"All Systems Go!" - the family prepares

It's “All Systems Go” at our house right now!  The red-brick exterior and green front door are the same as ever, but once inside, there is a palpable change in the air.  From the youngest to the oldest, we are all making preparations for the changes ahead in our own ways.

Jack's 3rd birthday

Jack is our youngest.  He was three in December, and has been sailing since before he was born, and not without incident.  His first trip, whilst still on the inside, was a five-week cruise down the west coast of Brittany.  Embarrassingly, he and I fell into a French river during a slightly ill-judged marina docking episode.  I was trying to push Snow Goose away from a pontoon against a very strong tide, over-optimistically as it turned out, and somehow ended up dangling from her guard rails over the water, and of course I couldn’t hold on for long!  Jack was perfectly protected, being not only in-utero, but also under bulky sailing oilees, plus, by the end of the incident, my fully inflated lifejacket.  However, I think this may have been when his reservations about going to sea began.  At eighteen months, he managed to launch himself head-first out of our tender (dinghy) into the River Hamble, earning himself the nickname "splosh", but fortunately proving that crewsaver “supersafe” lifejackets are every bit as excellent as they claim to be.  And then last summer, in the Channel Islands, he was terrified when the very same tender was swamped by some kind of freakish stealth wash, invisible to us until just before it hit the shore, but large enough to fill the entire boat, snap the skeg of our outboard engine, and soak all the children.  Jack was very wet and upset, and his first words when he woke up the following morning were, "I hate Snow Goose.  I want to go home!".

Jack is well aware, as much as any three-year-old can comprehend, that we are leaving home soon to go and live on a boat.  Wisely, he suggested at breakfast the other day that we should take some chickens with us so we can have eggs, and he has decided which teddies he is bringing.  But beyond chickens and teddies, we sense some anxiety.  During our dry-land life-raft practice, he spent much of his time way down the garden, shouting "I'm floating away!  Rescue me, I'm floating away!", and when we went for a little family dinghy sail, in flat calm conditions, he clung to me throughout, repeatedly shrieking "We're sinking!".  I asked him what he is looking forward to about the trip, and he said “building a little den on the boat - but down below, so we don’t fall in the sea..”.  So Jack, I think, has some psychological issues to overcome; we will have to give him some extra special support as he finds his confidence!!

Jack's "terrifying" Christmas scow sail in Bembridge harbour

George is five, and much more gung-ho than Jack in his attitude to life at sea.  He also began before he was born; we sailed around Ireland when I was pregnant with him.  George absolutely loves being on a boat.  He has his own sailing knife, which he wears proudly around his waist.  On board Snow Goose, if we are ever looking for the handheld compass, or the ship’s binoculars, they can usually be found around his neck, as he checks his bearings and looks for pirates.  He likes to row, and steer the outboard engine on the tender, and he hops confidently on and off Snow Goose by himself.  During the summer he became proficient on the stand-up paddleboard, even persuading a few four-year-old friends to accompany him on a "jellyfish hunt" along the shore of Brae Harbour in Alderney.  George is longing to see whales, dolphins and sea slugs, and to paddle his own kayak ashore to the beach.

However, George is an extremely loyal friend, especially to his "besties", Bertie and Rufus, and sometimes the thought of not seeing them for a year or more reduces him to tears.  He is sad about the parties he will miss, the football he won't be able to play with them, the sleepovers he hasn't yet had.  A year must seem like a lifetime to a five-year-old, and it is almost more than he can bear to think of being apart from his friends for so long.  We have photo books for all the children which they are filling their friends and family, so that we can remember and talk about them while we are away.  Hopefully we are right in our firm belief that we will make new friends while we're away, and we are so lucky to know that we are not moving somewhere else permanently; the children will come home to the friends we leave behind here in Winchester. 

George on the paddleboard

Eloise is eight, and she is brilliant on the boat, helping with lines and fenders, steering and navigation.  She is preparing fantastically for our adventure, working on a PowerPoint presentation of our planned trip for her class, and she has drawn up a list of her "Top 20 things to take to a desert island".  There is no toy or book in sight.  Every single item has been carefully thought out to ensure the maximum chance of long-term survival with minimal environmental impact, with several items crossed through when she thought of a more useful or a natural alternative.  I think anyone would survive pretty well with her list!  Our main concern with Eloise is likely to be the amount of books she’ll plough through. There's a lot of reading time on a boat! With luck, we will find some good charity shops to stock up with books in Auckland, plus she plans to top up her Kindle at every opportunity.

Eloise is very curious to know what it will be like to meet children from the Pacific Islands, what their lives are like, what she should take to share with them, whether she will be able to visit their schools and houses, and how they might communicate if they don't speak the same language.  She made a close French friend though doing cartwheels and playing Uno this summer, even though neither could speak a word of each other's language, so it will be interesting to see if the same tactic works in Tonga and Fiji..

Eloise's desert island survival list

Well, that's the children - they will be sad to leave their friends, but they are definitely excited at the prospect of not going to school after February half term!  So what about the grown-ups?.

Angus has been extensively up-skilling in many areas.  He has just finished a four-day long-range radio course, and passed the exam - hooray!  He has spearheaded the boat search, survey, purchase and preparation, and is keeping in touch with the many new friends he met while in NZ, as well as studying weather and routing, and reading the journals of those who have done similar passages before.  On the home front, he is taking the lead for insurance - house, boat and travel - plus house maintenance.  The prospect of renting out the house has set a definite deadline for many small DIY tasks, and some rather larger painting tasks, which we are gradually ticking off the list.  Angus is looking forward to taking sun sights and practising his astronavigation, apprehensive about being in a confined space with me and the children for long periods of time (!), and the one thing he is definitely taking with him is his squeeze box (a new hobby).

As for me, I have turned into some kind of Mari Kondo freak, constantly questioning what we actually need in our lives, putting things on ebay and freecycle, and filling the car for trips to charity shops, and occasionally (and reluctantly) the dump.  The house still seems fairly full, but I’m making a dent in it, and it has never looked better!  Meanwhile our storage unit nearby is gradually filling up with things we want to keep, but won’t need before we leave. We plan to be away for 12-18 months, so any children's clothes we're not taking might as well find themselves a new home now, and all of our pre-school aged toys and books can move on to their next lives, too.  Our house is on the market to rent now, so I have daily phone calls with the estate agents, as they book, cancel and re-schedule viewings.  It seems to be quite fast moving, so fingers crossed we secure a tenant in the next few weeks.

I have not been much of a Facebooker until now, but have recently become a member of a number of sailing based Facebook groups - Women who sail, Kids on boats, Boat schooling, Cooking on boats, Sewing on boats - you name it, there's a group for it.  I'm finding it really useful to read other people's tales and tips, from the comfort of the sofa, before we do it ourselves.  The amazing thing is how welcoming and helpful complete strangers are; I have messaged lots of people asking for tips on accommodation, marinas, home-schooling, purchasing boats etc, and every single one has responded effusively, despite having absolutely no idea who I am.  It is very reassuring to feel part of this community already, even though we haven’t yet left home.

Our “to-do” list is enormous, and daunting at times, but our flights are booked for 28^th February and we're not planning to change them!  We have a date to aim for, and I'm confident we'll manage to get all categories of admin in sufficient order by then.  In the meantime, I will continue to monitor the weight of our "kit to take" pile, and compare it to our maximum luggage allowance, whilst also trying to figure out how many loo rolls, bottles of Calpol, UV suits and spare sunglasses / hats / crocs a family of five might need for six months in the Islands.  And then there’s the mind-boggling logistics of food and medical kit to ponder…  But that's for another blog!  

More messing about in boats in winter - bring on the New Zealand summer!