Long Time No Blog

You can tell a lot about a person if you know where they stood in the birth order of their siblings.  The achieving first-borns, the charming last-borns, and such. David and I both grew up as the middle kids in our families, which might help account for any lack of achievement or charm that we display.  What we excel in though, is middle-born flexibility.

In this retirement adventure we have found how fortunate it is that we deal well with changes.  We began trying to sail away beginning in July of ’23, and were finally able to do so in October of ’25.  At each obstacle that delayed us, we tried to practice the wisdom of Jimmy Buffett: “Breathe in, breathe out, move on.”

So as you may remember, we cast off the bow line and steered Kotona out of the Florence marina on our way back through some familiar places.  We enjoyed stops at Grand Harbor and Bay Springs, and then we pushed on into unfamiliar waters.  We shared some about motoring down the Tennessee-Tombigbee, and then we fell silent on the blog.  A month in to our big adventure, we were having less fun than we expected. We were concerned about dragging our keel in shallow autumn waters, we were not used to the crowd of faster boats all around us in marinas and locks, the days were growing markedly shorter, and we were friggin’ COLD. On a bench, near the marina in Fulton Mississippi, we had a long conversation about how it was going and employed once again our superpower of flexibility.

I am writing this from the comfort, warmth, and quietness of the Parsons family cabin at Panama City Beach, FL. Yes, David and I made it to the salt water! But we came here in our car.  Kotona is resting at the marina in Mississippi, awaiting the Spring, when she will continue her journey southward. Meanwhile, we are playing like snowbirds overwintering at the beach.

Our original plans for being off the Florida panhandle included taking courses to be certified by the American Sailing Association.  The ASA’s purpose coincides well with our desires: to help people sail safely and confidently. Although we have been sailing on and off for decades, we are weekend lake sailors, mostly self-taught.  We lack blue water experience with sea waves and tides, and don’t know much about coastal navigation or offshore safety.  Both of us could benefit from more confidence in our abilities, and it doesn’t hurt that such training could qualify us to charter boats for adventures in places far beyond Kotona’s reach.

We spent much of the holidays studying, as well as enjoying visits from family and friends. January 8-11 we spent four days near Destin, on the water and in the classroom with Midbay Sailing. I had wondered about January weather out on the Gulf, and am glad to report that we did not get too cold. The fog, however, took us by surprise. We inland folks know fog to be a wispy low-lying morning thing that blows away in winds or burns away before midday. Sea fog is not so flexible and so much more tenacious. The first day we could not believe we were out on the Gulf, unable to see any horizon around us, much less other boats that sometimes loomed up out of the gloom closer than we would have liked.  But our excellent instructor Brian remained calm, even delighting in what a good wind we had and how the waves were not so bad. David says it didn’t hurt that the boat had radar. 

After the first day we wondered what we had gotten into. We almost hoped bad weather would wash out the rest of the course. But each day that passed we became less stressed and more comfortable. We were being stretched but sailing safely and we grew in confidence. We both were surprised to score quite well on each of the three exams we took. By the end we received certification for Keelboat Sailing 101, Coastal Cruising 103, and Bareboat Cruising 104. More importantly, we are inspired anew to go for the adventure.

I’ve heard that sailors and schedules don’t mix. The weather will have its way.  And so it is with us.  We are retired and free from many responsibilities. So don’t be surprised when our plans change again. Just before we left Decatur, a dear friend shared with me an Indigo Girls song that encourages me in the changes and challenges: 

Now I see we're in the boat in two by twos / Only the heart that we have for a tool we could use

And the very close quarters are hard to get used to / Love weighs the hull down with its weight

But the wood is tired and the wood is old / And we'll make it fine if the weather holds

But if the weather holds we'll have missed the point / That’s where I need to go.

Emily Saliers, The Wood Song

Heading into the sunrise, a new day awaits…soon.