Sven
Seglare
As some of you know, Nancy and I have been hoping to go cruising for some time. We actually started talking about it shortly after our Baltic coast sailing honeymoon (the first time Nancy had ever sailed !) in 1978.
A few days ago invites were sent out for my retirement party at JPL. Nancy expects to have hers in about two months.
I've been at JPL almost 35 years and Nancy has been there for 40 and it is time to move on from robotic space exploration to crewed ocean exploration. For a funny but accurate description of why we have chosen this time see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2HeHfVSybo which describes the problems in the crewed program. The situation for the robotic program is not much better and the NASA R&D program which underlies it all and which I was part of got deleted under W and Griffin.
So, we are going cruising ! The house went on the market last week
We had hoped to have a few more years to turn Senta II from a day sailor into a cruiser, but in a few years we would probably hope to have a few more years to complete the job ... ad infinitum. So we are probably lucky to be nudging ourselves out of the nest.
We have an amazing amount of stuff left to do; heater, new rudder, new windlass installation, autopilot, water maker, SSB, Frigiboat, autopilot, Sextant, Cape Horn vane ... the list goes on and on and on. But we'll do it in some priority order and realize that we're never done !
Our immediate plans are to spend some/several months late this spring and early summer cruising locally between the off-shore islands and maybe up the coast a bit. We'll use this time to figure out the logistics of living and upgrading on the hook rather than mooring or slip.
We'll keep doing upgrades and chores while moored. What's better than doing chores in paradise ?
When the season is right we'll head down the coast, deciding about the stops as we go. Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Galapagos ... we'll decide as we go and get cruiser reports. After that probably a first crossing to Hawaii and then up to northern California or further up.
After we come back down the coast we'll head for the south pacific and hope to see New Zealand and maybe Australia. We'll continue clockwise around the Pacific for a second loop with details very sketchy right now.
After the second loop we'll decide about turning left or right to get to the Atlantic heading towards the Baltic. The only decision so far is that if we go East rather than West it will not be around the Horn.
Summers in the Baltic, winters in the Med ? Time in the Caribbean if piracy and crime is not an issue ? Up the East Coast to visit dear friends and family ?
Mast down European canal cruising ?
Since we have 10-15 years we'll play it by ear.
I think we are very lucky to have Senta II as the vehicle to make it all possible ... Bruce did a wonderful job !
At this point we are alternately terrified and excited but looking forward to it all and we'll have lots of questions for the EY.org community along the way.
"Make it so !"
-Sven
A few days ago invites were sent out for my retirement party at JPL. Nancy expects to have hers in about two months.
I've been at JPL almost 35 years and Nancy has been there for 40 and it is time to move on from robotic space exploration to crewed ocean exploration. For a funny but accurate description of why we have chosen this time see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2HeHfVSybo which describes the problems in the crewed program. The situation for the robotic program is not much better and the NASA R&D program which underlies it all and which I was part of got deleted under W and Griffin.
So, we are going cruising ! The house went on the market last week
We had hoped to have a few more years to turn Senta II from a day sailor into a cruiser, but in a few years we would probably hope to have a few more years to complete the job ... ad infinitum. So we are probably lucky to be nudging ourselves out of the nest.
We have an amazing amount of stuff left to do; heater, new rudder, new windlass installation, autopilot, water maker, SSB, Frigiboat, autopilot, Sextant, Cape Horn vane ... the list goes on and on and on. But we'll do it in some priority order and realize that we're never done !
Our immediate plans are to spend some/several months late this spring and early summer cruising locally between the off-shore islands and maybe up the coast a bit. We'll use this time to figure out the logistics of living and upgrading on the hook rather than mooring or slip.
We'll keep doing upgrades and chores while moored. What's better than doing chores in paradise ?
When the season is right we'll head down the coast, deciding about the stops as we go. Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Galapagos ... we'll decide as we go and get cruiser reports. After that probably a first crossing to Hawaii and then up to northern California or further up.
After we come back down the coast we'll head for the south pacific and hope to see New Zealand and maybe Australia. We'll continue clockwise around the Pacific for a second loop with details very sketchy right now.
After the second loop we'll decide about turning left or right to get to the Atlantic heading towards the Baltic. The only decision so far is that if we go East rather than West it will not be around the Horn.
Summers in the Baltic, winters in the Med ? Time in the Caribbean if piracy and crime is not an issue ? Up the East Coast to visit dear friends and family ?
Mast down European canal cruising ?
Since we have 10-15 years we'll play it by ear.
I think we are very lucky to have Senta II as the vehicle to make it all possible ... Bruce did a wonderful job !
At this point we are alternately terrified and excited but looking forward to it all and we'll have lots of questions for the EY.org community along the way.
"Make it so !"
-Sven
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