Boat U.S. - March 2009 - (Page 54)

out there pretty soon after my circumnavigation ended in New York, and life veered toward the predictable — becoming mother to two sons, lecturer, writer, coowner of a small sailboat-flotilla business. Over the years, between raising kids, working, getting divorced, and going back to college, our routines centered around school, piano lessons, tae kwon do, visitation, family trips. All along, though, an idea tugged at me. I always imagined that one day I’d pull my boys out of their comfort zone and introduce them to my old teacher, the sea. I wanted them to experience a little of my best schooling, to open doors to new thinking for themselves. The year I turned 40, the age my mother was when she died, I realized that all these dreams were just that — dreams! I’d never done anything about them. And now the boys were almost launched, and any parental influence I might wield with them was diminishing by the minute. Nicholas came home knowing what he didn’t want. Sam had PowerPoint presentations on every fish he caught. A radical decision was needed. I bought a small sailboat, dusted off my cruising skills, and took my boys sailing for a school year. That decision led to a dizzying chain of events, and frantic months of being completely absorbed by the finance juggling and preparation. We had Nicholas’s eleventh grade, and Sam’s eighth, to split between parents. I’d captain the first half, their father the second — joint custody goes to sea. In March 2007, with six months before the year at sea needed to begin, I bought Shangri La, a 36-foot steel cutter, in St. Maarten, and got reintroduced to what the owner of a boat meant to BoatU.S. Magazine March 2009 travel long distances must worry about. The day the papers were signed and Shangri La became mine, the imagery that had driven all this — kids diving from the bow into azure waters off sparkling, palm-fringed beaches, laughing with new international friends, teaming up with me to solve problems in all kinds of stellar bonding and character-building opportunities — was replaced by gritty responsibilities. I had to get Shangri La’s electrical, mechanical, plumbing, and sailing systems up and running, gather the endless lists of gear while carrying out projects aboard. The home we were leaving behind had to be battened down, bookkeeping put in order, home-schooling photo by tania abei

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Boat U.S. - March 2009

Boat U.S. - March 2009 Contents Reader Forum Boat U.S. Reports What’s New In The Brew? The Perfect Paint Job Launch Into Spring Boats Gear Wheels One Mom, Two Teens, No Exit So, Nigel Had This Idea Ice Devices It Was A Club Of Their Own Expanding The Boating Universe Tech Connection A Case Study In Getting Results Let’s All Do This Together Classifieds Member Benefits/At Your Service

Boat U.S. - March 2009

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