Captain's Log
Captain's Log November 2007The Big Step
This month we are happy to introduce you to Patrick and Rebecca Childress who are in the process of taking their big step toward a world cruise aboard their Valiant 40 Brick House. You will find the first of their stories about the process of fitting out an older boat for a world cruise on page 50. No strangers to blue water, this trip will be Patrick’s second circumnavigation while Rebecca already has many, many thousands of sea miles behind her. That’s what makes their perspective so valuable. They already know what they are getting themselves into and have already been through the fitting out process before.
But in many ways Patrick and Rebecca are just like the rest of us when it comes to rearranging a busy life ashore for the wandering life of a world cruiser. Getting the boat ready is the most important part of the big step. But, there are a zillion other aspects of heading off cruising, too.
Finances are a vital part of the whole project, and we all share the same need to set up our accounts at home in the simplest and safest way. The cruising kitty has to be earning while we’re away, yet we also need to have ready cash that can be accessed easily anywhere in the world. And someone has to collect the mail at home, pay the bills and make sure the taxes get done on time.
But it is the size of the big step that the people around us find daunting. Those who are sailing away and their cruising friends understand the big step. But those who are left behind and who, in many cases, have no idea why anyone would want to live aboard a small cruising boat, cross oceans, visit Third World countries and face unknown and unnamed dangers can have a hard time embracing and supporting the adventure. What about sharks? Pirates? Crooked officials? Tropical diseases? Storms? Ships? Yikes!
You can tell your family and friends until you are blue in the face that it is safer out there on a cruising boat than it is on the highways, byways and pathways of most American cities, but probably it will do little good.
All of us who set off on our own boats for distant shores have taken the big step and have had to go through the fitting out process, the management of shore-side affairs and the business of trying to get the stay-athomers to appreciate the challenge, wonder and satisfaction of the cruising life. And we all know how true the old adage is that the hardest part of any extended cruise is getting away from the dock in the first place. That’s the really big step.
Patrick and Rebecca will become regular contributors to BWS starting this month so we all can follow their complete refit and their progress as they go out there to explore the world.
Also this month we are pleased to introduce Suzanne Giesemann who will be writing a regular column for BWS called “Giesemann Onboard.” Suzanne and her husband Ty have cruised extensively in the North Atlantic and Med and continue to live aboard and cruise the East Coast. Look for her first installment on page 22.
