Anam Cara Adventures

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Reflections on our first year of cruising

Johnny & Susan, the previous owners of Anam Cara, told us a year ago that the learning curve on a boat is vertical. We couldn't agree more! "Cruising University" would be an apt name for it! Dave is now a skilled plumber, electrician, carpenter, painter, diesel mechanic and anchorer. Me, I have learned to sew, bake bread, clean while hanging sideways in tiny spaces, navigate, keep track of the weather, and hold tools. Yes, that's right - "tool-holding" is a major skill for any woman cruiser who is not mechanically inclined but feels guilty about leaving it all to her husband. While I have asked Dave many times to explain to me how the diesel engine works, as soon as he begins my eyes glaze over, and hard as I might try, I find my mind going back to what I am cooking for dinner that night or the book I am reading. So I am left with that envidious job, which I admit not to liking very much at all, of "tool-holding". It goes something like this:

"Angel? ANGEL!??!" comes a voice out of the bottom of the lazarette.
"Yes Darling?" I reply from the head where I am wiping down all the dozens of hoses that constitute our plumbing.
"Can you get my tool box for me?"
"Ok" I say, and think to myself why can't it be five minutes later when I am done with my own job. I emerge from the head and dig the tool box out from under the navigation station.
"I need the feeler gauges", says my Beloved.
"What do they look like?"
After his description (which I have already forgotten) I find them and hand them down the dark hole into which he has contorted himself. Now, I DO understand that he doesn't want to keep popping up and down out of this hole.
"Can you hand me a wrench?"
"Sure, what size?"
"Half inch", says he.
I hand the wrench down, and take the feeler gauges back. "Not that one" I hear.
"Which one then?" and take the wrench back. So it goes back and forth, and my job becomes to sit and wait and take orders about which tools he needs. For a while I hear nothing, and so I ask:
"Do you still need me?" thinking of going back to my cleaning.
"I will call you when I do", says he.
No sooner have I knelt down to clean some more, I hear him again. Swearing. And then:
"BRITTA"
"WHAT??" "Can you come here and hold something for me?"
So back I go to hold more tools, wondering what on earth he is doing down there.

And so it goes almost daily. Truth be told I realize that without Dave I would be helplessly lost on our boat, and I am eternally grateful for his skills and willingness to get down and dirty and do it all. Even though he would really rather be reading a book or having a cup of tea. I know this to be true. And so sometimes when the next item needs repairing and Dave has to step up to the plate again, and do things that he finds totally adverse, like cleaning out the inside of the head mechanism which isn't working, I wonder what the heck I have gotten him into, and whether or not he may resent me for it. After all it was my idea... But my heart softens and fills up with gratitude as he does all this without complaining and always (well, almost always) with good humor. How much luckier can one get than to have a partner who will give up all creature comforts and move onto a little boat to allow his wife to live out her dreams! Indeed I find myself very very blessed.

A Year of "Mis-adventures"

At the onset of our cruising year we imagined ourselves sailing across oceans and visiting many remote places. As you all know, the furthest we made it was to the Bahamas. Our inexperience, appendicitis at sea, various mechanical breakdowns, and a lightning strike to the mast have made this a rather different experience thus far. Discouraged? No. The one word that comes to mind to sum it all up is GRATITUDE. Gratitude to be alive and having the amazing opportunity to have this experience. Ultimately it is the people we have met and the friends we have made that have opened our eyes and our hearts more than anything. In addition, all the adversities we experienced brought us blessings. Our breakdown and subsequent hold up in St. Marys back in the spring saved my life - had it not happened I might have had a ruptured appendix in a remote place far from any hospital! The lightning strike that damaged our electronics gave us an opportunity to see our families and spend more time with them than we have in many years.

Take for example the boat-yard experience we had recently in St. Marys. We expected to be there a few days to get the boat ready. We ended up being there for six weeks. During those six weeks we made some excellent friends and found ourselves supported and helped by everyone around us. Nobody likes being in a boat yard much, and is itching to get back in the water to go sailing, but dear Sharon and Reg, who are still there even today, Christmas Day, spent at least half of their time driving us and other "car-less" folks around to get supplies for their projects. Mabel, the fiberglass repair specialist, won a special place in our hearts through her spontaneous nature, love of animals, and always lending a helping hand wherever she could. Dale, the welder at the boat yard, selflessly loaned us his truck whenever we needed a car. Sharon, Mary and Marcia sat with me in the wood working shop teaching me how to sew on our sewing machine. Rocky, the manager of the boat yard, loyally helped us in any way he could - making special tools we wanted to be able to move our thru-hulls, and hoisting Dave up the mast with his spectacular machinery. Our friends Mary & Christian went out of their way to loan us their vehicle and cooked us lovely meals. It goes on and on... We, in turn, provided hypnosis sessions, acupuncture, blood pressure readings, meals, and a website (for Mabel). By the time we left we felt like part of the family!

Where have we ventured since? Not far is the answer. We are in downtown St. Marys at the dock, waiting for Dave's new passport to arrive. My restless nature kept telling me we "should" be away by now, but hanging out in St. Marys, our "second home", has given me the chance to finish another online course for webdesign and create a new website with which I hope to make a little money along the way. (You can check it out if you like: www.webdesigns-by-acusailor.com - comments always welcome!). It has given Dave time to rewire a lot of stuff on the boat, figure out our third reef in the mainsail we had sewn into it, and to service the engine. And it gave us the opportunity to witness the lovely holiday ambience in the lovely old downtown of St. Marys, pick pecans on our morning walks, and spend Christmas with our friends Vincent & Michelle in their gorgeous home in Brunswick. That's where I now sit and write this, reflecting back on a wonderfully fullfilling year! We have witnessed people's lives and issues we would never have been priveleged to had we not stepped "outside of our box". We are not in Tahiti nor in the Mediterrenean, but our lives are richer and our hearts are full!

May all of you feel as blessed as we do, and Merry Merry Christmas!

PS: Thanks to all the ladies who so understandingly emailed me after my last update pms in a boatyard and offered their solace to me, as well as offering to send me hormone creams and other magic potions! I was so pleased to have so many of you on my side!