JRP at Sea

The best word to describe my time in Morocco is 'surprising.' By the time we reached the port of Casablanca, I was tired. I wasn't sure I had the energy to live up to the excitement and anticipation of arriving in Morocco three-years later than I thought I would, when the Fall 2012 voyage had to suddenly cancel our arrival in Morocco. If the sudden cancellation of visiting Morocco in 2012 was the surprise, the surprise in 2015 was the emergence of Morocco as one of the best ports of the voyage. I thought travel fatigue had hit me and I wouldn't see as much as I could have with more energy. Three years ago I was ready to travel around the country and into the desert, but with Morocco being the last port of the 2015 voyage, I was ready to slow down. Descriptions of the walled medina of Fes appealed to me, and I booked an AirBnB, the eighth AirBnB I stayed in during the voyage, for our entire stay in Morocco. With some convincing, Marty joined me, and I think he felt th...

We arrived in Namibia with no plans. Marty, Jess, Matthew, and I left Namibia with a movie-worthy road trip together. Sometimes I prefer plans, as our time in port is often short with only three or four nights and it's good to use the time wisely. The road trip in Namibia is a perfect example of the benefits of spontaneity and not having plans. Of course this comes along with risks, like almost leaving town without a map, or driving later at night than planned, with no street lights, in fact no street, just a dirt road and only the moonlight to guide us, or arriving in a small town with three places stay, and the first two had no vacancy. Of course this also comes along with benefits, like randomly running into Erik and Colleen at breakfast, at the one place to stay that still had room for us, or the family of elephants we saw on the side of the road, or the laughter from Marty being disappointed after one of our stops where we only saw some small pieces of petrified wood, when ...

When the Fall 2012 voyage left Cape Town, South Africa, because of high winds we weren't able to leave at night, instead leaving the next morning, which allowed us the rare opportunity to leave a port in the daylight, and I remember watching Table Mountain, Lion's Head, 12 Apostles Mountain Range, and one of the world's most beautiful backdrops of a city, slowly fade away as we sailed away. I remember wondering if I would ever see Cape Town again. I remember wondering what it would be like to live in Cape Town, a beautiful city but a city with a difficult history and continued issues despite significant peace and conflict resolution. For five days I was fortunate enough to see Cape Town again, and briefly feel like I lived there, renting an AirBnB for the entire time. I went to the nearby grocery store, I stopped for coffee at various coffee shops and read my book, Marty and Matthew visited me a couple of times and stayed with me in the extra bedroom, I made breakfast fo...