prepare for departure... susan

From where I stand I can see the “event” is imminent! My land house is no longer my house, I go to the post office to retrieve my forwarded mail, and every action seems to point to concluding unfinished business. Tension is mounting inside of me. Will I be able-bodied crew? How will it feel to be out in the ocean with no land in sight when the wind whips up and the lightening splinters the sky driving icy water against my face? Our dock neighbors continue to show interest in our adventure and question us as to our date of departure and assume that we are taking the coastal southern route. It seems all of our counterparts who have gone South for the winter have taken the coastal route. There is little encouragement and not much support for the offshore route. In listening to the dialogue I can see advantages for each. By starting straight off with a 5-6 day off shore trip, we will be pressed into action to maintain watches and to set up a rhythm for handling wind, weather and the ever-feared Gulf Stream! Following one of those conversations I felt compelled to check in with Dan to see if he feels our plans are on target. We discussed our intention and continue to feel we are prepared to head straightaway to Bermuda.

Last year as we were planning our “to do” list we thought we may be able to get to Maine to visit my cousin and his family. The Sabre factory is in Maine so I called to find out the hours for tours etc. We never made it to Maine but when I called it was suggested that by giving the hull number I would be able to update the ownership of our vessel. It took me until just this past week to call back with the needed information! And I am glad I did. It felt like I was calling family. We have been very happy with Gypsy and we have made some modifications to her to meet our cruising needs. Tucker Thompson who took my call asked if there was a way the associates at Sabre could follow our progress so I shared this blog address. We have been in the bilge and in the most remote crevasses of Gypsy and continue to be impressed with the quality of workmanship. It seems apparent that the folks at Sabre care about their fleet.

Provisioning has turned out to be more difficult than I ever could have imagined.
Being someone who cooks primarily with fresh foods, finding ingredients that require little preparation and easy storing is a challenge. I organized and reorganized to fit things in to accessible locations. The biggest challenge came when Dan set the level and pointed out that Gypsy is listing to port. Back to the drawing board!

Counting beans and good fortune – dan

We started the day with a flood. You might say that things could only go up from there but given the extreme state of the tide, we were hoping for the contrary. The water was axel deep in half the marina’s parking lot. Thankfully we parked in the other half, some poor folks were not so fortunate. So there’s gratitude in our good fortune there.

We’re also grateful for our new space heater that we bought last night. It’s been getting awfully cold and raw in New England and thankfully Susan proposed that we breakdown and end our suffering by splurging on a space heater. The inside of the boat has been hovering around 45°F these last few nights burrrrrrrr. Good for snuggling though. There’s something very special and even primordial about body heat, precious as gold, that is shared out for mutual benefit. It felt like cheating when we considered getting a heater because we’ve been proudly living exclusively off energy generated by our solar panels ever since we installed them and as good as they are, they can’t support a space heater. There comes a time when thoughts like that go right out the window and for us that time happened yesterday afternoon in the middle of a nor’easter that was cold, damp and shaking our boat like an angry child. It was then that our will snapped like a thin icicle and our pride melted like a last year’s New Year’s resolution. It was snowing when we picked up the heater. We rushed home with our electric wonder and were delighted as the temperature in our cabin leveled out at a balmy (to us) 61°. Grateful again for simple things.

Beans, we’ve got them, lots of them; baked beans, black beans, lentils and more. We’ve been counting them and stowing them along with all the other food in our effort to provision Gypsy for the journey ahead. How much will we need? Nobody knows for sure, we’re making our best guess and trust that we’ll be close enough. The sure thing is we won’t starve on this trip. Worst thing that could happen is that we’ll end up eating a lot of chickpeas. The process goes like this:

Chick Peas, 14 cans located in aft cabin, side berth cubby #3

Canned Soup, 24 cans located in aft cabin, side berth cubby #1

Apple Sauce, 4 cans, located in aft-cabin, side berth cubby #4

Tofu, 12 boxes, located in aft-cabin, side berth #2

Oyster Crackers, 2 packages, located in aft-cabin, side berth cubby #4….

And the list goes on. We had to break off provisioning today at noon in order to get our wills and health care directives (living wills) notarized. That’s proven to be more of a challenge that I would ever have imagined. We both did our own wills with templates that we got on-line. That proved to be the easy part. Next we had to get them notarized. Two different notaries told us that we had to go to probate court to have it done. New London Probate Court told us that they don’t notarize wills and Stonington Probate sounded like they do them sometimes but told us try another court. Susan finally called her attorney to see if he could help us and thankfully he agreed to see us right away.

Wills and health care directives are things that we, like a lot of people put off until, well, until just before some potential life challenging event like an around-the-world sailing trip. Thank goodness that Attorney Blaccini agreed to help us out. He did have a little problem with the part where he has to determine if we are of “sound mind”. He joked about how sound could we be - walking away from our jobs, our careers, homes and friends to sail to some of the wilder spots on our planet. Extremely sound and sane I say, but when is the subject ever considered a credible witness in an assessment of one’s own sanity? Being an adventurer himself (he circumnavigated Manhattan in a kayak) Attorney Blaccini seemed to show a very genuine interest and enthusiasm in our upcoming adventure and we were very grateful to him seeing us on such short notice and being so generous with his time. We’ve been the beneficiaries of a lot of that kind of enthusiasm and support lately. It’s a heart expanding experience every time it happens.

An interesting thing happened to me on my drive back from New Haven. We’ve been rushing around like crazy; trying to complete all the last minute things we need to do before we leave, not having the luxury to enjoy “living in the moment” as we usually do. I had the GPS on to help navigate out of New Haven and hadn’t bothered to shut it off when I got on the highway. At one point I noticed that the unit had zoomed itself all the way out to its maximum range giving me a satellite view of North America with the crazy little icon that represented my car bouncing madly along. It made me see just how small I am and all my seemingly important tasks really are tiny in comparison to the big picture. At that moment a calm came over me and I felt that we’d have enough; enough beans and enough time to stow them all.

Middle of October - dan

Clouds pass swiftly

through the autumn sky.

Like emotions

when feelings run strong.

On Saturday we had a wonderful evening with our friends - the Hills’. Ostensibly it was a birthday dinner for Tom & Susan. It was also another tender step in our long good by. Sunday followed with a visit from the McDermott’s, Susan’s cousins who were delightful boat guests. Tim left in the evening as he had to work the next day but Marion, Laura and Caroline had a sleepover!

In spite of our enhanced social calendar we managed to empty the last of the crates that have been lining the dock next to Gypsy these last few weeks. Of course emptying the crates was the easy part; it was the cataloging and storing the contents that was a real challenge. That was a big task and I’m feeling very relieved to have that behind us. Our next challenge is provisioning which we have just begun.

Our most excellent canvas worker stopped by today to take the first pattern for our set of cockpit side curtains. It’s amazing to me how Jim is able to transform something as supple and shapeless as fabric into a strong and functional part of our boat. Not only that, the end product looks great! The new side curtains along with our dodger, bimini and connector should provide wonderful relief from the strong sun and rain in the tropics. As I type this, the temperature inside Gypsy is 48°F and the thought of tropical heat is so alluring that it almost seems an illusion, but it’s not. Soon….

Thich Nhat Hahn – dan

Thich Nhat Hahn wrote one of the most moving poems that I have ever read. I’ve been thinking a lot about him since we saw him in NYC last Friday. Here’s that poem:

Will Say I Want It All

If you ask how much do I want,

I'll tell you that I want it all.

This morning, you and I

and all men

are flowing into the marvelous stream

of oneness.

Small pieces of imagination as we are,

we have come a long way to find ourselves

and for ourselves, in the dark, the illusion of emancipation.

This morning, my brother is back from his long adventure.

He kneels before the altar,

his eyes full of tears.

His soul is longing for a shore to set anchor at

(a yearning I once had).

Let him kneel there and weep.

Let him cry his heart out.

Let him have his refuge there for a thousand years,

enough to dry all his tears.

One night, I will come

and set fire to his shelter, the small cottage on the hill.

My fire will destroy everything

and remove his only life raft after a shipwreck.

In the utmost anguish of his soul,

the shell will break.

The light of the burning hut will witness

his glorious deliverance.

I will wait for him

beside the burning cottage.

Tears will run down my cheeks.

I will be there to contemplate his new being.

And as I hold his hands in mine

and ask him how much he wants,

he will smile and say that he wants it all—just as I did.

--Thich Nhat Hahn, 1954.

Thich Nhat Han in NYC – dan

On Friday, after a half-day of sorting and loading gear onto Gypsy we took the train to New York to see Thich Nhat Han. It was hard to pull ourselves from our task but it proved a worthy diversion. Thich’s dharma talk was inspiring and the trip, like all trips to NYC was exciting. A couple blocks from Grand Central station we walked by this beautiful park on 42^nd street.

Further uptown we skirted Central park.

At Columbus Circle we walked under a giant globe which made me think about our upcoming journey; doesn’t look that big”. It’s all in the perspective I suppose; you just have to zoom out a bit to make those big things look not so overwhelming.

The whole day turned out to be an inspiring and surreal experience. The juxtaposition of the peaceful Buddhist monk in the rancorous city was quite thought provoking. It was also quite fitting given Thich’s message that “We are all one, leaves from the same tree, waves in the same ocean”. After the dharma talk one of the nuns traveling with Thich mentioned that he’s 83 years old. You could have fooled me; he seemed much younger in appearance and energy. I wondered where the next generation of Buddhist world leaders will come from given that the Dalai Lama is approaching 75. Who will match these great spiritual leaders in strength of character and possess such fierce conviction in the propagation of peace?

On our walk back to the train station Susan suggested that we swing through Times Square and the place was hopping even after ten o’clock at night. It wasn’t until 2:30am that we were finally home again, snug in our bunk, making for a long and exciting day.

The third house – dan

The third and last of our houses sold yesterday leaving us free as birds. This is a major milestone on our journey, bigger that anything we’ve done so far. By all reports the closing on Susan’s home went as smoothly as those things go thanks to guidance of Susan’s realtor Gayle and a huge amount of support from her neighbor Barbara. It was a huge task to prepare three homes for market, sell them in a down market and then empty them of furniture and all the other stuff we fill our homes with. We’re still trying to find places for all the things that we brought from home; boxes of clothing, food and kitchen things, sports equipment, more spare parts and one violin.

Fall in New England – dan

It’s a magical time in the land of steady habits. The time when leaves go psychedelic and the people start mixing summer clothes with winter things; sandals, shorts and a jacket are not an unusual ensemble. Susan and I both have more clothes then Gypsy has room for so today we took a serious look at our wardrobes, pondering what to take and what to leave behind. We’ll need some warm things for the start of our trip when it could be wet as well as cold. After that it will be all shorts & sandals until we reach New Zealand although a light jacket or fleece might come in handy in the highlands of Guatemala. It’s interesting to see what has been making the cut and what’s being left behind. One thing I noticed during this process is that I have more underwear than Susan but I must admit, hers are much more interesting. Quantity never trumps quality.

We ordered a bunch of spare parts last week and good old Spicer’s Marina really did well by us, shaving a thousand dollars off the discount marine price for a backup autopilot. I got a call from Mystic Stainless that our security grates are ready; I’m excited to see how they came out. We’re still waiting for our canvas worker to finish up the last few jobs for us. Susan’s house closes this Tuesday and we still have tons of stuff to move onto the boat. Right now it’s all in boxes along our dock.

Our friends on Right’s of Man are considering joining the NARC Rally (North American Rally to the Caribbean) and asked us if we wanted to join too. Although we can see that the rally offers some benefits we’re not really the cruise-in-mass type of people. We had been planning on buddy boating with them to Bermuda but if they end up joining NARC we’ll wish them the best of luck and hope to see them in Bermuda.

Our target date for departure has been November 1^st but we’ll actually be watching the weather very closely starting October 25^th and leave with the first good weather window after that date. Several friends have expressed interest on seeing us off on the date of our departure but we don’t think that is a good idea. Actually the vision of us departing with a group of close friends waving bon voyage from the dock in very beautiful but the reality is that we need to be ready to leave on such short notice we won’t be able to wait for well wishers. So dear friends, feel free to stop by the marina any time during the next couple of weeks or if you’re more adventurous, meet us in Bermuda.

27 days...till November 1st, 21 days till October 25th our earliest possible departure date...