Lost

When we were back in the States, we weren’t much for television.  There were a few series we were addicted to … notably Weeds and The Wire ... but for the most part, pop cultural phenomena passed us by.  Before leaving, we did manage to put a number of movies and well-regarded TV/cable series on a dedicated hard drive, and from time to time, in anchorages here and there, we’d settle in for a night of video entertainment on a TV monitor mounted in a corner of the salon, where we spend most of our time.  When we’re settled into an anchorage for a period, we usually turn to a series, since it provides multiple nights of distraction.  We watched most of the extremely well-written series,
Friday Night Lights (FNL), while in Tahiti and, thanks to iTunes, we have kept up to date with the addictive Mad Men.  FNL rang true to Jennifer, who grew up in a small town in Texas, where the high school football stadium seated 18,000 (!).  Mad Men resonated with me in large part because of a brief professional stint at a political PR/lobbying firm, where many of the same tools – audience identification, message development, creative, etc. – were part of the firm’s workflows.  Truth be said, that line of business --  politics + PR -- still has more than a little bit of the good old boy culture as well, well after the putative end of the misogynistic Mad Men.

Lately, with an extended hiatus here in Cairns, Australia – the result of needing to sort thru a number of  issues back in the States – we’ve turned, perhaps inevitably, to the multi-year TV series Lost.  We missed this entirely on its network run. I’m not sure I was even aware of it as it was running … the years 2004-2010 were a whirlwind of kids graduating, job changes and challenges, parental health issues and the passing of my Mom and Jen’s Dad, the purchase of ile de Grace, the pursuit of a musical/songwriting/performing/recording dream, and the shutting down of our land-based lives.  One of the ways we’re passing the time here in Cairns as events in the US unfold at a glacial pace is to visit the local library.  I happened to spot the first season of Lost in their DVD section, and, curious, and attracted at least in part to its length (the nightlife here is as quiet as it is expensive!), picked up the case and brought it back to the boat.

For those who have not seen or heard of this series, it defies easy description, but suffice it to say it’s a story of a group of passengers whose plane crashes on a mysterious island in the Pacific, with the “spirit” of said island itself becoming one of the “characters” on the show. The dramatic tension centers on the desire to leave the island, juxtaposed against reasons to stay or return. The show’s plot, as well as its reliance on flashbacks and flash forwards set it apart from the usual “Castaway” genre, and, while it does get a bit self-referential and obtuse, especially in the later seasons, it’s proved to be a welcome distraction from our waiting.

Not surprisingly on an adventure of this length and remoteness, we’re facing some distinctly non-nautical challenges relating to family needs, health issues, in addition to the Somali pirate concerns.  Nothing we could have planned for, and nothing we can avoid.  Truth be told, we’ve had to consider the possibility of suspending our trip and returning home, but we seem to have dodged that bullet.  After a lot of sorting out, and the passing of time, we now plan to leave Cairns in a few weeks, day-sailing our way up the northeastern coast of Australia to the Torres Strait, and from there to Indonesia.  We expect to reach Bali in mid- to late July, and from there, to sail southeastward to Cocos Keeling, Mauritius, and then South Africa.  We will be leaving the Cape of Good Hope in early January, God willing, and then across the Atlantic to the Caribbean in time for our son’s wedding in May.  We expect to be back in the States with our boat in the summer of 2012, as originally planned.

Until then, we have a few more things to do … we await our visas for Indonesia; we’ve ordered a spare headsail for the rough seas of the Indian Ocean; we need some provisions.  We’ve already done the necessary engine and boat maintenance – oil changes, repairs, etc., and our life raft has been serviced professionally.  We’ve got Kit Kats and Crystal Lite to last us for a few months.

So, for another 10 days or so, we’re in the world of Lost … stuck on an island, recalling the many little adventures it took to get us here, and looking forward to, yes, getting off this island.