Orfin

Hello, my name is Orfin.

I was born i Canada, in a time where singers had funny haircutes. I am what they call a sailboat and I am now part of a project called Alternative World Sailing Commuinity.

In my early age I went travel around the americas, all the way around, happy, anchored in patagonia, freezing my fiber ass off. While staying in panama hanging out in some beautifull islands, my captain decided to leave me rest for a bit in a fancy marina, on the storage yard, just 200m from the ocean that i love so much.

” I go back to Canada, he said, i have this new job starting soon. I ll make a bunch of monney, come back, make you all new and we will cross the pacific together….”

Then, he left.

I waited, under the hot sun of panama, scorpions and cocoroach moved in, sharing the dark corners of my guts.

He came back, many moons later,his hair were now turning grey, he looked bigger, tired.

“I m sorry” he said, I came to see how you were doing, I was missing you so much, I work in a big office now and I will soon get to work in a bigger office with bigger tables, bigger chairs and big big monney!” I listen, shivering, feeling the new family of termites mooving in. “Orfin, listen to me, i ll be back, soon, look, i brought new solar panels, i ll be back soon, i promise!” Then he left. Two more rainy season passed, many moons indead. My wood was turning grey, termites had a few vilages now and were thinking of building a pyramid to unite themself . My “stainless” steel was full of stain, and my electronics devices were so itchi!

One day I saw him coming back, the expresion of his face was tight, I could hardly recognise him. Where was the feet sailor i knew, always smiling, his hair in the wind, laughing in the midle of the storms, he could now hardly climb the lader to get to me, his big belly seemed to get stuck everywhere, breathing was hard.

“Orfin. I missed you so much, look, i bought a new dinghy, and a brand new 15hp engine, just for us, for when we will explore the pacific islands. Unfortunatly, it can t be now. Remember, the big office, the big monney. Everything doubled, the tables, the chairs and the monney, everything bigger… Just a bit longer, and we wont have to worry about monney anymore, ever!”

Then he left…..

that s when the accident happened. During a whole rainy season no one came to empty my bilge or check me out. And….I sank…. on land…. 200m from the ocean…. when the worker of the marina finaly came it was too late, water was covering the engine. They took the water out, thinking about how angry their boss will get.

My captain came back one day… I saw him, looking at the damages and the mess, tears runing down…

“Hooo Orfin, i m so sorry! Don t worry, i have so much monney now you know, i will fix you. Look, lets start with your engine! And he took out this weird stincky piece of me. He came back, with it, and put it back in without conecting it.

” There Orfin” he said. “I will connect everything when i come back i promise, but not now, i will soon get the bigger chairs and the biggest table you ve ever seen.”

Then, he left, trying to hide his tears.

That s the last time i saw him. 6 years passed since i had a taste of my dear salty ocean. One day. I saw this kid, indeginous looking, asking around for a boat called Orfin. he went up the lader, down the stairs, make a funny face when my smell went into his nose, he looked around and open evrything. “What do you think your doing?” i wanted to ask him. He got scared by some cocoroach a few time, but he was smiling. He went out and down, look back at me and said. You are beautifull.

then, he left…

But the day after, he came back. 3 more weird looking kids were with him, a really sweet one, japanes looking, a neptune looking one with the eyes color of the ocean, and a pirate looking on always joking around. They were walking towards me! Looking at me with big eyes. They went up the lader, the neptune looking one almost fell, when the life line he was holding on broke. They were all exited, two of them looked a bit worried, but yuki, the japanes one, and angel, the indeginous looking one where the most positif people you can ever meet..

Together, they took everything i had inside, outside, made a giant pile of half brocken stuff, and another pile, even biger, of totaly broken stuff…. they took a lot of things appart, rotting out wood, kms of electric cables, electronic devices who was high tech in the 80s. For days they took only breaks to eat, dance, sing and eat again.

They had there camp in the jungle, were locals are so scared of dangerous creatures that they won t even think going there at night. The pirate looking one, faby, almost steped on a crocoodile once, at two o clock in the morning, after a long day working! He ran to his tent, thinking how nice it is to be a pirate with two legs.

Many curious sailors came by, never saw so many faces in my life, they were nice, supporting them, suporting us…. They came with brand new stuff to give away, some of them half broken, some of them going straight to the pile of totaly broken stuff…

Every two weeks they were saying:” in two weeks, we ll be in the water”. The two weeks became two month. Poor kids…. i wanted to hug them, tell them how happy I was, chear them up. But the only thing i could do was look at there sad face, when everyday they were finding new totaly broken stuff that they would have to fix, too esential to be thrown in the pile were they belong.

They were talking about no more money, especialy to pay the greedy marina. But every day they kept going, they were not joking as much anymore, more serious, more tired but they were still singing and dancing, and eating soooo much! How many Big pots of rice and lentils with salad made of half rotten vegetable recycled in the market can they eat?

Two month, it took them only two month. Two fucking month i heard them saying…

One day, Tony, the neptune looking captain came back smiling from the office of the greedy marina… “We have our splashing permit, he said, Orfin is going back to the water”… Could this be true? Did i hear well? They were singing and dancing covered with cutes and nasty jungle infections, looking exausted, scratching there head from some kind of cockroaches humans get on their hair sometime.

The day came, not ready, but ready enough they said…..

SPLASH!

This feeling! I am floating again, my happy crew look around! No leaks! We re floating! I can hear the call of the open ocean, but we still have a lot do. So,it is at a dock, suronded by shiny boats that i waited to set sails…. I saw many people, some profecional mecanics, coming to see what they call now, “the fuking engine”, trying to start it. It s a mystery. Fuking engine won t start.

The greedy marina wanted us out, many more weird looking kids started to show up, looking at me, looking at the horizon and dreaming. we want to help” they were all saying”. Greedy marina doen t really like weird looking kids, singing and dancing free.

Time to go, not ready, but ready enough. They pushed me out of the marina with the brand new dinghy i got many moons ago, i felt the wave splashing my old hull…. 15 minutes after we left the marina we anchored . First real sailing lesson, everybody is paying atention on how to drop the hook as they say. For the first time in six years I feel the safe anchor holding me, facing the wind, wave bouncing me around… Everyone laugh at this feeling they ve been craving for so long…

The day after, we raise the anchor. They Pull some lines, and FLAP , the sails were out, catching the wind, i was mooving, we were moving, not toward where we were supose to, but moving…. time for the first tack, first of many thousand, I am sure of that now. It s been one year.. i saw many weird looking kids passing by, and it feels my heart to know that many more will come, eat tones of lentils, sing and dance free….

That is my story.

Orfin.