Sea Sickness

Yeah...I get sea sick.

Luckily there are two things that help me through it: Herby is very understanding, and I know the cause. The problem is, sometimes the cause can't be avoided. When the waves are even slightly choppy, I can't go down into the cabin for more than about one minute without running back out and adjusting my breathing so as not to puke all over the place. It's definitely a handicap when it's raining...or night time. I've tried taking Bonine, which supposedly makes people less drowsy than Dramamine, but I was a useless blob for an entire day after taking it. True, I wasn't throwing up, but I also wasn't any sort of help whatsoever. It just wasn't worth it.

I know that if I stay outside, I'll be completely fine. The problem is, the cozy bed, the food, and the bathroom are all inside. It's not the most comfortable situation, but so far, it's been worth it. Herby fetches food for me when I'm hungry. He built a middle insert in the cockpit so that we could sleep outside during rough nights. I even got these rubber tubes to help me pee over the side so that I don't have to go down into the cabin every couple hours to relieve myself. It's a handicap for sure while sailing long distances, but honestly, I view it as completely worth it.

Sometimes I casually throw up over the side or into a plastic bag, but at least I'm cognitively present when we need to reef or drop a sail. So far on this trip, we've made an effort to always anchor in protected waters, but it won't be like that in the ocean. I sincerely hope that the rumors about adjusting to the rolling waves after a few days at sea are true, but if they're not, I know I'll be able to sleep outside and have an understanding husband who will cook and grab me snacks.

The Importance of a Dry Run

It may seem boring for us to spend the first three months of our journey in the Chesapeake bay, but there's a very important reason that we are doing so.  We needed a dry run.  It's helping us figure out the important things before we cross an ocean, so that we know that when we do set out, we are as prepared as we can possibly be.  I have only gone on one sailing journey in which I actually helped sail and it was two years ago.  It was extremely important for me to have this time in the Chesapeake to relearn all the skills that have been laying dormant for the past two years.  I am also gaining practice with things that I didn't even learn the first time around such as attaching hank on sails and putting in a triple reef.  As I do these things for the first time, I'm not only learning how to do them, but I'm also gaining a better idea of how the boat works as a whole.  This knowledge then helps me control it more effectively when we are at sea.

Besides the technical knowledge, however, this trial run has also given us important practice with things like rowing to shore and provisioning. We have learned how much fruit we consume in a week versus how long it will remain edible and we have also learned that we suck at keeping our garden alive while detached from shore hoses. Along those lines, we have also gained an understanding of how much water we tend to use in a given week, allowing us to ration appropriately when showering and doing dishes. 

That brings us to our rain water collected. We have had plenty of weather while away so far, which has shown us that we can collect more than 60 gallons of rain water in a single down poor. We learned the hard way that we can't sit on our flexible solar panels, but we were able to replace them with new ones within a couple of days since we were still in Easton, Maryland. It is far better that we figure these things out while still in familiar territory rather than discovering that something isn't working the way we had planned in the middle of our trek to Bermuda. Though it might not be as fun to follow along with or watch on YouTube, this trial run was completely necessary for us to prepare for the year of travel ahead.

Impulse Shopping

Advertising and marketing have really figured out how to make you buy their products. When you are constantly surrounded by advertisements and signs, you will become numb to them and they may even loose their effectiveness on you. When you are anchored out away from civilization, you are also removed from advertisements. Your defenses are lowered as you relax and enjoy the world around you for what it really is. 

Then you take a trip on your bicycle and explore a new town with plans to pick up a few provisions that you are running low on. All of a sudden you enter the commercial district in this new town and you are bombarded by advertisements! The sheer need to give them money in return for whatever they are selling is compelling and powerful! We went to pick up hair dye at Rite-Aid and along the way we saw a sign for a pizza place. I am allergic to wheat (a horrible allergy to have because breads are delicious and their memory will live on with me forever!) yet I felt compelled to eat there. The dreams of cheese and Italian spices filled my head and my heart desired nothing else than to eat there.  Maddie had to pull me away and keep me on task to go to Rite-Aid, but I just wanted a super cheesy pizza. 

To prevent impulse shopping, Maddie and I make a list of things that we need. When we go to shore, we look at the list and figure out how much cash to bring for these items. We only take the cash we are willing to spend at that moment and only buy the items that we see on the list.  

Having that simple rule will keep me from buying every cheese I see and clogging my arteries as I drain our cruising fund. I am good at following the rules, which means that I can keep on task at the last moment when I would have to let go of our cruising money in exchange for something that wasn't on the list. 

Advertisements can't seem to break that simple rule in my head, but they can yank on my heart all the way up to the wall in my head that is that rule. 

Saying No

One of the hardest things to do when you cast off and go cruising is learning to say "No." Work will always come along and present itself, work will also take time away from cruising and draw you back into the daily grind of work and sleep, no cruising.  

Maddie and I have now been cruising for about 4 weeks and our world has slowed down. Each day, we wake up and tackle a project, or sail somewhere, or just relax. We live a very low stress life now, and we also don't spend much money! Not spending anything gives us the ability to stay away from work. If you don't spend money, you don't need to earn money that you would then go spend. 

The trouble is when a phone call comes in that offers a very lucrative job, but would also take a long time to complete. 

While sitting in the cockpit one morning, my phone rang: 

"Is this the Rigging Doctor?" 

"Yes." 

"I have a ketch and I need to make 12 new chainplates for it, the chainplates are pulled and I'll install them myself, all I need is for you to manufacture them." 

At this point, my heart sinks. I have a choice to make and it is a very difficult one for me to do. I could either say "Yes" and sign myself up for the job, make a lot of money, and take up a lot of time; or I could say "No" and pass up the opportunity and the income, but keep the time and go cruising. 

All of my tools to fabricate chainplates are at my parents house, so accepting the job would mean getting to a marina where I could leave the boat and commute to shore. I would then have to either live at my parents house while working on the project or face commuter traffic as I would drive to and from work everyday.  I would have to order the stainless steel blanks, machine them, drill them, and radius all the turns on them to produce proper chainplates. While I'm near the office, I would probably get called in to do a few hairy extractions that also pay well. In no time, I would get sucked back into the daily routine I have tried so desperately to escape from.

12 chainplates would take about two weeks to make. The first week would be spent waiting for the blanks to arrive. The second week would be spent drilling all day long. Drilling stainless steel is far from enjoyable. The drill bits are expensive and short lived, and the oil you need to use as a lubricant gets on everything!  

Each chainplate will have at least 5 holes in it, and can take about an hour to make. This is a tough job that is hard on the body and on the ears. Listening to screeching metal, even with proper ear protection, is murder on the mind. The constant screaming as you press on with the drill press will tear your mind apart as you work. The smell of boiling and burning transmission fluid that you use to lubricate the drill bit will coat your nose to the point that it is all you smell, long after the job is finished. Lastly, you have the time that it takes. 

12 hours of hard work may sound like a days, but it can't be completed in a single day. This would take about a week of work. Marking, measuring, and lastly drilling. Then verifying, correcting, and polishing. This job would take a lot of time and a lot of material. The metal alone would cost about $600, and the drill bits each cost about $30 and only last about 2 chainplates. This means that the job would cost me about $800 and two weeks of cruising, but at the same time would pay around $6,000!  That would pay for about 6 months of cruising!

This is where it gets so hard to say no. If I say yes, I would work hard and get paid well for my work, which would fund our adventures even further. If I say no, I would pass up this opportunity and its associated income, but get to go cruising now instead of later. 

It is a very hard job to turn down, especially for a recovering work-a-holic, but we currently have enough saved up in the bank that we don't need to be desperate about finding work. Saying "No" may be the hardest thing about going cruising. No means that you won't get to work on a new project, and you won't get to earn any more money. "No" also means that you get to relax anchored next to a quiet island that you found in a protected creek. 

No is a hard thing to say, but it does mean that you get to enjoy your cruising life sooner. 

Schedules

One of the hardest things to escape from is the dreaded schedule. Cruising is thought of as a life without worries or cares. Each day comes as goes without stress or concern. You raise anchor, raise sail, and go where the wind blows you; once you arrive, you are there! 

You shouldn't have to worry about getting there by a certain date, or a specific hour because you are already home and you get there when you get there. This concept may seem far from reality to those living on land, but it is how the cruisers mind works.  

This even spills over to onboard projects. I'll frequently start a project and work on it until I'm finished. If I don't finish it today, I'll keep working on it tomorrow! When I'm all finished with that project is when I move on to the next one.  

While this mentality and lifestyle is low stress, it is actually really hard to grasp onto to. This setup works really well if you are completely independent of the world around you. The moment you reach out of your little bubble, you are wicked back into the world of schedules.  

When Maddie and I set off on our voyage, we thought the schedules would cease as soon as the docklines were removed. This was far from truth. 

When we cast off, we went to a boat yard to freshen up the bottom. The boat yard wanted to know when we would be arriving: introduction of our first schedule. Once we were out of the water, each day was costing us money so we had a strong financial incentive to work fast and get back into the water. When we were nearing completion, the boat yard now wanted a date to be splashed: Introduction of our second schedule. After we were floating again, Maddie signed up for an art contest a few towns away and up a long river. The contest was on a specific day and at a specific time: introduction of our third schedule! 

Once the art contest was over, we thought that we would be freed from schedules and would be able to sail along without any cares in the world. Then we got a phone call from a local newspaper that wanted to interview us about our planned adventure. They wanted to meet us near Annapolis, MD on a specific date and time. We were so close to being free from the schedule when our fourth scheduled item was introduced to us! 

Maddie and I discussed the ever looming schedule and we decided that we would have no more of this life. We wanted to be free from the schedule and we were not going to make any more time dependent plans! Then we remembered that Maddie has a family reunion in a week and we will need to tie up in a marina since we will leave the boat for an extended period of time. 

The problem with marinas is they cost money, and a week can be an expensive amount of time for a cruiser! We looked around and most marinas are $2 per foot per day, or $90 per day in our case. We found one marina that would only cost us $45 per day, but they were 120 miles away to windward and we only have a few days for traveling. We might not make it and I would hate to miss the reunion! So we kept looking. My dad joined in the search and found a small marina very close to us that would cost $13 per day! This of course was the winner in the marina search and we called to make arrangements with them. Naturally, they wanted to know what day we would be arriving and this meant that we were once again tied to another scheduled item.

The reunion is only 1 week long, and after that, we have no planned or scheduled items on our list. We have made a pact to not plan anything with a date attached to it. We will make plans of places to go visit, but never when we will visit them. This will allow us to visit these places without the stress of a schedule and to explore the waters around us carefree! 

Maddies parents then chimed in that they would like to visit one of the destinations with us. Instantly, the question of "when will you be going there?" came up! We had a choice, we could either become a slave to the schedule once again or tell them that we didn't know but would keep them posted. Her parents live on land and have jobs to go to. They are only available to travel to this place on the weekend and need to be back for work on Monday. We decided that we will get somewhere that is a few hours sail away from the destination and wait for the weekend to arrive. They can simply join us that weekend and we will sail over to the destination. Then on Sunday, they can ride the ferry back to shore and back to civilization. 

This was a good compromise, allowing us to get away from a schedule yet still make plans with friends and family. We both agree that the family reunion will be the last scheduled item on our list, and after that it will just be a list with no dates. This is the hope and the plan, but will it ever be our reality? Will we ever be able to get away from schedules and time commitments?