- March 3, 2006: The Ultimate 6 degrees of separation
- March 4, 2006: Our big news
March 3, 2006: The Ultimate 6 degrees of separation
For those of you who may not know, there is a game known as "6 degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon." Don't know Kevin Bacon? Click here for a picture. The theory goes that anyone can be linked to Kevin Bacon through 6 jumps. For example: Marilyn Monroe to Kevin Bacon. Marilyn Monroe played with Jack Lemmon in Some Like it Hot. Jack Lemmon played with Kevin Bacon in JFK. That's two degrees of separation. Abe is really good at this game, and I try to stump him with names such as Cary Grant. (Cary Grant played with Jimmy Stewart in Philadelphia Story. Jimmy Stewart played with George C. Scott in Anatomy of a Murder. George C. Scott played with Paul Newman in The Hustler. Paul Newman played with Sally Field in Absence of Malice. Sally Field played with Tom Hanks in Punch Line. Tom Hanks played with Kevin Bacon in Apollo 13.) He tries to stump himself, keeping his mind awake on night passages. He's moved from thinking about molecular physics to playing 6 degrees of separation on night watches.
Abe had the ultimate link tonight, though. Amy Oros to Kevin Bacon. He just started giggling when thinking about it. And he's funny when he giggles. Amy (and Abe, for that matter) skydived with Carey Peck. Carey Peck is the son of of Gregory Peck. Gregory Peck played with Robert DeNiro in Cape Fear. Robert DeNiro played with Kevin Costner in The Untouchables. Kevin Costner played with Kevin Bacon in JFK. That's 5 degrees of separation. That means that all our family and friends can be linked by 6 degrees of separation to Kevin Bacon through us! It is sad what we do to amuse ourselves, isn't it? Back to the top.
We have an update on our cruising plans (like they don't happen very
often. Yeah right). We've decided within the last week or so that we will
be turning left at the Panama Canal instead of turning right. So you don't
have to think too hard that means we'll be going through the Panama Canal
and on to Florida instead of heading across the Pacific.
Cruising has been a wonderful experience in a lot of ways. But, it's also
been a difficult lifestyle in others. For a whole host of reasons, we've
decided that we want to stay closer to civilization as we know it rather
than to sail off into the wild blue yonder. If we were to sail to New
Zealand, even if we chose to stop our cruising at that point and return
to the States, it would be a minimum of 18 months longer on the boat.
And we're not at the point where we want to make that commitment.
When we started out on this plan, both of us needed to have a very objective
goal. It's how we plan and operate. So we set out the goal of sailing
around the world because that was a logical step for us. It didn't work
for us to say, "we'll go out there, and then see what happens."
We needed a plan. There was much we wanted to see, and sailing there was
a means to an end. However, once we got out "here" we learned
a whole lot about cruising and our cruising selves, as was to be expected.
We've had difficulty seeing such abject poverty, difficulty being without
a lot of modern conveniences, lack of availability of resources, but most
of all we've had difficulty living in such a small space. How can we have
such difficulty living in such a small space when we lived on board for
3 1/2 years prior to leaving? That's part of our problem, we think. It's
smart to live aboard before cruising, but 3 1/2 years was too long for
us, I think. We had a storage unit in SFO and had more room on board.
Now that we're cruising everything we need, every spare and replacement
part that we need is on board. And it's much tighter than when we lived
in SFO. Trying to find things on board are more difficult because they're
buried under 5 layers instead of 1.
There have been benefits of cruising. It's not all been bad, and we've
had good fortune to be able to try it out. But the good does not outweigh
the bad enough to make the huge leap of committing another 18 months minimum
required to cross an ocean, and then to get back to the States either
via Hawaii or continuing on to Europe and crossing the Atlantic. We have
certainly enjoyed being able to make our schedule what we want and when
we want. That's been fabulous. And we've explored some really neat places.
We've met some fantastic people along the way. Had a chance to meet Abe's
family in Mexico. We've spent some great time with Amy's family without
pressures of time and needing to get back to a job.
Do we feel like we've failed because we won't meet our goal of sailing
around the world? On some days, yes. But for the most part, no. We feel
like we succeeded the day we left the dock. So many people have dreams
and never make them happen. We go out here and saw for ourselves and decided
based on firsthand experience rather than reading about it in books.
So what are the plans? Go through the Canal, head up to Yucatan in Mexico
and cross to Florida before June 1. Once there, we're not sure. Can we
find a safe hurricane hole? We hope to take a military hop to New Zealand
when Pam and Scott (of cruising boat Tournesol/Starship) return from the
States, but that won't happen until October or November. Can we find a
buyer for the boat? Should we take the time during this transition to
tour Europe? (New Zealand and Europe were at the top of both of our lists
of places to visit). We expect we'll have to get jobs again, but more
likely (at least in Amy's case) it will be not a "real" job.
At least for awhile. Maybe she can figure something out to do for a source
of income without having to go to an office. Where will we live? Don't
know. We'd like to look for land somewhere near a military base (so we
can use all the benefits available to us under Abe's retirement) to build
our home that we've planned on since marrying. We'll start doing all the
things that were on the list for after cruising. And I'm sure that will
change and evolve as we get into the middle of it.
This decision has not been an easy one to make, but it's been coming for
awhile. When we have been planning and preparing since July 4, 2000 for
cruising, and then it turns out that it's not for us, it's hard to say,
"we're done." There is a lot of blood, sweat and tears in that
boat and it's hard to let it go. Particularly since it now seems to be
ready to cross the ocean. It's finally configured and set up just the
way we wanted it. But we've learned so much, and again have been so fortunate
to have had this experience. It's a hard decision to make, but we're relieved
that we've finally made it. I was reading a book just after we officially
let our families know what we had decided. A great passage from that book
that seemed relevant:
The truth about big decisions... was that they never marched through logical processes, staff systems, option papers, and yellow pads to a conclusion. No dramatic bottom lines, no Thruberian captains with their voices like thin ice breaking, announcing, "we're going through!" The big ones were a matter of mental sets, predispositions, tendencies - taking a lifetime to determine - followed by the battering of circumstance, the search for a feeling of what was right - never concluded at some finite moment of conclusion, but in recollection of having "known" what the decision would be some indeterminate time before.
Full Disclosure by William Safire.
We have learned to sail the boat. We can sail it in many different conditions. But we have realized that we're not sailors in the cruising sense of the word. We have learned to live with a house that has perpetual movement, limited refrigeration, no freezer, manual flush toilet, very tightly packed spaces, limited free space, bruises from "boat bites" and we can live that way. But we've realized that we're not boaters in the cruising sense of the word. We really enjoy the comforts and luxuries that we can have in the States on land. And that's okay. We will remember the excellent times we had, the wonderful sunrises and sunsets, the incredible night sky with brilliant stars, watching the sun come up in while dolphins swim alongside us, the wonderful friends we've made, places we've seen. I'm sure 5 years from now we won't remember all the hassles and we'll wonder why we gave it all up. We're going to enjoy our time between here and Florida and go from there. Back to the top.
