Man Overboard!

I've been thinking about this topic for the last several days now and because I am in the dreaded afternoon carpool line, I figured I'd post. So here it goes...

As I was folding some of the never ending laundry I listened to the commotion that was going on downstairs. A majority of the time I completely ignore the ridiculous bickering over who sat by who first, who is being mean to who, or who got the last crumb from the box of donuts sitting on the counter (this was seriously an argument the other day)... I could write a book of the thousands of petty crap our children argue over. But listening today made me wonder, how in the heck we were going to get on a boat and sail without someone going overboard!?! Our children are older so if someone goes overboard it won't be by accident. Don't get me wrong, our children have never physically harmed one another. But I did witness my oldest push his younger brother off the side of the Catalina this past summer. Gabe then grasped the life line and yanked loose the stanchions. 😩

I've been more in tune with their disagreements over these petty issues the past several days and it has me wondering if we can do this without losing our sanity. My husband and I have very little patience when it comes to their arguing. It usually ends in my husband telling the kids to get a broom, mop, shovel, and rake...A microphone slowly decends from the ceiling and I announce "Leeeeeeeeet's get ready to deep cleaaaaaannn!" 😆 But that only fixes it temporarily.

This is something we definitely have to work on to keep someone from going overboard! Fun! 🙄

Learning to Sail

                                      

Although I have been interested in sailing for quite a while (don't ask about my failed boat building attempt), I have only been sailing for a few months. I took my first lessons last June and, planning to take things slowly (ha), I rushed out and bought a used Catalina 22 ('86). Nearly every weekend since I have ended up on the lake sailing.  Although I have learned a lot, I have a lot still to learn. If I guess my skill level, I would but it at competent beginner. I can generally get where I want to go and I have a good idea about when to reef. At the same time, I have (more than I care to admit) forgotten to winch up my swing keel and sat, baffled, wondering why my boat my stopped moving when I got close to the dock. However, there is nothing better than having the breeze in your face and feeling the boat power up as it catches the wind.
                                   

(Really Fast) Rising Tide

Well. . . we have had a one thousand year flood here in Louisiana. It seems like everything has flooded. Luckily, it seems that other than a few roof leaks, we got lucky.  It was really unbelievable to see what that much water can do.  According to the USGS, the level of our local lake rose almost 7 foot in a little over 24 hours.



Our yacht club did not escape as unscathed as we did. Some boats sunk, some floated away, some are washed up on the hard, and many are listing quite a bit.

Again luckily, my boat came out OK.  I keep my Catalina 22 trailed and drop it in the water when I go sailing (I like to lake hop when I can). This helped me miss the rising lake water issue.  I do, however, have a few deck leaks to contend with now. Best I can tell, I'm getting some water through the base of one stanchion and a chain plate.  enough to make me pull all my cushions and gear out until I can get it under control. Good news is I have a large roll of butyl tape that is about to get some use. 

Reading Material

   

We received the first of 5 books I ordered that Charlie will read - I will try to read them. I say try because I tend to get lost after reading a paragraph thinking about something completely unrelated-like what am I going to cook for dinner or what is that stain on the rug and can I get it out, crap now I forgot what I read, let me start over. It is really annoying.

Anyways, the 5 books that came in today are Storm Tactics, Cruising in Seraffyn, and Cost Conscious Cruiser all of these are by Lin and Larry Pardey, The Beach by Alex Garland, Flirting with Mermaids by John Kretschmer, and Bluewater Sailing on a Budget by Captain Jim Elfers. I found these books by lurking on an amazing Facebook page called Sailing and Cruising-if you haven't joined the group but are interested in sailing and/or cruising, you are missing out. I read the reviews on all the books and they were all great, so I ordered them off of eBay...gotta save money where you can!

Heather

The Why and the How

The Why:

Heather mentioned in her last post that I have been bugging her for a while about taking the family on a sailboat.  Obviously, this would be a huge change in our lifestyle (I'm a lawyer, she is a stay at home mom, and we have four children). What she has not asked me directly is why. Yet, why is a good question.

Have you ever had a moment where you looked around and said to yourself "What the hell am I doing? I have--too many times.  I have worked steady since I was 15. Chicken houses, roofing, construction, sales, deputy sheriff, lawyer. Clock in, grind, and clock out. But to what end? For a long time I did it because that is what I thought I was supposed to do. I went to college (and I'm glad I did) because that is what I was supposed to do. Mortgage, cars, furniture, etc, etc. Society says we are supposed to have these things, work your entire adult life to pay for them, retire for a few years, and die.  Why does it have to be that way? That question of why has nagged me for years, always bubbling up to the surface to cause grief.

It doesn't have to be that way. That is the secret. Work is merely a means to an end. The real question is "what is your end?". If your end is acquiring things and dying, then hey, no worries.  That is not my end however. If you don't like the story, then change it. That is what I hope to do. Ultimately, I hope to give my family the experience of a lifetime. I want them to tell their children and their grandchildren all about the time their parents made them live on a boat and sail the world.

The How:

We obviously have a ways to go before we cast off. Lucky for me, Heather is the planner (I have always been a bit more big picture--great on ideas, light of specifics). Together we should be a good team.

Big picture then, I need to focus on two things: money and experience. Money to buy and outfit the right boat and pay for our cruising as long as possible. This money question is made up of a lot of smaller questions, such as "Do we sell our house or rent it out?; and "How long do we want to be on the water?"; and "How much boat can we afford?" or better yet "Can we afford a boat?" We are starting the process of working on those questions now. Those are big questions, but the key is breaking those big questions down into smaller, more manageable questions. The whole "small strokes fell great oaks" thing.

Experience is more straight forward. Sail as much as possible and learn as much as  possible. My boat is relatively small (22 foot Catalina) and I have only sailed on inland lakes. I'm gonna need some big boat experience on large bodies of water. things like safety and sea, navigation, chart reading, and heavy weather sailing are high on my to-do list. (navigating is easy right now--if I run out of lake, I turn around).

Uhm...you want to do what!?

Where do I begin?!?

I married a dreamer. His dream now is to cruise the sea.

Charlie and I met at 19. We were young, naive, inexperienced. Over the last 16 years we've had four children, moved a dozen times, finished college, moved a dozen more times, tackled law school, and have settled into the routine of work, kids, and life.

Law School Graduation We have a wonderful life. But we struggle with just doing the day-to-day. I get up every day and it’s the same: Make coffee, make breakfast, kids to school, laundry(mostly laundry-I'm ALWAYS doing laundry), cleaning, chores, pick up the kids from school (carpool takes roughly 1 hour in the morning and 3 hours in the evening...it sucks), after school activities (each child has one activity but multiply that by 4 and...bleh), cook dinner while keeping kids on task with chores and homework, quality time with the husband, then bed.

So...My husband has talked about sailing for quite some time and for our Anniversary last year I got him sailing lessons. He fell in love and then bought a Catalina 22. Over the last six months or so, he keeps mentioning cruising and sending me large sailboats for sale. He also sends me blogs and sites about other couples or families who sold it all and now live on their boats. At first I dismissed this ridiculous notion that we would sell everything we worked so hard for and sail around the world. I was not on board! We have four children who are in school-one that's about to enter high school. Is he crazy!?!

Charlie and his Catalina 22

After months and months of him talking about it, I decided to dive in and research this insane idea. I thought I would find a million reasons why we shouldn't do this, why we couldn't do this, why it wouldn't work. But guess what? I couldn't find as many as I thought I would. I of course found obstacles, but since when have we ever made decisions in our lives without some obstacles. Never. So what now? Well, I am a planner by nature so now I have to break it all down and figure out how we can make this happen. There are several things to consider...my husband's current job, our children's education, our home, income while we are traveling, and that's pretty much it but these are huge because it will impact our lives tremendously. If my husband loses his job, we are starting over when we return from our adventure and I am not happy about the thought of going back to living pay-check to pay-check, that was not fun. If the children get behind in school, am I doing them a disservice and impacting their lives? Not to mention they would be leaving all of their friends. And how in the world are we going to fund this adventure with no income while we are on the boat? Then there is the house, our “forever home”. How could we sell it or risk losing it? I just want to cry thinking about it.

Honestly, this is all a bit overwhelming and I am not sure it will even happen. But my husband and I are going to fully invest our time in researching this wonderful yet crazy idea! I will keep you posted.

Heather