Bahamas - Bruised Up and Blissed Out in the United States
I had seen the Bahamas from water level. I had seen the workings of the harbors and the docks, I had met the people whose families had lived there for hundreds of years. I had been exposed to lifestyles and value systems that I hadn't known existed.
I've never been as free as we were cruising on our own boat. How close can a modern person come to feeling anything remotely like true adventure? Although we travelled some of the most highly-trafficked water routes in the world, the very nature of boat travel makes each crossing seem as if it is the first. No footprints remind you of previous passagemakers and away from the markers even the most popular passages leave you as isolated as if you were adrift in the middle of the largest ocean.
Raised in suburbs and cities, the solitude unnerved me a little and appealed to me a lot. I believe that I was starting to hear my inner voice while I was out there -- not the ongoing critic we all carry in our heads, not the voice that reminds us to behave like the Others, not the voice that encourages us to follow our obligations rather than our desires -- but a true inner self, a thing as ephemeral and complete as the sound of a tuning fork. I thought I could hear my soul.
I had wanted a journey that would change my life. And that's what I got.