February 2003

Three Months.

It's been more than three months since I've sent out an update on our "doings" and it's a pleasure to share our life with you again.

The last time many of you heard from us, we were in Hawaii and I was getting ready to sail from Honolulu to San Francisco on the 65' Alaska Eagle with 10 other women as part of my learning to sail and do passage making. My trip was incredible! We traveled 2400 miles in 13 ½ days and I learned much about myself and sailing. This trip was one leg of a year long voyage sponsored by the School of Sailing & Seamanship/Orange Coast College. Karen was our skipper, Barbara & Danielle were the mates; the rest of the "crew" was composed of 8 women from diverse backgrounds and locations ..Louisiana, Iowa, Illinois, British Columbia, and California. I was the oldest and the one with the least amount of sailing experience, but as Karen said, "the highest level of enthusiasm." AE was built as a racing boat and won the Whitbread Around the World race in 1978, so it goes much faster than our boat.something that took me a while to get use to. Our average speed was 8 ½ knots and 10 knots was not uncommon. Once I got acclimated to going fast and heeling over at 15-20 degrees, I stopped hyperventilating.it wasn't really quite that bad! Fortunately I was one of only 3 who didn't suffer from seasickness. (I'm sure my time will come!) The crew was divided into 3 watch groups and each group rotated on 3 or 4 hour shifts daily: 6 -10a.m., 10 am.-2 p.m., 2-6 p.m., 6-9 p.m., 9 p.m.-12 a.m., 12-3 a.m., and 3-6 a.m. That meant that my watch might be in charge of piloting the boat from 6-10 a.m., then 6-9 p.m., and finally 3-6 a.m. AND preparing any meals during our shifts AND doing assigned chores such as cleaning the heads or washing the cabin sole (floor). In our "off" time we slept and did whatever we wished. The weather ranged from having no wind (we used the iron sail then) to 30 knot winds and 10' waves! Gary was impressed with my new technical skills & knowledge and I learned that I can continue no matter how sore or tired I am. It was awesome to look up into the clear night sky to see thousands of stars and nothing else..in my opinion, it would takes a great egotist to think that we on this small planet are the only life in this vast universe. We arrived in San Francisco ahead of schedule and Gary got there the next day to pick me up. It was great to see him; I think I talked non-stop for 24 hours (of course that was after I had 14 hours of sleep in a bed that wasn't moving!) We enjoyed a leisurely drive down the coast through Big Sur country and the scenery is breath-taking.very rugged! After traveling for 3 days, we arrived back in Chula Vista and Wand'rin Star. It was great to be home & I was already anxious to get back on the water. (One of the women wrote an article for Latitude 38 about the trip; if any of you are interested in reading it, just let me know & I'll send you a copy.)

November was a very confused month for us as my mother ended up in the hospital with atrial fibrillations and eventually had a pacemaker implanted. I got a call at 3:00 a.m. from the hospital's CCU saying that her heart had stopped, but started again & that I should fly home ASAP. Luckily Northwest has daily non-stop flights to Detroit. The good news is that she is doing much better. I spent 2 ½ weeks in Michigan and Gary continued getting the boat ready for our travels. We were both back in Michigan to visit families & friends for Christmas. It was great to see folks, but we are definitely acclimated to warm weather and were glad to get back to California.

The new year brought a feeling of awe as we realized that we had owned our boat for one year on January 2 nd ! Life has definitely taken us places we never imagined! Our friend Nan was here to visit as she attended the American Library Association Mid-winter Conference and spent several days with us. Shortly after she left, we headed back to Hawaii (by plane) to look at some land to buy for "post-boat" retirement. Unfortunately, we were not successful, but did enjoy our trip to the Big Island. Gary had been there before, but I hadn't. I was amazed at the different climatic zones on one island; 14 of the 16 world climatic zones are there! We even saw the snow on Mauna Kea! Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your perspective) there was no visible lava flow from Kilauea during our stay. Volcano National Park is awesome and not to be missed! It's an unusual feeling to be standing on the caldera of an active volcano. We enjoyed our week in paradise and look forward to returning one day.

But all is not bliss when one owns a boat! We have decided to spend next winter in the Pacific Northwest and extend our time exploring Alaska and the Inside Passage; therefore we wanted to have heat installed on the boat. We made arrangements to have a diesel-fired hot water heating system installed and work began while we were in Hawaii as it necessitated the workmen "tearing the boat apart" to run hoses, fuel lines, electrical wires, etc., and it was easier to do if we weren't living on the boat. The job was "supposed" to take 7 -10 days. As I sit here typing amidst tools, hoses, blower fans and floor panels, the job still isn't done five weeks after it was started! We ended up staying in a motel for 5 more days after we got back from Hawaii because of the work continuing. Hopefully it will be done within the week, but I'm not taking any bets on it. Thankfully, the workmen are very conscientious and meticulous, so it's a little easier to abide with the delay. Gary has also torn out all the electronics from the Nav Station and is getting ready to install a new auto pilot, single-side band radio, VHF radio, as well as reinstalling several other "necessary" electronic devices. When we look at all this, we do have to stop and ask ourselves how much is enough as folks used to sail with a only a sexton and the stars. In all fairness, all this will make our travels safer and more pleasant, but it does get overwhelming at times. In addition to that "stuff", we also bought a new jib sail and newly re-upholstered settee cushions were delivered yesterday. One rule of doing anything on a boat is that it takes three times longer and always costs more than doing something on land!

We had more visitors from Michigan as Bill & Dawn Laatz were traveling in their motor home and spent a week in the San Diego area. It is interesting comparing the similarities and differences between life in an RV and a boat! As always, it's great to have friends visit..so come on out!Plans for Kate's wedding are continuing and I'm going back to

Michigan for a week in March and will help my mom make Kate's wedding dress.something she's wanted to do since Kate was born! I'll be back in California on March 21 st and we hope to toss off the dock lines within a couple weeks of that for our "shakedown" cruise to try out the new systems & sails! We're busy planning our route north and will probably take most of April & part of May going up the west coast. Even when we're sailing, we'll have email access via the single-side band radio, so please keep in touch.we'd love to hear from you!

We hope you enjoy the pictures we're sending with this note. Please let us know if you have difficulty with the format and we'll try to send them to you another way.

Thanks again for all your good thoughts and wishes, they do give us energy & encouragement. I'll close with two quotations that seem to sum up life right now: "Whatever you dream you can do, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
Begin it now."
- Goethe

"Do what you think you cannot do." - Eleanor Roosevelt

Peace, love & joy!

Dorothy, Gary & Murray the Cat

© Copyright 2004
Last updated on January 15, 2005