We all read the Mark Twain 20 years from now paragraph. But rarely can we look back on an event with that kind of perspective. Well not today, 20 years ago we took the decision to symbolize our union by getting married.
Yes we were young and innocent. But since then, life has been a pleasure everyday, we never have had argument, we have been rewarded with two perfect children and surrounded by supporting family.
*V* thank you for being next to me, educating me and bringing me back in the right path. Without you life would not be the same.
This is how the legend will be written for the grand kids, the ideal grandparent and parent my version end of the story. Let’s start a new chapter.
I told you I would be using it one day Geir Ove!
Happy anniversary also to you and Birgit.
Growing up and spending most of our youth in France we enjoyed a large amount of yogurts everyday. In fact both our Mums would even have a yogurt maker which was a fairly comon item for every french household. Regularly we hear from people traveling and visiting a French supermarket who are amazed! “The Yogurt aisle is quite impressive!”
Indeed!
This is only one side, the one across is the same. That’s the choice!!
And with that said *V* has tried various methods over the last six months to make our own yogurt. Some were more successful than others in the consistency department. Unfortunately the best batches were not the easiest to make on a moving boat, as it was requiring energy or a non movable platform, until a few weeks ago when we attended a panel and one of the participant showed her the Easiyo
Her eyes sparkled at the idea and potential….
We were explained that : You just add water to the starter, you get a perfect yogurt every time! Then you pour boiling water in the type of “thermos/container” et voilà. Wait for 10 to 12 hours and enjoy a delicious home made yogurt! Easy enough… Experimentation has been going on for the last 2 weeks and we can conclusively say that, even without using the mix *V* has made some of her best batch.
If anyone is wondering: At the moment we are practicing by making the yogurt using whole milk and our starter is either another yogurt or a store bought mix. If you want a thicker yogurt use 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk powder.
We are still perfecting the technic and enjoying our yogurts in the meantime….
The search was fast, and e-bay provided us at a reasonable price for the above. Finally! one $25 investment that will provide us with a good diet for years to come aboard Letitgo. Now if you are coming back from New Zealand or Australia please bring us a few ready mix.
Life is cruel, and full of irony. We lived in some of the best birds-watcher paradise, and always wondered how such a “hobby” could be so fascinating, why would you spend so many hours trying to identify them?
Well… well… the table has turned, as you can see we have now built a new library on bird watching, and marine life! This is partially Thank you to Katy for advising us on the best book to purchase, and also for sharing her love of the wild life! It’s a promise, we will make good use of them; then again we might never be able to spot a mammal the same way you do, that’s what university life does to you.
Yes you have seen it, discreetly hiding behind the others. Often, we are asked where are you going?
Our answer usually goes like this : Left turn, out of the straight and then wherever the wind and crew’s mental ability take us. And truly we don’t know where we will be in 1 or 2 years, last week was a great reminder, we had lunch with Carole and Ken (our friends we crewed with to San Francisco). They had made plan, but altered their route. On that note, one of their advice was “slow down and smell the rose”. Hopefully we are good listeners and will remember this enough to apply it in our new life!
And as we are meticulous prepers, the boat will be ready to make it to New Zealand with the proper cruising guides and charts. Just in case, we decide on the spur of the moment.
Above are the Honda generator parts for the stock, nice and easy just enough to keep it alive. Only one more order for the Yanmar and we are done on the spare part list. For the ones wondering our water line is still 3 inches up! Thank you very much.
I guess the sun was already too strong for me, and that must have done it…
This is what’s left of our shroud…. You see realistically they were in the way of the main sail! Those things don’t enable you to place the sail far enough downwind. So a few cuts and we were done.
*E* was looking at me with her eyes wide open, I could read her mind: “but Dad you can’t do that they hold the mast” to which I responded:”so what *E* it is just a detail, non-sense!”
Anybody interested in buying a brand new Yamaha 2 strokes 8HP. It has never touched the water or fuel yet, NO? Perfect because you haven’t seen the paint job yet the teenagers are going to apply in stage two of this demolition derby. If anybody doubted my sanity now you have proof of my madness. Call the doctor I need my prescription.
The picture above can be deceiving with the wrong caption. With that said, the shroud wire comes from a great workshop I attended last night. We even had the chance to practice our cutting technique in case of de-masting, a refreshing taught. This time around the discussion made far more sense than last year, maybe a deadline looming makes that to me.
Before anything let me tell you we have it easy on multihulls, because I was listening for 2 hours of how important it is to have the perfect tune, racking and how to take some backstay tension off when not in use. As for us, our main inquiry for our tuning was the following : the leeward shroud can be a little floppy when we reach. Is that normal? do we need a tuning? I asked the question to the expert, the points that came across were the following:
- Your rigging on those boats will not fail at the wire, but on the mechanical part. Meaning a pin will come off or a turnbuckle will snap. So go up the mast regularly and you will be good if you watch and change offending part.
- You don’t need a spare $$$$ shroud if you lose one, the equation is rather simple the mast is coming down. So, call your insurance.
- On multihull the tensioning is not so critical than on monohull, due to the flexing of the structure. That’s why you may have a “looser” wire.
Overall my impression is that multihull are not the best client for rigger, until the insurance claim comes in then they love them. Now let’s see if I can cut that mast loose with what tool I have onboard.
As for the dinghy engine, we really don’t want anyone to buy it! It fact one less chance to get it stolen by making it look crappy….
A call is going to all expert and boat owner, who had issues with Radio frequency interferences and solved it. Here is the problem. We know it’s a normal curse on boat and we have to learn to live with some of it, but we would like to minimize the impact.
Symptoms:
We have transmitting RF, no receiving one (so far)
Some of our LED bulb flashes depending on the frequency used.
The BlueSky remote panel doesn’t like the 3000 MHz range dimming when in use.
We have a whistling coming from the electric panel.
Solution applied already:
Chokes on all lines, as per most conservative installer advice.
All lines are routed to not be with any other, the best we can.
The tuner and GTO lead are far away from everything.
What else could we do, to try eliminating some of the problem?
On my last rant about leadership, we had a comment from Tate from Sundowner. After reading their blog for a while, I realized that we were in similar situation. Well when I say similar, I do not include the herculean task of refitting an older boat from scratch. You have talent patience and take the time that really deserves all our respect.
But on one of Dani’s post she made a great point, she refers to the sub-culture of cruiser in the preparation stage. We knew of three stages, the Dreamer, the Doer and the Doner. But we also love the idea of including another category let’s call them the Preper.
How do you recognize a Preper?
- He/She doesn’t make plan on the perfect boat, they are making it happen and then the money is invested. Well, it is now too late to change their mind….
- His/Her only focus is to find and get that part on time in order to cross it out of the list.
- His/Her hands look like they have a manual job nowadays! After all those years of studying?
- His/Her eyes glaze over when you say the words: ” trip on the water” As He/She is thinking, “No” that can’t happen our boat is in thousand pieces.
- He/She sees their bank account draining a little too quick towards the marine industry and those magic solutions.
- He/She spends so much time searching maritime product on the net, that their Google Ads are pretty exclusivily for “Charter Company”. Yes… yes it is possible!
- His/Her old habits of going to the mall, has now been replaced by a romantic chandlery trip, and He/She finds it actually really fun!
- He/She refuses an invite for dinner because it’s now time for the second layer of fibreglass.
- He/She thinks we are finally done, but wait…. there are 10 more tasks appearing on that “bloody” to do list.
- He/She acts incoherently due to the fumes of all that epoxy! But not to worry it goes away.
Now you know the signs, don’t be afraid *they* Preper can be approached, but please remember they have only one goal move to the Doer stage and nothing will stop them. They are not dreamer anymore….
For over a year now we have been talking about it fairly casually : One day we will leave to go explore the world while cruising. Furthermore, we have been writing this blog for three years now, and brought more seriousness to our potential departure this past December and officially in January. Although at this point it seems that we have lost our ability to express ourselves in French! Or is it more like our friends Ken and Carole confessed to us : “No, this is normal it happens to all the cruisers we talk to. It’s ok until it’s a dream, but when a date is fixed it’s another story altogether.”
So how did this traumatic experience started?
*V* announced officially to her own parents after her Mum asked a few questions our plan for the nearest future, and evidently a lot of questions arose from it, but overall it went smooth, even if she could feel her Mum’s anxiety which is understandable.Our safety and communication were really the big concerns so far…
And then “I” ( it can’t be “we” on this one *V* is more diplomatic) informed my side of the family, and truthfully I never meant to bring such a shock! My Mum innocently asked the inevitable question : “When are you leaving? why are you doing all this preparation?” To which I answered in tongue and cheek “24th of August! why?” What you need to know is that my parents are coming for a visit this summer and will be leaving on 23rd August… Can you see the dilemna I just created? Indeed and in all honesty I could have been vaguer but it’s not my style! (Really you should know me by now…) As you can imagine our next Skype communication was a little tense: What about the education of the children. Are you really selling everything?
So here is our letter to our Dear Parents:
It could be worse!
What else could we be up to?
- We could be divorcing and putting our kids well being in jeopardy! (Well, ok on that one… we may have already!)
- We could have sold everything and became adepts in a sect. And giving all our estate for that cause! Actually cruising is not far from that, you could be right but we’ve got a catamaran not a monohull (For the forums people that one was an easy one!)
- We could have even decided to start a new evangelic movement in the third world! Well don’t tell anyone! It’s our secret plan…
- We could be in poor health mentally or physically therefore make a decision in a rush. Then again, we are happy and healthy or is it that we haven’t realized it yet!
- We could decide to emancipate our pregnant daughter and drug addicted son, but they haven’t shown any of theses signs yet. And to top it all off they DO want to come with us!
- And lastly we could be smuggling large amount of illegal drugs between countries only to get caught in the process. But as you all know by now I am not a French Diplomat, and we would not get a free out of jail card.
As you can see some of those decisions would have more drastic consequences. We are simply going cruising, and in truth the normal “secured” family don’t do it. But again you can’t deny the fact, that we have never fallen into that category! Let’s list our rather unconventional behaviours from the past.
- *V* was pregnant in one country, while I was working in another. Fortunately I was there for the big day!
- She, then moved to this country 4 weeks after the premature birth of our lovely daughter. Not the most conventional way but *E* turned out okay! Or, so we hope….
- After three years in this country we packed up and sold all of our belongings. *E* was left with her favorite teddy and dolls! We then landed in a much further away country without a home, a job and very little fortune. At that point this thought crossed our mind : “Are we crazy, what have we done?!…”
- And then there is the day when we all showed up for Christmas even though we weren’t expected! Such a crazy thing for a French household, when you know that setting the table takes 2 days for such an event. Or when *V*’s Dad thought the mail man was at the door!
- Do you also remember the day we had sold everything house business and were ready to move to a new venture? But life took another turn, and we had to retire and rethink things through…. Well, that was nuts if you ask me!
- What about the day I quit my nice corporate job, and we put everything in a truck and our van. And then, we crossed a continent with nothing (read: no job/no home…) at the other end.
- Oh and the day we went to the airport! And to your surprise I jumped in the pilot seat with you strapped in.
Now let’s face it, ususally when we say something we follow through and just “do it”, we have never been known to dream too long.
Now let me elaborate on the well being of your grandkids, in the end this is what really matter.
Hostage or free will and educated?
- We have not pushed them into coming with us. *E* will be taking one year off between here prep year and entering university. She has worked very hard to achieve this feast. This whole year she had a full course load and two jobs enabled her to save enough money for her first year. She is a smart cookie, she knows cruisers are renownedly poor! Afterall she lives with them….
- Mister *B* will be enrolled in a structured schooling program, recognized by the education community and government. This is a viable alternative to a more traditional schooling venue. And let’s not forget that he was the one who pushed *V* to leave earlier, once he met with kids who did it last summer.
Food and shelter:
- We promise that we will feed and lodge them in a way that will enable their normal growth development. When we turned nearly vegetarian (meaning that we are not militant and if offered meat we don’t make a fuss-well that’s more for *L*-), we were actually anticipating because we can’t bring a cow onboard, that’s why *V* is sprouting…. (well another story!) but we just couldn’t tell you at the time.
Social interactions:
- Would you believe it? Yes other families are crazy enough to travel with teenagers, we are not the only ones! And knowing our children, they will insert themselves even in the adult world in no time. If not even faster than us….
Visits:
- No problem, you are entitled one visit per year! Just kidding…. You can come to check all the above as you wish, the door is wide open for you. Make sure to follow the blog and we shall give enough clues of where we are heading. But you have an open invitation, it’s formal it’s on the net. As *V* told her Mum, we are giving you ideas to travel!
For us cruising is just the continuity of discovering the world, pushing the envelope of our comfort zone and stimulating our senses to keep alive. As for the pirates, big storms we have to leave it in the hands of God that’s why we took evangelisation as a hobby…. couldn’t resist!
While I was re-reading this post *V* sent me this text and she doesn’t know what I was writing, because she always edits/adds before we post. I feel it summarizes our way of life well, and better than I could ever write it. Now let’s hope that Google translate has improved in the last two weeks from English to French for our parents so it makes some sense….
Top Five Regrets of the Dying
–by Bronnie Ware, Original Story, Feb 23, 2012
For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives.
People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality. I learnt never to underestimate someone’s capacity for growth. Some changes were phenomenal. Each experienced a variety of emotions, as expected, denial, fear, anger, remorse, more denial and eventually acceptance. Every single patient found their peace before they departed though, every one of them.
When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five:
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made. It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.
2. I wish I didn’t work so hard.
This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence. By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result. We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying. It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip. But when you are faced with your approaching death, the physical details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It is all comes down to love and relationships in the end. That is all that remains in the final weeks, love and relationships.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again. When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before you are dying.
Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness.
Easter week-end was for us the *re-commissioning* of Letitgo. Although we have come and gone regularly onboard, the boat was not prepped with perishables like food, water or fuel. And now that the major work is done, it was time to shake it down and try everything.
This week-end was perfect on all fronts, the family was together, the weather was great and our trusted Letitgo performed perfectly her tasks. Is it a little too rosy for the pessimistics? Truly there must have been challenges? Please do tell…
Well indeed we had our challenges : First Our lovely, charming sweet Daughter *E* mentioned that her exams were on Tuesday and that basically we had to cut short our trip to unable her to print, review and edit her essay and then do some revisioning…. Although we had clearly said we would be gone til Tuesday! Then again it could have been lost in the communication so we all got re-organized for departure. A drama in our book if I may add and for her brother too who was happy to miss school all together.
Then there was *B*, (who might be thinking he would be off the hook on that one!) during your “watch” Letitgo hit a log that made some rather disturbing noise. Needless to say, not the average small log but a 6 meter long, fortunately it went under the boat without inflicting damages. We know you were dreaming like any other teenager out there, but when you put your bottom on that seat. You are in charge of the well being of the boat and its occupants. Let’s remember it for next time.
That is for now people, for the rest the mariner two strokes and the Honda generator purred like a well oiled machine on the third pull. We were able to enjoy a great sail down the island, all systems worked as designed, with only the Ham radio giving some LED light interference but none on the autopilot on a wide range of frequency.
Resting on a mooring buoy, due to the 25-30 northerly we got over night. First time out so we were not in the mood to test the anchoring capability. We also had some spring tide and a -2ft make for some adjustment of all sort.
Of course we have some hipster photos, compliment of *E*. The last one is a clandestine passenger, let’s hope we don’t have any others…
You remember the Spam Spam Spam sketch, they had. Well we feel we are doing the same with all our “prep” work. That’s what we are doing all the time, that’s what we are talking about all the time, that’s what we are breathing all the time. In other words our life is totally absorbed in the boat prep at this point….
And today was no exception, this time with *V* by my side. It was a two person’s task type of day. And also I sense that it might have been her way to calm me down after yesterday’s rant, she lift me up the stick for 2 hours all by hand…. And what did we do you may ask?
We replaced the top-lift an easy one, just 10 minutes from ground level. This line will be recycled to change the over sized lines we use to raise the dinghy. Then the fun began, two objectives were the main halyard and the SSB antenna. And for those a trip up the mast was needed. Only one halyard was available, so *V* grinded me on the spinnaker one. 1/1 ratio without the electric winch it was a little harder than usual, let’s just say !!!
The hardest part is that this halyard requires to be shackled to the top of the mast, which took us a little trial and error, but we are now brand new on the running rigging. The SSB antenna made the day real fun, let’s say *V* learnt some tools name. Luckily I had taken my special retrieving line for tools, and I had some spare on board. But at the end of the day we are done and happy. My fears of height seems to be conquered even when the light wind decided to wake up!
For our spare collection, we received the Yamaha outboard spares. The entire collection holds in a zip lock bag and weight around 1lb for the purist. But will definitely provide a bit piece of mind!
No excuse today to stay at the dock that’s for sure…
Lots of reasons can justify why some boats never leave, some are valid and completely understandable. But the ones who refrain most (and it was re-enforced recently for me) is the lack of leadership or vision.
Some people can demonstrate a canning inability to have any personal drive, to find obstacles or excuses at every turn, an inability to manage fear and bowing to pressure so easily. Mostly what gets to me is their need to try to influence others; because it is contagious and people love misery or justify their mediocre existence.
They populate forums and waste no time to discredit any new idea or project. They try to dump their inability to achieve any simple task on you, and when you succeed it is by pure luck not all the hard work you have put in! In other words you are very fortunate… (so they think) Added to that,they will find 1000′s of excuses to never leave the dock and you have to listen to them… well that is if you are polite! Surprisingly, they are expert in blue water cruising with all the advices in the world… At this point we can officially doubt that one, the experts are those who are out there and doing it, wouldn’t you agree?
They are the same who always complain at work, every day and for the last 35 years. They are the ones who try to take leadership roles but fail. They are the ones, we avoid like the plague as they bring too much “negative vibes”.
12 years ago we started our own business for these reasons: we wanted to get out of the cooperate race and their contact. Hopefully, soon we will be able to move our house whenever our paths cross with such individuals. Life is to short, let’s move on.
Disclaimer: A valid reason for not leaving inability to sell house, that represent the equity you need to invest to be able to retire on. But trust me we are working hard at it.
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