I’m lying outside on a 40′ catermeran, staring up at a midnight overcast gray sky. The full moon fades in and out of view, its light illuminating the cracks of the clouds, creating a heavenly landscape of rivers and lakes above me. The gentle Australian breeze whispers by as the boat drifts back and forth with the light rocking of a calm ocean.

The captian, couchsurfing host John Naylor, and fellow couchsurfer, Jackie from Germany, have gone to sleep in their their cabins. I decide to lay out here on the deck just a little longer to think about the day.

A person I had only emailed a few days prior invited me on to his boat as a member of the couchsurfing community, a global network of travelers looking for friendly local places to stay for a little while and good company to share. Sometimes you sleep on a couch, other times a bed, this time it was the aft cabin on the port side pontoon of a catermeran.

The three of us had spent the day sailing, snorkling, and chatting in the Great Barrier Reef islands of the Whitsundays. As the day passed and the evening progressed upon us the smells from cooking a delicious seafood curry filled the air of the cabin, a bottle of wine was opened and more stories and thoughts were shared. With dinner finished we moved out to the deck onto matresses to finish off the wine as we layed under the brilliantly glowing full moon. We talked the night away until our body’s call for sleep could be ignored no more.

I stave mine off to enjoy the peaceful serendipity of it all just a little longer. However, soon I too can wait no more and get up to head down to my cabin. It’s just then I remember something Jackie told me today and smile, “Tomorrow is a mystery, yesterday is history, but today friends, is a present, which is why they called it so.”