It has been a year since we moved onto our boat with the grand (insane?) plan of chasing a slower, lower stress lifestyle while traveling to parts of the world that most people just read about. So I thought it would be put some words to the experiences of how the “Plan” met with Reality and how it didn’t.

The scary stuff first. Things that caused me to seriously question if this was the right choice:

1) When Flying Dragon then a day later, Iggy’s boat went up on the beach. Iggy’s boat was destroyed and Flying Dragon has months of repairs in front of her to be made seaworthy again.
2) The gale in the Straits of Juan de Fuca with 45 knot winds and 12 – 14 foot seas so close together the next one was coming over the bow before the last one had cleared the deck
3) Having the head crack 25 miles west and 70 miles north of Brookings, Oregon in stormy weather which meant sailing into Brookings where the Coast Guard met us to tow us in.
4) Brutal seasickness after leaving Brookings that took me down for the better part of two days that I remember
5) Being separated from my kids for months at a time

The Highlights in a somewhat random order:

1) Seeing Chatterbox Falls and Desolation Sound
2) Seeing the 7500 year old cave paintings outside of Muelhe, along with the 30 kilometer endurance drive there and back
3) Whales only 100 yards and less away from the boat
4) Dolphins playing off the bow, three deep at times
5) The Green Flash
6) Sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge
7) Mid-watch when the heavens are so clear you could reach out and touch them
Getting to see the beauty of Sunrises and Sunsets without the pressure of having to be here or there
9) The Jungle Tour out of San Blas where we saw more bird species than we could count and 5 meter crocodiles hanging out on the beach
10) The church in San Blas where Henry Longfellow wrote his last poem “The Bells of San Blas”
11) Snorkeling with sea lions up close and personal
12) Driving on a motorcycle from Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas down the spine of the Baja peninsula
13) Sitting on the beach after the Bandearus Bay Regatta watching the sun set over an amazing beach and the stars coming out against a velvet black sky, our friends around us, the cares of the world banished from the day.

But most important are the amazing friends we have found in this community of Sea Gypsies who travel from anchorage to anchorage; country to country; crossing oceans like some folks cross town. There is no way I can name all the people that have and continue to mean so much to us. But I will note a few:

Gary Peterson, who, even before we were in Brookings was already coordinating the location and delivery of a new head for our engine, after not a week before, driving a new drive plate from Everett to Port Angles for us.

Doug Lombard, who we met by chance at the Pacific Northwest Cruisers Party and on a whim, came with us all the way to San Diego. Without his knowledge, guidance and determination to make our trip a positive memory we would have a much different and surely not so favorable outcome.

Our crew of Carol, Gina, Karl, Jenny and Carlos. Each have played full out and even when things didn’t look so good and had faith that we would keep them safe as well has give them experiences of a lifetime.

Things I have learned

1) Cruising is work. Boats are a constant maintenance project; sometimes fun, sometimes not but after a year of this, I believe cruisers work harder than most folks that have a job.
2) I am not always right. Learning to hear others, especially my Co-Captain and soul mate, Kelly, is critical. I am still pretty challenged at doing this successfully but at least I am listening now.
3) Courage – long term cruisers are some of the most courageous people I know. Where else can you do everything right, take every precaution and still risk losing everything including your life and those you love every time you leave the dock?
4) To truly live means to experience all of life; the good and the bad, unfiltered, unregulated, no safety nets other than what you create. I couldn’t get that in the corporate world, nor could I find it in the community I lived, where responsibility has been handed off to the others, namely the government, to protect us everything, including ourselves; and when something goes wrong it is always someone else’s fault. In this community each of individually is responsible for their actions. We are held accountable not in a court but by Mother Nature herself.
5) Friendship – not the type so common in the corporate world where you are my “friend” as long as you or your skills benefit me, but rather true friendship. The kind where you sail for 3 hours to help jumpstart a boat (thank you again Gary). Or run your dingy into the surf to get a line to a stranded boat (thanks to the powers that be that the crew from Fantasia was okay when they flipped there dingy doing this). There is no doubt in my mind my friends in this community have my back with no thought of what is in it for them no matter what, as I have theirs.