No looking back...

So far I feel that this is the hardest part of the trip.  We finally emptied the house Friday morning, packed up the suburban and headed out of town.  Looking in the review mirror with tears in my eyes remembering all the closeness of the neighborhood and the community that we will be missing while away.  I know we are fortunate to be able to take this time and do this trip, I know that we will be returning to our house the community in 2 years but it doesn't make this any easier for me.  I have always moved around ... A LOT.... and I have never felt a sense of home like I have in Lafayette.  I never thought that I would become rooted anywhere, but as I was leaving I realized I have.

I know that there are some that believe we are really making a bad and risky decision in removing our children from their home, education and what not... I want to thank all of you (my friends) who have asked all the questions and truly understood the amount of time Chris and I have spent in planning this adventure.  We are not just making an irrational, mid life crisis leap to get out of town and try something new.  We really believe that what we are about to take on will bring our family closer than we ever have, open the kids eyes to other cultures, and give them a sense of accomplishment and responsibility that they would never have gotten at home.  We are trying to show the kids that if you have a dream, with hard work and sacrifice you can make it come true.  Chris has always dreamed of  circumnavigating since he was in the sea scouts and truly fell in love with sailing.  We have been planning this trip for 10 years and seriously planning for the last 7... This is one of the biggest undertakings in terms of planning that I have ever gone thru... but hopefully will be the most rewarding.

This last week has been the most exhausting in terms of deadlines that we needed to meet.  We were suppose to officially buy the boat the week before last but one of the owners friends is a rigger and he had discovered some issues with the mast and rigging.  He advised us not to go offshore to purchase the boat.  We then had to scramble to get the mast taken down and repaired in the time frame that we had in order to purchase the boat before Chris leaves with Tristan on his 50 mile boy scout hike in Kings Canyon.   We had a week and a half to fix the mast, buy the boat and to move out of the house.  We always underestimate the time it takes to actually accomplish to projects we undertake.  The Tzortzis way is to take on as much as possible, give ourselves the shortest amount of time to accomplish it and then make sure that a bunch of stuff comes up to give us opportunities to problem solve.  This is of course good practice for us for the next few years.

My sister piper and her husband Josh came down and were a god send in helping us prep the house and move all the furniture.. Without them I don't know what we would have done.  Chris had to be at the boat prepping the mast and working on the boat while we had to pack up the U-haul and move all the furniture out of the house Friday and Saturday night.  Then OH THEM MESS that was left.  I can't believe after 6 months of Goodwill trips and dump runs we still had so much junk.... Packing the last of the house this week really sent the kids for a tail spin and again emotions have been running wild.  There were many late nights and trips to Oma's storage garage in the city, then dump runs and more Goodwill runs... It just seemed never ending...

The light at the end of the tunnel... we were able to get the mast up on Wednesday and take her offshore on thursday to officially purchase the boat.  YAY!  I can't tell you how good that feels to actually have a boat to go on this adventure with.  I know many of you have been asking for pictures but we were always afraid to jinx the process by counting our eggs to soon.  So in with said I will put some in now.

The boat we decided on is a Lagoon 470.  There are only 50ish of these made.  It is between a performance cat and a charter cat.  When Chris and I first saw the boat in Costa Rica we really felt she was perfect for our family.  Her layout is unique in the fact that she has 4 staterooms (one with a king bed) and 3 bathrooms.  She has been actively blue water cruised for the last two years.  It is a perfect senerio for us.  As with any boat, prior to leaving for blue water we will need make sure that everything is checked out and in excellent working condition..... and then you bring all the spares parts you can possibly bring.

Friday morning was a mad scramble to get all of the remaining crud out of the house or stored so that it is free and clear for the painters, new carpets and cleaners to come in and get the house ready for the new family, the Kricks.  We are now in Shasta at Oma's house while Chris and Tristan are hiking in this horrible heat south of Yosemite... When they return we will be living in the city and finally focusing on the boat to get her ready ocean ready for us.  The list is so long that I can't even begin to think of how much we need to do prior to leaving... so I am just going to relax and recover for a week up here in the fresh mountain air, go for nature walks, spend time reading with the kids, and swimming in the lake.  I may tackle inventorying our medical bag for the boat, making a shopping list for the items that we need to purchase for the boat and ordering the homeschooling supplies for the kids... I know it will sneak up on me and I want to be prepared for their first day of school.

Here is a map of the places we would like to go and about the time frame that would be ideal to be there...

Hello Everyone-

I am really new at this blogging stuff... I am trying to figure out what works and finding out more than not what doesn't.  I am hoping that you can click on this link and see the map I created.  I put down more detailed description of the places we would like to visit and time frames we would like to arrive or depart in.  Of course, when you are putting this together there are so many factors that impact where and when you actually end up.  Of course weather, but also mechanical issues.. (I hope this isn't our case) Internal attitudes... (I know this will be our case :@)) and did I mention weather?? So with that said, this again is just an idea of the places we would like to visit and the optimum times we are suppose to be there because of ideal sailing conditions.

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zpiE9qOxUJPU.kOzeeFia98Zo

If you click on the red balloons you should see some of the pictures of each of the places we will visit.  I am SURE all of our days will be sunny and clear just like the pics... I hope this link works.

Heather

So..are you going to fish?

We get this question a lot- and the answer is YES!  fortunately, in many parts of the Pacific, fish seem to still be available, if not plentiful. As my brothers can attest to, we didn't grow up fishing in the Tzortzis family- it just never made it on the list of many activities we tackled as a family.  My brother  Mike has made inroads by spearing fish when he free dives, and I have had some limited success with that as well.

So yes, I like to eat fish, but "no", I am not yet a fisherman.  (Unlike the majority of Heather's side of the family).  However, maybe the fishing karma and prowess has skipped a few Tzortzis generations - Tristan certainly thinks so!  Ever since his first 10 min fishing attempt yielded an 8 lb. striped bass- Tristan thinks its his thing- and I hope it is!

I am definitely looking forward to "fishing/hunting for food" on this trip, (as opposed to "fishing for fun") and Tristan is really excited.  The prior owners of the boat are leaving behind a very nice lure collection for him and some additional tools of the trade:

 We have one fishing pole (that hasn't caught a single fish yet- not even a minnow), and are on the hunt for at least one more saltwater big-fish-grade pole.  I have some hand lines already, and thanks to my brother Mike- I have one bad ass big'ole spear gun.  (safety note to all readers: 1.  spearguns should not be fired out of the water, even at hay bales  2.  if you ARE shooting at hay bales, do NOT hold the gun close to your cheek bone while sighting down the shaft...it hurts...a lot).   We will have a few spears/Hawaiian slings, and now own a "lobster tickler".  Tristan thinks our most important next purchase is some sort of knife to finish off big fish we shoot.... that may be slightly ahead of our current skill level.

At the end of the day- hanging out with the family, catching and dissecting dinner just sounds awesome.  I welcome all fishing advice, and more importantly "fish cooking advice".  The favorite recipe just recently shared with me - is Louisiana Bayou style fish cooking - "Put hot sauce on fish, put it in the microwave for 4 minutes, done!"

Youngest solo sailor, around the world at 16: Laura Dekker at TEDxYouth@...

Our New Home has Arrived!

Well after a long journey of 30+ days of motor sailing up the west coast our new boat has finally arrived.  The kids are so excited to go see her.  It took them much longer to get here because of their delay with the hurricane outside of Mexico.  This caused them to have to change course and travel along the coast line instead of sailing out to sea and then cut back in to the bay.  Going up the coast is known to be one of the most miserable cruising tracts known in the pacific because of the fight with wind and current all the way up.  It makes for a very hobby horse and slow ride.

Thank you so much to Tony and Pete for sticking with it and making the trek back home.

We will get to take the kids to see the boat sometime this week after the guys are able to recoup from such a long journey.

I can't believe we are almost living on our boat...  Of course I am imagining the Serene environment of the calm waters, cool kids and mimosa's in the morning...  and then I wake up from my dream and am envisioning all 4 kids fighting over swinging on the lines, chasing each other around and around the deck, yelling and screaming and us needing to find a way to get their energy burned creatively.  There will obviously be a good adjusting period that we will need to go through along with an anchorage far enough away from other boats where the Family Circus doesn't get a reputation as that boat nobody wants to anchor next too.  Actually maybe thats not such a bad thing.:@)

Everything seems to be falling into place

Wow!

That is all I can say for the last few weeks...  I can finally say that we are definitely closer to our departure date in September.  In the last 2 weeks we signed the purchase agreement for our new boat, signed the lease agreement to rent our house and signed the sale agreement on our old boat...  It has been very exciting with all of the pressure of getting these few items accomplished.  I can finally say with confidence that I believe we will actually pull this off.

With Chris passing all of his 6 tests to get his Captains License in one night... Holy Cow!  I knew my husband was amazing but... Holy Cow!  This usually is done over a few months if not longer...  We are scheduled to take our Wilderness Survival First Aide Course this coming weekend and then the boat should be here within a few weeks after that.  I really can't believe how fast time is flying right now and when they say time runs out quickly when you are planning a trip like this they aren't kidding.

We are now waiting for our new boat to arrive with much anticipation, and good thoughts for Pete and Tony in their sails coming north...  With the weather patterns being a little funky right now they have been able to make their way up the coast from Nicaragua to Mexico.  With our spot on board we are able to see them making their way.  When they push a button on the spot it sends a signal to us via email telling us they are okay and then charts it on a map for us to see where they are.  I guess its not as accurate as I thought at all times, since I know for a fact you can't sail a boat on land.... at least we can still see their progress.  It is nice to be on this end of it so we can understand what friends and family will see when we are out and about and send a signal back to them.

Once the boat is here then it is a good look over to see what needs to be done to get her blue water ready again to turn around and go back out... We believe we need to haul her out and give her a good bottom paint, check the rigging, have the engines tuned up and purchase a few sails...  We also need to really practiced sailing her.  She is a new boat for us with new systems and reefing techniques (reducing the sail area for strong winds so you don't take your mast down) are critical for us all to get down prior to leaving.  They say until you have reefed in 30 knot winds in pitch black soaking wet naked... you haven't really reefed a main sail in a storm..  Okay maybe not the naked part for us but I can just picture the chaos of trying to get the sails reefed before the 50 knot winds come... usually within a 5 minute span.  Talk about a fire drill.  We will need to really go thru all of the safety procedures with all the kids on board and make sure everyone knows what to do.  We also need to add netting down the sides of the boat and make sure we are set with jack lines to tie onto while we are sailing.  Yes!  When we are out there it will be mandatory for all of us to be in life jackets and tethered to the jack lines so no one can fall over.

School is wrapping up and it is bitter sweet for me.  Although I am really excited about our new adventure, the routine of school, activities, little trips up north and to shasta are a norm and a safety net...  I often think, okay what will our life be like today a year from now and where will we be?  It is hard to know how everyone will feel about changing our routines so dramatically and pulling them away from all that they have known for their whole life.

The anxieties that are running amuck in our house right now and the mood swings are crazy...but I truly feel that as soon as we get on the boat... and they will really understand what they have signed up for.   The kids are truly amazing, they have given us their full trust and cooperation in going along with us.  I know they don't have a choice but to go with the attitude that they have and the acceptance and excitement, I really give them kuddos.   When I was their age... I know I would have given a lot more resistance to be pulled out of school and uprooted from my friends and home, to who knows what for 2 years.  Not to mention being stuck on a 400 Square foot space with your family.  We are truly blessed.

All the kids are so excited to see the new boat.  As soon as it is possible we will begin living aboard so the kids will start to adjust prior to us leaving... I think the human body/mind can handle a lot of change but with the kids I feel that baby steps are important.

Anyway... I feel so much better right now about all that we are doing and getting prepared for...  I know that nothing speaks of experience itself and we will be getting much more of that a long the way but in terms of preparation we are definitely checking off the boxes on all out lists and then going back and doing it again.  There are just so many :@)  Maybe we are in the eye of the storm and I know more chaos is to come but right now I am enjoying a little repreive and slowing things down just a little.  Maybe even eat some bon bons and fall asleep watching Ellen.... Hmmmmm

Its not just us doing this!

I still promise to post my original "Reason for doing this" post that I wrote 6 months ago, but in lieu of this, I will keep sharing other posts and links that help inspire us.

My family has always been "adventurous" to some degree, discovering new things, going to new places and just..."going".

Thankfully- there are many more of us out there, and there are even websites dedicated to this.  Family Adventure Podcast is fascinating as its not just sailing families- but families in RVs, on bikes and so much more.  Here is a great podcast- I hope we will write our own version of this post:

http://www.familyadventurepodcast.com/5-character-lessons-kids-will-learn-traveling-family/#more-494

I look forward to your comments, what is your next adventure?  Chris