Tuesday, 10/17/16         Freeport before daybreak...Amelia wanted out(!)

Clearly it is no longer 2015 as is the name of this blog. We're still, after all these years, on a school schedule...or a sailing south schedule...leave in the fall and forget in January that the year has turned. Maybe I'll start Blog #3 in January...or maybe tomorrow for this "going south" on Grace season.

So the "boating south" decision was littered with misunderstandings, guilt, hard work, boat (and land-based house) improvements, hard discussions, new clarity, passivity, assertion, communion, compromise....just about every element of living together in this wonderfully privileged life David and I have.

I was clear since we arrived home in May that I didn't want to be gone from land-based home for 8 months - too long, I loose my community involvement, no way to be creative in the way I most enjoy (dance for those who might not know, or even visual art on occasion), maybe even too much time alone with my sweet husband though I never admitted that out loud until now. And, we'd sort of figured out how to get the boat south without my being on it more than a month this fall. More than the 8 hours I was on board would have been fine, though. The weather delays threw even the possibility of taking Grace south into question. Thus the month of "Maybe. Maybe not." Finally, David was 99% sure we wouldn't take the boat south and we could go another way for a couple months. Maybe.

David struggled with the decision(s). The boat was ready. David is competent and skilled and cautious and the "I've got something to prove" attitude was not present anywhere (phew!). His desire to be on the water was a definite. I was as supportive of whatever decision he made as I could be, not wanting to push a choice which, legitimately, was his. Nervous/anxious as I was about him possibly traveling alone, I was equally anxious about his being unhappy all winter if he didn't sail.

Questions:
(1)  Are we wanting the boat south because it is the cheapest winter vacation in a warm place? Ha. Fact checker would dispute this "cheapest" idea in the long-term, though Grace is a fine home and moorings are $30/night.
(2)  We do want to be out of Maine winters, right?
(3) Are there other ways to be out of Maine winters?
(4) Do we want/need to be gone for four months to "be out of Maine winters"?
(5) Do we have to be traveling all that time?

One of the things I realized was that I don't want to travel all that time. It feels a selfish use, even waste, of my time and talents. What am I contributing to the world when I move around so much? A considered compromise is to travel to a place then stop and volunteer at something for 2-3 weeks, then continue. Post destruction from hurricane Matthew, there might be many opportunities to volunteer.

Learning continues...as does our journey...soloing and coupling.

These photos are from the HYC dock on our departure day 10/11/16. Beautiful, beautiful day.

Sunday, 10/16/16  Freeport, ME and Mystic, CT

Amelia is sleeping in the chair beside me. An un-needed but comforting fire burns in the wood stove. Quiet descends after I turn off "The Moth Radio Hour." David is on Grace in Mystic, CT, on his own. I've spent the entire day here at home except for a walk up to the ridge overlooking the Harraseeket River and our home harbor. Sigh. My first day of rest since David and I motored out of the harbor at 0937 on October 11, traveled to Perkin's Cove and parted ways. My first opportunity to miss him for more than fleeting moments in the mix of attending to responsibilities and joys. How did we get here?!!?

Our parting was amicable, a planned parting, only a day later than expected and way closer to Freeport than we'd expected and hoped. The plan for this year of boating and traveling south had always been that I'd start the journey but return on October 10 to take care of some commitments to my Freeport community. We planned (and tried) to leave in mid-September, as last fall. I'd co-pilot Grace as far as we could get by 10/10 and a friend would join David to continue the journey to...Norfolk or Morehead City or maybe somewhere even farther south. I'd take whatever public transportation available back to Freeport. Then David and friend would come back to Maine before Thanksgiving. We'd spend the early winter holidays here then re-join Grace, wherever she was, and continue on our journey to warmer climes.

This well-laid plan would honor my desire to spend more land time, nurturing and/or developing community ties and my need for creative outlets not available "at sea", and allow us to do some sailing and move the boat south honoring our desires to be out of Maine winter. We were pretty relaxed about the specifics of our leaving plans and the minuscule details of departure timeline/ deadline. Time slipped a little. Maybe we developed "port-itis." And then there were the nor'easters that kept the clouds and wind close and the seas, outside, kicking up. We, David really, continued to upgrade the boat for comfort and safety.

We got dinghy davits and installed them. David raised the mizzen mast 6" so the Bimini cover was high enough for standing head room on the aft deck. Deck lights got repaired. A new speaker for the radio was installed. The freezer box was relocated from front and center to the side of the refrigerator box. Grace was readier than she had ever been, galley was stocked and we were packed..."waiting on a weather window."

And then Hurricane Matthew blew up! We'd been watching this forming possibility since it was "97L" out in the Atlantic between Africa and South America. We followed the computer models daily, then several times each day, then hourly. When al the models agreed that "he" was not likely to come past NC we wondered, shall we start out? "Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe. Maybe not." We quoted an audience participation line in Freeport Players version of the Complete Works of Wm. Shakespeare (Abridged) that we saw several times.

The story continue....tomorrow or next day.