which were fictionalized real stories and about ‘the real America’, as he put it. Although highly critical of what American capitalism developed into, he put much faith into the movement supporting Bernie Sanders and saw Bernie Sander’s success as a sign that people had woken up to the reality that America had to change. Economic change to strengthen the middle class and support veterans, the homeless and others dumped by the system. Support for small and medium-sized businesses, which used to be the back bone of economic growth since WW2. And we would need to recreate an economy, which can provide a future for future generations. He was optimistic that this would happen soon and still in his life time. Back in the US he wanted to join the movement.

He was so full of life, respect, curiosity and verve, I hope to have at his age! In leaving late in the night, Hal said that he finally learned that ‘only an optimistic outlook is worth living for!’ and jumped in his dinghy to drive towards his anchor light looming in the dark.