The good-bye phase ...

Friends of the blog commented that we are in the "good-bye" phase. I never thought of it that way, but it is a good phrase for the phase we are in. I said an official "good-be" to work on Friday; a final "out the door" meeting with the head of H/R. (By the way, thanks Sarah. You made an ugly thing a little easier to take.) With that was probably a final good-bye to the aviation world. Except for catching an occasional flight from one place to another, its hard to imagine any reason for me to be at another airport. No fun, saying these good-byes, but much less of a deal than I would have thought just a couple of weeks ago.

That is partly because we are just so buried in preparation work now ... I even had to go back to a list. It isn't a list, list, but rather a list of things on a calendar; survey, eye doctor, order wind vane, dentist, pull the boat, house work inspection, install vane, pull boat, step mast, ship boat - day and time and (sometimes) place. Keeping track of it all is a job all by itself.

Another reason these good-byes went by kind of easy is, well, it turns out I am more ready than I thought. Not being an airplane driver anymore is still pretty weird. But as much as I liked being an airplane driver, a good guess is I left more than 2,000,000 gallons of burned Jet A in my wake. (I mostly flew little jets - 100 to 200 g/p/h.) In 6 years of sailing we have yet to burn 50 gallons of diesel. If resources on this little blue ball are the common wealth of human kind, I have burned through my share. We are saying good-bye to being out-of-control-American-Consumers with glee. And saying good-bye to waiting on someone else to tell me where I will be and when I will be there? That's kind of cool as well.

Saturday was the annual Fourth of July raft up for the fireworks display. It has been six years since the first time we sailed little Nomad down the lake to join the party. Daughter Eldest and family drove in from Iowa to join in and, before any of the boats left, friends from the marina threw a going away surprise party. Cake and presents and talk of plans, stories were told ... fortunately no one asked that I give any kind of speech. There is no chance I would have gotten through it without a break in my voice or a tear in my eye. (Ruining an otherwise stellar reputation for being a bit of a hard-ass.) There is also no way to describe just how pivotal a place this has become for our plans and for our lives. Thank you all. (And we will work on getting the boat to smell better - just like every sailor everywhere!)

Picture courtesy of Emily Elden

Eventually 19 boats tied up for the party. It was the biggest raft-up we have ever tied into. Several of the boats were helmed by crews new to sailing - their first time at the Fourth. I don't know what their plans for the future might be; but if it turned out there is a future cruiser among them it would not be a surprise. We ghosted out of the pack just after midnight to motor home as a precaution to the little one on board not feeling well. A dark-as-pitch run up an empty lake to warp a 42 foot Tartan to the pier in an empty and nearly as dark marina.  We may not be cruisers yet but we have come a long way since July 4, 2008.

Picture courtesy of Dennis Smith

Daughter Middle, her kids, In-Laws, Brother-in-law, and his Daughter joined us Sunday. Kim and Steve had joined us years ago for a sail in Nomad; a sail that was mostly a drift. This time around we were doing 4 - 5 knots on half a head sail, dodging rain and splashing the deck. The kids turned Kintala into a moving jungle gym and a good time was had by all 6 adults and 6 kids. (It turns out 6 kids can fit under the dodger - who would have thunk that?)

Deb had to return to the city yesterday - this is her last week of work. I think it is safe to say she is pretty happy about that good-bye. Kids departed westward in various cars today. Daughter Eldest and Family will be here next week - a final good-bye delayed a bit.

But we are most definitely in the "good-by phase" ...