Accounts of others preparing to cruise their boats often describe the hectic time prior to departure. Many are involved with refurbishing boats for the challenges of the deep ocean or frantically stocking vessels for the long passage ahead. As realists, we expected to encounter our fair share of obstacles, but of late our journey seems more like Shackleton’s desperate efforts to escape the grasp of Antarctic ice, than any of the accounts we have read of others preparing to cruise.

As related in last months post, the recent global economic recession is only one obstacle we have encountered. Career related events placed the two of us in two different hemispheres for the first part of 2008. At least now we are in the same time zone and a mere 800 miles apart during the week. Couple this with a lighting strike dry-docking us for nearly two months, along with the expected challenges of getting a boat ready for deep ocean cruising, our progress in 2008 has not been what we hoped.

The transition between living on land and the cruising life style is an interesting time, sort of a Toad’s wild ride of emotion and effort mixed with a medieval sense of Limbo. We are at the key step of shedding our earthly abode, no not heading for an out of body experience, just selling our house. The current state of housing markets and business in general means the real estate market is slow. We may soon get a corporate buyout, so we are keeping our hopes up that we can cross this chasm. It is a key milestone in our plans. We had anticipated selling our home in the early fall before the whole economy came crashing down and were already shedding many, many personal possessions that would not fit our lifestyle on Makara. But since our cruising has been delayed we are now caught in a weird state where we have given up much but not replaced it with other joys and activities. We call that the “satisfaction gap”. Yea, Limbo of sorts.

Needless to say this is not a happy place but we are hunkered down in the barracks during this cold winte, gathering our strength for the escape ahead. Here is where the quarks come in. These little buggers, which I spent many years studying as a physicist, are what neutrons, protons (once thought  of as the smallest building blocks of nature) are composed of. Quarks are held together into protons and neutrons by an amazing force (no not the Luke Skywalker force) aptly named the Strong Force. Of all natures forces it is the stongest, real Mr. Atlas stuff. Only catch is it only works over a very small distance which suffices since it has another interesting property. The further you try and pull these guys apart the stronger the force gets! I wish some of the adhesives I use on the boat worked that way. Well, I guess 5200 adhesive is close but I digress. The key part is the "stronger as you pull apart" aspect of the Strong Force. We have found this a useful analogy as we get ready to go cruising that helps us understand why many find the process not only hard but impossible to carry through.

The more you proceed on this journey the stronger the pull gets to keep you ashore. From events that happened or don’t happen and the “satisfaction gap” it adds up to quite strong force keeping you pinned on land. Fortunately I am a physicist and I know that the distance over which the Strong Force is effective is finite.  We are just in the process of clawing our way to the point where it ceases to exert influence over us.

There is much hope for this in the coming year. Makara is steadily getting ready. She is asleep now for the Winter but we will start getting her ready again in early Spring. Many of the big tasks are done and I will hopefully be retired and stocking her up with all the spares and gear we need by the Summer. With a little luck we anticipate moving her south in the fall of 2009 even if Nancy has not yet retired. This will position us to be in warmer climes come next winter.