Sunday morning thoughts

Sunday mornings, when I take the dog for a walk around the neighborhood, we pass all those neat nice houses. Flowers are blooming manifoldly in the front gardens, balconies are planted in equal elaborately. Windows are opened to let in the fresh summer morning air and allow one to get a glimpse here and there of the nicely and modernly decorated living rooms. More or less our house may give the same impression.

And still, I do not feel being a part of all of this. It seems, I do not care enough about it. We do keep the house and garden in order of course, but although I love gardening it is more out of responsibility than meaning. I enjoy the flowers to regrown each year in spring in the flower-beds, but it is not less joyful to observe this in the nature or even in foreign gardens.

We spend quite some time and effort in decorating everything in the house, thinking carefully how to put the furniture and hang the paintings at the walls. But once everything was done, it is more and more a burden to clean everything everyday without really wanting all this stuff and space.

What sounds like complaining on very high level, is indeed asking the question of meaning and where we want to go to. In searching for an answer for these particular questions the anxiety resonates of being wrong and miss all this once it is given up.

But then there is a deep inner feeling, which can not be explained by any rationality, that we have to give everything up and go for a different life, to find our own personal meaning.

We once saw a documentary about a abbey on some remote North-American island and a nun said, while she was working in the fields, that she found what gives her inner happiness and that she has not to do any searching for it anymore. What a blessed woman!

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How we lost Madita's mast in 2011

2011 was our first year sailing.
This start was rather successful: After the first teething problems, like unattended cereal bowls on the salon table with a heeling of 20° or the sudden and unexpected appearance of pontoons while entering the mooring box, we had a lot of fun. We traveled a lot; every weekend and all vacation days.
During the summer holidays we made a trip around Funen with Ballen/Samsø being our most north point.
We felt just fine. In September we had two last weeks vacation for the season. As ending point of this trip it was planed to stop in Neustadt/Holstein-Germany, where a space in the winter depot was already booked. We started at the Schlei/Germany, traveled via Bagenkop/Langeland, Naskov/Lolland, Langø/Lolland, Fejø, Femø, Stubbeköbing/Falster, Nystedt/Lolland until Kühlungsborn/Germany. So far we enjoyed the journey, traveling in off-season, finding very quiet places.
In Kühlungsborn we arrived in the evenings. As expected this was not our favorite place, with all the tourists crowding the seafront. But it was a good place to stay over nights and take off early in the morning. No sooner said than done we slept early. For the next few days the forecast reported strong winds and we wanted to reach the Bay of Lübeck before they start.
We headed westward with wind of 4 Beaufort from southwest and with the Genua in the second reff. The waves were 1-1.5 meters high. It was quite a pitching and a lot of water washed over deck. Therefore the children stayed downstairs.
3 NM away from Kühlungsborn we heard a very loud bang. We looked at each other, but since no obvious source of the noise could be seen, we shrugged and went on.
Suddenly a bluster came from above. I looked up and could do nothing but yelling "Wolfgang the mast, the mast!" The mast was broken right in the middle at the height of the spreaders and everything, the whole rigging came down. The fore sail was hanging completely in the water with the broken Furlex system still attached to it.
A split second after I looked up, Wolfgang pushed me fiercely to the side; the very next moment the boom hit the cockpit where my head had been...
I told the children to absolutely stay downstairs, lay down and not move until we call them. They followed my command with no further question.
Wolfgang started the motor in idle running and we brought every loose line and the sail back on deck. While I felt panic slightly coming up, he seemed to be absolutely calm and considerate.
With nothing hanging in the water anymore, we made it without any outside help back to the nearest harbor: Kühlungsborn. Shortly before reaching the harbor entrance a small voice ask from down stairs "May we get up now?" The children kept so quiet all the time, that I completely forget to permit them to move again.....
We had to stay in Kühlungsborn for the next five days, since the forecast was right and the wind rose a lot and we did not dare to cross the Baltic Sea with what was left of our mast on deck.
For a short moment we thought of, me bringing the children home, but that was unanimously declined. These days in Kühlungsborn, all four of us were in lethargy.  The days went by uneventful, waiting for the whether to clear up. The only gay moment was when we celebrated Friedrich's 5th birthday. We gave him a red remote controlled Ferrari and there were quite a lot elderly men enviously looking at him letting it run through the harbor. 
Finally the wind lowered. In the meanwhile Wolfgang organized the help of the harbor maintenance crew the bring the rest of the mast down and store it on deck.
Looking crushed, we made our trip to Neustadt/Holstein, where the sail maker already expected us. Before a new mast and rigging could be order, the insurance's expert had to survey everything. His diagnosis was material fatigue and even before taking Madita out of water for the winter, she received a new mast and rigging.
It took us a while to feel confident with the new rigging and we for sure sail even more defensive. But on the other hand we learned a lot out of this. It was our first real emergency situation and we were luckily able to handle it.
And most important: Thank God, no one was hurt!
At the end of September we winterized Madita, but the first weekend of October with the national holiday in Germany brought the summer back. We spontaneously decided to take the chance being without mast and visit Lübeck/Germany where we would have to pass some really low bridges. About this jolly weekend I will tell you some other time....

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Btw...what is the Great Loop?

The term Great Loop refers to the circumnavigation of eastern North-America.

(Actually, this ship we met at the Baltic Sea in 2012.....)

The distance varies between 4,300 to 6,500 NM depending on the way the cruisers choose. In order to avoid hurricanes in the summer and ice in the winter, most people go north in spring, be at the Great Lakes during summer and take the rivers south during autumn to arrive in Florida in November.

Screenshot from Great Loop - Google Maps

Using this plan, the loop starts in Stuart/Florida following the Intercoastal Waterway for 2,600 NM to the north. By doing so, one avoids going over the open sea for a long stretch. The Intercoastal Waterway ends in Manasquan/New Jersey. From there it is just a short passage on the Atlantic before reaching New York City harbor.

From New York City most travelers follow the Hudson river to Waterford, then take either the Erie Canal to Lake Erie or Lake Ontario. Alternatives are the Champlains Canal to St. Lawrenceor or the Rideau Canal. The Trent Canal connects Trenton/Ontario with Port Severn on Georgian Bay. Nothernmost of the loop is the North Channel.

After reaching Chicago at the east side of Lake Michigan, the route follows downstream the Illinois and Mississippi River, the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers and the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway to Mobile, catching up the Intercoastal Waterway going to Carrabelle/Florida and Fort Myers. By taking the Okeechobee Waterway the tour ends being back in Stuart/Florida.

There are many side routes and alternative ways to go. It is possible to go down the Mississippi to New Orleans although the Tennessee route is recommended.

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Why the Great Loop?

Why do we dream about the Great Loop?!

Screenshot from Great Loop - Google Maps

When the idea of doing a longer journey by boat hit us, we always talked about circumnavigation. We discussed that for quite a while; there were ups and downs: Sometimes Wolfgang was absolutely fond of the idea and I had doubts, sometimes it was just the other way round.
He always dreamed of getting away from regular live, I searched for a project connected with the journey, like writing about it, doing some research, develop some art projects.
And of course we have many worries concerning the children. Although we are sure they would benefit a lot from a long family journey, still we have to consider education issues as well. Another big point is the financial situation.
We did a lot of reading and followed other people living their dreams and reporting about that in the internet.
I always felt that doing the "conventional" route - Canary Islands, Caribbean, South Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Suez Canal and back to the starting point - is not what I am dreaming about exactly. Although there are many many places on this route I would love to see, there are other spots I would very much prefer to visit, such as Patagonia, Japan, Kamchatka Peninsula, Alaska, Canada and USA....
Since we are not sure, whether we will be able to do a journey over a couple of years, why not start with a shorter project?
We read before about the Great loop and it seems to be the ideal journey for us. It is manageable within one year. Besides the Atlantic crossing the sailing will be close to the shore or mostly on inland waters, which fits to our "Baltic Sea skils". We more or less speak the language. Taking the children one year out of primary school and teach them aboard should be doable. Plus, for a long time I dreamed about returning to New York City, where I worked in 2001, on our own keel....
That sets it: The Great Loop would be a perfect starting point for a change of life. 
Of course there are many many issues which are ambiguous right now.
A big topic still is the financing.
Since we have compulsory schooling in Germany, we will have to get a permit to take the children out of school, which is possible, but depends on the personal approach of different people. 
Madita will definitely not be the right kind of boat, to do such a journey and we will have to sell her before the journey. That is kind of heartbreaking to any of us :-(
We have different options: We could find a new boat here, do the equipping and sail across the Atlantic. Or we could sell everything here, fly to USA and buy a boat there. Currently I prefer the first option, because I feel much more comfortable to put everything in place and get used to a new boat before we start.
And I am sure many questions will pop up while preparing...but hey, we know what we are preparing for and that is a good starting point!

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