UTC 1021

August 16th… It is a special day… 

The current  anniversary  — 2 years ago,  SV Eleonora was put in the water in Newport, RI, USA ! 
That was the result of enormous efforts,  huge support of all people and friends around.  Surrounded by many voices of sceptics… ;-) 

And the journey has started! 

Two years… Is it long or short period ?  I guess, it all depends how to measure… 

In terms of conventional, everyday time — not too long, for sure.

In terms what has been achieved… 
Let me start with simple measure —  the amount of stamps in my passport — the countries I’ve visited and left — is more then I have ever seen in my previous life, and have in my previous passports… 

And indeed — USA cost,   BVI, USVI,  Caribbean Islands ( nearly all of them, except one or two… ),  Columbia,   UK,  Spain, Portugal…
We made nearly 10,000  nm so far… ( Unfortunately, I started to make more accurate track of millage relatively recently, that is why the exact number is ‘unknown’ ;
Most of it — including return from Columbia to Grenada,  crossing the Atlantic from Antigua to Azores, then to UK, then to Atlantic Spain, etc…. — has been done single handling…  

It has always been a pleasure to see friends on board and to travel together!  Since some people has come more then once — I hope the feelings were mutual! ;-) 
And I only hope that in the future — it will be even more people who are ready to share  the adventure(s)! 

As in any relation development, the bound between the boat and myself — change a lot too!  
There is no ’only one right way’ to start the boat cruising.  Everyone will find his own way, and  with some persistence and dedication the way would be correct and lead to success, for sure.  

Looking backward — some of my earlier ‘right plans’  make me laugh loudly!  ( I was planning to bring the boat to Montreal,  spent a couple of years to learn her going to Lake Ontario, and only then — back to the Ocean…  The fact that to do that — I was planning to go all way around, go up though the whole St. Lawrence river…  did not bother me…  Now, I’m laughing and asking myself — if I had succeeded in bringing the  boat it Montreal that way, what I would had learned  on Lake Ontario after ?! )

I have been extremely lucky that all  the way  from the moment of getting the boat, I’ve been surrounded by the highly professional  people,  who have always been ready to help ever since.   And today, if somebody asked me  — ‘Where should I start with my cruising/boating? ‘,  I would probably have no enough words to emphasis — you need a proper mind set, and  a good team of people on land, to take care about you…  The rest — technical details! ;-) 

The mind set… 
It has been and it is constantly changing during the two years.   I stepped on board with experience of day sailing and weekend sailing on the river. I had some ‘ideas’ about what the ‘long cruising  life’ is about — again, thanks to my friends, and their stories about cruising in Caribbean Islands….  

And then I started to learn all aspects of  living aboard, soaking into the life on the water,  and getting it inside as a sponge… The process is still going on… with no clear goal where it will take me eventually…  The place of the blog message — is not enough to cover all details of the transformation. Some of them already described in earlier messages and e-mails…  I can only say — the process is deep, it is making some changes deeply inside… I can only notice how fundamental it is — as visitors coming on board,  and then — I can see how deeply I’m ’sinking’ into the ’life on the water’…  

Is it good ? Is it bad?  Neither.  It is just different.  It is different in the way you are taking your everyday life, the way you appreciate it. For example, your relationships with people of land are  becoming different…. Some ‘disappear’ naturally… But — most importantly — some is getting only stronger and stronger!  

‘ Do I like it ?’ — would be the more correct question.  
The answer to that question — in not easy. I do not like everything what I did during the last 2 years,  there are things I’m not really proud of…  But…

As today — I’m still planning to continue that life,  solving the challenges as they appear — both on the boat, and on land.  And — most importantly — enjoy occasional pleasant moments, which life brings! 

And on that note —  2 years past,  hello year #3! 


Have a great day,

Talk to you soon, 
M.