British Virgin Islands May 2011
It all started way back when, when Kim and I first got married. I knew before I married her she had been a sailor for many years. Now, I love the water, I just wish it didn’t move so much. So as part of that initial partnership negotiation it included–no sailing. We could go to the beach, go on powerboats, go snorkeling, surfing, boogie boarding; anything to do with the water, just…no sailing. But we both agreed that we were open to a less traditional life. We wanted to travel, we wanted our children to have a multitude of experiences and maybe one day, we would go on an adventure.
Fast forward several years and we decided to charter a catamaran on vacation. For years I had been hearing how a catamaran is different from a monohull. No heeling + more stable = less motion sickness. Equipped with scopolamine patches and a bag full of Zofran and Meclizine I went to the BVIs and had a great time. Though the scopolamine had some serious side effects–blurred vision, difficulty walking, and I don’t remember the fine details about that trip, we considered it mission accomplished– I wasn’t sick !
Over the years I’ve noticed that my motion sickness has gotten better, I can actually stand on a floating dock now without breaking out in a sweat. Sometimes if I’m navigating while Kim drives I can tear my eyes off the road long enough to consult a map. Still you can imagine Kim’s surprise when at the Miami boat show in 2013 I brought up sailing again, “Why don’t we buy a boat and go sailing?”
The fact is, we knew we wanted to do a non-traditional adventure with the kids, and that our window was closing. Our kids are getting older, we need to spend this time with them while we can. We knew that our whole family loves the water, and would prefer a boat over an RV. So after much prayer and discussion we decided to go for it and set a date: March 2015. We figured we needed a firm deadline as we would never have enough money, enough time, enough training, enough of every little thing we could think of to feel like we were ready to go. We just needed to set the intention, plan the very best we could, and then believe that it would come together.
So here it is, March of 2015 is just around the corner. And I, armed with my baggie of Zofran, Meclizine, and Scopolamine patches, am going to join my family on an adventure. It isn’t about our destination, in fact, we aren’t even sure what that is. We are here to spend time together as a family, to see different things, meet new people, and learn some amazing lessons about ourselves and each other along the way,