Getting ready to launch!

We're 1 day away from launching Tarwathie and Mark and I are both ready to move on and set sail! I’m not quite sure what we anticipated in terms of preparing the boat for the water but like most things, there was more to do than expected. Nothing Mark wasn’t able to fix and rectify and because he’s clever and capable, no huge expense. If you weren’t able to do the work yourself, it would definitely be out of our budget to own a boat like Tarwathie. I sound like a gushing wife now but I've always been so impressed with what Mark gets accomplished on a daily basis. He's slow (not really but he's never in a rush) and steady and gets things done!

It’s been a great adventure so far and hard to believe we left home over a month ago! We had a pleasant and uneventful drive down making our first stop in CT where we stayed and shared an evening of pizza and catching up with our friends Barbara and Arn. Thanks to a box of CD’s Barbara shared with us for our trip, we’ve been listening to music that brought us back to a nostalgic time of the 60’s and 70’s. Up early the next day we intended to take the more scenic drive down through the Appalachian Mountains but our GPS had other plans for us and before we knew it, we were entangled in the Bronx highway and bridge traffic. I had never seen parts of NYC from that perspective and it was rather interesting. It does become rather bleak as you move into NJ.

Since we were now on a different trajectory, we just wanted to get there and limit our stops. One stop in Fredericksburg and another in NC at an Airbnb who’s hosts were from India. Upon return from our dinner out, we sat and had an interesting conversation with them and their parents who were visiting from Punjabi. We were up and out by 5:00 a.m. and from that point on just gas and bathroom breaks.

The lack of sleep preparing for our trip had caught up with me as I was having a hard time staying awake during my time at the wheel. At one point I even dosed…NOT GOOD and luckily Mark was there! We were pretty much on schedule when we pulled into Bob and Alicia’s in South Florida - maybe a few hours late. We were greeted with a fabulous meal and very comfortable accommodations. It was our home away from home for the next few weeks and we are eternally grateful to them for making this part of our adventure seamless and easy. We’ve been very fortunate on many levels.

About Tarwathie. She’s a beautiful 1975 WestSail 32. With bowsprit and all she’s more like 40 feet and beamy, so a good size boat…yikes! The former owners, Dick and Libby owned Tarwathie for 11 years and gave her lots of love. They have been a wonderful resource and so helpful. They even came out to the island last June and brought extra sails, a rudder for the Fatty Knees dinghy, a barometer and a beautiful bowl Libby made out of pine needles during her time on Tarwathie. They shared stories and all the information they could think of that would make our transition of living aboard smoother and at the same time, giving us an idea what to expect from her. We feel very fortunate to be able to call upon Dick and Libby when there’s a question about Tarwathie. I often think of Libby’s words of wisdom “Don’t worry, Tarwathie will take care of you”.  I’m counting on that!

This is something I already knew but now even more so, and that’s that Mark and I are a good team and work well together. While he was doing more mechanical repairs and problem solving, I cleaned out a multitude of compartments, scrubbed everything down and did anything else to support pulling the boat together. Other than the normal dust and a touch of mold that accumulates on a boat, Tarwathie was rather clean. I started at the forepeak and worked my way back. Our car was loaded up when we left Maine and still loaded 2 weeks later before we were able to unpack and start settling into our new home.

Being someone who traveled for a living, I’m used to being away from home and I’m very adaptable (one of the qualifications for becoming a flight attendant, although I think they use the term flexible). Since I’ve been home bound for the last 4 years  (the first time since age 23) I had settled into a life of structure, continuity and community, I wasn’t sure what it would be like to uproot again. I’ve loved being home, I love my home and I love Vinalhaven. Vinalhaven has spoiled me with it’s incredible beauty, community and uniqueness. Why would I want to go anywhere else?

So, the point I was starting to make is that I wasn’t sure if I’d be homesick or think about my life at home. In my flying days I rarely thought about any other place than where I was at in that moment and that's been the case here. Now that I’m married, home is wherever I am with Mark.

That’s not to say there haven't been times when I've felt rudderless during this brief time away from “home” or unsure of my place in the world. I had just begun to do the things I've wanted to pursue for many years and now the uncertainty of interrupting and sailing away from it all is a bit unsettling, even if it’s for a limited time. Will I be able to pick up where I left off…we’ll see. Life is always changing.

Our new home for the next 5 months is now a 32 foot sailboat. Even the tight and small spaces feel cozy and homey with constant organization I might add. I brought things with me that are familiar and comfortable and represent home. The trick will be to limit the clutter.

There are many potential hazards on a boat and I've already experienced a few. Within the first few days I broke my toe by ramming it into a winch...ouch!! So much for my running regime. I then jammed my head and neck as I came out of the companion way more than once not realizing the top was closed. I would imagine most sailors do that at least once - it would make me feel better to believe that.

We had a wonderful opportunity to spend a night on Little Gasperilla Island. A man who was visiting Greens this summer just happened to own a home very close to where our boat is stored. He so generously extended an invitation to stay at his place. He described it as “very similar to Greens but a lot more houses”. That was a bit hard to imagine if you’ve been to Greens and also been to coastal Florida. After getting there I had an idea what he was talking about. It’s an island that can only be reached by water. It's very wild and almost jungle like in some ways. It's untamed so from that perspective I had an idea what he was talking about. I saw one car on the island - definitely not Greens - and most people use electric golf carts. The beaches were beautiful but there’s a lot of erosion. It’s a long narrow island with one side facing the intracoastal and the other the Gulf of Mexico, so whether you’re on the water or not, in times of our ever changing climate, it wouldn’t take much to sweep it all away.

Well, more later once we set sail!