Reflections

No doubt about it, the launch of Dignity earlier this week is a monumental milestone. Something that is suddenly tangible in a journey that has so far played out over many years but still has many more to go. Now is a good time to reflect on that journey and how we reached this point.

Helen (my wife) and I have been lucky enough to have been able to travel to some interesting places over the course of our 23 years together. Going places, seeing new things and meeting different people in different cultures has always been of great interest to us. We have also been a little adventuresome: jumped out of airplanes, jumped off bridges, learned martial arts, scuba dived. Many of these things we have done with our family as they grew up.

We’ve always realized that we’d be back to being a couple one day and we’d have to figure out what to do with ourselves. We always figured we’d want to travel more and would often talk about how we’d go about doing that. Much of the focus was on the desire to reach more out of the way places and to be able to travel for longer than the measly few weeks you get each year while working.

For a long time these were just pipe dreams that we’d discuss from time to time. We had many years to think about this so we didn’t really latch on to any clear plans for a long time.

In the late 90’s we found a deal that resulted in us spending a week in the Bahamas. During that week we took a couple of excursions that exposed us to the remoter islands as well as one instance where we spent time on a sailboat. The experience was thrilling but the idea of sailing didn’t leave the mental compartment of ‘what you might do while on vacation.’

In 2001 I attended a two day leadership training course which involved, on the second day, crewing aboard a 67ft ocean racing boat on Long Island Sound. We slept the night on the boat and during the sail, my role for the day was navigator. The whole two day event was on and around boats / marinas which revealed a ‘strange attraction.’ Something felt altogether good.

About this time I also learned that people actually went off on small boats and sailed the world. What and adventure that would be. Helen and I talked about this idea. I can’t say that either of us, at that time, were immediately committed to the idea. But we both felt it was an idea that could be evaluated a little further.

So began the annual trek to the boat shows. Living in NJ we are 4-5 hours away from each of the Newport & Annapolis Boat shows and we have now visited each several times. Each time we have gone to the shows, we have gone with different eyes. The first year we went we just about knew one end of a boat from another. We went there principally to ask ourselves the question of whether or not we could consider a boat a home. The answer was yes.

So in 2002 we did a little of what I now learned to call “Sailing on Other People’s Boats.” Not much – perhaps 2-3 trips but it was enough to begin to understand what some of the bits on boats did. The 2002 Boat Show trip now had us looking at the boats with some comprehension of what we were looking at. We began to see how some boats were better for crew to work together and some more oriented to single handing.

In 2003 we wanted to acquire some more skills so we took ASA-101 with New Jersey Sailing School. The October Boat Show that year was again different to us as we now knew what things were called, we felt more confident talking to people and we had the benefit of having thought about the concept for a couple of year. At this point we were far from committed to the idea of permanently living on a boat.

At this point we felt it was important to spend some time on a boat and to seriously ask ourselves the question on whether or not the idea of living and traveling on a boat was something we could really do. In 2004, we decided to spent a week in the BVIs having further instruction so we could not only get some living time on the water but also extend our knowledge. While our experience was mixed, we did end this experience changed. Before this trip, sailing around the world was an idea we were both testing in our minds. We agree that after this trip, sailing around the world became an idea we were to pursue and make real. We became committed to the dream.

At that point the big problem was a lack of real experience so we joined Newport Sailing School on the west bank of the Hudson river. Throughout the summer of 2004 practically every weekend we would join two other individuals from the club and sail J24s around NewYork harbor. It was an awesome and challenging place to sail. We had a chance to sail with lots of different people and as each sailor brings a different set of experiences, we learned much that year.

A small rewind. In 2003 while visiting the New Jersey Boat Show we bumped into Larry and Laurie Brown while eating lunch. We got to chatting and soon learned they sailed out of Raritan Yacht Club and owned a boat called Timeless. They invited us out to sail on her and we exchanged telephone numbers. We didn’t really expect to be called but 2 weeks later Larry did call us and soon after we were all out on Timeless on a great September day on Raritan Bay. The trip was made all the more exciting by a traveler failure which left the boat uncontrolled while we were crossing the path of an oncoming tanker. We survived the incident. Larry, who was a member of the club, suggested we might want to put ourselves on the waiting list for members so we did.

Back to 2004. Late that year we were contacted by the club to say that we were now soon up for members as the list of people ahead of us was getting shorter. I think it was still a year to wait at that time but the waiting time did shrink rapidly due to a number of events. So in early 2005 we found ourselves being inducted into the club. In talking to Larry that day we found he had put Timeless up for sale. At that point our intentions had been to spend the first year at the club crewing other peoples boats so we could learn more about different types of boat before, perhaps, buying a second hand boat ourselves. Suddenly, here was a boat for sale which we had sailed before, was in good condition, we knew and trusted the owner and wasn’t 50-100 miles away. I had read and understood at this point that buying a second hand boat is an arduous experience and the temptation to avoid all the rigmarole was strong.

Helen and I discussed the pros and cons later that day. I still remember the sense of commitment involved and how, having made the decision to buy Timeless, we had changed. We had now become boat owners and fully entered the world of boats, repairs, marine stores, repairs, marinas, repairs, salt water, and everything that goes along with owning a boat. And repairs.

In 2005 we took the bold move to sail around Long Island in Timeless. To make this possible we invited along an old friend of my mother (Bob) who was an avid sailor. This was definitely a stretch for me and I was a little too far out of my comfort zone at times but as ever, in times like this, I learned a lot from the experience.

By this time, Helen and I had firmly set our sights on a catamaran for our voyaging. While the sailing experience itself may be less than that on a mono-hull, our thoughts were more dominated by the fact that we were to be travelers and most of the time we would be stationary. Livability was crucial and cats beat mono-hulls on this score. No debate.

We had also budgeted our future trip and realized that we would be looking at a second hand boat. For the previous couple of years, we had been looking at new boats as if we were going to buy one of them in a few years time once it had been used a little.

A concern had been building that to get a 3-5 year old catamaran we were more than likely having to get a boat that was used in charter. Also, that would mean more potential rigmarole trying to find the boat we wanted at the right time and in roughly the right place. I also began to realize that if we were to buy a used charter cat, someone else had probably profited out of the experience as well as multiple dealers as it was sold on. This didn’t add up unless, perhaps, we were the charter owners.

So in 2005 with these ideas percolating through our minds we went to the Annapolis Boat Show. The last thing we expected to do was buy a boat that year but that’s what we did. I had been reading up on the concept of diesel electric hybrid propulsion and was attracted to the idea. At the show, we were introduced to the Lagoon 420 concept. All it was was a bunch of pdfs in terrible colour. But we loved the 440 and the 410 and were able to visualize the 420 in our minds. It was attractive. Very attractive. The financial incentive was that they were still selling the first 20 hulls and the price was discounted to attract early commitments. So we had one of those life altering chats over a beer and the end result, that afternoon we signed papers and cut a deposit check.

That was October 2005. Five days ago, on April 23rd, Dignity was launched. I must say I’ve had one or two sleepless nights thinking about what we’ve got ourselves into but they’re all behind us.

It’s hard to describe how I feel right now. Last Monday was a rush of emotion. Getting the photos, low res as they are, suddenly switched the dream from being something that was theoretical to something that is now tangible and real. It can be actually seen now. And soon we’ll be able to touch the dream when we take our 3 week trip on Dignity at the end of June.

Now it’s all fingers crossed that the rigging, the Quality Control and delivery all work out well. We’re down to only two weeks contingency on the timeline and many things could delay us further.

Back to the real world. Time to stop writing and off to the yard to paint Timeless’s bottom. Ah – the joys of the sea.