Hi…we’re back.
To those who have been worried about us…many apologies. The past couple months have been rather
depressing, feeling despondent, discouraged, and at times like Sisyphus pushing
his stone. I guess one too
many set backs had me believing that we were never going to get out of St
Augustine. One too many of them
pushing Frank and I further and further apart. The death of someone very dear to Frank, his grandfather,
pushed him to the deepest depths of despair, pulling us even further apart. His grandfather had been his father
figure growing up, taught him the values of being a man, of self sufficiency, of
relying solely on yourself,. A man
that inspired this dream. a dream seemingly turned into a nightmare that one
does not awaken from. Sometimes
life has a way of testing your limits, and this time it’s taken months for us
both to recover.
Alas, those feelings are behind us. We have finally set off and ripped the
velcro holding us to St Augustine.
It was decided a couple months ago that we would just leave St Augustine
and go to the Bahamas. It was his
death that made us finally realize that we could spend our entire lives dicking
around and fixing the boat, and never fulfill our dreams. That life is short, and you have to
just jump into the water, cold as it may be, and start swimming. We wish he could’ve been here to see
this. It was his strength and
fortitude, even in his death, that inspired us to be brave enough to take the
leap.
The past few months, aside from time spent with family in
NY, have been spent just doing the final touches on preparing Moitessier. Since I have last posted, quite a
few upgrades have been made. From
what I can remember off the top of my head, they are as follows:
-Installed a new Garmin autopilot (which was a feat in
itself).
-Installed and wired solar panels
-Installed new AIS
-Commissioned a new dodger and bimini to be built.
-Purchased a new/used RIB (because ours shat the bed when I
went to patch it…never buy West Marine…tore right through after only 5 years!)
-Sold our car (which was what finally made it real that we
were actually leaving).
During this time, I also started to take sailing lessons
with Captain Rick Gardner. A lot of women
on boats don’t take the initiative to learn to dock and anchor their own
boats. Frank and I have discussed
this and had decided that I needed to be more proactive about learning not just
to be a good crew member but to be able to handle the boat in close quarters as
well. We decided that I needed to learn to dock on my own, without Frank, as having
him there would only provide me with a crutch, and I would never take full
responsibility. We also agreed
that Frank would not be my teacher as he isn’t the most patient with me when it
comes to all things related to Moitessier. That being said, the lessons with Rick have been invaluable. He is by far the most patient and kind human being I have come upon, and I'm so grateful for time spent learning from him. Every other week, we would do docking
drills and anything else I didn’t feel comfortable doing. During this time, I learned to
successfully “back and fill,” crab into a slip, as well as anchor. I've learned how to read the wind and
current and how that would directly affect me when coming into a dock, a mooring, or
slip. I’ve gotten to the point in
which Frank feels more comfortable with me behind the wheel in close quarters,
which is a nice boost of confidence.
For you ladies out there on a boat, please take lessons if you can
afford to do so, it’s not that expensive for what you get out of it! All the lessons cost me what it
would’ve cost for a gel coat repair had I crashed into the dock.
That’s a quick summary of what we’ve been up to. More to come in the next couple days as
to our new adventures actually SAILING Moitessier…We’re outta here, see ya
later, St Augustine!
On a side note…to those who helped us get this point, we
want to extend our deepest thank you.
We couldn’t have done any of it without you all.
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| New RIB |
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| New Dodger and Bimini |
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