Eshamy Bay, Eshamy Bay Marine Park, AK, 60° 27.125N 147° 58.393W, 20-aug-2021 — Yesterday, we left Whittier and started our return to Homer. At a trip 1/4 of our normal length, this feels very much like starting the return 1/8 into a normal year’s trip.
We’ve cruised enough times that we have no trouble settling into a routine but there are differences we’ve noticed.
I’m noticing we’re not eating the variety of food we normally would, but that’s misleading because with a normal 5 months to go, we would not have even begun to eat the breadth of food that we normally would. When we are eating is also changed a lot: we eat the intersection of Flora’s and our diet and eating schedule.
The definition of a household, to me, is eating together. There is a researcher at Emory called Robyn Fivush, who’s written a fair amount about this.
Flora’s day generally starts around 11:00 a.m. and ends long after ours. Living in Port Townsend she would also eat late at night, and Jennifer and I would also eat in the morning. Aboard Caro Babbo Jennifer and I don’t eat in the morning, we wait for Flora to be awake, and Florida doesn’t eat in the evening.
The side effect is that we have all been shedding weight at a remarkable pace.
We are also watching Floras acclimation to living aboard.
She asked to become involved in such things as launching the dinghy and anchoring the boat, declaring she no longer wanted to be merely freight.
Acquiring the skill to raise and lower the anchor, seems to be enough. Flora doesn’t show a strong interest in practicing that activity, but she has become a routine part of raising and lowering the dinghy.
Jennifer and I easily do it with just the two of us, but a third person makes it a worry free, always smooth operation.
Last night was another step in Flora’s acclimation. As she was going to sleep she noticed a sound that she had never noticed before and came to Jennifer and I and ask what it was. It turned out to merely be a ventilation fan that has always run, but part of the process of living on board is starting to notice sounds and motions that one had never noticed before and learning what is normal and what is not. It’s nice to have Flora as part of the crew.
Living on board you find that the same noise with your head facing one direction or standing one part of the boat sounds different than it does facing a different direction or in a different part of the boat. For a period of time this is maddening. But eventually you get a handle on what should be making noise when and how loud and what that noise sounds like.
We will gunk hole for the next couple of days. On Monday or Tuesday the winds will be favorable to make a fast sailing passage towards Seward.
We’ll reassess our fuel needs and either go to Seward to refuel or bypass it and continue to the Homer area.
We expect we will have close to a week in the Homer area to visit some of the bays there and other communities we have not seen.
The worry, always the worry, is that inclement weather would keep us locked away from Homer if we did not plan to arrive early. Never forget the adage a power boat has a schedule, a sailboat has a destination, and even that destination is often open for negotiation
Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.
Good sailing John, Nomade is finaly in the water.
Enjoy!
Serge,
Congratulations. Where is it, these days?
My advice would be (if ones on a power boat) to have a “destination” as a schedule can get you in trouble.