At Anchor Again

From: Rubicon Marina, Lanzarote, Canary Islands
To: Papagayo beach, Lanzarote, Canary Islands

In the marina, next to Vite & Rêves, was an ocean-going rowboat. Yes, that exists. There was a lot of coming and going of people with similar t-shirts and huge upper bodies. I had to meet them. I sauntered over and asked what they were up to.

Liz — one of the rowers — told me they are rowing across the Atlantic to raise awareness and investigate the effect of exercise on early onset Parkinson’s. Being diagnosed with the disease herself at age 44, Liz is not the kind of person that goes to sit and weep in a corner. No, she’s living life to the fullest and doing science and rowing across oceans. Kudos.

Now, I know that moderate exercise is good for the brain. I picture walking in the park, petanque, and getting out of bed in the morning as examples of moderate exercise. But rowing across an ocean? “Yes,” she said, “No one has investigated this yet.” Gee, I wonder why. If this works, we might see a lot more Parkinson’s patients taking to the high seas in a rowboat.

So if anyone calls us crazy again for crossing the ocean in a sailboat, I will tell them, while sipping my beer behind the helm: “No, we’re merely a little adventurous. Ocean rowers now, those people are crazy.”

We left Rubicon Marina in the afternoon after provisioning and motored over to Papagayo beach. We dropped the anchor next to two other sailboats and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

I noticed the boat next to us had a Belgian flag. I googled ‘Puff sailboat’ and found they’re also keeping a blog with their experiences. Kris and Ingrid looked like nice people, so I dingied over for a chat and invited them to Vite & Rêves. They rowed over after dinner and brought some beers. We had a great evening and a lot of laughs swapping sailing stories and mishaps.