“The Sabbatical 2020/21”

We hope this blog serves 3 purposes: to (1) convey information to friends and family, (2) to track our progress, and (3) to document the adventure. By the time we cast off, our family will have spent five years planning and preparing for this trip. Various posts and pages herein detail these efforts, and the rationale for not only each individual step, but also for the trip as a whole.

This voyage began in 2015 when I sent Joy a text message: “Just an idea… what do you think of taking a 6-month sabbatical?” I also sent a link to Sailing Totem (https://www.sailingtotem.com/welcome-aboard). Fully expecting a quick dismissal, I was floored upon receipt of her response, “that sounds awesome. Lets do it.” A few days later, Jimmy Cornell’s treatises, which detail world cruising routes and destinations, arrived via Amazon and we were “off to the races.”

Since that time, countless hours have been spent planning and preparing. From the big issues, (e.g., money, home, safety and education) to the small, (mail, lawn care, snow removal), we’ve done our best to ensure a safe and seamless transition to a “voyaging lifestyle,” albeit a temporary one. From 2015 through 2020, on any given night our dining room table was covered in nautical charts, cruising guides and nautical almanacs. Winters were spent at Larsen Marine in Waukegan partially refitting the boat for extended cruising. Broad information on the refit is detailed under “Our Vessel” and blog entry “Outfitting for 2020 Sabbatical.”

We broke the news to the girls in 2017 and received a mixed response. Frankly, neither of them is excited about this. And, admittedly, our anticipated track is a long one. Of the two, Frankie—who spends 5 days per week sailing Optis during the summer—is more resistant, but mostly because she does not want to leave the dog. Evelyn, on the other hand, is largely ambivalent. But given the choice, it is clear that Evelyn (13 at the time of cast-off) would rather be with her friends and electronics than with her parents and sister aboard a small sailboat. From my perspective, that’s all the more reason to go and go now.

Why are we doing this?

There are simply too many reasons to enumerate here. The best reason, however, is because we can. A few months of uninterrupted time with the kids before the teenage years, off the grid and without electronics; no peer pressure, no academic pressure, no sports or theater, nor scouting; no clients or billing, no collections or insurers — sign me up!

Will this suck? Maybe — it will certainly be a challenge. But surely not all of it will suck. Yet, even if it does, E & F will be talking about this adventure long after its completion. It will certainly make them more interesting at cocktail parties, or it may be a central theme for their therapists to explore later in life: “we fell behind in school and couldn’t graduate because my parents had to ‘go sailing.’ Now we live under a viaduct.”