Getting Reacquainted with Our Old Friend: Uncertainty

We were well prepared for the leap into the unknown as we headed off from Australia on our boat hunt and as usual for us, we have hit the ground in Turkey running.  We have inspected 5 boats so far, managed oodles of luggage from one place to another (with no wheels), gotten over jetlag, hired a car, driven down the coast for an inspection and landed at a small guesthouse last night rather ragged around the edges.

As we walked along the harbour front this morning into Fethiye, where we have currently washed up, Rick said “so here we are living with uncertainty again”. And you know what?  It helped for him to name it.  Up until then we had just been chasing our tails and feeling a bit scratchy with each other. As I mentioned before Rick has had his eyes glazed and stares into the middle distance without listening to a single thing I am saying which is a bit of a recipe for me to get a bit testy. I miss turnoffs on google maps and he forgot some of our luggage. But naming it has allowed me to be kinder as I know it is a hard place to remain for any length of time. We have lived with it a lot and we get through it well when we remember that we are in it! His words were timely as not long after this conversation he lost our credit card to a hungry ATM machine.  Ooops. This is not a new thing. Weird stuff happens around Rick when he is feeling particularly intense. We will go at 5pm with his passport and see if the guys who refill it can pull it out and give it back.  Perhaps. More uncertainty.

So, what we hadn’t really considered was the uncertainty in this whole venture. Because what the last few days has hammered home is that everything is uncertain. From not knowing which boat we are going to buy, which is the major unknown we have found that everything has followed on from that.  We can’t predict a thing.  How long will we need the rental car? How long do we stay in Marmaris if the current boats on offer don’t float our boat? Will Rick go take some kite surfing lessons or will we leave and head for Greece. When, oh, when will we have a chance to do some washing…..

So, in the meantime we eat, sleep, drive, stop to admire the amazing scenery and are grateful that our problems are very much a product of our first world life and that our circumstances are the result of our own choices.