What’s next?
I’m excited. Its been awhile since I’ve felt that way, but its true. I’m excited.
The last year+ has been hard on us all. For me personally it as been one of, if not the hardest periods of my life. I was already down from the general goings on with the world, in August I had to put down my dog Lopa, then my father got sick and my grandfather passed away in the same week. Suddenly I found myself with only one purpose. Taking care of my dad. Early this year that effort came to an end when he passed away. I believe that was the bottom.
Over the next few months I had a lot to take care of. Managing an estate is not a small task. Finding, accessing, managing, and closing accounts, organizing and paying bills, selling, donating and otherwise getting rid of the massive amount of “stuff” people gather over years. Luckily, that last one, getting rid of “stuff” is something we had done with our lives already, but that didn’t make it much easier.
My brother Brian and his family came to help that process as well. They spent a week with us helping move furniture, go through old boxes, sell stuff, clean stuff and more. His wife Kaitlyn was a master at Facebook marketplace, It seemed by the time we had sold one item, we were moving the next because it had just sold too. We got to meet our new nephew Mason for the first time after over a year of only pictures. It was great to catch up with Him and his family and share in our grief for at least a short time. Brian is in the Navy, and is about to be sent out on tour, so while we were together, we decided to get matching tattoos to honor our dad.
Something else was happening though. As thinks were getting checked off, I started looking foreword again.
Nymeria is back on my mind. It feels wrong having her just sit there all shut down, cold and dark. A few weeks ago we began the process of getting back to it. We still wont step foot back on the boat until June, but this is a good opportunity to get work done while we are away. Last year, Shannon and I did a LOT of work sanding and sealing all the brightwork on the boat. Well, no excuses, we failed at maintaining it properly. We probably should have done another coat of cetol or two. Just before I left in November I had started noticing a few spots of fading and chipping. We’ve hired a local lady to touch up all the external brightwork, and since we a no longer aboard, go ahead and open up and re-do the whole companionway. I cant wait to see all the work!
Another thing we’ve done is finally order a new jib. Our old jib is an oddly shaped, high clew 95%. That means the the clew (the part at the back of the sail where the sheets attach) is quite high off the deck. So high that I actually can’t reach it when under sail. This has its advantages such as great visibility, but it is a significant reduction in sail area, and I cant adjust the leech line without pulling in the sail a bit. Being a 95% means that at full length it only goes 95% of the way from the headstay to the mast. Our new jib will be significantly larger at 115%, and will be properly sized and cut for our boat. We will still have the high clew for visibility, but it will be low enough that I can adjust it under sail. Also, we’ve got a little surprise for when we finally get to go sail with it. Cant wait!
Finally, something that I’ve been looking foreword to for some time. At the end of May, I will be leaving my full time job and start doing my own software. I’ve been working as a software engineer for almost 20 years, always working on someone elses ideas. I’m ready to start making my own ideas come to fruition.
The summer of 2021 will be full time sailing for us. Learning, testing, fixing, upgrading. Then, once hurricane season ends. It will be time to really start our next adventure.
