My first boat was Sorcerer’s Apprentice, an O’Day 23 that Chris and I rescued and restored, but I never really got good at sailing her. I didn’t grow up sailing, and the bug didn’t really bite until after we bought Silent Sky in my mid-30s. I’ve always felt like I had a lot of catching up to do, and I often sell myself short when it comes to my sailing ability. A few years ago, I was invited to race on a friend’s J/88 and almost turned it down – and I’m so glad I didn’t. I now regularly crew on a J/109 and have filled in on several other boats. I love how racing pushes your boundaries, and it’s made me a more confident cruiser.
I was hesitant to embark on our first long-term cruise, but Chris had wanted to do it for years. Between COVID, the sudden loss of a sailing friend, and both of us working full remote, it was time to stop making excuses. While I didn’t feel completely ready, I realized that the stars never 100% align and if you wait until they do, it will be too late. Right up until the week we left, I don’t think I’d fully mentally committed to embracing the cruising life, but now I can’t imagine anything different.
While cruising is often “life on hard mode,” there are so many amazing moments that outweigh the challenges – new ports, new friends, new skills, and all the moments that fill you with awe at nature’s incredible beauty.
“I really don’t know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it’s because in addition to the fact that the sea changes, and the light changes, and ships change, it’s because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea – whether it is to sail or to watch it – we are going back from whence we came.”
– John F. Kennedy
