Since we bought Albatross three years ago, we have been laser-focused on getting our boat ready for sailing around the world. By now, we have inspected every inch of her and taken inventory of her strengths and weaknesses. We have finished the major projects that would have prevented us from leaving Norway, including changing the rusty steel plates in the bow and getting a new engine. We have also moved onto the boat, downsized our belongings, and adjusted to the different kind of living that come with living in a smaller floating home.
Being laser-fucus demands that you cut out distractions and say no to a lot of things. We’ve drastically cut down on down time, swapping relaxing late nights for maintenance work and collapsing in bed by ten. I can count on one hand the days without a plan we’ve had as a couple, and even on those days, we still decided to work on our boat. We’ve cut down on screen time, social media, news, movies. Also, we’ve ended up spending a lot less time with friends and family. We see people for their birthdays and other special events. While we’ve had intentions to set a side time simply spend time with friends, it always seemed to fit better next week.
In many ways, we’ve had to do this to protect our time and energy, and anything that did not serve us had to go. It has not been pretty, but it has been necessary.
I’ve changed. These two years of focused semi-self-isolation have rewired my work ethics, values, world view, and priorities. I am not the same person. I appreciate different things and dislike many of the things I used to love. I feel competent and confident in a new kind of way, but also awkward and misplaced in situations I used to enjoy. I did not realize how much I would change before leaving on our circumnavigation.
The ironic thing is that when I am now ready to come out of this goal-driven isolation, I am coming to realize that I have lost touch with a lot of people. That’s all on me.
But I still need people. I need a community to belong to and people to share experiences with. But since we are departing to go sailing around the world in less than a year, any community that is anchored in Norway seems short-lived.
This blog is my attempt at creating a different kind of community. A community of people who don’t have to see each other in person to stay connected. A community of people who want to live life on their own terms, work towards their goals and who cheer each other on for dreaming big.
It’s scary to say this out loud. I’ve postponed publishing this first post for a long time. I’m scared that it will be awkward or that I will fail. The ironic thing, though, is that every day for these last two years, I’ve jumped right into boat projects that I had no idea how to do. I guess I just have to start.
So here we go.