2013 -what a year!

Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Mon 30 Dec 2013 19:29
Looking back at where we where at New Years Eve 2012-13 it gives a goose bump.
So we started the New Year in Bequay/Caribbean , with Lisa and Gustaf on board, newly engaged.
We had langusters that we boiled ourselves on the aft deck.
Now if 2012 was adventurous with our first Atlantic crossing, one could say that 2013 has been my most adventurous year in my life
outside business. Who would believe such a thing was possible with kids?
It has not been comfortable, for sure, but we have not suffered. And moving out of a comfort zone is never comfortable.
It is scary, but as long as the challenge is manageable you grow with the new experience.
To avoid challenge and thereby being scared will probably be more dangerous anyway. I read recently that if you stay away from danger
your life becomes more narrow and your comfort zone SHRINKS.With that you become scared to more and more or you may fall into a depression.
That does not mean you have to sail on the Pacific to avoid depression, but there are challenges inside and outside us.
I think that for us living in a country where we are obsessed with safety in all forms we tend to forget that the biggest safety
factor must come from within ourselves, and to gain that we have to challenge life.

As some of you have read my perspective is far from positive all the time, but that probably comes with an uncomfortable life. The rewards and the pains are
peaking thus making life noticeable.
Instead of living a life where the days sort of blend into each other, and suddenly a year passed by, we tend to live the days with the challenges that comes with them.

Most of us want to be comfortable and we might end up sitting in a comfort chair facing life though a TV or computer screen.
On board Salsa, when the waves are making life miserable sailing though the night. You end up curling in the cockpit watching the sun coming up and just appreciating that it happens and that everything works for you.
To have kids is an every day challenge, every parent knows it. To be with the kids all the time is more challenging. And rewarding.

As this year ends Andreas has been on the boat 27% of his life. His memory of life at home is fading away. He was probably the one of us most astonished to live in a house when we stayed with Ian and Jan this christmas. He is furious now when we ask him to dry the dishes, he has seen a dishwasher! How bad can life be without it?

To get a perspective I'm looking in our log book from the Monday meetings. Here are some irrelevant high lights from the meetings:

I look at 13/1-2013 Lisa and Gustaf has left us and we are on our own again.
In the notes everybody is complaining that it feels empty without them.
I raise the question to wether we want to move on now?
I tell them it is far to sail from the ABC islands to Panama, 500nM.
But all on board want to go on, Erika wants to see Galapagos, Andreas wants to sail on: "here is no ice cream"

29/1 Grenada
Andreas wants to learn how to plant trees on a boat without a pot.
Why?
"An orange tree, because I want many oranges"

15/3 Eastern Hollandays Keys/San Blas / Panama on the Atlantic side

How was St Martha / Columbia?
Andreas: The hamburgers where not good

It was a tough sail here...
Andreas: "never again seasickness pills"

Now we have come to San Blas, what do you want to do?
Erika: Feed the pigs

22/4 Mogo Mogo in Las Perlas
We are in the Pacific!
Any wishes?
Erika: its good that the candy question is decided - 10 pieces every saturday
Ellinor: It is nice that we can relax a bit now
Andreas: No
A question that came up around school:
We are going to have school every day, but not on weekends and when there is a storm.

10/5 Isabela/Galapagos
Ant wishes?
Andreas: I want to ride a taxi...
(OK so we have sailed to a remote island in the Pacific that is most known for a very exclusive fauna and animal life, and he wants to ride a cab?)

15/6 Fatu Hiva /Marquesas
What is most important right now?
Andreas: There is a problem with the flight game on the Ipad, there is a rudder problem...
Erika: I want to climb the mountain
Ellinor: Daddy has a down, how can we help him...

We had just done the longest leg ever almost 3000nM
Erika: it worked well but it was a long passage
Andreas: It was good, there was power for the Ipad and that we had candy on saturdays
Ellinor: It worked very well, we were well prepared
Staffan: It worked very well, I felt more safe than ever before. We are getting the hang of it....

Hiva Oa 27/6
Erika asked in the meeting: Are we going to look at coconuts for two years?

12/8 Tahiti
How do you feel?
Erika: Feels good, want to meet Windarra (another boat)
Andreas: Not so god when we are sailing, Erika comes up with new rules all the time (maximum 5 cars)
Erika: Well he does not clean up after himself!

8/9 Rarotonga
Erika wants a job so she can make 30 Kr (3 Euro)
We are thinking about staying here and work....
Staffan has a broken nose that hurts...

2/11 Nuku Alofa Tonga
We had just 12 days with Anders and Alexandra, all liked it a lot. Now it was time to look forward.
Staffan: Lets look ahead of us
Ellinor: Lets go to New Zealand!
Staffan: Well that is going to be one of our most challenging passages, takes a week
Andreas: I want more Ipad time
Staffan:It has been a long pause, he does not talk about it all the time. I suggest 1 hour/week

As I write these highlights I realize we have not had a monday meeting since Tonga.
The kids have come up from their beds and I suggest we have a Monday meeting today....
They scream: Noooooooooooo!

A big treat this new years eve, Osborn called on the phone, what a treat!