I Met A Guy Who Has A Boat...

 Friday, July 26, 2024

This morning I am writing from an anchorage in Turkey, in a place called Knidos, which we have already visited once. It is a bay we have chosen for a couple of reasons; the winds are up for the next couple of days and it is well protected from the northwest swell, and because this is the site of some very extensive ruins that we are going to explore later today. Arriving yesterday afternoon after a fantastic sail, we were surprised to see that the bay was quite empty as compared to the last time we were here, leaving us ample room to set anchor. However, this did not stop us from having to move the boat this morning to allow a catamaran to pull anchor as it needed to manoeuvre quite close to us. All went well and we chose to reset the anchor to ensure we have enough room as the winds are expected to pick up this afternoon and throughout the evening. Hopefully, there will not be an influx of boats throughout the day. No one needs a crowded anchorage when the winds are high!

Knidos, Turkey

For the past couple of weeks as we were anticipating Julia’s arrival on July 24th, Neil, Finnegan and I spent time exploring the coast of Turkey in an area called Yazikoy. It has been a relaxing experience. Now, Julia is here and we are so excited to have her with us for the next three weeks!

It has been a bit of a task trying to figure out what to write about. I tend to peruse my photos to generate ideas, but we really have not been taking as many photos lately. Since Neil has always suggested that I write an entry about how we got to this point in our journey, I thought I should give it a go. So, back to the beginning…

As many of you know (and I think I may have mentioned this in an earlier blog post), I am someone who has always experienced motion sickness. Flying as a kid in a small plane piloted by my dad, in the car on many family trips over the years, on aircraft, in scuba diving boats, on subway trains and even in automobiles to this day, I have felt the woozy sensation from the motion. When it came to spending time on a sailboat, I was presented with a bit of a problem, especially because Neil was not about to give up sailing. After our first summer together on the boat (and no, I didn’t end up on the bottom of Lake Ontario, Heather!) it became apparent that I had to do something to overcome the seasickness. Despite trying Gravol (which made me fall asleep on the deck), wrist bands, etc. I was still in a bad state. I believe it was our friend Adam (a seasoned sailor/racer) who said, “You have to learn to race and get your head out of the boat.” It was worth a try. So, the following spring (1996) I joined National Yacht Club’s learn to sail program, instructed by another seasoned sailor/racer, Roger, who is a long-time friend now, but was someone we did not know then. To begin the first class, Roger asked us all to introduce ourselves by stating our name and why we were there. I always dreaded this kind of thing, being rather shy about speaking in groups, so I was rather nervous about what I would say. My turn came and I said, “My name is Carole and I met a guy who owns a boat…”. I didn’t get to say anything further as Roger, and the rest of the class, burst out laughing, and that was that. I was there because I had met a guy who had a boat and, if the relationship was to continue, I needed to learn to sail. Also, I really had to overcome my seasickness if at all possible. Long story short, we raced for many years with Adam on the boat (a fantastic sailor!), we formed a wonderful friendship with Roger and Tama (two more fantastic sailors who we raced against for years), and I have pretty much overcome my wooziness after numerous weekends racing and sailing and summers away cruising in the Thousand Islands and in Lake Ontario.

PIKA Racing Team, Youngstown Level Regatta 2001

(L to R : Dave, Adam, Neil, Shauna, Padmore, Me, Brian, Joyce)

     

Racing on Pika 

Me and Roger, 2022

Over the years, Neil would periodically talk about his dream of one day selling everything and sailing away. I would listen politely then pretty much knock down the idea every time. It was just not something I ever felt I could, or would, want to do. I found that just ignoring it was the best strategy for me because I did not want to worry about something that would probably never happen, right? Over time, I think Neil may have also sort of let the dream die somewhat, but during the Covid lockdowns it began to become apparent to both of us that we could not just sit around and fill our days at our home in Toronto. We were getting bored. This did not mean that I had changed my mind about wanting to sail away and live on a boat! Yet, Neil was raring to go and needed reminding that Ben still had a couple of years left of high school and we were not taking off before that. Also, I was close to earning my full teacher’s pension and I had worked too long to quit before that was fulfilled.

It took Neil about 5 years to develop the plan in his head, convince me to go along with it, generate the inner strength I needed to be willing to leave the kids, sell the house, execute the plan to buy the boat, and sail away. Here we are… three boats later and many miles into our journey, with only a few small mishaps so far, enjoying an amazing adventure at sea. It has been a fantastic experience to date and, despite my periodic bouts of homesickness to replace the seasickness, we are enjoying what this new life experience has to offer. Opening my datebook last week to record our last few stops in the log, I noticed the quote at the top of the page, “The best is yet to come”.