Sunday, June 7 This was our first week back into the routine of things, meaning with Eric back to work and both of us settling into a life back in San Diego. We have to say that it hasn’t been easy.
Eric has been putting in long days at work, usually working 12+ hours. A couple days he came home after Christi had already gone to bed! Each night he comes home physically exhausted. Though, he finds it interesting that before his sabbatical, he came home feeling work each night feeling more mentally tired than physically tired, and now it is the other way around.
Christi is still working on blogs and life chores and has been laying low. She is still living in the slow lane and is emotionally torn about it. She likes the slow pace of life and doesn’t want to speed up. However, in the slow lane, little gets done in terms of productivity. In America, one feels obligated to be highly productive with one’s time. That is just the way many Americans are. The only way to be productive is to live in the fast lane. Does she want to be productive and fit in with American culture, or continue the slow paced but unproductive life?
The hardest part of the adjustment, by far, is being apart. Neither of us are “needy” people. We don’t feel like we “need” to be together. But for the trip we were side by side every minute of every day. Now all of the sudden a question we had not asked each other in two years came back, “What did you do today?” Reflecting on the trip, we can say one of the greatest gifts was the amount of time we got to spend with each other.
And now for some Q & A:
Q: Have you considered chartering Kosmos now that you are back?
A: The insurance costs for chartering makes part time chartering unfeasible. You either need to charter her constantly or not at all. And, since so many things can go wrong with chartering, we choose not at all. After all, it only takes one woman to forget one time not to flush a tampon down the toilet and you have to take apart the toliet. And that is only one example of potential hazards to the boat.
Q: Did you look into Krogens or any other brand of trawler before you bought your Nordhavn?
A: We looked at Kadey Krogens and Selene’s. At the time, Kadey Krogen only had a 40ish version and a 50ish version, they didn’t have the right size for us. Selene had the right size, but we decided the Nordhavn was more sea worthy and an overall better brand for long passages.
Q: Do you wish you got a smaller or bigger boat?
A: We feel we made the right choice of boat for the type of cruising we did. Most of the time we were in following seas. Had we picked a route with more time in head seas, we may have wanted a longer length boat for reduced pitching motion. We felt the interior was big enough to suit our needs and the exterior was small enough to easily handle and maintain by ourselves.
The Nordhavn 40 would have worked ok for us, but we are glad we had the extra fuel capacity, the mid-stateroom, and a second bathroom so that guests have more privacy.
For a discussion on the pros and cons of the 43, 52 and 55 models, see: here and here.
Coming up: More Q & A, repairs to Kosmos, a trip to Yosemite.