Friday the 13th - The Finish Line

My final evening watch was everything I could of hoped for as I said my goodbyes to Mother Ocean. The moon was full. There were no clouds and a perfect sprinkling of stars across the sky. The air was warm and the wind was enough to push us along at a reasonable speed and so smoothly. I remember wishing for just a couple more days but alas everyone had been in “race” mode for a few days now. Ps. Final results for who won aren’t in yet since they need to calculate how many engine hours and different handicaps for boat size. We are thinking we are in the top four though :-). 

It is pretty apparent I am not the person you want on board if you want to be continuously tuning the rig for optimum performance. I prefer to set the sails for comfort and gaze off into the endless blue remarking on nature’s beauty and beginning my journey of self reflection. Lol. 

I did my best to step up and be ready and willing for changing out sails, shaking out reefs, playing with the Genoa, experimenting with different sail configurations for speed but my heart wasn’t in it. I wanted to spend my three hour watches studying how the squalls moved across the water and the changes of the ocean, watching for dolphins, pondering how humongous the waves were, feeling the exhilaration of surfing down them, and don’t get me started again on the sun and the moon. I paired all this with a music playlist that filled me with joy. Soooo ya...I wanted a few more days out there. ;-)

There was one little pesky jester though who was determined to jolt me from my joyful bliss. On that last watch as I sat with face to wind and eyes on the moon a black sharp beaked bird came right at me out of nowhere. I screamed and grabbed the sleeping bag we had in the cockpit all rolled up and began flailing it around. Graham thinks I’m nuts at this point. I'm screaming bird, and terrified it’s going to come into our enclosed area which only has one open side where I am sitting. Graham hasn’t seen the bird at this point and is laughing hysterically and then all of a sudden it comes straight at me again. I continue flailing and quickly zip up the door so he can’t get in and I am totally on edge. I realize there is still one spot he come come in through so I’m agitated and looking everywhere for him. That’s when I turn around and would you believe that little bugger was sitting right behind me on the solar panel. This was my queue to head to bed and close my door. 

Hours later we were pulling into St Lucia in the dark and rain. For the journey across we stayed on Canary Island time so now it was four hours earlier in St Lucia, in the early morning hours. As we made our way through the channel and onto the dock I looked to my teams faces and I could see happiness, excitement, relief, pride, and strength. We all brought to this experience a unique aspect. People bring color to your life and enrich your experiences. You learn new things, they inspire and they provide opportunity for self reflection. I am very grateful for my time on Mareas and to have been a part of their first journey across the sea. 

Here is a link to a photo album from some pics from our crossing. Enjoy! 

Pss. Odd fact is that 7 years ago to the day on Friday the 13th of 2012 we completed our first Atlantic Ocean crossing and arrived in the Caribbean on Salty Ginger. 

It’s not all popcorn and Jimmy Buffet

The last two days we have had huge swell and erratic wind waves in varied directions with white tops. In addition, the wind has been gusting constantly from about 18 to upwards to 30 knots. Huge spread in speed making for all sorts of crazy. Often a very large rogue wave will be accompanied by a huge blast of wind which takes you careening sideways down into the crevasse of the wave. The auto pilot then tries to correct your course and sometimes in these corrections it takes the boat to a point of sail that could lead to an "accidental gybe". This basically takes the loaded up main sail which is leaned way out to one side of the boat and even tied off with something called a "preventor" and with a tremendous amount of force it swings hard to the other side of the boat. The preventor should basically prevent these accidents but if the wind gets on the other side of the sail and you don't catch in time there is no stopping it.

Unfortunately this happened to us and the force was enough to snap the preventive line in two. The noise sends chills through you and the boat bucks in all the wrong ways. It's very hard to stay calm and level headed in these circumstances but we did all manage and after only about 30 minutes a new line was on and we were back on course. Luckily the preventor did ease the force of the gybe even though the line broke.

A catamaran doesn't heel over but it does buck and bounce and rock side to side. In these two days it was very difficult to walk about. My outer thighs have bruises on them from knocking into things. You can't count on the motion like you can on a monohull and I seem to guess wrong often. It basically feels like you are in a washing machine. The motion feels so wrong that the first night of these conditions I kept getting up and checking on the other crew thinking we were in dire straights. Graham in his exhaustion, as we had just come off our shifts barked out, "if you are going to keep getting up and checking than sleep in the cockpit"!

Surprisingly we all manage to mostly keep our wits and humour. You can imagine the challenge in having 5 people on the boat with varied opinions on tactics and changing opinions based on how much sleep we have had and if we have read the latest ARC boats position reports. Even given all this we have all gotta along surprisingly well. We really lucked out with both boat and team.

We are now about 1-2 days away from arrival. The seas have eased way back and the wind is down. It's 1am and Graham's watch. I'm up with him in the cockpit and we just finished a bunch of popcorn and are listening to Jimmy Buffet sing Mother Ocean. It's a full moon tonight so really light out and the air is warm and the breeze is beautifully filling our light wind sail.

Seems everyone is itching to arrive but I'm sadly realizing tonight that I only have two more sunrises and one more sunset over this big beautiful sea. Man I'm going to miss this.

Ocean Inducing Meditation

Day after day of staring off into the deep blue sea. The endless rolls of the waves as far as the eye can see. The repetitive sounds of waves and splash. The sound of the wind gusting up and down. The comforting sound of water swooshing against the hull. The deepest blue sky. The puffy clouds. The smell of the ocean. The feel of the wind on my face and skin. The rising of the full sun over water and the triumphant radiance of rays streaming through the morning clouds. The closure of a day with sunsets that take your breath away. Living in the elements, so aware of the cycles of the moon, the weather and the sun. Mmmmmmmmm. Deep breath in and all of life's pressures escape on the exhale. Ahhhhhh

Yes this is day 16 at sea and the one that comes after hours upon hours of deep thought, reflection and ocean inducing meditation. ;-)

Soul Cleanse seems the best way to describe this feeling. The last few days I've been thinking a lot about perspective and how much joy perspective can bring to your life. I've been thinking that I need to vary my experiences and try new things to gain this perspective. Sometimes Mother Nature helps with providing me this. We can have 9 days of beautiful dependable steady sailing and then she reels up and shows you her teeth and all of a sudden the next sunny smooth day is so much sweeter.

This leads to my next train of thought regarding challenges. Walking towards my fears has always allowed me to reap huge rewards with personal feelings of success and satisfaction. In the moment though I sometimes question "Past Julie" for getting me into hairy situations but in the end the achievement of the goal is always so bloody sweet I forgive her.

Oh god I'm now talking in third person. Lol. Well I couldn't let this course of blogs end without one deep thoughts post.

We are now about 4 to 5 days from arrival and I'm savouring these last few days. Life is good and I am grateful.

Treasures of the bilge

From the kitchen I hear Graham call out, "Fish on both lines". He mans one of the huge rods off the back of the boat and begins reeling. I am full into cooking with pots on stove and can't leave my station. Berry emerges from down below all business and ready for the task at hand. We have lost 5 fish thus far and I can see determination in his eyes. We won't be losing this one.

By the time he reaches his rod the fish on Graham's rod has broken free. We are starting to wonder if the swell we surf down which causes huge fluctuations in our speed, is perhaps the problem? Perhaps causing varied tension on the line. It also could be how fast we are going. ;-)

Regardless we have all placed our hopes on the one fish remaining. As Berry reels we prepare for its arrival. Gaff, bucket, and rum to kill quickly. As it nears, Graham assumes position on the step with rope around waist and gaff in hand. It was a bit unsettling watching the video after of the ocean so close to him and us going so fast but for some reason at the moment I was just focused on the fish ;-). As it came out of the water we all saw that it wasn't that big and agreed we should let it go but unfortunately it's cheek was quite torn and end of life of was near so we decided best to land it. It was still about 2 and a half feet long. It didn't take long for Berry to gut, fillet, clean up and have it into the fridge ready for the next evening.

Graham has been talking of our amazing Mahi Mahi bites from our past voyages. We would typically batter and fry in a fry pan. You then dip in assorted sauces like sweet chilli. Berry hears this and emerges with a "Treasure from the Bilge"......wait for it......A DEEP FRYER!!!

I am pretty sure that if the ARC safety committee had thought that someone might deep fry mid ocean it would have been rule #1 "No deep frying while underway". (To our credit though it was electric so no open flame with hot grease.)

Lucky for us Mei had also provisioned with tempura batter and we were now in the deep frying business! As Mareas surfed down swell hitting speeds of 10+ we all sat around the table with various yummy sauces and Berry served up plate after plate of the most delicious Mahi Mahi bites ever. With taste buds peaked we were all like, "What else can we deep fry?". Well onions of course. Next round of tapas were delicious onion rings.

This is 100% never happening on a monohull and perhaps some may argue shouldn't have happened on a catamaran but regardless we weighed the risks and reaped the benefits. EPIC memories.

Now fully satisfied, we are left wondering what other treasures of the bilge lay deep within Mareas?

It’s only a race if we are winning

When we found Mareas and heard they were part of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers we were interested to learn what their $3000+ Cdn entrance fee got them. We had always "poo poo'd" the idea of paying to cross an ocean and being a part of an organized group. Graham spoke of his NARC group often with pride "Not the ARC".

A few things we were skeptics about was that we thought it would give Cruisers a false sense of security. At the end of the day you are on the ocean alone. You need to be self reliant, skilled and knowledgeable. If something was to go terribly wrong for an ARC boat or a NARC boat for that matter they would both be calling the same coast guard. We also didn't like that they left on a planned day without consideration of the weather. This struck us as odd since picking the right departure day was often half our battle. Lastly an organized large group which cost money to join is the exact opposite of "Perry Style"! ;-) Needless to say we joined The ARC with some trepidation.

We have learned now that the ARC really serves as "Cruiser Education". Many folks are just beginning their on water adventures and the workshops and safety rules and on board safety checks serve valuable learning that I am sure will return its value 10 fold over their cruising careers. The social activities leading up to departure allow everyone to quickly form close ties with people who they will most likely see on and off for the next few years in various anchorages, beach bbques and happy hours. They also allow them to feel a sense of community which I think is important when your new home has no fixed address. As far as self reliance on the ocean it is true for the most part we need to be self reliant but the ARC does provide daily position reports to the entire fleet and they include if anyone has issues. I guess I'd like to believe that if someone had problems the ARC could contact boats close by and see if any help could be provided. Might not be as easy if you weren't part of the ARC. The other factor not to be undervalued is how special they make this adventure seem. The send off and I'm sure the arrival are everything I always wanted in doing something so far out of my comfort zone.

Now all of that is great but the last factor makes it pretty damn cool, the ARC is basically a race for Cruisers. You should know that there are basically two kinds of sailors "Racers" and "Cruisers". Cruisers are the kind of people who reef down at night for comfort and err on the low risk side of the equation for most decisions. The ARC allows us all to informally race across the Atlantic. Leading up to departure most folks are saying things like, "We are going to take it easy", "We aren't racing", "Comfort will be winning".

Then on about day 5 as sea legs return and a bit of boredom sets in the crew starts to pay more attention to the position reports downloaded each day at noon via satellite. Boats are divided into divisions and we are part of the "Multihull Under 48 feet" group. Once we see that we are in the top three in our division suddenly we are racing ;-). Out comes the paper chart and we are plotting our position and placing sticky notes of our close competitors. Oh what fun. It's pretty hard not to get into it given crossing this ocean is our primary focus and conversation topic.

We are now about 9 days away. I look forward to checking out the YB Racer app once we arrive and see how it all looked as we crossed together.

Would be pretty cool to finish in the top five for our division but if we don't it won't matter because we weren't racing anyways ;-).

Collision Course

Everything stressful seems to happen in the darkness. It was night two of our voyage and my watch. There were still lots of boats around us as everyone hadn't yet spread out and dissipated. I was carefully watching our course and avoiding getting close to anyone. We were also at the end of the moon cycle and it was so dark.

Over the radio I hear "Mareas, Mareas this is Gladan, Gladan". Unfortunately the radio upstairs had the volume down since there had been so much radio activity during the day so I heard the muffled call from way down below. I tried to take the vhf radio from its holster and this was my first challenge. Finally success and we hear a second call from the boat. My anxiety is rising. I'm scanning the ocean for lights. I'm surveying my navigation system. Nothing seems unusually close. I am now trying to figure out how to turn up the volume on the radio with very little light. Graham passes me his headlamp and at this point I decide to just radio back. I press the talk button and call back. Turns out this fancy new vhf works like a telephone. You speak into the opposite side of it. I had no idea but somehow he heard us. He responds and we can't make out a thing he is saying and he is saying a lot. I rush down below close to the radio and Graham continues to scan the ocean. On my way to radio the captain, Berry gets up as well and we approach the radio and he kindly lets me know how to turn up the volume and that I'm speaking into the wrong side. I try Gladan again and then again and no answer. We both head up to the bridge and turn up the volume on the handset and Berry tries calling. Finally Gladan responds. His response is chilling. We are on a collision course with a Tiny Island!!

I begin zooming in and out on the navigation system and am saying there is nothing around us. Berry responds, "This is Mareas and I am most definitely NOT on a collision course with anything!"

Gladan comes back and let's us know he is not calling Mareas. He is calling another boat which we still didn't catch the name of and the boat named "Tiny Island" to let them know of the potential issue.

Well then.....never mind us. Oops. My terror at an Island collision dissipates and embarrassment sets in. We all have a good laugh and I school myself up on this new fangled radio. Lots of learning in this moment. Lol. And who the hell names their boat Tiny Island? Perhaps our next boat should be named "shallow reef"? ;-)

Here's to hoping we don't see any unexpected tiny islands out here. Still working on being a little less "Hello Lucy" and more "Amelia Earhart".

Perry Style

When we signed up for "Find a crew" and "ocean crew link", we were thinking it would be a good idea to try an ocean passage on a. Graham and I will be ready to purchase our next boat in the summer of 2020 and we thought before we completely scratch Cats from the list we should actually sail on one. We had plenty of experience partying on catamarans but zero sailing experience.

Our new floating home is a Lagoon 450F. Basically 45 feet of all the creature comforts I remember craving and envying as we sailed the oceans on our 1976 ketch.

I packed my bags for "roughing" it sailing though having no clue. I planned for no showers and no clothes washing. 20 pairs of underwear and only a few quick dry tanks and tees and a couple of shorts and Columbia fast dry pants. I brought my handkerchiefs for my hair and baby wipes for my showers. Some baby powder to get rid of any stickiness and I was ready to sail "Perry style".

Well turns out my wardrobe was not yacht club appropriate for our week at dock before departure. Invitations to cocktails titled "formal attire" scared the heck out of me. I was confused. Where are my croc wearing, shirtless, hippy sailors?

Everything feels very much like you are living in a very modern small apartment. If you are as addicted to tiny houses as I am this seems to be just that. Everything you need to live comfortably just in a smaller amount of space than a home.

The outdoor cockpit space is massive and keeping the boat tidy seems easier. The washing machine and dishwasher are really efficient and super easy. The hard top fly bridge where you sail from is fully enclosed and has a huge long cushioned seating area making navigating super comfortable. The fact that the boat doesn't heal is the nicest thing on my list of likes. This means life on board can continue normally. Things stay in place. Appliances are out on counters and glass dishes are in the cupboards. The fear that I get when we heal way over in a monohull is gone on a cat. This cat also has a huge amount of space to put solar panels and battery banks. The generator is built into the boat as well so power doesn't seem to be an issue at all with three different sources: engine, generator and solar. There are huge water tanks and the water maker has no problem keeping up with our use.

There are plenty of areas to hang out in as well so if you want alone time it's no issue in finding space.

I'm pretty sure the AC in the tropics would probably also hit my top five things I love about this boat. Right now it's not that hot but we do turn it on occasionally to dry out the boat a bit.

The other nice thing on Mareas is that there are a few head sails to choose from in different conditions. We sail so fast downwind with the "Win" eker (similar to a spinnaker) and the Code Zero sail is also great in light winds and it's really easy to furl if winds come up. I am constantly shocked how fast we are going while still feeling so comfortable. The other day we had the big beautiful Win-eker up, going about 7 knots and we were all sitting up front having a drink on the outdoor couch and the Captain even had a cigar in hand. Felt like a Lagoon commercial ;-).

So long story short...this Cat is friggin awesome but for some reason I still miss "Perry Style". I liked the "camping" or "roughing it" feel of life. Nuts right?

As much as it scared the shit out of me being so close to the ocean, healed over with water running along side of us, I understood it. I got the mechanics of monohull sailing and deep down I knew that our boat could handle way more than I could and could keep me safe regardless of any of my poor decisions. I liked life being a little hard so that sweet tasted just a bit sweeter. I liked working hard for perfect moments. As I get older I do find I want things to be less hard but I think we can find a nice line between luxury Cat and our 1976 Ketch. And if I was to be totally honest I couldn't afford to purchase and maintain this beautiful boat ;-). It would need to be a smaller or older cat.

So for this voyage we soak in as much knowledge as we can from our captain and crew mates and savour all of the wonderful perks. We surrender ourselves to showers, sit down dinners and plenty of rest. Lol.

And we dream and talk of our next boat! Top of the list currently are Amels, Oysters, and Hallberg Rassey's. Probably something about 15 years old. Who knows though how the rest of this voyage will impact our thoughts. One thing is for sure though, we can't wait to call the ocean our home again.

Wipe the stardust from your eyes

The morning of departure there was so much electricity in the air it was exhilarating. The moment of casting the lines came easily and quickly. Berry (the captain) of my new floating home gave us all a quick debrief of how leaving the dock would go down and what we each would be responsible for. We then all took our positions and you could here a collective "ready" from each corner. On queue we each cast off our lines and Berry drove slowly forward and just like that land slipped away.

As we made our way through the marina and to the exit we could begin to hear horns and dance music and a loud speaker. There were flags and people lined up all along the exit and on top of a building waving and cheering. The guy on the mic was moderating the race and wishing each boat well as they past the gate, "here comes Mareas looking beautiful"! I couldn't resist waving back madly to the crowd and beginning to sway with the music. My face was full smile! This was the departure I always wanted on Salty Ginger ;-). Imagine the arrival! Perhaps even the ticker tape welcoming I wanted on all our previous arrivals. Ok I'm getting ahead of myself.

Once we were in the harbour we needed to basically drive around with 200 other boats and wait for the starting call. I have never been in this close proximity of so many boats. It was remarkably calm and fairly stress free. At about 20 minutes to start we got our main sail up and set off towards the start line. Booming from the radio was the count down from 10 and then finally the sound of a canon signalling the start! We were officially off. It's was actually quite funny because it was light wind and this was the slowest race I have ever been a part of ;-).

Happiness washed over me with open ocean in front of us. Nostalgia mixed with excitement and even a bit of salt water soul calming mixed in the blend. Deep breath in and out. This is what I'd been missing. "Hello Mother Ocean. Did you miss me?"

Even though we started out in such calm that first day, night brought very challenging conditions. In my head I was thinking this is Mother Oceans welcome home message to me, "Wipe the star dust from your eyes and get your game face on". Seas and wind began to build throughout the day and of course reached their peak in the darkness of night. The first couple days are also the worst for sea sickness. Everyone just feels a bit off and lethargic adding to the anxiety.

I'll write another blog about the sailing differences I'm noticing between Cat and Monohull but the primary difference thus far is motion. This coupled with sail changes and deck work caused my iron stomach hubby to make an offering to the sea.

He amazes me though. After his offering, moments later he is still crawling across the deck in darkness and fastening the preventor on the other side of boat after we gibed in big seas.

That evening we even had a big enough wave to bring water into the cockpit and get the captains feet wet as he grabbed a few minutes sleep. I would be lying if I didn't tell you that I had a few moments thoughts of "what the hell have I signed up for".

We persevered though and all five of us worked well as a team. We have set up our watch schedules with the four of us doing 3 hour rotations. The captain Berry is on call at all times. This works well so that we can wake him without guilt ;-) and he can route plan and weather watch. That first night he was up for most of it with us.

Sunrise and morning brought calmer seas and wind and has given us time to nurture our sea legs back to life.

Life on board is slowly falling into the routine I craved. Dolphin sighting, eating, star gazing and getting lost in thought looking out on that big beautiful mesmerizing ocean.

Test post from an email

This is just a test to ensure I can post a blog by sending an email from our satellite phone. Fingers crossed. Tomorrow we leave!!! So much activity today. Excitement is building.

Sent from my iPhone

How did I end up in a Viking costume?

The week leading up to our departure has been happy hours and get togethers galore. Funnily enough I can handle an ocean passage but put me in a crowded loud room with a ton of new people and I am ready to run to a safe harbour. 

Back to the Viking costume....On the night of the cruiser “Once Upon a Time” costume party I remember thinking that I would fight my social anxiety by drinking a lot. What could go

wrong, right? I put my pink rubber gloves on and my do-rag on my head and called myself “Cinder Crew”. Graham dressed up as a light version of Popeye. We were ready. 

We all had pre party drinks around the table on our catamaran. A few bottles of wine later and we were off for the party. I was the perfect amount of tipsy at this point. All the edges were just sanded off nicely. Conversation flowed easily and laughter came often. If only I hadn’t had a drink at the party. Lol

Two sangrias later and I found myself stepping into the middle of a group of men dressed as Vikings. As I started to dance amongst them one of them started putting an extra costume/burlap sack on me and then another was tying the belt around my waist and then another put the horns

on my head and the dancing continued. In the morning as I awoke and hazy, cringe worthy memories began to come back to me and I said to Graham, “I wonder how I ended up in the Viking costume?”. He replied, “let me show you the video!” Oiy. Video evidence. All in good fun.

Aside from a ton of parties we have also been completing a long list of prep:

• grocery shop for 5 adults for 20+ days: dry goods, meat, fruit/veg, drinks, hygiene supplies, cleaning, alcohol and of course cheese and an Iberico leg of ham
• Find room in the boat for everything and stow safely and remember where you put everything 
• Safety check and repair of all rigging and lines - up the mast
• Defrost fridges 
• Clean boat
• Do laundry - loving the washing machine on board!
• Make and put on a preventer on the main sail to limit the boom’s ability to swing unexpectedly 
• Get all fishing gear and lures ready
• Prepare meals for first few days
• Check the weather and route recommendations constantly and discuss it with everyone 
• Walk through all systems and equipment on the boat together
• Ensure the beacons inside our life jackets work correctly and will be picked up by the Automatic Identification System on board 
• Overview all potential emergencies together and our plan as a team to address each 
• And a ton of other little things

Lucky for us we have 5 adults to divvy up the work. This has been a great way to get to know each other before we set off together. As each day passes the excitement builds. We are looking forward to casting the lines on Sunday, Nov 24 at noon! If you are interested in tracking our progress you can do this via either method below:

Method 1: Use the following link https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Mareas  and you will see only our boat and you will also see the boat speed and wind speed and direction. You can see our path and such. 

Method 2: You need to download the app called YB Races. This app will allow you to see all boats in the 2019 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers. You will need to add this race and then search for our boat called “Mareas” to see our progress and position in the fleet. 

Currently all boats are pretty much at dock unless they are out for a sea trial. The departure date is this Sunday November 24th! Please follow along.

Online Dating

Here we sit on-board a 45 foot catamaran preparing to cross the Atlantic Ocean. How in the heck did we get here? Well, all good things start with online dating....

Graham and I signed up on websites called "Find a Crew" and another site called "Ocean Crew Link" which felt like what we imagined online dating is like. We crafted a shiny profile introduction and picked a few photos, we selected our preferences such as "not looking for romance", "prefer boats where drinking is allowed", "non-smokers", "no diet restrictions", "looking for ocean passages", "available for Nov/Dec" and then we waited…..

"My husband and I have sailed across the Pacific and Atlantic with our 2 children. The first sailing adventure began in 2008 on our 1976 Ketch we named Artemo, which we purchased in Antigua and sailed to New Zealand. We arrived in NZ in 2010 and sold the boat in Jan of 2011. The next trip began in Les Sables Delone France where we purchased a brand new Jeanneau 44i in 2012 and sailed across the Atlantic. We enjoyed this boat for a number of years and sold in 2015. We love our family, our adventures, morning coffee, cooking, hikes, snorkeling, diving, free diving, kayaking, happy hour in the cockpit with the setting sun, wide open ocean passages, great food, laughing and friendships. In our work life we both own our own businesses and are consultants. I am a project manager and business analyst just having finished a successful 3 year project and my husband is a software engineer and aircraft maintenance engineer and can basically fix anything. I love travel and adventures and even though I am usually more nervous than Graham for new things, I welcome that feeling."

Soon the fun began, with notifications of potential matches and emails from potential suitors...I mean captains ;-). We could then review their profiles, read about their boat, the crew and sail plans and see if we could be a match! We did video interviews with the boats where the dates and sailing intentions seemed to mesh with ours. It did seem a bit crazy that based on a bit of online stalking and a video chat that we would buy airfare and show up at one of these boats ready to cross an ocean but what is life if you don't take a few risks! The other fun aspect was that the boats were everywhere in the world. Our adventure for Nov and Dec had the potential to take place in so many different places. 

It was so interesting to talk with all the various captains and hear about their experiences and why they were looking for crew. We narrowed our choices down to two boats which would be two very different experiences. 

Option 1: The first boat was a Beneteau First Racing Yacht (mono-hull). There was a very experienced racing skipper on board and he would be bringing along 6 crew. Sleeping arrangements would be 3 in each of the two bedrooms. There was bunk beds and a double in each room. The skipper had his own berth near the nav station. They would be racing but the skipper said that given they would be participating in the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers which is more a rally than a race they would be doing a few things to make the passage a bit more cruising than racing such as putting the seats back in the cockpit but that he wasn't the kind of guy to ever say "oh well if it takes us another day…", lol.   I was very honest with him as well and let him know that I had reached out because I thought this might be a great way to build my skill and stomp on my fear. I let him know that I didn't have any racing experience but that I was usually capable of more than I realized. I told him I did tend to be nervous but I wouldn't want to let anyone down. He seemed really knowledgeable and confident and even in our short conversation we could tell he would be a great teacher and a steady calm influence on the trip. We asked for a couple days to really weigh the pros and cons and said goodbye. Graham and I were both very interested after hanging up but we did have concerns about having that many people on board, the sleeping arrangements and cooking/eating.

Option 2: The second boat was a 2018 Lagoon 450F Catamaran. Basically 45 feet of pure luxury. We would have our own cabin and our own bathroom with a shower. The boat had all the bells and whistles. Many things that we never thought a sailboat could have such as

dishwasher, washing machine, nespresso machine, bread maker, ice maker, air conditioner, upper helm cockpit separate from the 2 other cockpits!! for sitting, relaxing and eating. Hmmmm this is a tough choice…. We interviewed with the captain, his wife and their adult daughter and they were really nice and knowledgeable. We felt confident in their skill and felt that we could all be a good fit. Their dates and sail plans worked perfectly with the time off Graham was able to get. The only catch was that they had narrowed their pool of potential candidates down to us and 3 other individuals….uhoh…competition. After speaking with them we decided it would be really great to gain experience sailing on a catamaran to give it a fair shake before we decide on our next boat. We agreed that if they offered us the spot that we would take it.

Later that day we received the email that we were the successful candidates and I wish I had a video of me jumping like a nut around my bedroom alone ;-), unfortunately Graham was at work. So this is how we ended up on this amazing boat, with these amazing people and ready for a new adventure. The captains name is Berry and his first mate/wife is Mei. Their daughters name is Mara. They are all dutch but have lived for a very long time in New Zealand and more recently Australia. They are quick to smile, easy to talk with, really competent, fun loving and interesting. My gut is saying that we are going to have an awesome time together and that we made the right choice!

We are currently in Las Palmas, Gran Canary Islands. We arrived on November 17th and have been getting to know our new family. I am happy to say we chose right! They are all so nice and have set up a very comfortable way to live and sail. We are all working together as a team now to prepare to cast our lines and sail across the ocean departing on Sunday, November 24th. Gulp! We anticipate it will be 20 days at sea. Stay tuned for more updates.