Finding the Wonder

By: Marina Neal

By KAVU

January 24^th, 2023

I’ve always had an achingly strong pull to the ocean, so when I had the chance to hop on a sailboat with the plan of surfing and eating tacos down the coast of Baja.....

.... I jumped on it!

Lewis and Taran are two of the most adventurous individuals I know. Lewis has seen every dusty corner of the world, most of it by boat. And Taran is a badass creative who is annoyingly good at every single outdoor sport. They’re best pals who bought a sailboat together with the intention of starting a nonprofit and sailing to the South Pacific. They’re on the beginning days of sailing across the world, and I got to join for a taste of the salty life.

We started the trip from San Diego, and night one, I felt the stoke building. We laid out under the stars with cheap beers in hand and stomachs full of burrito. Laughing, and jumping naked into the bay, whispering plans about the journey ahead.

The next morning, we headed to the checkout point to get from the U.S. to Mexico. After a night at a dock full of characters and yachts we could never afford, we sent it into Mexico at sunrise

The original plan was to sail into one of the few marina’s that helped with immigration paperwork, despite the expensive price tag. We only planned to stay for two nights. After this, we planned to sail down the coast- hunting for surf spots, exploring islands, and anchoring in secluded coves. Of course, none of this happened.

When we went into immigration, we got approved to enter the country but the boat, Saros, did not. The Mexican immigration needed specific paperwork that needed to be an overnight from San Francisco to Mexico. Saros wasn’t allowed to leave the marina.

Okay… we were stuck.

The overnight paperwork quickly turned into a week of waiting. As the days turned to a week, it also became clear that a tropical storm was heading right to Ensenada- where we were currently docked. So the brilliant plans of surfing, and romping around remote islands… became impossible.

What do we do now but wait?

The spirit of KAVU not only represents big epic adventures, but it represents small ones as well. The adventures we didn’t expect, the adventures we have to create. So that’s what we did, we created our own adventure.

Stewing on the dock all week, we set out to explore the city. We found the best local tacos, and ate them with cheesy grease dripping down our fingers. Taran ate all the questionable street meat he could, while I snuck pieces of it to feed stray dogs. We walked without a plan through the downtown streets, until we found a soft patch of sand to sit on and watch people go by. We tried to take surfboards in an Uber but got shut down.

We back flipped into the marina, and made creative dinners with food from the back of the pantry. At night, we dragged the mattress outside and watched the stars flick by. Sometimes we’d turn on the projector to watch nostalgic movies like Finding Nemo.

There was a sea wall built out of boulders. I forgot my shoes constantly and Taran would carry me up on his back so we could watch the sunset, at least until the security guards came by and shouted at us to get down. I set up shop in the laundry room, as it was the only place with air conditioning. When the air got too hot, I brought my laptop in there to work, chatting with all the folks who came in to use the machines.

We laughed and we danced and we explored a new place. We got dirty and stinky and still had unexpected days. We didn’t have the adventure we thought, but we were together and everything was new.

KAVU talks about treating every day like it’s special. It’s so easy to look through life with wonder when you’re on an epic journey. When your day is filled with adrenaline and exploration, every moment feels extraordinary. But that’s not how most of life is. Most of life is made up of “ordinary” days. But why can’t they all be special?

Why can’t every place you go, no matter how seemingly boring or “bleh” be an opportunity to see with wonder? What if the wonder isn't always in the big send or the ski epics or the adrenaline? What if the wonder is in the local girl giving scraps to her cat? What if the wonder is in the green of the palms, the pink of the sky, the algae growing along the sides of the marina? What if the wonder is when he looks at you that way or you make an amazing meal out of nothing or you finally nail a back flip?