Long Goodbyes

It’s starting to get exciting. I will be leaving the US and heading back to the Dominican Republic in about 21 days. Typically, things get pretty hectic as I approach the departure date for my next chapter. I have been doing my best to get well ahead of the list of tasks at hand but this particular leg presents new challenges. This will be the first time I am flying in to join up with Arcturus out of the country. I need to do my best to get the business as stable as possible before leaving the conveniences of cell phone coverage, easy access to the internet and the ability to meet up with new potential clients. I have been working to tie up any leads that I have as well as work to plan ahead so that the business is not at a standstill while I am travelling out of the country. I have a photo shoot at New Bern Gymnastics all this week. I will be printing those orders as they come in. I also just received a big order from Kitty Mitchell as well. She has an exciting event down in Charleston featuring her Famous Artists Drinking Coffee. We have one more day of onsite photos next Friday, too.

That is work enough in itself. However, I also need to plan and prepare for the next leg of the voyage on board the sailboat. She has been sitting still since August 2015. Every other voyage typically begins with a haul out and inspection at the yard. Lots of prep work and supplies with US materials and a car at hand. I currently can purchase any of the materials I may need but the trick is that I need to bring everything back with me on an airplane. Arcturus held up amazingly well all last year. Those two years of hard work spent refitting the boat and burning money paid off. So, as far as I know, nothing too major needs to be done to get her ready to go (How’s that for a jinx??). I know I need to replace my furling line and my jib sheets. All of my headlamps became plagued with corrosion and need replacing. (That sounds like Consumption from olden times. It got the Corrosion and is doomed!). My super nifty pump shower got snatched off the deck and eaten by the ocean somewhere between San Salvador and Providenciales. I was foolish in Luperon and managed to let the battery bank drain down too far. I believe the system is functioning fine now but it is still a concern.

Anyhow, the point is that there is not too much that needs to be done to take off. I need to clean the bottom and do a few test runs to look over everything. So I will bring my jib sheets and other items back with me on the airplane. Change a few lines. That sort of thing. The unnerving question is “What is going to break that I do not know about?”. When I left, things were fine. What has happened in the past year that may be a problem? I have speculated and pondered this question at great length but the unfortunate truth is that I will have to wait and find out. Keeps things exciting, right? I will be able to get some limited supplies in the Dominican Republic and can always have things shipped in. I just run the risk of burning a lot of money and the time of both my crewmate and I.

Amongst all of this, I have been trying to figure out how to visit as many friends and family as possible before heading out. I am not a terribly nostalgic fellow but I do miss my close friends and family while I am away. I meet lots of people while travelling and end up building new friendships with some amazing people. Many of them that I hope to keep for a long time. But those people only know my past through the stories I have told them. We are able to create fresh memories and share experiences with each other that form the basis of our new friendship. But all of these experiences happen over a short time span. I do not say this to devalue these relationships. I think time is extremely relative when it comes to friends. Travelling and sailing amplify the time spent together. Sailing with someone for two months can accumulate more meaningful experiences than someone you only see occasionally. Together, you are exposed to many challenges and a full range of emotions that may never surface in typical friendships. But still, these are fresh experiences. I can attempt to explain Warren Wilson College to a crewmate but I always fail to do it justice. I can highlight some of the more heroic stories and a few embarrassing ones but all the feeling and character of the place is absent unless you have experienced it yourself. The same goes for Camp Albemarle. Anyone who has worked for a summer at a camp can understand how difficult it is to explain how special a place is to someone who has never been there. The same goes for any other meaningful time or place.

I love being able to visit a good friend that I have not seen in a while. Things fall naturally back into place. I don’t have to explain myself. I don’t have to start from scratch. These friends know me. I need to do a blog post at some point on the First Ten Questions I Get Asked. I can usually guess about the first 7 out of 10 questions that will come up when I first meet someone. I’ll save that topic for another day. Point being, I don’t have to answer any of these when speaking with old friends.

So, back to the first paragraph. Exciting times. Twenty-one days left and counting before leaving the country. Business things to do. Sailboat repairs to plan for. But it is time for the long goodbyes, too. Not see you next week. More like see you in July or so. “See you when I see you” and a high five. I have been home since December and have had plenty of time to visit and see friends. But there are still so many people I would like to visit before taking off on this next leg. People I haven’t even seen during these ten months. I was almost panicky the other day trying to work out a Farewell Tour across North Carolina before heading out. One friend out on Ocracoke said I need to be more efficient and just throw a party somewhere and invite everyone to see me. I wish. But I think getting everyone I know together only works for weddings and things like that (I was going to say weddings and funerals but that sounded pretty damn morbid). So I think it is just a natural byproduct of a travel lifestyle. You get good at goodbyes and long gaps between visits. Numbed, or at least conditioned, to the farewells. But it is always hardest with the friends and family from home. When travelling, everyone is moving around and constantly shifting. But it is tougher when everyone is staying in one place and I am the one taking off. I truly enjoy meeting new people and I believe that is a big part of my attraction to a travel lifestyle. But the long goodbyes back home are always the toughest.

Still. These are exciting times. New adventures ahead. New people to meet and create stories with. New countries (to me) to explore. See as many old friends and family as possible before heading out. The rest will just have to meet me in Culebra:).

Last week I put out an offer for a free print for anyone that actually read through to the bottom of this post. Just curious to see if anyone out there is checking out the blog and also say thanks for reading. So, if anyone actually made it to the bottom of this blog post, I’ll send you an 8×10 photo print of your choice from my shop: www.sailawaywebdesign.com/shop. Here is a coupon that will expire next week for one free print per blog reader: longgoodbyes. Enter this in and get your free print! I’ll put a limit of, I don’t know, say 20 coupons, so the first 20 readers to cash in get the free print. Thanks for reading!