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What about pirates? And other common questionsLindsay McRoryOctober 29, 1995
While attending a recent meeting with my firm, I was asked many questions about our upcoming trip. Some of the same questions came up over and over again, usually in the same sequence. I guess it makes sense to put these into a FAQ ( frequently asked questions). How did you get started on this adventure? We owned a sailboat in the Pacific Northwest for about 11 years. As a family, we spent a few summers cruising the San Juan and the Gulf islands. Every year got better and better. No one wanted to return home from the boat. Two summers ago, I took a notebook computer and a cellular modem. I was able to connect to e-mail and did a fair amount of work from the boat. Once back, it was a surprise to some of my work colleagues that I was gone at all. That's when Denise and I started seriously talking about doing this for a longer period of time. Where are you going? Were not sure. The plan is to end up in the Pacific Northwest in the next three or four, or maybe more, years. It's possible we may stay out much longer than that, or we may end up settling in another country. We are heading for the Caribbean first. The South Pacific is an attractive option. If the long-term hurricane forecasts are correct, the Mediterranean is a possibility for next winter. Our fondest cruising memories are when we went where we wanted, when we wanted. Our trip down the St. Lawrence was nice, but toward the end our schedule drove us to much longer multiday legs than we anticipated, taking much of the enjoyment out of a beautiful coast. Are you worried about hurricanes? Everyone worries about hurricanes. They come in summer and fall in the Caribbean and typically form hundreds of miles away. This makes identification easy, but direction and growth are not so easy to predict. There are numerous techniques for both avoidance and holing in. We continually read and talk to people about this. At this time we are not planning to hang around for hurricane season. How will you educate Kita, 6, and Wesley, 4? We have three years of correspondence courses and supplies on the boat. This combined with multimedia educational software and a personal tutor via the Internet should ensure the kids are plugged in. What about the kids' social development? Won't they suffer? What we have found, and others before us, is that we will be cruising with other families that we'll meet along the way. While cruising with other families, it's not uncommon to do group education for a couple of weeks. If we are going to stay in a place for longer than a month, we will look at sending the kids to a local school on that island. It can usually be worked out. The kids must get bored silly. Of all the issues to deal with when kids are involved on the boat, boredom is not one of them, even with no TV (actually we have a TV with VCR, although the TV has no antenna). The days are a blur of activity from morning till night. On multiday passages the kids seem to sleep more, but keep busy while they are awake. Doesn't living in a confined space make it hard to get along for extended periods of time? Hakuna Matata is actually a very spacious boat, as far as boats go. By house or apartment standards it's quite small. It hasn't been a problem to date, nor are we expecting problems based upon the reading we have done. What about medical concerns? We have three substantial medical kits. The drug kit contains a variety of prescription drugs, including antibiotics and antihistamines. Our family doctor wrote the prescriptions with the guidance of several cruising and government publications recommending therapies for the different types of infections that can be encountered in the tropics. We will administer prescribed drugs only with the advice of a doctor. This can be arranged through HAM radio or satellite communications. The trauma kit contains a variety of large bandages, splints, eye washes, and butterfly bandages. The first-aid kit contains the frequently used items such as smaller band aids, ointments, and motion-sickness medicine. How will you communicate with work? Hakuna Matata will be a floating communications lab. There are numerous global satellite projects planned for the next few years. Until these are operational, I will have to use a combination of systems (this will get a little technical) including: Packet Radio Cellular MSAT Satellite There is a U.S. equivalent sponsored by American Satellite Corporation. The services are the same, but the systems are billed quite differently. Did you sell your house and cars? We sold both. Our cars went because, in the period we will be gone, dried seals and depreciation wouldn't leave much to come back to. The house was tougher, a lot tougher. Sell it and what do you come back to? Keep it and who looks after it? The first principle was not to sell the house to buy a new boat. In concept it seems like a transfer of equity. In reality, it can take a long time to sell an ocean-cruising boat. The boat market is fickle and subject to drastic swings based on the economy. Boats make poor investments. Tax considerations also played a role. If we kept the house we would always be deemed Canadian residents, paying Canadian tax. Selling the house enables us to drop our Canadian residency (but not our citizenship) in the future, if we decide to do so. In the end, it came down to the fact that it was not our dream home, nor even located where we might want to live when we settle down again. We would take our chances with inflation and try not to dip too much into the house fund. Are you concerned about pirates? There are piracy hot spots. The pirate havens of the sixties and seventies have dwindled because of the Coast Guard's effective campaign on drug trafficking. Our insurance does not cover Hakuna Matata for Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and a few other countries. Riders can be obtained for some hot spots. Most yachts that are forcefully boarded are in, or near, trouble spots and alone in the anchorage. By staying out of these areas and traveling with other boats we hope to avoid these types of problems. What do your families think? Our families have been concerned, but are very supportive. We have budgeted to fly home as often as once every six months. It's a serious commitment. What if you don't like it? Buddha said the reward is in the journey. If we never left the dock, or have to come back early, the preparations for the trip have included: emergency medical training (EMT-A course), scuba-diving certification, ham radio license including Morse code exams, international banking arrangements, study and application of the latest satellite communications, meteorology, and advanced navigation skills. This knowledge in itself is a big reward. It's not the destinations that are attractive to us, it's the lifestyle.
Are you (Lindsay) forcing your ambitions on your family? If you asked me five years ago if I would ever do this, or if I ever wanted to, the answer would be a definitive "no." There is no doubt that I am a life-long sailor and introduced the family to it. At first, Denise was not all that crazy about sailing. If our summer cruises had not been so addicting for the entire family, I would still be racing Hobie cats and Lasers. We would have kept our C&C for boys' weeks out and the odd family cruise. You must have one hell of a wife. Yup. |
 
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(Editor's Note: Lindsay has delivered the Hakuna
Matata from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Norfolk, Virginia. He is now back
in Canada to gather the rest of his family and return to the boat for a
November 1 departure.)
