“Celebrate endings – for they precede new beginnings.” Jonathan Lockwood Huie
It seems we have had one string of bad luck after another, looking back over the last five years of this voyage around the world. It has been fraught with hardships. Many who set out to sail around the world lose heart and turn back. Others face catastrophic failures that end their journey. We have come to know several people in both of those categories. Unfortunately, we chose a time in history when a world pandemic and Orca attacks have made the journey even more difficult. If we had known we would encounter these obstacles we may have never left the dock. But here we are, life is what it is, and everyone is facing hardships of some sort at land or sea.
In between the not-so-good moments, there have been incredible opportunities to see the world from a perspective that only .01 percent of the human race will ever get to experience. There are times when the sun is shining, the wind is perfect, the sun is glinting off the surface of the cerulean blue sea like diamonds, and we feel life couldn’t be any more perfect. The excitement of sighting land after a crossing and knowing that we made it halfway across the world on our little boat and that we are about to make landfall in a new country, well, there is no greater feeling of accomplishment and adventure.
Then, something breaks, bad weather sets in, some degree of hardship finds its way into our journey and the fun and excitement come to a grinding halt. That has been the last four months of our lives. Instead of crossing the Atlantic back to the Caribbean, we have been furloughed in Lagos, Portugal, waiting for repairs.
Waiting it Out – Once Again
We have a sense of déjà vu in that during the Covid outbreak, we were basically stuck in Ireland for two years. It was a wonderful place to be stuck and we came to love that country and all our experiences there. Once again, we have found ourselves in another country, Portugal this time, for an unplanned extended period of time. We have come to love this country as well. It’s difficult adapting to life in a foreign country, where you don’t speak the language, you don’t have access to many of the things you need or could easily get in your own country. Fortunately, our hardships do have a silver lining. Staying in one place for several months allows you to meet new people and appreciate the beauty around you.
Our mast has been repaired, which you can read about in Sailing Equus – Opportunity. We now are now playing the weather waiting game. It seems an unusually disturbing set of storms has been rolling up from Africa. Weather patterns are changing. This may be due to an unusual weather phenomenon. There are bands of airflow that circle our northern and southern poles. One of these bands, above the north pole, has split in two. Some are suggesting this may be causing the severe weather we are seeing and the shifts from normal weather patterns. We don’t know if things will heal or if we are facing a new normal. All we can do is wait and see.
In between the storms surging from the south, there is usually a day or two in which the winds shift to the west which would allow us to sail south. With diesel prices through the roof, we will not be motoring for days at a time as we did in the past. We have to wait for the wind to be in our favor before setting out. This means we will probably be making day sails down the coast of Portugal, sail around Gibraltar, and to the harbors along the coast of Spain to make our way into the Mediterranean. If we do get a longer stretch of good weather and favorable winds, we will take advantage of the opportunity and overnight sail.
Then there are the Orcas. They seem to always be on the fringe of whatever harbor we are in. They were just outside several of our harbors in Spain. Now, they have attacked a boat within a couple of miles outside of Lagos. While it is an ever-present danger, we are not terrified of them nor will they deter us in any way from continuing our voyage. Everyone who drives in a car faces the threat of drunk drivers or horrific car accidents. We have to deal with a pod of playful Orcas that like to rip rudders off of sailboats. It may or may not happen to us, but we can’t live our lives in fear. We will simply do our best to be prepared.
As we wait, we look forward to the fact that every day is a chance to begin again. We refuse to focus on the failures, the difficulties, the obstacles in our way. We must start each day with positive thoughts and expectations. The events in our future are not predestined, and obstacles of our past can be gateways that lead to new beginnings. In the words of C.S. Lewis, “Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.”
Finally – Resuming Our Journey
On Tuesday, March 22nd, we plan to resume our journey. We have a brief weather window and are going to try to sail the 40 miles east to Culatra. We could take a safer route and wait for a broader weather window, but the first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are. There is safety here in the marina. The longer you do stay, the harder it gets to leave. They call Lagos Marina a Velcro Marina. Many have come here with the intentions of continuing on, but the beauty, the ease of life, has lured many sailors into procrastinating, sticking here. Those people are now permanent residents on their sailboats and never leave the harbor.
For us, paying the marina fee is a hardship. With all the repairs we have faced, and time in marinas, our sailing budget has dwindled to an unacceptable low. We will be forced to spend next winter refueling our bank account so that we may continue this journey. One prospect we have been pursuing is heading to Antarctica to the McMurdo Research Station. Our sailing friends on s/v Rockhopper have spent time working in Antarctica and highly recommend the experience.
McMurdo is basically a small city. Scientists fly in from all over the world to conduct research in Antarctica. The base is equipped to house around 1,000 people. There are jobs for engineers, scientists, as well as every other faction of life such as cooks, shuttle drivers, weather observers, event coordinators, sanitation workers, etc. Dan has applied for engineering jobs, I have applied for just about everything else, hoping I get something.
Once you get accepted for a job, the company you are working for will pay for your flight to New Zealand. There, you quarantine and are required to get a physical. Next, you hop on the flight to McMurdo. The great part about this job is that you only arrive with the clothes on your back. You are provided with clothing, food, and shelter. There are no living expenses so everything you make is a profit. Your workday is 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. Sundays and evenings you are off. There are many activities to choose from, such as hiking, biking, running, sports, a movie theater, music groups, woodworking shops, a pub or two, and even professional-grade sewing machines (YES, I’m going to make penguin sailbags!). You are free to roam and visit the penguins and other wildlife and experience life in the south pole.
The season we are shooting for is the astral summer, winter for those above the equator. This means daylight will be prevalent. They do provide blackout curtains in the rooms to help with sleeping as it is light outside all day and night. While the temperatures will drop below freezing at night, they can get into the 40s or so during the day. There will be no snowstorms or blizzards, hopefully, and the snow does melt so there will be mostly permafrost along the coast which will be a unique environment for us to explore.
After the work season is over, October – March, the company flies you back to New Zealand, then on to any destination of your choice. We will probably fly back to the USA to see our family as we will not be able to see them during any of the fall or winter holidays. There is work for a shorter period of time at the research station during their winter, a 3 to 4-month set. They keep that one shorter as the temperatures and conditions are brutal and it’s dark all day. We don’t think this will be an option for us at any point as this time period would be during our sailing season. That, and I don’t do well without sunshine!
The stories our friends, Mindy and Reinhardt, have told us about their experiences in Antarctica are fascinating. They seem right up our alley when it comes to our love of new adventures. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we hear soon about the jobs. This would be the best scenario for us to get back on our feet financially, and spend some really awesome time in a part of the world most people never get to visit. The downside? There is very limited internet. We will have email so I may be able to talk my daughter Katie into sharing our reports on Sailmates. I don’t know if this will be able to include photos. First things first, we need to get the jobs. All prayers are greatly welcomed and much appreciated.
Butterflies
It’s 4 AM as I sit here on my computer, on my boat, writing this post. I can’t sleep because I’m excited and nervous about casting off tomorrow. I have good feelings about resuming our voyage. I have trepidation about all the things I know can go wrong. I have to trust that we will find our true direction and that the winds of change will carry us on to our new destination. I have been looking forward to sailing in the Med for a very long time.
I’m so thankful to have people who read my blog posts and follow us on this journey. It helps to know that people are living vicariously, sharing in our joys, our frustrations, and the adventure we are living. I love taking photos and writing about the amazing places we visit. This was our dream since the day we met, and we are living it. No, it hasn’t been easy, and it hasn’t always been fun. There are times when I have felt like giving up. I have never regretted our decision to sell everything we own and sail around the world. I do miss my family and friends, but when we do arrive home after we have circled the planet on our boat – the stories I will have to tell… Stay tuned!
Fair Winds,
Alison and Dan