Normally, it’s wise to do what’s called a shakedown cruise before heading out on a longer voyage. But spring repairs and upgrades took longer than expected. So, we didn’t have that week or two to get the boat away from the dock to practice using all the systems and make sure they’re working. More importantly, we didn’t make the time to re-train and test ourselves before setting out. There are many actions that need to be internalized so they’re automatic when we need them and don’t need to be thought out on the fly. Skills need to be refreshed that got rusty—or forgotten altogether—in our cruising hiatus from October to June. We also left the dock with a few unfinished projects that would need to be finished along the way.

When we first get back on the ski slopes each winter, we head for the green runs, starting out slow, working on our skills, and trying to recapture the muscle memory that made it so effortless at the end of the previous season. It’s similar here except that though the physical movements are easy to master, the brain muscle memory takes more time. Had we been lifelong cruisers it wouldn’t be a struggle, there would be a more consistent set of habits to fall back on, but we’re not. So, we need to be very careful, and very deliberate in our planning and our communication to be sure we don’t overlook something that will come back to bite us.

There are so many different aspects to cruising that could bite back; wind and weather forecasting, passage planning, navigation and course plotting, equipment maintenance, docking, anchoring, emergency procedures, sailing, reefing; so many decisions and judgements that must be made. Add that to everything on the domestic side to keep us moving forward such as cooking, cleaning, and laundry, and we are fully engaged. And we need to be deliberate about setting time aside to stop —zero-mileage days—to hike, do our boat yoga, read, write, and keep ourselves healthy and happy for the duration.

Our land-based lives have followed us here too; there is still much to manage on the home front.  And we brought along some anxiety of our shore-side life stresses; leaving our home and dog (in good hands) for the summer, V tying up her involvement in the magazine, and then the emotional impact of losing one of my oldest and dearest friends, who died just two days ago.

We’re still settling into the routine, loving the process and each other. Working our way north, shaking the boat down and our brains up along the way, and basking in the beauty that surrounds us on the journey.

D.