Why?

I have not thought much about why we are doing this.

The paradox is that I am a planner at heart. A few might deign to utilize the term obsessive compulsive in my proximity from time to time.  Nearly a decade ago, I drafted an outline (in Excel of course), that charted the ages of the boys, our sailing experience, experience we needed to gain, timing for the boys going to high school, our tenure at HMI, and our ages relative to a second career.

From this fell out the obvious window of time that we are in now for an adventure afloat. The conversations about should we go, were brief. I can't even say they were thoughtful. Likewise in founding HMI, Molly and I leaped and only 18 years later bothered to look. 

Anchored outside a bustling harbor on the edge of the chaos that exists everywhere on the coast of France in August, we are exposed in any northerly weather yet snug in the prevailing, and forecast, southwesterly breeze. It is a glorious day, yet I am a bit on edge. Mindful of the weather, the wind whistling through the rigging, I am trying not to burn dinner (some good looking local bread and a Pyrex full of roasted vegetables in the oven with some hollandaise sauce on the galley range top to sell the deal).

There is a chance, all be it a small one, that in the wee hours of tonight a wind shift will force us to weigh anchor and sail until a sunrise allows us to enter sheltered waters. I like the feeling. The nervousness of the unknown.

I've waxed poetic about the merits of taking risk from the comfort of my office chair for years. It is nice to be back on the sharp end with some real "known unknowns" and "unknown unknowns" to contend with. It is our intent in less than five months to sail across the Atlantic Ocean. I have lots to learn about the boat, the specifics of the classic trade winds crossing, the craft of good seamanship, and of course most importantly about myself. 

The last item is of course why I adventure and dare to try new things. The unknown is often disconcerting. This motivates me to pay attention, to be truly mindful, and to learn what matters in a given moment.

The moment just now calls for feeding the hungry beasts below. They carp for hollandaise as might a seaman of old for his daily ration of rum. 

- Christopher

PS - down along the bottom of each page is a spot to enter your email address and get updates whenever we add to this blog, if and only if you are so inclined. You can, of course, unsubscribe at any time if we fail to amuse or enlighten sufficiently. I still need to sort out RSS feeds for those tech savants who prefer that format, a "to do" item on a rather long list but I'll get to that eventually.