The Art of Slow Travel

Gentry, our niece and webmeister, was visiting with us in Las Vegas recently. She was extolling the virtues of the “slow travel movement”. I had to Google it before I understood that we've been part of the slow travel movement since we moved aboard Nine of Cups in 2000 and we didn't even know it. I think that's before they gave it a label.

After further research, I learned that the keys to slow travel revolve around interaction with the local community, people and culture. All the things we love about our liveaboard travel life. None of the “If it's Tuesday, it must be Belgium” packed itinerary nonsense. We stick around in one area and get to know a bit about it, experience our surroundings ... maybe have a few of those awesome 90-day rule events. We walk everywhere, go grocery shopping and have leisurely morning coffees at the local cafe, meet people, learn about them.

A few years back, I was asked by Women and Cruising what I liked best about the cruising life. Here was my response...

“Probably three things come to mind immediately...independence, adventure and travel.

Independence and self-reliance are key ingredients of the cruising life. Neither David nor I was brought up sailing...we learned it all from scratch in our 40's. We found a whole new life and a whole new way to look at our lives. Where endless meetings, product introductions and bottom lines once ruled, we're now concerned with weather windows, bottom paint and charting courses. We're constantly challenged to be innovative and imaginative.

I've always loved to travel, but cruising is beyond just traveling...it's cultural immersion.

Beyond visiting a port or country for the usual two week vacation, we “live” in the country...sometimes for months. We learn the language, the shortcuts, the times for the fresh markets and the names of the vendors who give us the best deals. We celebrate local holidays, make local friends and share family outings and celebrations. Each new port, each new country, each new experience in our cruising lives is a new adventure.

To me...this is what life is all about.”

I believe I was describing the slow travel movement and independent travel. The slow traveler doesn't necessarily rely on tour companies or travel agents. They read, do their research and figure out their options. They thrive on learning about the places they intend to visit and they celebrate the differences in culture. They move slowly from place to place, taking in the experience rather than treating each destination as a box to be ticked off on a checklist. Let's see … that's us, us and us. We're already signed up.

In fact, there's an entire “slow” movement brewing up … everything is slow … cities, books, food, even slow money. Finally, the world is spinning at our speed.

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.