Boat U.S. - March 2009 - (Page 55)

lined up, materials gathered. The sea exacts a mental and physical One week out, we had leaks in the water price when loose ends aren’t tied up. I worried that I was forgetting tank, boiled batteries, and the boys were important details. Anxiety dogged miserable. What had I been thinking? me. In September 2007, the boys and I said goodbye to our Vermont home and friends, family, and teach- to traverse. Confidence scraped bottom. What, I ers, filled Shangri La’s lockers, and took off. For scolded myself, had I been thinking? And then, 10 days into the passage, as we the next five months, we sailed through the Caribbean from Curacao to Columbia, to the crossed the equator, reliable trade winds swept San Blas Islands of Panama, through the Panama in to push us downwind, horizon after horizon, Canal, and across the Pacific to the Marquesas, and humors changed. Thoroughly alone, with Tuamotus, and Tahiti. It was a stormy start. one common goal of reaching a small group of Removing two teenagers from their social lives, islands thousands of miles away, we gradually routine, and creature comforts, to be confined settled in, developing a new shipboard routine of on a small boat with their mother for weeks and eating, sleeping, studying, and living well. As we months on end, might sound loony. In those first talked about the world awaiting us in the South couple of months, I don’t know how many times Pacific Islands, the boys knocked off their homeI wondered what had possessed me to do such schooling lessons, and each sunset and sunrise became more beautiful than the last, every day’s a thing. Sanguine Nicholas was okay, along for the run a shared achievement. For 32 days on the passage from Panama to ride and lazily trusting me to take care of things, nowhere near as enthusiastic and curious about the Marquesas, the boys stood watches, learned learning as I remembered being at his age. My GPS and sextant navigation, became familiar with sweet, cooperative, little Sam was another story, the solar-, wind-, and alternator-generated electurning choleric and complaining about every- tricity and how to measure consumption, grew thing: The weather was too hot; he wasn’t catch- accustomed to rationing water and food supplies, ing enough fish; we didn’t stay long enough in and learned how to appreciate traveling thouthe beautiful San Blas; the first two ocean passag- sands of miles with just wind and sails. Finally, es were tedious; the Panama Canal was boring. Sam sweetened up again and got more into his While I was preoccupied with myriad logistics, fishing, Nicholas plowed through his books. We he became a growling teenager, and I, a progres- played cards and Boggle, planned and prepared delicious meals and teased, while the ocean sively more overwhelmed mom. One week out of Panama and about 600 miles around us, and the boat that sheltered us, drew into the 4,000 until landfall in the Marquesas us closer together. We’d found our Shangri La. Islands, we were beating into headwinds and The remote and exotic Marquesas Islands fighting a countercurrent when I discovered a leak in a freshwater tank that reduced our sup- weren’t quite what the boys had expected in ply, just as the wind generator overcharged the terms of snorkeling and underwater fun, but the batteries to boiling. That night, sleep evaded me Tuamotus epitomized the ideal. We spent two as we slammed into the waves through the scary full weeks anchored off a bight in the lagoon of darkness with thousands of miles of wilderness Rangiroa where white sands framed by green vegBoatU.S. Magazine M arch2009

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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