It all sounds great, doesn’t it?

Take some time off and go sailing away, literally, for a year and a day.

Not in a pea green boat but in a lovely big solid catamaran - 2XS…

The idea has been hovering and developing over quite some time and my very helpful contribution to preparations is to start a blog…

Oh and to do some useful courses…

Last year I very helpfully did a PADI scuba diving course.

So if we had lots of equipment and were ever in need to have somebody under the boat in water down to (I can’t remember how many) metres…well I would be ready willing and able!

Pete and I did a marine radio course.  Three Wednesday nights 6.30-9.30 - this does sound daunting, doesn’t it??  We learned how to change the radio from one channel or another as directed and to say our bit, which hopefully will never be MAYDAY.  We both passed our (multiple choice…) exam and have licences; mine has SUCH an ugly photo… When my niece Jo saw it she laughed heartily and said she hopes that if I am lost at sea this isn’t the photo they put on the front of the Mercury…

And we also attended a very alarming course on Collision Regulations, without having to do the exam.  This went from 6.30 to nearly 11.00 Tuesday nights…how tired were we??  Tired and ALARMED!  So many ways to come to grief at sea… Our teacher, Jeremy, was a total rockstar – so knowledgeable and enthusiastic – that is why we were there till 11.00.  I hope we absorbed a whole lot of useful knowledge.  At least now we know that lights, shapes, symbols and flags all have a meaning, and are not just to make boats look pretty…

One of the things I have been doing is reading books and blogs.

First thing - I NEVER want to go anywhere near the Southern Ocean.  It sounds way too scary - cold and BIG.  Fortunately, we don’t need to…Thank you Sir Francis Chichester; ditto Pete Goss.

The books-and-blogs research has been very interesting, alarming, amusing…

Men tend to write about:

Gear first and foremost.  They wax lyrical about Gen sets, batteries, water makers, engines, bilge pumps, different sorts of ropes & pulleys & attachments.  They also glory in Man and Boat versus The Ocean. 

Another underlying theme with the men is…how to keep your woman happy on board.  There is a general understanding that an unhappy woman is not a good thing…your idyllic life at sea will be under threat!

As for women…

Well they do write a bit about gear, weather, relationships on board.

But they also write about…

Seasickness and how to deal with it/prevent it/survive it

How to keep yourself occupied

How to stop your skin from turning into leather from all the fresh air and cold salty water

How to wash your hair, if necessary, in seawater

I have been paying particular attention to all of the hints on how to keep yourself occupied at sea.

First on the list is reading.  Well ofcourse - I have always been a reader, never have less than three books on the go at any given time.  And now I have my beloved kindle I will never be without reading material, and my poor books won’t go all soggy and festy in the sea air.  So - a tick for this item.  Mind you I am a teensy bit disillusioned with the kindle system…so many books I want to download (ie by paying cold hard cash for them) are “Not available to Australian readers.”  In fact, most of them.  Damn and blast!  I suppose this is to protect local bookshops, which is all well and good, but local book shops can’t provide me with waterproof lightweight electronic books, can they?

Next is - writing… Many of these fearless seafaring women have taken to writing, producing novels, textbooks, cookbooks; I am mightily impressed!  But I think I will just aim to write a blog for my friends and family… I actually (guilty pleasure…) read lots of blogs.  All manner of them, and I find lots of pleasure, guilty or not, from regular updates from my blogiverse friends.  Not that I am much of a contributor; I tend to read and lurk and only very occasionally send an encouraging comment.

Craft work - apparently many women find endless enjoyment and solace in making jewellery from found objects eg shells.  And yes I am a wee bit obsessive about crafty projects... I have been a very keen and prolific knitter for many years.  My friends are all wonderful knitters; they undertake the most complicated projects, such as steeking and … well I can’t think of anything more daunting than steeking; look it up and your eyes will widen in amazement!  I am not particularly skilled or adventurous but I am, as I said extremely prolific and have made, for example, endless numbers of small baby jumpers, for all of the new babies popping up around us, all with the same knitted-in elephant which I find endlessly cute and fascinating.  (The jumpers not the babies have knitted-in elephants…) 

A few years ago when Pete and I spent some time sailing in the Whitsundays on Eroica (another big cat in which Pete had a 1/9^th share) I did knit, obsessively and prolifically.  I made stripey vests for three of Pete’s granddaughters (Ella, Tessa, Holly,) who were staying in the area and spending time on the boat with us… And yes I am sure I was the only person knitting in the entire Whitsunday Passage… But I fear my knitting days are over… I have developed a very small but very painful RSI thingy in my left arm.  Just enough to stop me in my tracks.  Maybe it is a sign from the heavens that the world has enough small baby jumpers with knitted-in elephants…who knows.  And no I don’t think I will take up jewellery making.  Maybe the world has enough beautiful necklaces made from shells…made by somebody other than me… And possibly Pete doesn’t need me becoming all obsessive about a new craft project which will lead to small and fiddly, not to mention sharp, things being scattered all over the table and the carpet…ouchy ouch!  The more I think about it the more I think he would prefer me to confine my activities to reading and writing…

Oh and Nature Study!!  I do love a bit of wildlife… Seals and whales and dolphins…and birds.. We will have to get very knowledgeable.

We aren’t ready to leave yet.  This stage involves putting our lives in boxes.  Pete has completed his packing and sorting; I am halfway through… And now he is concentrating on getting the boat ready.  A mammoth task!  New radar, new chart, sails all fixed, new windscreens so now we can actually see through them… A huge and daunting list of improvements and changes.  I am still at work so am not contributing anything at all to the preparations; possibly all I would be contributing would be…getting in the way…