11 July 2015 - Port Dickson, Malaysia

The first time I met Nicole at the ‘Dining in the Dark’ restaurant in Kuala Lumpur (KL) in 2013, I was very impressed by her. She was one of the servers at the restaurant. (I later learned that she was instrumental in setting up & managing the restaurant.) The whole experience of eating an entire meal in total darkness really changed my perception of how challenging it is for blind people to navigate our world. And talking to Nicole throughout my meal changed my perception of blind people. Nicole doesn’t let blindness stop her from doing as much (or more!) than sighted people.

Bruce was lucky enough to meet Nicole on our next visa run to KL together, & this time we got her contact info, because we both wanted to stay in touch.

So when we emailed to tell Nicole that we’d be sailing down the coast of Malaysia, & that we’d like to take her sailing, she was enthusiastic about the idea. Thus, on a bright, sunny Saturday, Nicole drove with her parents a couple of hours from Kuala Lumpur to Port Dickson, where Migration was in a marina to facilitate getting them all aboard. Although Port Dickson isn’t a very pretty area (a bit industrial) we were lucky to have a very pleasant sailing day, with just enough wind to sail, but not too much.

I showed Nicole all around the boat as we sailed away from the marina. She already had some knowledge of the functioning of a sailboat as well as some of the terms & lingo because her friend David (also blind) has done some sailing. She was so curious about everything! Nicole was able to see when she was a child, so that made it a bit easier to explain things to her. Since she knows colors & still has some inner visuals of the world as we know it, she was quick to understand what I told her.

As we explored the boat, she asked lots of questions. When we got to the trampolines, Nicole was very brave & sat on the net for a long time. Bruce & I later commented to each other that it must’ve been quite scary for her to be on the net, especially since she cannot swim (she has taken lessons, but still hasn’t mastered swimming). Being suspended over the water like that is a bit dodgy even for people who can see what they’re sitting on. Many sighted people won’t even go on the tramps, so Nicole is quite courageous!

All of us sat on the bow for a long time as we sailed. Nicole said she liked the motion of the boat & the feel of the wind. Nicole speaks excellent English; however, her parents speak very little. They communicate in Chinese. With every adjustment of the sails or other activity, Nicole’s mother explained to her in Chinese what Bruce & I were doing, then Nicole translated back to me in English what her mother said. At one point, Nicole told me that her mother said, “there is so much trash in the water!” Nicole asked me what sort of trash, so I told her what I was seeing as things went by: “there’s a plastic bottle, a plastic bag, part of a flip-flop, a piece of styrofoam, another plastic bag, a candy wrapper, a plastic cup, etc. etc.” Since they are so rarely on the ocean, the whole family was shocked to see how much plastic trash is in the water. This little exchange made me realize how many millions of people never see the ocean & therefore don’t realize that the plastic bottle or candy wrapper they throw on the ground ends up in the ocean. I think seeing this really made an impression on all of them. (Nicole often refers to “seeing” things herself, so I don’t mind doing the same on her behalf!)

We had lunch while we sailed, but since we hadn’t provisioned for a while, we didn’t have too many options to offer. Nicole was elated with the tuna sandwiches we made, commenting more than once how much she loves sandwiches, but her parents weren’t so sure about this strange fare, since it is so different from the Chinese cuisine they usually eat.

Nicole’s father found his home behind the helm & steered the whole way back. Once he got the hang of not over-steering, he was having a great time, standing at attention like a proper boat captain, grinning from ear to ear.

After the boat was docked again, Nicole asked if they could take us somewhere, since they had a car. As it was clear that we didn’t have very much fresh food aboard, we requested to go to a supermarket, so we all squished in & drove to the nearby town of Port Dickson, where we shopped at the Billion.

I’m so glad we were able to share a day of our life with Nicole & her family. Nicole is such an inspiration to me — her thought-provoking & wonderfully expressive emails are full of the busyness of her life: doing voiceovers, editing magazine articles, helping people in Costa Rica learn English via Skype, playing piano at a friend’s wedding (she also played the piano as dinner entertainment at Dining in the Dark), playing violin, continuing to help with the management of the Dining in the Dark restaurant, traveling to England to visit a friend, and on and on. She doesn’t allow blindness to interfere with her life, & that’s a good lesson for us all.

says ADR