I am continuing this week with the sailing adventures of my sister, Kala, and brother-in-law, Nesa. Exactly a week ago they left Ho Chi Minh for Malaysia. Their departure point was upriver on Saigon River. A major part of the first day was navigating the Saigon River to get to sea. Saigon River is a busy river used by commercial ships bound for and from Ho Chi Minh.

Getting to sea meant navigating (avoiding) other ships and boats. To avoid these other vessels, Nesa chose to sail closer to the river’s edge and that seemed like a good idea in the beginning. However, Saigon River is long and wide and besides commercial and non-commercial traffic are fishermen who fish along the river.

As Nesa came around one corner of the river, he spotted several buoys used by fishermen to secure their boats. Water currents around the bends of rivers change as the flow of water changes. Having spotted the buoys, Nesa steered the boat to avoid the buoys however the water current had also increased. Nesa steered the boat, to avoid the buoy, but with the increased currents the boat drifted sideways directly into a buoy. A miscalculation of currents and steering.

The result was a damaged rudder!

Lucky for Nesa and Kala, this happened close to their departure point that they were able to contact the manufacturer and head back to where they started from. They were three hours out at this stage, so it was a slow motor back to base. Norma, the experienced skipper, jumped into the river to assess the damage and confirmed the rudder was damaged. But the extent of the damage needed expert eyes and further assessment by Seawind personnel.

As soon as they reached their departure point, the Seawind Chief Executive Officer (CEO) jumped into the river to assess the rudder and made an initial assessment. However, he also stated that a proper assessment would only be possible when the boat was lifted, with a crane, on Monday. Not much could be done over the weekend (it was Saturday), it was a matter of waiting.

Nesa was emotionally shattered that day. To ‘crash’ his boat on her maiden voyage so soon after manifesting his dream was hard on the soul. Some alone time with his emotions was the first port of call to clear space for what needed to happen next.

And this really is an important moment. We all race through our daily events and the repercussions (our emotions) of these events lag the actual event. If we don’t spend time ‘sitting’ with these emotions, we never quite close the loop on them. Because emotions are the energy that moves us to action, once initiated they need to be expended. Getting the boat back to the departure point on one rudder was the easy part.

Processing everything that had happened just before, during, and after the event is an emotional one. And we can’t suppress or short-circuit this. And I am glad Nesa took the time to be with all the emotions he felt that day. Because that allowed him the clarity he needed to jointly assess the damage to the rudder on Monday and forge the next steps from there.

The great news on Monday was that the damage to the rudder was bad but confined to the rudder alone. The hull was undamaged. The rudder was fixed immediately, and a test run was done. But they could not leave the following day, Tuesday, because they had to process their paperwork with Vietnamese immigration. Additionally, they needed to find another skipper. Norma, the experienced skipper had to fly back to Malaysia for another commitment. The delay disrupted her schedule.

Again, as luck would have it, the Seawind CEO made a few calls and found a Vietnamese skipper, Quoc, to sail with Nesa and Kala. The added advantage was that Quoc was very familiar with the Seawind. That helped eliminate one of two unknowns for Nesa; knowledge of the boat. Nesa could now focus on learning to sail the boat knowing he had a solid knowledge of the boat through Quoc.

There are silver linings in every event and how we choose to use them is where the lessons are. Lucky for Kala and Nesa, the buoy gave them incredible learning and knowledge in a short time. They say we learn best from our mistakes. I could not agree more.

As I write this, the sailors are somewhere on the South China Sea heading to Malaysia and should arrive in a day or two. Can’t wait to hear from them. I shall update you next week.

Until then, you can reach me at yoga@yoganesadurai.com