Planning Begins
I woke up in the middle of the night last night and couldn't go back to sleep. Partly because of work drama, but also because I realized there is a tremendous amount of planning I need to do before the start of the voyage.
It's still winter in Colorado, so unless I travel far down South, the chances of me learning to sail in the next few months are slim. Believe it or not there are sailing lessons offered in Colorado, but they don't start until May. Given the size of the lakes here, the lessons would be probably on a sailboat comparable to a dinghy. Christina did get some good news on the sailing front though: one of her extended family members is a renowned sailboat captain somewhere in Europe. She is currently trying to schedule a week-long sailing lesson sometime in June where we would fly out there to be able-bodied crew/students. TBD on how that turns out, but it's very exciting!
In the meantime YouTube has been my friend. I'm a staunch advocate for the value of YouTube and what you can learn on there. For my Charleston friends who were there during the Fish era, I learned how to DJ by watching hundreds of YouTube videos. Sailing will be no different! So far I've seen a few videos on sailing terminology, the mechanics of sailing, and video tours of people's boats. One thing I have noticed so far is that there are a ton of sailing terms, and not all of them make intuitive sense. Seems like it will be a memorization game.
While YouTube surfing I also came across a series of videos by an Australian couple who refers to their channel as "Sailing La Vagabonde." They have by far been the most inspirational videos I have seen, probably because they are doing exactly the same thing I want to be doing. From what I can tell their story is a little different: the dude, Riley, and his girlfriend, Elayna, met shortly after Riley bought a sailboat in Italy. They both had no sailing experience, and yet through the school of hard knocks (and YouTube), they have been sailing the world together ever since. I am now a huge fan, and I'm adding meeting these two to the list of things I want to do.
Christina and I thought buying a video camera and recording our transition from the work life to the adventure life would be interesting not only for our own enjoyment, but for the rest of the world to see. We too have zero sailing experience, and also zero experience fixing boats, generators, diesel engines, electrical systems, radios, etc. It's going to be an uphill climb, but at least we'll be learning some practical stuff. Of course, I went out and bought a video camera last night being the impulsive person that I am. Perhaps video editing will be the first thing I learn next.
Alright, now that it is now 7:00am on a Tuesday I have to start getting ready for work. Stay tuned for the V-Log on YouTube!Heads up for the videos!
- Anthony