mike cunningham
Freedom 30 "Jacqueline"
Given it's a rainy Sunday with varnish drying on a boat project in my garage and nothing better to do, I thought I would go back and look at some old posts.
I was struck by my shock and awe at 25Kts of wind during the 2015 Longpac. Nowadays that is pretty much a "no biggie" windspeed. The same was true for the 2106 vs the 2018 Transpac. I was freaked out during the 2016 windy reach, in 2018 "freak out" was replaced with exhilaration. I don't think wind speeds or sea state were much different. If anything, 2018 may have been a bit rowdier.
I'll never forget waking up and getting into the cockpit on an early, sunny morning day three or four out. All of my instruments looked like they had been snowed on. The spray would cover them and dry out, repeat about thirty times and you have an ample supply of table salt which looked a lot like snow. But it was beautiful, really beautiful, that morning.
What I remember most was the fact the fear was gone and replaced by an incredible feeling of competence (rightly or wrongly) and freedom. Just thinking about it makes me pine for it.
And the the sail back, it's a crazy thing to miss like crazy.
I was struck by my shock and awe at 25Kts of wind during the 2015 Longpac. Nowadays that is pretty much a "no biggie" windspeed. The same was true for the 2106 vs the 2018 Transpac. I was freaked out during the 2016 windy reach, in 2018 "freak out" was replaced with exhilaration. I don't think wind speeds or sea state were much different. If anything, 2018 may have been a bit rowdier.
I'll never forget waking up and getting into the cockpit on an early, sunny morning day three or four out. All of my instruments looked like they had been snowed on. The spray would cover them and dry out, repeat about thirty times and you have an ample supply of table salt which looked a lot like snow. But it was beautiful, really beautiful, that morning.
What I remember most was the fact the fear was gone and replaced by an incredible feeling of competence (rightly or wrongly) and freedom. Just thinking about it makes me pine for it.
And the the sail back, it's a crazy thing to miss like crazy.
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I remember taking my son sailing about a year and a half after I bought Kynntana and then freaking out when the wind hit 21 knots. We turned and high-tailed it for home. Two years later, I did the LongPac. Now the TransPac and its return are behind me. Though I still describe these offshore adventures as trying to function inside a giant washing machine, I can't seem to shake the desire to get back out and do it again. And soon. I asked a psychologist friend at a party last night what she thought of that feeling. She said she just didn't know anything about me to gander a guess...perhaps it stumps the experts, too. Such a weird thing it is.