The crew of Pandora are home in CT, Hurricane Melissa has come and gone and the Salty Dawg Caribbean Rally fleet is on their way south to Antigua.
As they make their way south here I am in CT, thinking about spring. The coming cold weather is going to take some getting used to, as with rare exception, we have not been home during the winter for a decade.
Beginning in 2012 Brenda and took a big gulp and shoved off for the Bahamas, making our way down the Intra Coastal Waterway, arriving in Ft Lauderdale in December and then crossing to the Bahamas in early January. And, for nearly every year since then, we have avoided the cold New England winters, until now…
2012 seems so long ago and since then we have spent several seasons in the Bahamas, a few months in Cuba and for nearly a decade seasons in the eastern Caribbean.
This is us as we began our run from CT way back then.
And this is us this August in Madrid. A bit older but still pretty good. Right?
And, while I am on a roll. A photo of us out for dinner recently for the 53rd anniversary of our first date on October 28th, 1972. Yikes!
Enough? Be glad that I didn’t fall farther down that rabbit hole and start showing wedding photos or pix of our grandchildren.
Ok, back to the topic at hand.
Now, with Pandora in Spain after my trans-Atlantic run this year, (not bad for an old guy, right?) our plans have us in the Med for the next few years. The plan is trade the balmy winters of the Caribbean for time in the spring and fall in the Med.
Don’t get me wrong, I am pretty excited about exploring the Med but between now and our time aboard beginning in April, looms a long New England winter and as the fleet heads south, I have to admit that I am feeling a bit left out.
This flipping of the seasons has lead to many changes to our routine, the details only beginning to emerge. During the summer we have two large caldrons with water plants and a few koi and goldfish. In past years we have returned the fish to the watergarden place in the fall and gone back for some “new” ones each spring.
Well, given my new “landlocked” state this winter I thought it would be fun to “winter” the fish at home and purchased a used 50 gallon aquarium for my office so I can keep those fish for the winter instead of giving them up. I mention this as this is just one example of what I am focusing on to offer myself solace as winter approaches. Sailing…fish tank…? At least it is water, I guess…
The tank, complete with a dozen small goldfish/koi is giving me something to focus on as I prepare for a “long winter nap”.
I mention this as “feeding time at the zoo” has become a sort of weird parable for how I feel as I see winter approaching. Before I explain more, perhaps this short video of the fish, will set the stage.
Over the last month or so the fish have become accustomed to my presence as an opportunity to be fed and they go crazy as I approach.
Yes, this is a particularly odd analogy, but to me as the fish go crazy trying to get my attention, vibrating with excitement, hoping that they will get what they want, I can’t help but compare them to my own circumstances as I too watch from the “other side of the glass”, the 100+ Salty Dawg Rally boats that are making their way south for the winter.
A frenzy of FOMO, Fear-of-Missing-Out, or in my case, just a simple MO, Missing-Out, after more than a decade of winters afloat is taking some getting used to.
As I consider what the Rally folks are doing as they head south, I am feeling like I too am “on the outside looking in”, and I don’t like it at all 🙁
Of course, that totally ignores the reality that we will soon be sailing in the waters of Odysseus and there is likely no better way to see the Mediterranean countries than by boat, the same way that that famous Greek traveler did so long ago. He was Greek, right? Shows that I have a lot to learn, doesn’t it.
The problem for me is that I really don’t know what to expect. The questions are endless. I suppose that there are just as many uncertainties now as I had when I first contemplated heading to the Caribbean. Where should I go? Were there places to anchor that would be sheltered? Was it going to be terribly complicated and expensive to move from country to country?
All these questions and more are now back on the table but as I learn more about the waters we will be exploring I expect that my MO will soon be replaced by WMNMOAA, We-May-Not-Miss-Out-After-All, and hopefully in time by WADI, “We-Are-Doing-It”. I expect what lies ahead will be great fun and perhaps even better than what we have seen in the Caribbean.
Yes, I am currently feeling a bit of FOMO, or a resignation that it’s more like MO, so I think that I had better reach out to others that have gone before and learn from them.
So, have you sailed in the Med and want to share your experiences? I hope so and if you want to talk reach out to me at bob@sailpandora.com.
Please write… I have the whole winter ahead of me and am anxious to pivot as soon as possible from MO to WADI and soon.
If you too are suffering from MO, check out the fleet tracking map for the 100+ boats that are heading south as part of the Salty Dawg Rally to the Caribbean.