Departure Blues

Although we still have a huge number of tasks left before we depart, and we are incredibly busy getting them done, it is suddenly hitting me we are going to be leaving soon. Our house is up for sale, and we’ve been moving our most special possessions to various places with friends, family, a few to the boat, and the rest into storage. Karen has already been feeling the departure blues for several weeks – probably because she has been working the most on clearing out the house and she invested so much in making our house a wonderful home over the past 10 years.

Our kids are off in college and living their own lives. We see them occasionally, but there’s this reluctance to get too close because of the impending separation. The plan is they will be visiting us during the Christmas holidays so it won’t be too long before we see them. So, I guess we use this as an excuse to keep from getting too emotional right now.

Although we’re getting very excited about beginning our dream of sailing around the world, soon we will be saying “au revoir” to friends and family. Saying goodbye to our home and our normal possessions (even selling our cars!).

I’ve always been a dreamer, and I learned a long time ago that there are prices to pay to achieving your dreams. While it is difficult to face these departure blues, I try to remind myself of the joys we will experience once we begin this amazing journey.

Thanks to the Internet, we, at worst, will be just an E-mail or Skype call away from friends and family. Better yet, we hope a lot of friends and family will come down to spend a week or two in paradise with us. That’s the biggest reason why we ended up with Tahina: plenty of room to have guests on board and to share our dream even more intimately than through this web site. If you are a friend of family member, don’t hesitate to call or write an E-mail and ask if you can come to visit. We’d love to see you!

Another thing that will help cure our departure blues is that, we know from past experience, the boating life is filled with making new friends and meeting new people around the world. Upon entering a new anchorage, you will often find yourself meeting other sailors there and soon forming new friendships – many of which last a lifetime. Sailors have a common bond of loving being on the ocean, being dreamers, and loving the boating life. It’s amazing how easy it is to be friends with other sailors, and is one of our favorite parts of this mode of living.

And, we’ve found that people in remote countries, and especially the remote islands, are very open and welcoming to people visiting by sea. We look forward to not just visiting for a day or two, but getting to make friends when we stay for weeks or even months at a time in some countries. That’s why we’re taking 5 years for this adventure – we want to stop and smell the flowers. Not just drop in and see the popular tourist sights.

Lots of things to be excited about. But, I can tell the departure blues are going to be difficult to deal with during our finally few weeks before we leave.