Six Months on a Reflection
Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Thu 1 Jul 2010 23:19
of the Sacred Valley in Peru, drinking a fine cup of coffee, looking up at
the surrounding mountains, and just absorbing the culture and atmosphere.
It is 6 months since we sailed out Newport on our "adventure" that being an
important point, not a cruise but and adventure that includes cruising as a
significant part of it. The initial 3 to 4 months on the boat, we grew up as
a family being able to easily handle multiple day passages and very
comfortable with them, actually Tracy comments that it is easier to 150
miles vs 60 as we get settled in and people get sleep, in the shorter
passages we do not get time to sleep and get into a routine especially the
boys.
The adventure down the Mexican coast was rewarding and testing, our
confidence in boat handling has increased, and especially in GIJIMA as she
has performed very well, and functionally all of the developments we did
over the last 10 years to her have worked well, so it is comforting. She is
comfortable to travel in and reliable, and in the many situations we found
ourselves in we could handle her, the new systems of electronics and new
engine made a big difference in our confidence.
We enjoyed the experiences on the Mexican coast and meeting different
cruises but we found it more of and adventure than the "Jimmy Buffet" cruise
experience with only two places really getting into a relaxed cruising
climate.
We have now spent 4 months on the boat, and 2 months land travelling, which
has made a great combination, we had questions through the initial 4 months
should we go directly to Australia this year doing the Pacific this year,
like many of the boats we came down with. But we would have missed these
last 2 months of experiences, which have been priceless like the Pategonia,
falls, Easter Island and Peru.
What we realized when we arrived in El Salvador is that we out to gain as
many experiences as we can, and taking 2 1/2 months to explore South America
(which we realized is out of cruising plans practically) we have evolved
more, satisfied a part of the world that needed real time dedicated to it,
and we feel like we have done Chile, Argentina, Peru justice, even Tracy who
has been parts before feels like she has experienced more.
A key part of cruising is seeing through the whole year, not just the 5 to 8
months you are on the boat, and budget and plan for it all, too many people
do not take this into account, we have made up our minds that we want use
the off boat time to explore places we cannot realistically get to by boat,
which there are a huge amount which land travel is better suited. We are
letting our dreams of the future take this into account both mentally, kids
and budgeting wise.
The boys development over these 6 months has been astounding, they have
settled into the routine no matter if it is on land or sea, and we as a
family are very comfortable in both modes, and work well as a unit. This
takes out a lot of the comments we get, "isn't it hard travelling with kids,
you are brave" (which we get all the time), because it is different with
kids than just the two of us, but is it hard, no not if you adjust the way
you go about things to work with them. Example is that we do trips and
exploring in the morning, leaving from 1.30 pm to 4 pm for the boys to
sleep, or do their own thing, build legos, drawing, play cars etc, you must
let them have their own space and time. We have also fitted in education,
making it and enjoyable task, doing things in the morning or when we on a
train like maths etc, and Sean has taken to this and come on a long way, but
again the 1 on 1 time is needed, and we splitting this. Alex has also come
along developing rapidly and just adsorbing in the environments around them.
Another point we have learnt is 2 1/2 months is about as long you can go
before you need to stop for a month stay in one spot, feel familiar with
that spot and apart of that spot, get to know people, this recharges all of
us, and this does not matter if we are on a boat or land. We stopped in El
Salvador for 3 weeks after coming down the Mexican coast (which we were
moving a couple of times a week), and now we have been moving for 2 + months
every week, in both cases Tracy and I felt like we need to stop, rest, and
settle, again learning our limitations has been good.(interesting thing I
felt when I was single 3 months was my limit, so did Tracy and we seeing
that with many others as we meet them). Rushing is not relaxing and given
what we have learnt about travel comfort if we had crossed the pacific this
year we would have effectively been on a 10 month deliver from California to
Australia always under a certain pressure to keep moving.
The other big truth is that as we go further on we continue to simplify our
lives in all aspects, and this is where the real term "RELAX" comes in, we
feel in control of our lives, we are prepared to adapt plans (this took time
for me to deal with) things can and will change, be prepared to do it, and
do not get rattled eg weather, or flights canceled etc, plan but take it as
it comes. I was told by a friend that I would simplify through the year and
true enough we have, the hardest was leaving in the first place, but we
constantly looking to make financials, committments etc easier. As I have
stated before this is the third time in my life I have had this "simple
freedom" feeling, and it is just wonderful, and it allows you to relax and
recharge and get very motivated.
Are we happy? yes, Would we do it over again? yes, Would we change things,
probably the route down we would take another month and spend more time in
the Sea of Cortez and T Bay as we thought we would enjoy the southern
Mexican coast more than we did.
What does the next 6 months look like:
1/ Finish exploring South America
2/ Return to El Salvador for 2 to 3 months, we probably spend a month of
this in the mountains of Guatemala learning Spanish.
3/ We may return to US for a couple week.
4/ We will continue on down central American coast to Costa Rica, Panama
enjoying the island sand beautiful anchorages, rivers which are reported to
be some of the best on the west coast this will be 3 months.
5/ End of the year we will ship the boat "Gijima" from Costa Rica to
Australia (we have decided that we do not want push it across for 5 months
getting there late 2011) instead get to Australia early next year and be
ready to explore/ cruise the Coral sea and then the western pacific for the
next 5 years.
6/ We will look at opportunities within Invensys (already engaging a bit
more).
Key is keep it simple, and then avoid making life complex again, enjoy the
development time with the boys, who are just growing and absorbing like you
cannot believe.
This is a shape to a plan, details will change, but we are enjoying the
experience.
Tim, Tracy, Sean, Alex Sowell
S/V Gijima