There is a dark side to wandering. Those living a stable life can rightly expect their stable friends and stable neighbors to answer their phones, or at least reply to their emails, and to generally be available most of the time. Wanderers are always saying goodbye. Whether they say that to the stable people whose lives they enter briefly, or to other wanderers, it is one of the constants in the lifestyle.
We have become accustomed to this over the years, but it is never easy. Not with the friends and family we left behind, and not with other wanderers who have become close friends. Most wanderers that we meet, we enjoy briefly, knowing that the relationship is transient, but occasionally something meshes with a kindred soul who becomes a lifetime friend, a friend we feel we have always known. These are hard to part with.
A mutual friend suggested to Dennis that he should look for us on the Baja HaHa last Fall. Dennis and his wife, Pam, have become dear friends of ours. We have traveled together most of the time since we met on the HaHa, beginning in Mexico, jumping across to the Marquesas together, and cruising there over the past month. It seems like we have always known them.
But our paths have now parted. Pam is in the States for a visit. When she returns, they will sail south. We are heading west. We plan to meet up in November in New Zealand, but we will not be part of their lives, nor they ours, until then. That’s the hard part.
Dennis and Pam are not the first such friends to whom we have said goodbye. Nor will they be the last. There are also many friends and family leading normal lives ashore, whose lives we regret not being a regular part of. We love this nomadic life we are leading, but there is a dark side.
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