My Bucket List

Do you have a bucket list? A list of all the things you want to do in life before you cash out? Sailing around the world was one of ours and we just ticked it off. Hurrah and hallelujah for that, but there are still lots of things I'd like to do and see before I take the big dirt nap. Though we share some bucket list items, like the circumnavigation, David's list differs from mine (e.g. Northwest Passage?) and I'll leave it to him to expound on his own list at some point. Though our bucket list items may differ, it doesn't mean we don't want to do them all together.

Part of compiling the bucket list is also trying to figure out when and how you'll manage to accomplish all those things you've decided are important to do. Admittedly, most of my bucket list items revolve around travel … it's my passion. And yes, some items might have to wait until political unrest has settled in an area.

The world's so big and it was difficult to whittle down the list. Here's my top 10 list … not in any particular order.

View the Northern Lights and maybe even the Southern Lights. 

Live for at least a month in every US state.

We've already visited all of the US states, but living in a state and really touring around is different than just visiting or driving through. You can explore and find all the little nooks and crannies and try to figure out why people live there. We've lived in 11 states for 30 days or longer, so we've got a head start. Some states might be difficult by boat and some of the already visited 11 states just might need a bit more exploring. This would be an ongoing project that would take nearly four years and require some sort of land vehicle.

Visit China.

One of the oldest civilizations in the world. I want to walk on the Great Wall, see the Terracotta Warriors and the Forbidden City, float on the Li and Yangtze Rivers.

Backpack through Western and Eastern Europe.

There's so much to see and do and walking part of the way, stopping in little towns and hamlets, would allow us to see so much more than zipping past in a car or train. This is a pretty broad item because it includes so much territory and so much time, but hey, it's MY bucket list. I'll get more specific when we get there.

Take a barge trip down the Nile, ride a camel in the desert and see the Great Pyramids of Giza.

See polar bears in the wild (not on a Northwest Passage) … maybe a trip to Spitzbergen or the Svalbard Islands in summer?)

Take one of the world's great train trips … the Orient Express, the Trans-Siberian, The Ghan?

Walk the Thames Trail/Path … 184 miles from the Cotswolds to the sea … with lots of pubs along the way.

Kiss the blarney stone … you can never have too much blarney. This would probably entail spending a significant amount of time roaming around in Ireland and perhaps sleeping in a castle.

Visit and explore St. Petersburg. This city has always fascinated me.

That's 10, but really there's so much more I want to see ... tigers in the wild and a visit to Loch Ness, preferably when Nessie is in residence and I want to see elephants swimming in the Andaman Islands and the Taj Mahal and …

Though we've done so much, there's still so much world out there. I can't imagine my bucket will ever be empty. As soon as I take one item off the list, two more pop on. Hope David and I live a long, long time.

So … what's on YOUR bucket list?

The Blue View - A Missed Opportunity

Just a day before we were scheduled to leave Guyana, we received an email from a friend telling us of the plight of the sailing vessel Charger. Charger is a tiny, unmanned boat that had been damaged on its voyage across the Atlantic, and was found adrift off the coast of Guyana by a local fisherman. Before long, we had several e-mails from other friends who had read of Charger's plight on Noonsite and knew we were in the vicinity.

Charger is owned by the students at the John Winthrop Middle School in southern Connecticut. The 5-foot, 45-pound, self-righting sailboat was launched north of the Bahamas in June 2012 to chart Atlantic currents as part of the NOAA “Drifter” program that is helping students and scientists map the oceans' currents. Charger is not only self-righting, but self-steering and self-tending as well. She has solar panels, a battery and a GPS transmitter that sends out its position every two hours. Pretty clever.

Over the next 2-1/2 years, she sailed more than 16,000 miles. (That's about the same distance we sail during a similar period of time). She was blown ashore, undamaged, on Myrtle Beach, SC. She was relaunched and next went ashore off northeastern Newfoundland. She was banged up a bit, but was repaired by the St. Johns School of Ocean Technology Marine Institute and relaunched. Her erratic, Atlantic journey continued, going ashore in Wales, then Portugal and finally ending up off the coast of Guyana in December, 2014. She's now living with the fisherman's family, awaiting either repairs or transport home. Her passages sound quite similar to ours – sail about 6,000 nm per year, stopping in exotic ports here and there for repairs, some inland travel and visiting with the locals.

After some investigation, the fisherman that found Charger was located. The battery and GPS unit were dead, making repairs difficult, and the plan was to try and find a way to transport her home. Andy Colloton of Shipwright Technical Services in Connecticut has been assisting the school in its efforts to get Charger back. He's been getting the word out to the seafaring community and is coordinating the effort to get her home. Lots of people have offered help. The U.S. Coast Guard offered to deliver it back to Connecticut if someone could get it as far as one of their Caribbean stations. Other yachties and even a pilot offered to help get the vessel from Trinidad to Puerto Rico. All that was needed was to find a way to get her from Guyana to Trinidad.

Since we were in Guyana, only 40 or so miles from Georgetown where Charger was currently residing, and were heading to Trinidad, we were obviously in a position to help out. It wouldn't be difficult to lash Charger down on our aft deck and bring her along on the passage. The only issue was the timing – we had already booked a flight out of Trinidad and the time was getting short.

We contacted Andy and the school teacher in charge of the project, and got very enthusiastic responses in reply. They fired off an email to the fisherman and we waited for his response on how best to get Charger to Nine of Cups. When there was no reply, they sent another email and we waited. And waited some more. Either the fisherman wasn't checking his email or was out fishing. We delayed our departure another three days, and when there still wasn't any response, we reluctantly checked out of Guyana and headed for Trinidad without Charger. Too bad – Charger would have been well on her way to completing the Atlantic circle following the route of the early explorers, and we would have had a couple of great blogs.

If you know anyone in Guyana or heading to Guyana by boat that could help, contact Andy and perhaps they'll be able to help transport Charger back home for repairs. She is surely getting homesick for her old friends and family.

Things We Miss on Land

We've written so many times about things we miss when we're at sea, I thought it was about time to write about the things we miss when we're on land because despite all the things we tend to grouse and whinge about, now that we're on land, we really miss living aboard Nine of Cups. No, we don't miss anchor watch or the fear of dragging or worrying about wind gusts and nasty weather, but there's so much more to living aboard. Basic, snug and homey

Probably the #1 thing I miss when we're on land is the simple, compact life of living aboard Nine of Cups. Space is good in a house, I guess, but I like the snug feel of Cups. I can sit at the saloon table and clear the dishes into the sink. There's no wasted space, no furniture; everything is built-in and every nook and cranny is used. It's the tiny house movement ... afloat.

Energy awareness

I miss being more attuned to energy usage. I find myself wasting energy and water when we're on land. We leave the water running, so that it gets hot for a shower or until we finish brushing our teeth. We don't recycle water for washing the decks or the floors. We leave the fridge door open while making decisions on what to eat. We leave lights on and things plugged in that really don't need to be on when we're not using them, e.g. our computers. We don't plan our driving trips efficiently, so we waste fuel. We ride to the supermarket when it's less than a mile away. The worst part? We become oblivious to the waste until we return to Cups and have to start monitoring and conserving again.

Regular, Unplanned Exercise

We tend to drive everywhere because we can and it's more convenient and takes less time. We don't do much walking or exercise unless we make a concerted effort to do so. There's no winching or hauling or toting laundry or getting on and off boats. There's no ½ mile walk to the marina bathrooms. We keep busy, but there's nowhere near the activity we're used to.

Slower pace

We miss the slower pace of living on a sailboat and traveling slowly. If we're doing 7 knot (that equates to ~8 mph), we think we're really tooling along. More frequently, we're doing 5 knots or less and it's fine. We like watching the world go by. No rush, no hustle, no bustle.

Being on the move

We really love arriving in new ports … and leaving them. We enjoy being on the move, planning itineraries and exploring. On land, we find ourselves visiting the same places over and over because that's where family lives. Though we work at exploring all the nooks and crannies (and Las Vegas and Boston certainly have lots of them), we find ourselves being less adventurous and returning to places we've already visited.

Sea Senses

We miss the rock of the boat and the lap of the water against the hull when we're falling asleep at night. We miss the breath sounds of dolphins swimming past during night watches and day sails. We miss the snapping sound of shrimp beneath the boat in quiet anchorages. We miss the peace and quiet of being alone in an anchorage. We haven't gotten used to traffic sounds and sirens yet.

Sunrises and sunsets

Of course there are sunrises and sunsets where we are, but they're not events like they are on the boat. We miss sundowners in the evenings in the cockpit and morning cuppas watching the sunrise.

When we're on land we miss the boat. When we're on the boat, we miss land. I guess the moral of this story is … we're never satisfied. Fortunately, we have the chance to experience and appreciate both!