My family and I live on
our sailboat. It is a 50’ Shannon Sailing Ketch. It will be 12
years this March since we moved on board. How and why? I met my husband to be
in New York City. We had met when he wrote some software for a company I was
working for in Boston. I thought immediately “Yeah right he is so not my type!”
but when you move to a new city particularly the Big Apple, you call everyone you
have in your contacts list. By the time, he sweet talked me into working at his
company, dating him and moving in with him, I was thinking “ok so he is my type
– who knew?” I felt it imperative to be honest about how I saw my future and
told him that I really wanted to get married and have kids. He said well that’s
fine if we sail around the world. I laughed and totally agreed. Really …like we
would ever do that – hah or so I thought.
He told me later that he thought he could talk me out of kids. Fortunately,
we both fell in love with each other’s dreams. We spent our honeymoon sailing
around the Windward Islands in the Caribbean and despite a terrible tendency to
get seasick, I loved it.
On coral spotting duty in French Polynesia |
We sold our house in the
spring of 2001 and moved on board our amazing sailboat with our 3 year son. We
got rid of everything and kept only the essentials and store some boxes with
our family. My husband quit his job to prepare the boat and I worked up until
the week before we left Seattle. We sailed out of the sound and waited at the
edge for a weather window to go south. And off we went and spent 6 years
sailing around the Pacific….
The Captain and his Son |
I am working on a book
about our adventures – mostly for other folks who might want to go sailing particularly
with kids. I was scared silly about all the wrong things before I left. Homeschooling
was a huge worry but I found a program with over a hundred years of experience
and they sent me a huge package with everything I needed and daily instructions
on what to do. It was great! I had a cabinet full of arts & crafts supplies
and boxes of pictures books. Jonah became a committed reader although we did
have a small TV and VCR. We eventually switched to DVD’s because tape grows
mold in the tropics and DVD’s take less space. I had a ton of kid educational
software and he would spend hours on the laptop with Reader Rabbit and other
programs like that till he progressed to PC games (mostly RTS games) when he
was older.
The biggest challenge
was standing watch when we were sailing somewhere. Obviously someone always has
to be on watch and when you are only two people – it can be a grind. During the
day, we had a sort of relaxed schedule but at night we went to a 4 or 3 hour
shift depending on conditions. I seemed
to end up with the graveyard shift a lot and I loved that transition from pitch
black to a rosy dawn. Night shifts are hard particularly if the only sound is
the wind, the waves and the distant snoring of my husband. We bought an egg
timer finally and would just set it to 15 min so at least when the inevitable
head drooping would occur – we would be woken up. On longer passages, I would
eventually find a rhythm to the days but on short passages it was hard. The
first night was always cruel – sort of like the first mile of running. I just
wanted to go to sleep. When the weather was frisky, it was easier because I would
actually be doing things like adjusting sails or course but in calm weather
with a steady breeze – there is nothing much to do. Obviously we have an auto
pilot but occasionally I would turn it off just to have something to do.
Under way in frisky seas |
I love watching the phosphorescence
trail that our boat would leave. The best was standing watch on still nights
with no moon and the entire sky would be reflected in the ocean and it was like
sailing in the sky. The rising moon is amazing at sea. There you are in the
dark and suddenly you look forward and you see a blaze of light on the horizon.
My eyes would be acclimated to the dark and I couldn’t make out the shape. I
was always convinced it was a cargo ship. Once I woke my husband up because I
couldn’t find the damn ship on the radar. I was teased for a long time. In the
Coral Sea, I was both amazed and terrified as squalls surrounded us and the
skies lit with cloud lightning and thunder. My husband went to sleep and told
me to wake him if they got close.
A long passage was
exhausting because when the boat moves you are tensing and balancing. And the
boat is always is moving. Our boat is pretty big and heavy so it has a fairly
gentle motion even in the worst weather.
I have a memory of my son at 5 standing on the high side of the boat
down in the boat and sliding across the floor to the low side in his socks
giggling like mad and then trying to scramble back to do it again.
Leaving BudiBudi and heading out on passage |
Thank-you Lego for keeping him busy! |
My seasickness
vulnerability improved a great deal but I occasionally would be hit and my
husband would just put me to bed and tell me to sleep and he would pull solo
duty. I had good medicine and I could usually be back on watch in a 3 or 4
hours. My son would get seasick in storms and rough weather – I would give him
a big bowl and he was very good about it. I had anti-emetic suppositories if the
seasickness got severe. My husband could not safely single hand in every
situation and I could get myself on deck in full weather gear with harness with
that medicine in around 15 minutes. I got the anti-emetics meds after one
passage where we got to port with my son showing early signs of severe
dehydration. Let me tell – rough seas, the slight smell of vomit and trying to
hold down a sick kid - yuck. But 15 minutes later, he would be ok and chatting
like nothing. It’s weird though when he got sick, I rarely did because I had to
take care of him. I would make my husband empty the bowl.
We had scuba tanks and a
compressor on board and did a lot of dives on our trip. Sometimes with other
folks we met or on our own. I generally like someone on the surface for
emergencies but if you dive conservatively and safely, it’s pretty good. I
could write a book about the diving and snorkeling. I lacked an underwater
camera but wow- did I see AMAZING things. We would leave Jonah with sailing
friends. We would always take him
snorkeling. When he was 4 and 5 I would put him in a swimming ring and tie a
rope to it and he had a little mask and I would tow him. By the time he was 6,
he was a little sea monkey and could free dive to 25 feet no problem. He was very observant of proper underwater behavior
– no touching the coral or the fish. I think the time my husband caught a
Surgeon fish in his hands was a good lesson. Oh yes that surgeon cut his hands
up pretty good. He had never really
thought thru why they are called Surgeon Fish. I let my son get close and wave at
the Christmas tree worms because it is fun to see them all retract. I carried a
stick that I called my shark stick – just a broom handle with a pokey dull
screw at the end that I felt helped enforce personal space. I never really
needed it and my husband ended up calling it my giant clam poker because I would
wave it at Giant Clams and they would slam shut. Harmless fun.
Off on a dive! |
I would say my life was
pretty active but when you are in the tropics you really don’t move that fast
between 10 am and 3pm – so I was often not active because it was too hot or I was
in the water. The temp was usually in
the high 90’s but the sun is just fiercely strong. Occasionally we would have
to go do something during the mid day and we would hum “mad dogs and Englishmen
go out in the midday sun.” All the locals were inside or in the shade
naturally. The only reason to wear clothes was to keep the sun off you and to
keep your butt dry. All I can say is
that adults can get diaper rash – avoid this all costs. My son spent his
childhood in shorts and maybe a swim shirt. He developed a fascination with
socks because he didn’t get to wear them that much. I would buy him tiny speedo
racing trunks because they dried fast - who knew I was preparing him to be a competitive
swimmer!
At Anchor in the Lousiades |
I developed a fairly
conservative wardrobe – long skirts and dresses. Legs are sort of tabu in many
places – certainly shorts or pants on women are considered an exotic site. I
actually found a long skirt or dress cooler then shorts and protected me from
the sun. I always had a paeru or wrap if I swam wear local people were hanging
out. In some areas, we visited woman swam but in their skirts! Even in outer
areas in Papua New Guinea – women would wear long grass skirts and no top
although they would go change into a t-shirt when the western people showed up.
Buying baskets in the Marshall Islands |
The other major workout
would be provisioning the boat – hauling food supplies in the heat – wow a
total body workout. I actually developed tennis elbow in Mexico provisioning
the boat. We walked a lot - we didn’t carry bicycles and you might be somewhere
that has taxis or buses but you might not. I found I eat a lot less in the heat.
Certainly we had to be aware if we were far from resupply and we would eat moderate
amounts.
Now – we have swallowed
the anchor – which means we are at a marina and not going anywhere but working
and saving our pennies to be able to leave again before we are too old! We do
get to sail to Catalina for weekends and we call it our weekend house even
though it’s really our weekend anchorage. During the school year, we are stuck
just like all other parents are in the grind of school activities and sports.
But thankfully at night, tucked in our berths with the boat gently rocking,
everything feels the same and during the day, when I do yoga on the dock, a
dolphin might surface near me or a ray will skim the surface and I am glad I am
still connected to the ocean.
Beach time! |
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