It has now been one year since we set sail in SEGWUN from Rock Hall, Maryland. And on November 1st, we marked the one-year anniversary of when Jens and I started living together. What a year it has been. 4,300 nautical miles of sailing and 12 countries visited. We talked about what the highlights of the year were and as we are both always focused on the positive, we didn’t dwell on what the low lights were. But maybe I will come to that later.
In October of last year we were two very independent people,
living alone and working long hours and most weekends. I was living in Istanbul and traveling almost
every week. I think I was probably home
about six nights out of the month. Jens
was working in Iran, getting to know the staff, the customers and the customs
and language of the country. He was at
work before everyone else had arrived as was his usual modus operandi; and
often was the last one out at night.
Well, that was until his new boss Ashutosh arrived. Then it was a bit of a competition as to who
would be the first to arrive at the office in the morning. Anyhow, I think you get the picture. Work was important to both of us. Our schedules were quite full with business
meetings, travel and deadlines.
Then, even though we had given a six-month notice, it seemed
that suddenly we were planning our lives for ourselves. We had already bought the sailboat, done the
preplanning and preparations, and had reached the moment when the “rubber meets
the road”. We had never spent more than
four weeks in each other’s company before.
And in reflection, we realized that much of that time we actually spent
talking about business. What a quick and
sudden change was about to happen.
Luckily, we had a new adventure to talk about. I had a lot to learn about sailing and
“living aboard”. Jens had never owned
such a large sailboat with so many “gadgets” and he had lots to learn about the
equipment on board. In fact, he had two
huge binders of Users Manuals to read through on top of getting to know how the
boat moves and reacts to winds and waves.
So, suffice it to say, we had a lot on our minds, a lot to discuss and a
lot to keep us busy. So much so that we didn’t have too much time to think about
the work we had left behind.
The adjustment to living together was surprisingly easy. It has been a joy to be together and despite
all the well-intentioned warnings, we have not had any moments when we didn’t
know in our hearts that we had done the right thing. I’ll get a little mushy now and tell you that
we still delight in the fact that we can start every day together and finish
every day together.
So, back to our year of Highlights. Best to try to narrow it down to our TOP 5. In no particular order, this is Jens’ list:
1.
Seeing the humpback whale breach and splash down
about a boat’s length away from us.
2.
Meeting up with friends and family during our
sailing trip.
3.
Crossing the Panama Canal
4.
Doing the trek to Ciudad Perdida in Columbia
5.
Breaking the toilet during our crossing to
Puerto Rico.
My TOP 5 are:
1.
Doing the trek to Ciudad Perdida in Columbia
2.
Having Eric and Liz on board and meeting up with
family and friends in BVI, Curacao and Panama.
3.
Traveling down the Intra Coastal Waterway (ICW)
in the US.
4.
Changing our plans and getting to visit Sweden
and Denmark and spend a couple of months at the cottage in Canada.
5.
Getting to the Pacific Ocean.
If
you have been reading our blog, you probably get the Top 5. However, I have been criticized for not
talking about any of the negatives. So,
let me try to put together the Lowlights for Jens and I.
Now
of course, it is difficult to be away from family for such a long period of
time, and it is a challenge to stay connected with intermittent email and phone
calls. And even when you can make a
phone call, it sometimes makes me even more homesick and lonely for my dear
family. But that was a given when we
decided to go on this journey. So I
don’t count that as a lowlight. But what
was more unexpected for me was the challenge of being confined to a small
space. I relish my freedom and growing
up in Canada, I am used to a lot of unencumbered outdoor space. By that I mean if you want to go for a walk
at any time of the day or night, you just open the door and go. There is nothing stopping you from finding a
quiet street, a small forest or riverside to walk along. Living on a boat means you have to first get
to shore if you are at anchor or if you are in a marina in a strange country,
you need to be aware of your surroundings and take that into consideration. If you are out to sea, don’t even think about
it.
As
for Jens, he really has no lowlights.
This has been his dream for so many years. I see the contentment in his face every day,
especially when he is at the helm. He is
just happy to be gazing out at sea with wind in the sails and waves slapping
against the hull. I understand that,
because I feel the same way when I am sitting on the deck at Wildwood gazing
out into the forest, enjoying the sights and sounds of nature.
We
have had our share of challenges during the past year. We always compare notes with other sailors
and I think overall, we have been quite fortunate. Considering we bought a 19-year-old boat, she
has done us well.
Jens
has learned not to worry about so many things and although he still doesn’t
like when things break down, he has learned to take it all in stride. Generally, we have learned a lot along the
way, about each other, about ourselves and about traveling in a sailboat. It’s
been a very good year.
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