Back to the Future

On my first assignment in the Coast Guard, the USCGC Campbell, we sometimes spent over three weeks in a row at sea and up to 3 months away from our homeport. Towards the end of my time there, after I knew that I was transferring to California and after I'd started dating a certain someone, I grew incredibly restless. The ship, whether through work or play, had a way of inserting itself into your life. You were kept busy enough that it was hard to get involved in much in the way of hobbies. It wouldn't have been impossible, and there is no one to blame but myself, but I just didn't develop much during those years. Since I was leaving, my responsibilities had been whittled down to mere supervision. I had a ton of time to think about my future. So, lots of time led to a few ideas bouncing around in my head, which I can't handle for very long before doing something about them. Before the patrol was over I had paid for half of a 1968 Hunter 25 sloop, located in South San Francisco. I didn't have any idea how to sail, but I'd learn. Amanda and I had also decided to move in together in San Francisco. She'd already driven out to Los Angeles and was living with her best friend there. I didn't have any idea how to live with a girlfriend, but I'd learn that, too. Some nights I'd try to sleep, only to lay there awake for hours thinking. Change was in the air.

Skip forward five and a half years and here we are, on a boat, thinking about our futures. For the past three years this has been our goal. We worked, saved and sailed in order to be where we are today. We were “the boat people.” Within five minutes of meeting someone it would invariably come up. Whether someone asked where we lived, what we did for fun, or what we had for breakfast, the fact that we lived on a boat and had a plan to sail her always came up. We were proud of it. I'm still proud of it.

So far this trip has been everything we thought it would be, and more. The “everything we thought” part has been great, surfing, diving, traveling, new people, new foods, new cultures. More, as in some of it has been a challenge. We might have under-estimated the strains of traveling as far as we have set out to; especially without an auto-helm. I'm not going to say that no one told me so, but someone should have grabbed me by the scruff and said “Boy, put an auto-helm onboard, don't be a dummy!” That, and a few other things that I had looked at as unnecessary luxuries (like shade and ice). But, we've been able to live without traffic, rude people (almost), cell phones, most of our clothes, the daily drivel of the news and all the other “benefits” that 21^st century life brings us. It's been a period in our lives without distractions. Things are rarely crystal clear, but right now it's pretty close. I think that without this time I might have jumped right into the next job that came my way. It might have worked out, or it might have led me to back into the woods. I got out of the Coast Guard because no one was going to grant me 270 days of leave to sail Central America. But, there were other reasons that have more to do with what I want to accomplish and become. It was a job I loved, but staying in meant moving up the chain and giving up the bits that made me happy.

So, while no one is relieving us of our duties or officially transferring us to our next assignment, we are spending time on what's next. What is next? We'll save that for later. But, it feels a bit silly to be on a boat off the coast of Panama on a beautiful, sunny day talking about what kind of puppy we might want, what kitchen utensils we'll need and what life will be like when we have to wear more clothes.