The Best Laid Plans
05 August 2013 | Channel Islands Marina
Terri Potts-Chattaway
August 15, 2012
I heard this would happen. When you're coming down the last stretch and the boat gets really small and the arguments get really big. One thing gets fixed and another one breaks and it feels like you're living in a boatyard. The questions and doubts persist. Can we really do this? What were we thinking? Maybe we were crazy to think we could do this, after all. We try hard to recapture the dream, but now it feels like a fleeting idea we once had when we were young and spontaneous.
Then I remember the words of a friend who went through this very chapter in preparing to cruise, It is so worth it, Terri." Ceal said. "This is the best thing we ever did." They finally untied the lines and told themselves, "Let's just go for a few months and come back." They never came back.
I came home last night and found Jay listening to the SSB. "Trying to grasp the dream again?" I asked. "Yeah." He mumbled quietly. Maybe it's time to get the Jimmy Cornell book out I thought. Start panning our escape route. Only problem is, there is so much junk in the salon, I have to unbury it just to get to it.
The plan was to spend August and September cruising the Channel Islands. But you know the old cliché, "....the best laid plans..." Well, it is especially true with boating. We've been back on the boat three weeks and the mast is finally being put back together after having it painted , the spreaders rebuilt and the turnbuckles fixed. We only moved onto the boat recently and haven't really sailed her with all the stuff which should be an experience in itself. I look around and see half varnished drawers, sanders and mineral spirits lying amongst sheets and rags and polish. I trip over the extension cord and begin raging against the clutter. Ah, the dream. It's so great to be living the dream.