Purgin' like a Sturgeon

I cannot take credit for coining this phrase. Some years back, when I was coaching high school football in a small southern Minnesota town, during a water break in the sweltering August heat of our fall football camp prior to our first game, one of our beloved Senior athletes (Paul) rendered this quip about just how much sweat was pouring out of my body after my full participation in demonstrate skill drills in an attempt to prep our team for their upcoming contest. Sweat emitted from every one of my pores (even ones I'd forgotten I had) and onto my soaked coaching t-shirt. He remarked "Hey coach, are you Purgin' like a Sturgeon?" By volume of sweat, I, in fact, was, as was the rest of the team and coaching staff, Purgin' like a veritable school of Sturgeon. It felt good, freeing and healthy. The mysteries of youth vernacular and our middle aged coaching staff's vain attempts to interpret them were highly comical and notoriously entertaining. That's a whole other blog waiting to explode - for another time.

As preparations slowly ramp up in our 4 year plan to transition to a floating existence, the Purgin' like a Sturgeon activities have begun here in landlocked Minnesota. Only this time, it's not sweat, but rather the copious amount of material possessions accumulated over these past years by a family of 8. Paperwork, clothes, furniture, recreational equipment (our kids are very sports and artsy leaning) and wow. It's more than astounding how much stuff this family can cram into a 5 bedroom home. 

Now it's time to set it free.

I admit - I am a junior pack-rat. My attitude is that "you never know when we may need that ___? again". Some times, that proves true, and I can cite many instances where a particular item has saved us a trip to ___ store and $$$ to replace it. Some times it doesn't. It's often hard to predict the difference. My loving wife is a purger: "If we haven't used or looked at in in a year, out it goes!" Stuff in our house that I can happily live amongst are impediments to Rachael's visual harmony. Immovable rock vs irresistible force. Like the tides, sometimes things stay put, other times things have to go.

Last weekend we made some strides in the "have to go" department. 15 year old boxes full of at one time important paperwork met their demise in the shredder or fire pit. A veritable host of no longer fitting or useful athletic gear and accessories were parted out to neighbors with grandkids or to the thrift store, to be enjoyed once again by another generation. Some of the more "valuable" items were cataloged and photographed for sale on the local Craigslist and for sale sites, whose proceeds could be used to bump the Cruising Kitty should they materialize. Basement and garage shelves were culled down, "hierlooms" parted with and I believe the house actually rose from the earth a modicum once these had departed the premises. 

What is encouraging is that this process has begun, and we are both in the mindset of parting with things that we know we will never need and cannot come with us when we go. Much of what is left, however, still needs the timely sorting through and expunging that the motto "Purgin' like a Sturgeon" requires - quick and healthy shedding of baggage that will no longer serve us as we Transition to Water.

First of many vans full of thrift store purge. It felt good, freeing and healthy.

One down, at least 3 to go

Last night we completed our last lesson of the ASA 101 course. The lesson consisted of approximately 2 hours of readying the boat, then out in the water to demonstrate points of sail, tacking, gybing and man overboard skills. We wrapped this up with docking and stowing everything before taking the written exam. 

The fine Minnesota August weather supplied us with a moderate to light rainfall during the sail. We were ready with hooded rain gear and dry clothes for afterwards (always remember to check the forecast) and the added bonus was the rain held other boat traffic to next to nothing so we could freely maneuver. We also had a student from another ASA 101 session join us just for practice, and the extra hands actually came to good use. 

Once off the water we retired to a nearby fast food restaraunt and took our written exams at one of the tables. Be sure to read & spend some time studying your book, review questions and images before you take the test. We'd each also written out the step by step procedures for readying the boat, tacking, giving, MOB, returning to the slip and stowing - this really helped with the skills section!

In the end we each passed with Rachael and I missing a total of 5 questions combined! Happy to have the logbook signed by the instructor & now we're already studying the ASA 103 book for next months course. 

ASA 101 course

We've been sailing! We have done 3 of 4 sessions in our ASA 101 class on Lake Minnetonka with Captain Joan at the Sail Away Sailing School and have truly learned much while enjoying some fine sailing days in 6-10 knot winds. The weather was gorgeous, and, with the exception of the 3rd session, we were able to practice many sailing maneuvers and learn about wind, all the points of sail, tacking and gibing, heaving-to, MOB drills and figure 8 sailing practice. It's been a great deal of fun and confidence boosting for both of us. With one session left and our certification exam coming tomorrow, much reading, studying and reviewing have been undertaken this weekend. 

Captain Joan is a well respected and highly qualified, patient and exceptional teacher. She has vast sailing experience and knowledge well beyond what the ASA 101 Sailing Made Easy course book contains. We both are amazed and very grateful to have such an excellent teacher and have already signed up for the ASA 103 Coastal Cruising, ASA 104 Bareboat Cruising and ASA 114 Cruising Catamaran courses with her school. The last two are conducted in the British Virgin Islands - a positively beneficial locale for learning how to cruise, as it's in the area where someday we are planning to sail. 

Here is our account of our experiences so far in the ASA 101 Sailing Made Easy course:

Our course was being conducted on Lake Minnetokna, one of the largest urban lakes with numerous bays, sections, inlets and expanses in Minnesota, just west of Minneapolis. The history of the lake goes back thousands of years, and when French fur traders arrived in 1680, they soon found the Mdewakanton Dakota people living along it's shores. The Mdewakanton frequented Lake Minnetonka for hunting, fishing, and collecting maple syrup. By the 1800's, the area had already experienced fur trading, canoeing and encounters between native peoples and white settlers. In 1822, two seventeen-year-old boys named Joe Brown and Will Snelling canoed up Minnehaha Creek from Fort Saint Anthony after hearing rumors about a large body of water at its source. As time went on, homes and hotels were built, lakeshore development ensued for better or worse and, as with many Minnesota lakes, the shoreline and it's inhabitants shifted into the modern era. Given Lake Minnetonka's proximity to Fort St. Anthony (later Minneapolis), the lake became a favorite destination for settlers and then others seeking water - a major reason Lake Minnetonka's shores are crowded with water enthusiasts. 

On Monday, we arrived at the Upper Minnetonka Yacht Club 30 minutes early for our first class - we were excited! Here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, despite the fact that we mathematically have more shoreline than the State of Florida, our yacht clubs look and feel different. The club's layout and appearance itself may be interesting to those of you living on or near coastal waters, where much more sophisticated and elaborate yacht clubs exist. Our club consists of a porta-potty near the gravel parking lot, a nice expanse of greenery which includes intermittent goose sightings, picnic tables, and a long central floating dock with slips on either side to accommodate yacht club member's boats. Sorry, no clubhouse, restaurant, showers or golf course attached... But then again, that's not why we were here. The club's real estate no doubt is expensive given that it is on this heavily developed lake. As such, the location, upkeep and scenery were gorgeous, and the accommodations were great and well suited to our mission to learn to sail!

Dodging the geese at the Upper Minnetonka Yacht Club

We had previously received our ASA 101 Sailing Made Easy course books and had been reading about boat anatomy, sailing terminology and rules & aids to navigation. Soon Captain Joan arrived and we made introductions and chatted about what we would do in this lesson. I will affirm that book reading is a good preparation for what to expect, but reading and looking at diagrams and pictures can merely prep and suppliment actual sailing experience and time. Soon we were on the boat making ready to sail!


The boat for our sailing class is a Hunter 23 saiboat, a single masted sloop that seems quite perfect for the course. 

Making ready the Hunter 23

Hunter 23 cockpit

Rachael was appointed "engineer" (aka Helmsman) for this first lesson and we busied ourselves with tasks directed by Captain Joan to make ready. These included hanking the jib, uncovering the main, prepping the engine, and readying the dock lines as well as instruction on how we would back the Hunter out at a 90 degree angle from the slip. Soon the preparations were complete and we cast off. Rachael did a marvelous job getting us out and under way (Instructions: turn the tiller/engine when the "Steel is to the keel") and we were out on the lake in 7-9 knot northwest winds. Soon we were head to wind and I had the privilege of raising my first mainsail, using the halyard and winch for the first time, and we were sailing! Next I raised the jib, sails were trimmed and the engine was shut off. Conditions were great, and we began to tack upwind.

Helmsman Rachael and Captain Joan

Away we went, with Joan's patient guidance, tacking and eventually jibing across this area of the lake. At one point we swapped out helmsmen and I was able to helm, experiencing steering and maneuvering for the first time since I was 17. What fun! 

Every boat has its individual nuances, and our Skip taught us about how to handle the Hunter as well as reviewing numerous terms and techniques related to the course. Having been teachers for so many years and not students, the transformation back to "the other side of the teacher's desk" was a challenge for us both. We tacked and did a gibe and sailed about the lake, dodging the pleasure craft that began to show up in earnest after lake shore residents returned home from their workday jobs around the western suburbs or downtown. As our class went from 4:30-7:30 p.m., we saw an increase in the number of these craft as time wore on. 

Soon enough we headed up, dropped and tied off the jib, dropped the main and headed back to the yacht club. On returning to the slip with Helmsman Rachael motoring, she pulled off a textbook 90 degree angle turn to the dock, making it easy for me to jump off and handle the bow lines to secure the boat. 30 minutes later, we had the lines tied correctly to the dock, the jib stowed, the main covered and the boat buttoned up for the night. Thanks Captain Joan and great job honey!

Our next session was on Wednesday and this time it was my turn to engineer/helm. With tactful and timely guidance from Joan, we backed out of the slip, motored to a spot with good distance and clearance to hoist the sails, and with Rachael crewing, got the boat under sail power once again. This time the wind was SSW at 8-11 knots, and the weather was sunny and beautiful! 

Lesson 2 on a beautiful evening for sailing

On this lesson, we were blessed with a couple of motor boat skippers who were somewhat less familiar with boating right of way and the pecking order associated with boats on converging paths. On one instance, Captain Joan used her horn to try to signal a motorboat ahead of us off our starboard that was on a converging course. Fortunately their driver recognized us and bore away to our standing course. The next motorboat driver, however, was less "familiar" with right of way. They were motoring towards our tack on our port, and despite them clearly making visual contact with us, the made no effort to bear away from our course, and we kept standing on until Joan had to verbally hail them that they should get out of the way as we were about to tack. Minnesota recently changed it's boating regulations to require prospective boaters between the ages of 12-17 to take a safe boating course prior to skippering a boat. For those above this age, they are "grandfathered in", and have no such requirement. Perhaps there should be?

Our third lesson took place on Thursday in less than what would be considered "fair winds". We set out with 5 knot winds that quickly diminished to @ 1-2 knots once we were under way. Captain Joan set out the figure 8 floating ball course but the wind was not helpful for me in tacking the boat around the course. I became quite good at sailing (or rather drifting)?over the floating balls in these light winds, and Captain Joan soon had us dropping sails in such a futile effort. We then motored back to the slip early and spent some time reviewing knots, right of way and the various buoys and warning markers we could encounter on the water. 

Tomorrow, weather permitting, we will engage in our final lesson for ASA 101, which includes the skills and certification exam. We've been cramming, reading, reviewing and trying to prepare ourselves to finish the course with success. We've each listed steps to ready the boat, take it out and get it under sail, perform the heave-to, slowing and man overboard maneuvers, bring the boat back to the slip, tie it off to the dock and stow all gear. A couple of resources we've used are the reviews from the ASA 101 textbook, the ASA 101 Exam requirements, and a nifty app ($4.99 U.S) called the SailingQuiz.

The beginning of our sailing career!

A word of encouragement to those who wish to follow the same path. The course work is detailed but not insurmountable. Going from Zero to Sailing is definitely a challenge, but one that, with the aid of a good teacher and some diligence on your part, can be successfully completed. We hope to be able to pass the exam (more importantly, we hope to proficiently become versed in the language and best techniques of sailing) and move on to the ASA 103 course in September - we are excited to continue our learning and look forward to sailing in the future, and we encourage all those interested to do the same!

Sailing Sayings: How to impress your sailing instructor - or at least make them laugh.

We have a great neighbor and his wife, Matt & Bonnie. Matt's a skilled sailor with years of experience on this lake and others and has even traversed Lake Michigan amongst other inland waters. When we first moved here, Matt had a 21' sailboat that he'd invited me to sail on with him a number of times. At that time, I was not interested in sailing, having done it twice when I was 17 on Lake Minnetonka with a friend's parent's sailboat. Lots of fun then as a teenage passenger but no interest in sailing until recently (justification found here). Since moving here Rachael and I have been happy stewards of a 17' Larson Runabout powerboat, a perfect little boat for this lake. It does well at slow to moderate lake cruising, fishing and what I refer to as "Dragging people behind the boat at the end of a rope". On a 1400 acre mid-continent Minnesota lake, it's all we've needed and been happy to drag our kids around in said manner on the lake each summer. For those Child Protection Service agents that may be reading this, I should mention that the end of the rope was always attached to some form of flotation device such as a tube or water skis, and no child was harmed in the making f this recreational activity. Well depending on behavior, the rope was almost always attached...

Matt and Bonnie know that Rachael and I are planning to take the ASA 101 Basic Keelboat Sailing Course soon and somewhat familiar with our sketchy and yet-to-totally-be-developed plan to escape  the Frozen Cul-de-Sac to more flip-flop appropriate tropical climes for the 11 & 1/2 months of winter here. As such, Matt invited me out on his sailboat the other day so I could practice and he could put his own life into my hands - a brave and noble feat. We had a great time sailing Matt's 14 foot Javelin on our moderately sized Minnesota lake in moderate to light winds (sorry I don't know how many "Knots" the wind was - read on...). He allowed me to take the tiller with just the mainsail up and we successfully tack back and forth across our lake for about an hour an a half. We talked about sailing (of course) and the parts of the boat amongst other things. It was great fun and I actually remembered several of the things I'd been reading about for our upcoming ASA 101 Basic Keelboat Sailing Course. I could identify the mast, shrouds, boom, goose neck, boom vang, keel (a swing), fore, aft, windward, leeward (pronounced "leward"), rudder, etc... It was great fun and a well spent time with a great neighbor. Thanks Matt!

Matt's 14 foot Javelin - I'm barely older than his sailboat!

This of course got me thinking about our first official sailing lesson for the ASA 101 sailing course, which is now a mere two days away. We have been reading and studying in our course book titled "Sailing Made Easy". The popular saying "You can't judge a book by it's cover" may have first been coined to describe this very book. My Master's degree in Education should have red-flagged the title. Since when are "Sailing" and "Easy" allowed to be used in the same sentence? To start with, the sheer vocabulary and use of wording is akin to learning another language, something that is best taught in preschool to 3 year olds whose brains have not yet fully developed the locked down patterns and verbiage that are eventually used as adults. Studies into linguistics and aging suggest that for our brains to learn a new language at, say, middle age versus during pre-primary development is similar to mixing separately tasty ingredients into a high powered blender and then turning the blend setting to "Puree". New vernacular goes in, mixes with your existing language knowledge and the result is a thick slurry of jumbled semi coherent and moderately tasty jargon likely will leave experienced sailors listening to us with bewildering looks on their faces. Sorry, Captain!

I'm fairly confident in discerning the reason for this. Sailing on this planet goes back who knows how many thousands of years, likely to a time long past when early humans looked across an expanse of water and fashioned some type of crude platform on which to cross it. As we study the verbiage and use of terminology that has evolved over these many years, it's become apparent to me that no one was assigned and left fully in charge of developing a Dictionary of Sailing that would be easily understood by future generations of sailors. It's obviously adapted to changes in time and location to become what it is today. I wouldn't doubt that many of the modern sailing terminology still sounds and means the same as the primordial grunts and squeaks uttered by the Earth's first sailors, and is equally confusing now as it was back then. Words and usage have been adapted to various languages, and their meanings and understanding are varied and colorful.

For example, when I was in the Boy Scouts, I learned to tie things called  knots on long thin useful strands of fiber or fabric called ropes. Useful for tying down tent stakes, a clothesline between trees, etc... On a boat a knot can still refer to a twist of the "rope" onto, within and around itself to secure something. But less stright-forwardly, it can also refer to the speed with which a sailboat is traveling. In America, the speed I'm used to utilizing in my car is measured in miles per hour. On a sailboat, well, all that Driver's Education learning is out the window (or porthole...?). There are no MPH's on a sailboat, only "knots".

Boy Scout Knot Tying Merit Badge

According to Wikipedia, a nautical "knot" is thusly defined:

Vessel speed at sea is measured using a chip log. This consisted of a wooden panel, attached by line to a reel, and weighted on one edge to float perpendicularly to the water surface and thus present substantial resistance to the water moving around it. The chip log was "cast" over the stern of the moving vessel and the line allowed to pay out.^[6] Knots placed at a distance of 8 fathoms - 47 feet 3 inches (14.4018 m) from each other, passed through a sailor's fingers, while another sailor used a 30-second sand-glass (28-second sand-glass is the currently accepted timing) to time the operation.^[7] The knot count would be reported and used in the sailing master's dead reckoning and navigation. This method gives a value for the knot of 20.25 in/s, or 1.85166 km/h. The difference from the modern definition is less than 0.02%. [A fathom is 1/1000 nautical miles, roughly 6 feet]

Umm...OK then! My last math class was during my senior year in high school, and most of what I learned to use in my daily life I'd actually learned back in Kindergarten. I guess Calculus was a way for me to occupy 3rd hour rather than leave me to wander about the campus with no apparent purpose during that time. In any case, what does it really matter if we are inept at utilizing this method of calculation? Isn't that what chart plotters and wind speed indicators are for? I've never had to do that while driving to work... Of greater concern, should I be worried about accuracy when the sailing master is relying on some vague skill referred to as "dead reckoning"?

And did you know that you never tie a knot on a rope on a sailboat? You tie it on a line, which at my house is where we hang clothes outside to dry. Further confusing the matter, you may actually be tying a know on a sheet, which is a line (which to me still looks like a rope) that is used to control the lateral movement of various sails (at least the word sail is understandable). So if a rope on a boat is called a line and some lines are called sheets, then what do you put on your bed and where do you dry them when you pull them out of the washing machine?

40 Common Sailing Knots

Cockpit, helm, lifeline, boom, boom vang, tack, clew, luff, leeward, batten, port, starboard, abeam, stern...... Yikes! This was on page 26 and we still had 93 pages to go! I desperately want to complete our sailing course while avoiding another situation whose descriptive phrase was likely invented in ancient times to describe the look on uncomprehending newbie sailors faces when hearing a command from their captain: the blank stare.

Could there possibly be alternate definitions and simpler understandings to this myriad of nautical terms? With those 93 pages left to study, and the goal to swiftly shortcut our studying time while achieving 100% comprehension, I thought maybe I'd turn to Google to see if there could be anyone out there who'd devised a Sailor's Cliff Notes for all of this sailing vernacular. Thanks to Blue Water Sailing I was able to clear up a few things regarding the lineage and true meaning of many of the sailing terms we'd need to know to pass ASA 101. Some excerpts:

1. Aboard: A piece of construction lumber
2. Anchor: A device designed to bring up sand, mud and muck from the bottom at inopportune times
3. Backstay: Last thing you try to grab as you're falling overboard.
4. Boat: Break Out Another Thousand
5.  Boom: A horizontally mounted metal bar designed to unexpectedly shift crew members to a fixed, horizontal position on the deck
6. Bow: 1) Part of the boat that no one should ever be asked to go to work on. 2) What the Captain takes after successfully returning boat and crew to a dock unscathed.
7. Cleat: Small plastic triangular shaped studs emitting from the bottom of an athletic shoe for sports such as football, baseball and golf.
8. Clew: What new sailors often don't have any of.
9. Cruising: Waterborne pleasure journey embarked on by one or more people. A cruise may be considered successful if the same number of individuals who set out on
   it arrive, in roughly the same condition they set out in, at some piece of habitable dry land, with our without the boat.
10. Dead Reckoning: 1) Plotting a course leading directly to a reef 2) What a Southern doctor says when a sailor goes to Davey Jone's Locker
11. Galley: 1) Ancient Definition: Aspect of seafaring associated with slavery. 2) Modern definition: Aspect of seafaring associated with slavery.
12. Gybe: Useful method for removing unruly guests from your boat.
13. Landlubber: 1) Anyone on board who wither wishes they were not it 2) anyone who truly does not belong on a boat in the first place.
14. Leeward: The side of a boat where the moveable ballast known as passengers tend to shift to once sea motions commence.
15. Luff: Front part of the sail that everyone but the helmsman seems to pay attention to.
16.  Keel: Very heavy depth finder used to locate the bottom of the sea.
17. Mast: Religious ceremony typically used prior to leaving port.
18. Port: Fine red wine, always stowed on the left side of a boat.
19. Propeller: Underwater winch designed to wind up all manner of stray fishing line, weeds and other lines left hanging overboard.
20. Pulpit: A spot on the boat where you fervently pray that you will pick up a mooring ball.
21. Ram: Complex docking maneuver often used by experienced captains.
22. Sailing: Fine art of getting wet and sick,while going nowhere extremely slowly at enormous expense. equivalent to standing in a cold shower, fully clothed, throwing up, and tearing up $100 bills, while a bunch of other people watch you.
23. Sheet: 1) Cool, damp, salty night covering. 2) Line made to make gloves fail or rip hands apart. 3) Something with the ability to tangle on anything.
24. Starboard: Special piece of wood that the captain uses for navigation, usually with "Port" written on the back side.
25. Tack: Shifting the boat from a direction far to the right of where you desperately want to go to a direction far to the left of it. Rinse and repeat often.
26. Windward: Wing of maritime hospitals for sailors with chronic gas problems. 
27. Winch: Anything you spend lots of effort grinding until it squeals or groans. (caution: not to be confused with similarly spelled words) 

So much clearer now.  

Why the "Good Love"?

Why not? Based on interpretation, I would think most folks would want "Good Love", or the idea and practice of it, in their lives, and so do we. In my opinion, in the truest sense of the phrase, "Good Love" is self sacrificial, putting others (and especially your mate) above yourself - the true way to experience "The Good Love" in life. It is a caring, concern and deep devotion to that mate, doing your best to be helpmates to one another, understanding each others needs, dreams and desires, and willing to do what you can do to see that your mate is as happy and cared for as far as your hands can make them. I feel that this is the way love was intended to be between mates. I know that no two can truly satisfy one other in every way - we all are, after all, imperfect - but striving for that devotion and having the grace to accept that we will all fall short is inherent to what a "Good Love" truly is. How else could you define it?

The SV Good Love is also ultimately intended to be the name of our catamaran, the one pictured in the profile art created by my wife Rachael and on display here and on the SV GoodLove's Facebook page, and here below:

Rachael's evolving rendition of the S/V Good Love

Right now it's just an idea; a drawing; a vision; a name. This is how it came about...

In Beginning the Good Love Adventure, we wrote about how we accidentally stumbled across numerous folks who had embarked upon journeys to remove themselves from the culture, grip and "grid" that American society seems to have on it's citizenry. The pursuit of career, status, money and more, bigger and better stuff than your neighbors seems to be a way of life on Main Street, and the attraction of this phenomenon is embraced by so many of us here. It's no wonder - think about it... The United States of America is the most prosperous country on Earth in it's entire history, at least in terms of material and commercial wealth. The USA was established on freedom and justice for all, and the Judeo Christian values that the founding fathers etched into our nation's underpinnings, providing it's citizenry with the opportunity to work to improve themselves to the maximum of their potentials and the desires and motivations of their hearts. No other country has done so much in such a time as to provide that for it's people, and, despite the issues and challenges that face many people here in America, think about the difficulties faces by citizens of some other countries face in merely trying to get by every day. Our involvement in our energetic career-oriented culture with its bent towards upward mobility and accumulation of material wealth seems to contradict what sharing the Good Love is all about. What if we were able to share this Good Love with people elsewhere?  What if we could divest ourselves of the the very things that were preventing us from doing so because those things placed so many demands on our time and resources that it became nearly impossible to breathe and share the message? What if we could do it another way - a simpler way?

We began to consider what it would take to make such a future happen. After reading and researching many of the blogs, websites, and videos of former career-oriented folks turned cruisers, it became apparent that divestment would include parting with many of the creature comforts we were brought up to believe that we would need to maintain a comfortable life: Career jobs, a nice home, cars, material furnishings, up-mobile friends and all of the ancillary related items. Divestment for many cruisers meant selling everything off, resigning from their jobs, learning to sail, then taking the money they had left and purchasing a boat, outfitting it, and heading off into the sunset. Sounds romantic, doesn't it!

It does to us as well. However, we struggled with the question of whether this is the right thing to do. Whom are we serving the "Good Love" to by doing this? I've read a lot of folks stories about their desire to escape the cultural ties and live a simpler life - a worthy pursuit to be sure. Living "greener", leaving a smaller "eco-footprint" for future generations, etc... are all great reasons to try something different. We'd researched the Tiny House Movement, whose participants believe in a land-based smaller way of life. Very intriguing and worthy of attention, as it embraces the idea that living with less is significantly more fulfilling than living with more beneath the burdens of how to afford it.

For us, we needed confirmation that this was a venture we should spend time and effort pursuing. We'd been strongly focusing our attention on the idea that we could actually learn how to sail and cruise the Caribbean as a nearest to North America practice ground, which could eventually lead us off to further destinations. I was familiar with some of the Caribbean islands (having been a Geography teacher and all...). On one of our endless rabbit-trail-like research forays into those who had already adopted the cruising lifestyle, we ran across a video from a YouTuber named "goinguptoheaven89", on board the S/V Vamanos1 in the Caribbean. Hello? Going Up To Heaven? Hmmm... wonder how we landed at this particular YouTube video...

Well, the first song of the video caught my attention. It is a song by Jason Castro titled Good Love, and as I watched this video...

 ...I was moved as the song struck a strong spiritual chord within me. I was driving home at that time, and as I was listening to the song, I pulled up behind this propane delivery truck...

"St. Thomas" as a confirmation

Look closely... The truck's home base is at a fuel cooperative in a small Minnesota town named St. Thomas. In case you are not aware, St. Thomas is also a very well known destination for cruisers in the U.S VIrgin Islands...in the Caribbean. Hearing the song, feeling the emotion and pulling up, all at that moment at the same time and the same place are no coincidence. I believe there are no coincidences in life, only opportunities to take in what is being communicated to you. We could write a book (and maybe we should) about this topic and our experiences.  I used to not think that way, and I feel I missed some very important opportunities and communications. In any case, the convergence of the spirited emotion, the song Good Love and pulling up behind a truck with "St. Thomas" on the back of it stood as an affirmative confirmation that we were not only going to undertake a sailing adventure but also clarified at least one direction that we would be headed. God truly works in mysterious ways, and the trick is to be in prayer to be able to recognize then he is speaking to you!

We talked about these events and came to the conclusion that our future catamaran should obviously be named... Good Love. We hope to spread it as we are called her and wherever we may travel in the future!

Hawaii Catamaran Ride

via IFTTT

Home sweet camper

Yesterday afternoon we returned home after "surviving" a 12 day camping excursion. We survived 12 nights in the "wilderness", managed to tame and feed "wild" animals, swim in the turbulent depths of a raging "pool", survive tests of skill, endurance and coordination, keep the night at bay with a campfire and, sleept well... within a climate controlled 31 foot travel trailer. A non-brutal and less than survival skills challenge at a modern Minnesota campground...

We fed "wild" animals....

Ravenously hungry animals

And tamed some of them...

Wilderness transportation...?

...overcame local cultural challenges and tests of skill (Bingo!)...

Local proving grounds at Candy Bar Bingo

...navigated wild pools...

Waves and lots of shouting...

...and slept well despite roughing it at the campsite.

A warm campfire is hard to beat!

In some ways, I think that owning a camper and owning a cruising boat have some similarities. With experience on the former and none on the latter, from what I've read via various blogs and via YouTube videos, these seem to be some commonalities:

• There is always a list of things to fix
• Travel can be easy or hazardous, depending on the weather
• Water, no matter in what form, will find its way in
• Planning what to bring and what not to bring is a fine art
• Things break
• Things get repaired
• The experience is the real adventure.

Don't get me wrong. I realize that traveling on land in a large pickup truck hauling an even larger, thinly constructed aluminum tiny house is not completely synonymous to living aboard a cruising sailboat. But the experience is a real adventure that for over 10 years has been enjoyed by the two of us and our children. I look forward to future adventures in other climates and aboard a different and equally challenging and enjoyable method of transportation.

Beginning the Good Love Adventure

Ever since I can remember I've been drawn to water. Growing up in the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" helped facilitate getting close to, into it or on it much easier than, say, growing up in a state devoid of so many easily accessible lakes and rivers and coastlines. Even in winter, water here has almost always been abundant - in the form of ice, sleet and, especially, snow. Waiting through the long, cold months of a Minnesota Fall, Winter and early Spring until the Earth to tilt the Northern Hemisphere back towards the Sun  in it's annual revolution was the problem - Winter lasts a long time here. Eventually though, we would once again see the liquid form of water and be able to enjoy the warm, albeit short, Minnesota summer. A popular saying here is that there are only two seasons in Minnesota, Winter and Road Construction, and for the most part, it's true.

Don't get me wrong - I love Minnesota. My family's upbringing, my youth and adult and family life here have truly been a blessing. Climate-wise, Minnesota is considered in the "Humid Continental" zone, an area that has warm to hot months mostly from June through August.  We have spectacular falls with ubiquitous colors in farm fields and along tree lines. Springs (especially late Spring) are a wonder to witness as the life once again returns to yards, fields, lakes and wildlife. Minnesota's summertime activities, with the weather, our spectacular scenery, fishing, outdoor living, water sports and yes, even mosquitos are truly amazing. Much of the rest of the year, however, is spent getting prepared for, living through and re-awakening from Winter. As a kid, my brothers and I would do the usual things kids do when their parents kick them out of the house once we'd sufficiently irritated them during those long cabin-feverish months: build snow forts and have snowball fights, go sledding, play street and ice hockey (a near requirement here in the "State of Hockey"), and, of course, shovel tons and tons of snow. And I means literally tons over the course of a lifetime. Kinda fun when you're a kid, out in the frozen tundra packed within your parka, snow pants, boots and gloves that would be the envy of any Arctic explorer. A bounce off a prodigious sledding bump on a snowy slope or a check into the boards from your opponent at an outdoor ice rink would be soundly absorbed by the 17 layers of clothes that, along with the fact that your body was sufficiently chilled to a nearly freezing temperatures, meant you'd feel virtually nothing. It seemed so normal - didn't every kid in America (or the world) grow up peering out a periscopic hole in their winter coat hood and then taking a couple hours to warm up to room temperature when escaping the blizzardy weather as they came inside? Seemed normal to me.

As an adult, however, the attraction for me has annually worn off - one shovel full at at time.

You see, this all began to change in my psyche when my wife Rachael and I began exploring warmer climes during our late March Spring Breaks from school. We are both teachers, and having been a Geography teacher for 17 years, I knew full well that there were places on God's Earth that did not have to put salt on the roads and close schools during blizzards - mostly because they had no reason to do so due to their climates. Jaunts to Mexico and Florida's Gulf Coast where we left in the aforementioned winter garb and arrived in shorts, tank tops and flip flops was for some reason abundantly pleasant and welcomed by the two of us. The short vacations spent exploring these destinations were truly fantastic, and we fell in love with the perpetual summertime climates here. Returning to Minnesota, our vacations ended with a swift return to reality as the plane descended into Minneapolis. It's amazing how brown and desolate our state looks from the air in March given the lush and vibrant greenery we know would once again return in May.

Driving to work the morning before heading to Florida...



This seemed say how I felt about that (and every) winter day...

A

What greeted us in Florida...

A new possibility began to take shape this past April, after we returned from one of these Spring Break trips to Florida's Gulf Coast. Huddled inside on a blustery April Saturday, we began to talk about our annual summer vacation with our entire family. Together Rachael and I have 6 children, 3 each from previous marriage. The oldest was going to graduate in May of 2015, and we tried to brainstorm a destination that we could take them all to as a "last vacation together" before the eldest left for college. Thinking about the difficulty of getting us all together once that happened, with our kids starting to be off on far flung school, military and work adventures of their own, we researched, planned out and had our tropical family vacation in June of 2015.  In researching for this outing, we began to come across blogs and YouTube videos of folks who had/have/are currently doing something that sounded like it would meet our developing goal of being on the water and in a more favorable climate. These folks were all doing what is known as "Cruising" on sailboats in the more temperate areas of the world. We took in adventures from the like of the S/V Catchin' Rays, This Rat Sailed aboard the S/V Rover, the S/V Saltrun, the S/V Zero to Cruising, the S/V Delos, the S/V Vagabond and many more folks who had made cruising their lifestyle. These folks have been our inspiration to begin to embark on this journey!

The attraction to downsize, disconnect from the "Rat Race" described by Mike Boyd of the S/V Rover in This Rat Sailed, the ability to potentially follow a dream before following this dream became impossible due to age or physical limitations was quite appealing. As we are both in Education, the times and demands of our work seem to increase each year, and the possibility of experiencing a more divested lifestyle with fewer professional demands is constantly appealing. It is our American (Western Civilization?) culture that says one has to work for 35-40 years and retire in frailty to a porch-swing lifestyle until even that becomes impossible to handle? What then? What benefits are there to following this path, steadily declining until health, enthusiasm and purpose ebb away? Perhaps there was another option. More than that, perhaps there is another purpose the Lord has for our lives that might be woven into such a change!

We sit here at what seems like the beginning of our journey at a beautiful Minnesota campground on August 1, 2015. We are both very enthusiastic to make headway towards this goal and can only offer many thanks to all of the people who have documented their stories before us. Our first sailing lessons for the ASA 101 class are 9 days away, and we are both very stoked to begin this journey. We are not at all hesitant to undertake this opportunity. We truly are looking forward to this adventure and hope you will decide to follow us as we head off into a different, Good Love style adventurous future together!