Here I Go Again

It was about a week ago that I made the decision to sail south for the winter on  White Seal, a boat that I have owned since 1984. It has kept me busy, taking care of maintenance tasks, laying in provisions, and finally, the most daunting project, setting up this blog. As many will attest, I have an aversion to all things digital, and yet am in need of a platform to stay in touch with family and friends as I make my south along the coast.

To that end, I purchased a cell phone, the first one of my own, actually, and am gradually becoming less terrified by its use as the days pass. I am astounded that AT&T would sell that kind of technological device to someone as unqualified as myself, but I guess that in todays world, competency is not a precursor to ownership. There will be other intimidating lessons to learn as I attempt to post photos on to this site, and to establish something called a hotspot so I can use the laptop computer with its more user friendly keyboard; but I am confident that will happen soon enough.

More about this upcoming journey. This will be the fifth cruise of this type on the White Seal during my ownership. I have also been along the coast several other times on other boats as well, with the first trip being made around 1974 on my father's schooner, the Sea Song. I don't know why I keep doing this sort of thing, since there is a large amount of discomfort, expense, fear, and general hassle involved. But it seems that every so often, I must. It helps that I retired from my job several months ago and theoretically have more time on my hands. My wife Meg, and daughter Mary have been telling me I should do this while I am still in decent health and able to sail the boat comfortably by myself. Mary is hoping to join me for some extensive cruising in the islands of the Bahamas, where we cruised as a family about 8 years ago. You can read her account of that adventure by accessing her blog at marysyearofcruising.blogspot.com. In spite of her young age at the time, I suspect that her account will be eminently more readable than that of her fathers!

I have been working on the boat this summer with the idea in the back of my mind that I might be going south, so it is not like I had to start at square one a week ago. But there has still been plenty to do. And there are some tasks that will get completed while underway. Fortunately, White Seal is an extremely simple boat without complex systems and I am able to perform most tasks myself. Keeping busy has also been an effective way to keep my mind off the worries that tend to creep in, those that fall in to the category of self doubt. But I need to avoid diving too far into self analysis at this early stage. Better to verify that this posting to a blog actually works. So, without further ado, welcome to my blog and lets see what happens when I hit the publish button!

Cheers, Charlie