Hello 2021!

I’m officially back on land and ready for a fresh start. I know that’s probably old news since we are in the middle of January but after 60 days on a boat, I’m in desperate need of a lifestyle reboot. In case you don’t believe me I have some gnarly before an after selfies to provide clarity. As you can see, I go from excited to exhausted in exactly two months. EXHAUSTED!

I’ll spare you the gallery of burns and bruises. You can just take my word on that. Just know that I’m back in my bed and happy to be home. The trip was amazing but so is the comfort of land. I need to remind myself of this as the dullness of a routine here sets in and I get back to stewing in the pandemic boredom.

Just kidding! There will be no boredom stewing because I got ideas! I’ve got loads of ideas. Follow through? Ugh… that’s a different story but ya know. Gotta try! More on that later. Until then I’ll share some snippets of boat life. It truly was amazing. The weather wasn’t great nor very exotic but the opportunity to meet incredible people and safely work along side them during a global pandemic is 100% a “life after caregiving” success story!

Meeting the boat at the dock in Key West.

Before departing we have to provision the boat. We did this over two days and it’s a process that involves goods arriving by, semi truck on series of pallets packaged in boxes. The crew works to remove the packaging, helping reduce the amount of future waste we will have on board. Fruit and some vegetables get dried out on the deck before stowing because any moisture from condensation will increase their chances for spoilage. Refrigeration and freezer items are put away as quickly as possible and dry goods get stowed throughout the ship. It’s a pretty involved process to provision a boat going to sea for a month with 30+ people aboard. The budget is typically around $10K and we often bring on more than 4000 pounds of food. Below is a gallery of photos of the provisioning process. There’s actually a lot more to it but these images will give you a hint of what it’s like.

And of course there are sunsets! Each one attempts to out-compete the next.

And sails!

And quite a few storms…

A shot of some storm clouds rolling in. We had our share of bad weather this trip but that’s part of the job.

I never take enough pictures but the best parts of being at sea can’t be captured on film. It’s the feeling of setting out into the unknown. It’s the joy of not needing a phone, the thrill of unpredictable weather, and most importantly, the company of great people. I will miss all these things they will likely lure me back in time. But for now I’m home!

Who wants to carve spoons?!