Fears

Before we left Colorado, I was laying in Bear's bed with her, talking about my fears of the trip, letting her know being nervous is a normal feeling when so much is changing and there are a lot of unknowns. I listed some out to her, in random order- fear of the kids getting seasick, someone falling off the boat, the kids getting bored and not having enough to do, running out of food, sunburns, and I told her there were more, but I couldn't think of them at the time. She told me she wasn't nervous.

First overboard was claimed by Dixie (Bear and Ben's dog) on our second day at the dock. I was making the little kids' bed with their new sheets and Ben was outside working at the stern of the boat. The kids had Dixie on the dock and Ben told Bear to make sure she had Dixie's leash on her. Bear called her back over to the boat and she quickly learned how little legs, like Dixie's, are not a good match for going from the dock to the boat and vice versa. Dixie jumped to the boat, but jumped where a railing was, missed the boat, had already passed the dock, and fell into the water between the two- without her life vest or leash. Shrieks from the kids alerted Ben to pull a cold pupsicle from the water by the scruff of her neck. Guess who doesn't allow Dixie out of the cabin without her life vest anymore. Bear. Fear #1.

While we were at the dock, we had a lot to do. Mechanical stuff gets taken care of by Ben, while the house and kids things belong to me. I was unpacking, making beds, doing laundry, organizing the fridge and 3 freezers. Ben was ... well... doing a lot. I can't even tell you all of the things he did in the engine rooms, in small crawl spaces that I thought I'd have to call to get him cut out of, and on the deck. I continue to be thankful that he started his college education thinking he wanted to become a diesel mechanic. All of that one year of college and 2 prior years of vocational school loaded his brain so that it's all second nature to him. Needless to say, we were busy. The kids were bored and we didn't let them bring any toys. TV can entertain, but only for so long. They only packed a journal, school workbook, and stuffed animal each. Fear #2.

Due to where we bought our boat, we had to venture a little bit in open waters to get to our next waypoint. During our sea trial and visit in May, we were in the boat on the water for a total of 5-6 hours. I never felt sick. I chalked that up to this vessel being a catamaran. Once we reached the Atlantic, the water started getting choppy. From the cockpit, it didn't look like we were riding big waves, but they sure felt big to my stomach. I started feeling sick 11 miles in, but thought I could handle it. It was only approximately 20 miles, so only 9 to go- we were more than halfway! I was wrong. I stood up, walked to the gunwale, rode it out for a bit, heard Ben tell the kids, "There goes Mommy," and then came back in while being told by Roo, in an angry voice, "Mommy! You can't do that! You'll kill the creatures!" I told her it made me feel much better and that the creatures were excited to have such delicious poppyseed muffins for breakfast. Luckily it was just me. Everyone else had their sea legs from the getgo, and it only took me that one time to get it out of the way. (Update: Moose joined me in this on day 3.)  Fear #3.

We never technically ran out of food, but there were several times when Ben or I told the kids to stop eating because we needed food on board. This resulted in 2 Target runs and a Stop & Shop visit to be sure the food we stocked up on before we left would in fact, still be there on our journey south. Fear #4?

Little did I know that I'd have to face a lot of my fears within a 40-hour window at the start of our trip.