From the captain: Retirement Planning

It started with retirement, which for me began officially last week, August 15, 2013. After 38 years as a family physician, I got done, as they say in Vermont.

What to do next? What else? Let’s sail down the intracoastal waterway to Florida in the fall and skip over to the Bahamas for the winter.  Let’s totally change our reality and get out of Vermont for the cold weather. The idea started a couple years ago. The great Amercan journey: Huck Finn floating down the Mississippi. Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty on the road.

After 40 years of parenting four great kids and  high responsibility careers, an eight-month cruise on our sailboat seemed like a fitting transition to whatever comes next. There is something about sailing we’ve discovered on our trips around Lake Champlain. No matter how big and complex our world has become, once we step on Luna, it collapses into a space of 35 feet. We’re aware of how the boat feels, how she sounds. We notice the weather and the clouds. We feel the wind on our ears. We become attuned to our surroundings. All we have, hopefully all we need, is contained in that 35-foot world. We develop a self-sufficiency and the ability to deal with problems as they arise. They are generally small problems compared to those we have faced over the years. As our world becomes so much smaller, our consciousness and our horizons expand.

At the same time, the world slows down. Deadlines become merely suggestions.  It is said, “When you’re in a motorboat, you start the motor and get to where you want to go. When you’re in a sailboat, you’re already there.” Luna has a motor, but she goes slow, even at top speed. We will get to experience the east coast, the different cultures, the different foods, and the sights at 6 knots per hour. 50 miles on a good day; less if we find an intriguing place to drop the hook and spend a day or two.

In the meantime, we’ve moved beyond thinking about the trip to actively planning for it. We’re talking with other sailors who have made the journey, collecting guide books and maps and working on Luna--which will be the subject of the next installment of the blog.  We set sail in a little more than 3 weeks. Stay tuned.