Galapagos - Frustration!

It's just a word. But it can bring about such negative emotion.

When I was younger, little things would frustrate me, like not getting what I wanted or getting something else from what I expected. That was an easy fix back then, I could just change my goals and except less.

When I began competing in sports, I learned that changing the goal wasn't as easy. Everyone's goal was the same, to win! If I didn't win, I needed to work on myself, fitness or endurance or style, to make myself better. Even if I wasn't first place, I always strived to be. Competing in sports taught me that to succeed, to finish a goal the best I could, I needed to work on myself first. Discipline was the key to success. I was successful in a variety of sports which I think helped me be a success in life.

Some things still frustrate me. I still have problems with 'Uniformed Authority'. Someone puts on a uniform or a shiny badge and their attitude changes. They become 'aggressively dominant' or 'All-Knowing' or "In-Command' even if their competency level is not up to their own vision of themselves. Every nation has them, some more prominent than others. They demand respect even when they don't deserve it. Latin and especially the South American nations wear a lot of uniforms. There will be short little guy wearing a uniform all shiny and black as if he were about to invade Poland! He'll walk around very proud and demand respect from all that regard him. If you have to deal with such a person to get any kind of paperwork stamped or signed, you had better learn PATIENCE and smile a lot, or it will take much longer to get your stamp.

Patience is the key to combating frustration.

It is also my mother's first name.

I have never had much patience with people who weren't up to my expectations. I would try to work around or through them rather than deal with people I couldn't respect.

The combination of incompetency and uniformed authority however needs special skills which I am still lacking. Patience is about the only thing I have left and it is now almost at an end.

Ecuador is a very small country. The outlying Galapagos Islands belong to Ecuador. This seems to put them far from the minds of the mainland authority.

14 days ago, I e-mailed Hunter Customer Service and the very next day Eddie Breeden got a replacement alternator for the Yanmar on a FedEx plane to Quito Ecuador airport. The local FedEx agent, Johnny Romero in Santa Cruz, promised 3 or at the most 4 working days to get my box from Florida to me in Isla Isabela. Even though this shipment was pre-paid and for a "Vessel-in-Transit" and therefore customs exempt, I paid the $186 customs fees. This is now the twelfth day that I have heard that Ecuador Customs at the airport is sitting on my small but important package, but that it will surely come tomorrow.

I have very little patience left. Frustration has set in.

When I was competing in sports, I was always impatient. I couldn't wait to try something I was working on to improve myself. I would get excited to prove to myself and then to others that I was getting better.

Then I had a horrific sports accident.

I was 11 months in a coma with a myriad of broken bones, including my hips at 4 places, my 3rd and 4th lumbar vertebrae, the Atlas vertebrae and the base of my skull. I had to lie in a bed for over 2 years. My broken body could not hold itself upright in a sitting position, so even a wheel chair was out of the question. I was so determined to make myself better that I sometimes had to be strapped to my bed post after trying some movement or exercise that had me crashing to the floor.

Finally, the doctors had a special gurney brought in where I could lie on my stomach and roll the extra large wheels to propel myself down the hall to rehab. I was able to work on myself at my own pace. The absolute total frustration of lying in bed for months without even being able to try to improve my condition had finally taught me one thing - PATIENCE.

It took weeks and then years to see any noticeable improvement. The tiniest of muscle, the smallest change from numbness to having feelings, even the addition of a few grams of weight on my own body took weeks to notice. I would sometimes lie at night and silently cry with total frustration taking over my mind. Patience was needed. Patience I still did not have. But I was learning.

There are just some things you cannot force. You can not will it so, as you want. You have to deal with the delays.

Sometimes you just have to be patient, or you get frustrated.

Day 15 at anchor in Villamil Galapagos waiting for a small box to clear Ecuador Customs.

I must change my route to make up for the delays here in the Galapagos. I have to divert from the planned destination of the Sydney Boat Show end of July to Audi Hamilton Island Sail Week in North-East Australia end of August.