The plan. The actual plan. The plan that is so close to being implemented there isn’t really much time for any more plans…

Yes I know way back I shared a different plan. Well, a little different and certainly much less detail…and as we know the devil is in the detail.

It has been such a long time since my last blog post partially due to these details. Honestly I was reluctant to post a plan, then post a new plan, then post about our thought processes as we figure out what we really want, and then post yet again another plan. Probably for other cruisers, this is relatable. But I don’t think many cruisers actually read this blog and I don’t think it’s as easy for land-folks to understand why it’s so hard to decide on a path. I barely understand it myself and I am living through it.

It was actually only about a month ago we fully committed to the plan to transit the Atlantic early this summer. We were always saying it but there was a tiny sliver in our hearts that held out for another possibility…that sliver was holding us back…and that is what kept me from writing all this out.

What made it so hard to finalize our plans? Well I would say two things: trip home to Canada at the end of 2021 and our refit.

TRIP HOME:

I won’t belabour this point too much, but it turned out being home was more significant than we thought it would be for us. Much, much more meaningful and much, much harder to leave than anticipated.

I have written and rewritten the blog post trying to articulate our feelings about being home, and leaving home, several times. And never published it. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a difficult writing task as putting those feelings into words. Being home was such a different vibe…so much love and support as well as so much…trauma… from the past few years of lockdowns and restrictions and fear and uncertainty. It was palpable. Also striking to us was how quickly we assimilated to the 9-5, driving on the highway, showering everyday, busy busy busy life of Ontario. It wasn’t bad, just busy. It was a luxurious quick sand…so easily we could get sucked into the comforts, ease and familiarity of land life We spent some time really imagining how we’d want to live if / when we returned more permanently. We mapped out some business ideas and made some real estate decisions. And when we left, we didn’t really leave.

Enter problem 1: We left but didn’t fully leave. We spent January to basically the end of March feeling like we had one foot in Canada and one foot on Matriarch and it was getting in the way of us making hard decisions about the boat. We were looking at land to purchase (and still are but not so obsessively), building business models and dreaming about tiny home designs and off-grid land life. All the while, living on Matriarch, crossing the Caribbean Sea from Curacao to Dominican Republic then onward to Bahamas. Dealing with one boat stress after another…and feeling so unsettled. One day after talking with a friend about why I was feeling so crazy it clicked for me – bam! – We couldn’t move forward with the decisions that were required of us until we fully let go of the idea of moving back home in the near future. Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t really actually want to move back home in the near future…we were just spending a lot of time daydreaming about possibilities and it was sucking up our time to deal with what is right in front of us. After a serious talk with Greg we both got our heads right…the reality is and was that while yes, one day we will implement these plans, that day is not today, or tomorrow and we need to bring ourselves back to the present and get down to work.

REFIT:  

Part of why we were so tempted to leave this all behind for land life again was that many of our systems started to break down all at the same time…generator, charger, wind generator, hydro generator, and it feels like a bunch of other (expensive) stuff. This is on top of our already established list of deck and various TLC refit items that we are coming up on. Reasonable response but not a responsible one.

So once we finally accepted in our hearts that now was not the right time to go back home permanently (for all the reasons we started this trip in the first place plus several more) and let go of pining for family, comforts and ease…we got down to work mapping out how to Make Matriarch Great Again (bahaha sorry couldn’t help myself but also kinda puked in my mouth as I wrote it out).

Enter problem 2: We needed to start making serious, SERIOUS decisions and we had to make them fast. Some of these were mission critical items that must be dealt with if we were to sail across an ocean.

The refit is now broken up into two parts. Refit 1 will be completed in Florida, Refit 2 will be completed in…England or The Netherlands. Wait WHAT?!?!?

Yes, you read that correctly. We are planning to land in the Azores, possibly after a stop in Bermuda (we will or won’t based on the weather we get). However, we have decided that when we leave the Azores for the UK or The Netherlands we will stay there to have the deck replaced over the winter rather than continue on to Sweden this year.

This was another giant decision – huge. For a few years now we’ve been saying Sweden Sweden Sweden so to yoink that was jarring. However, here are some of the factors that affected our decision:

• Longer in the Azores to explore (two months now vs the one month we would have had if we were going all the way up to Sweden); and for us, enjoying places for as long as we tend to and not likely going back to Azores by boat every, this is a big pro

• No EU/Schengen time restrictions for us if in UK vs. the complication of only getting 90 days in the EU/Schengen whilst trying to manage a refit, family visits, and the travel we wanted to complete in the EU as well

• It’s a place we wanted to spend lots of time in anyway (Greg has family in Ireland, our friends have family in England)

• We can then sail to Sweden the following summer and have more time to actually enjoy the waters there rather than be trying to leave ASAP because we would have used lots of our 90 days to move back on board and recommission the boat after the winter

• Little shorter / simpler for family to come visit (yes it matters)

• Plethora of boat yards, skills tradespeople and experienced deck installers

 So we will sail to the UK from the Azores in late August depending on the right weather window and stay in that area for the winter. Yes it’s a cold, damp winter…we will likely store the boat after the refit (either in the water or not) and we will travel by land in the winter, visiting family in Ireland, climbing through castles in Scotland, looking for fairies in Wales, and then flying to Italy so Liam can still enjoy making breads and pastas in a big kitchen and we can get a bit of a bump of sun (we will have to take copious amounts of Vit D to make up for what we have grown accustomed to in the tropics). 

In the following spring we will decide if we go north to the Baltic or east to the Med…we don’t want to put that pressure on ourselves now to make that decisions since it’s sooo far away and we will have sailed many many miles by then; honestly, in some ways we’ll be different sailors than we are now and I don’t know how that will affect our decision making. Also, sailing with kids means you are always on the look out for kid boats to travel with and if we find a good match we would be willing to flex our destination for the kids.

 So there it is. That is the plan. I realize that putting it in writing doesn’t mean things can’t change but it honestly feels more “official”. And we “officially” are ready to put it out there…you know t-minus 4 weeks before we take off (omgomgomgomg).

 Don’t worry about us though…while you can’t cross an ocean with one foot on land, you can go through the motions of preparing for it and we aren’t far behind on the passage prep list. Except for…a GIANT REFIT IN FLORIDA STARTING NOW.

 To be continued…

 Much love,

M