The Third Thing

The third thing kills you, on the water. That's true everywhere else as well. Security, business, life, none of them have any room for the third thing, The first thing is a mistake or an oversight and you can deal with that, the second thing is the ironic simultaneous issue that complicates the first thing, and the third thing is the one that happens when you don't have any hands left to deal with something else.

Last night I did some evening and overnight sailing with my electric boats Mark Twain and Sam Clemens, the middle bit while asleep. Had intended to follow the east side of Kemp Channel down along the west side of Big Knockemdown Key. Predicted speed and direction of wind and calculations of tides all turned out to be inaccurate, so turned around and went north between the scattering of little mangrove islands and natural harbors.

Around midnight arrived at the north east corner of Big Knockemdown Key where it meets Niles Channel. The wind was coming up the channel perfectly aligned, waited several hours for the predicted wind shift that would put the big island between me and the direction of wind as I sailed south. Used up most of the power on board trying to position the boats for the wind shift that continued to not happen. Around 3am snuggled the boats close to the mangroves right at the point where I could launch when the winds changed, put one anchor in the water, and caught a couple hours of sleep.

I woke to sunlight and a new view. The wind direction change had occurred and my failure to put a second anchor in the water before going to sleep had produced results. A mile away approaching the other side of Niles Channel, with some charge on the main batteries from the morning sun, I navigated the boats near a few of the Torch Key mangroves that could provide shelter and position me for the next move towards my destination. Getting the original anchor back on board was an interesting exercise, a bigger wad of seagrass I have yet to see raised from the ocean.

Have the trip line on the anchor run back to Sam Clemens now. That way if the wind shifts to the north as predicted while I'm still awake to care about it I can easily yank that anchor and ride the wind down to the interesting area between little and big Knockemdown Keys that has been my ultimate destination since leaving Boca Chica Channel. If the wind shift doesn't meet my requirements I'll drop the other big anchor and wait for Sunday.

The first thing was going to sleep without pushing the second anchor in the water. Fine, I can deal with that, even dragging the one anchor slows things down enough so I wouldn't go too far, and there's lots of space. The second thing was trying too hard late at night to navigate when that power could have been saved to give me a little more control should, for example, my anchor drag before Apollo fills my fuel tanks in the morning.

There wasn't a third thing. There hasn't been a third thing in my entire life, evidenced by my present presence. Other than being a bit exhausting and adding a twist to my ever-changing plans it's just another mop and bucket that fell down the stairs when you opened that door. No big deal, and you needed to go down in the basement anyways, so you do the other thing while you're down there getting the damn mop.

You cannot ever have the third thing. That's what safety and security are. Having enough certainty that there won't ever be a third thing is what defines success in life and business.