rudderless

Hasta la Vista

For a while there, I thought the universe might be conspiring to keep us in the Keys, forever. The autopilot parts got delayed. Then after days of rigging the darn thing, with its sensitive and expensive compass, the autopilot wouldn’t steer a steady course. We tried to make the GPS talk to the autopilot and bypass the compass altogether.The GPS doesn’t even speak the same language as the autopilot. And on and on and on.

But today we had success. What had become a monstrosity of a electronics issue, boiled down to two wires being mixed up in a wiring diagram that came with the darn thing. We didn’t need GPS. We didn’t need an expensive technician. We needed to look at things in the simplest way possible. Eliminate one problem at a time. And the biggest lesson of all? Never assume the literature is 100% spot on. Even if you are.

So off we go in a day or two, bound for cooler waters, if not a cooler summer (wow, the hot hot heat is everywhere, it seems). You can follow along if you wish. We have a SPOT on board, which is a nifty little GPS beacon that we will set off every evening at anchor. It sends our position to our SPOT Adventures page, which shows us on Google Maps and has a few boat pics too. I will try to update from our logbook as we go. Thanks to our 5-Mile Wifi, it just might happen!!

That said, while we are more than ready to leave, we have some missing to do. Our dear friends, playmates, babysitters, confidants, the people who threw Sophie a welcome party when she was born, the people who brought me food when Rosy arrived (it was SO good). Many have already left (what a transient place this is), and many we leave behind. Come and visit- stay in touch! Thank you for being a part of this chapter in our lives. We grew a family here, restored a boat, and feel very blessed to be hitting the Gulfstream and heading north, richer than when we arrived.

John and I are avowed humanists, so without traditional religion in her life, Sophie always thanks the Earth for the good things that come her way. “Thank you Earth for this cloudy day that wasn’t so hot and had swimming in it.” There’s something deeply satisfying about taking our girls out on an adventure with us, our boat, “and the Earth.” Send Earth your good vibes for fair winds, following tides and happiness on all fronts. Maybe it wasn’t the universe conspiring against us. It was just Earth telling us to look right under our noses. A good lesson for the days ahead.