Each evening I make plans for the next day, yet every morning I have some apprehension that raises its head about leaving what we know and heading out into the unknown, especially on dark cloudy windy days. It’s not like Star Trek, we have charts, maps, guidebooks, satellite imagery, and a host of other knowledge at our finger tips but there is something to never having been there. Am I noticing the map scale properly, will the anchorage already be full, which way will the wind be blowing, is there a current we’ll be fighting, will the forecast be wrong, will there be a mechanical failure, and on and on. Yet everyday we’ve made it to our next destination, maybe not the one we planned at the start of the day but a destination that has been interesting in its own right and the next morning I have that same anxiety of the unknown.
We have a wall hanging in the main salon that we picked up years ago. But even being reminded of it constantly doesn’t remove that apprehension that I have to willfully suppress. Lucy added the hand towel to the mix just before we left. It’s a good one to remember as well.
The Erie Canal was safe. As long as you are a lert, it’s hard to get in trouble. So, we got sloppy with stowing things below decks and didn’t plan the day as well as we should. Our lines weren’t coiled and the fenders lay on deck, it became a pretty sloppy ship! And we didn’t wear life vests or use jackstays to clip in before going on deck. I didn’t always have a destination or know whether we needed to reprovision. We were spontaneous, things just happened.
Lake Erie is an inland Ocean that has a wide held reputation for fast changing weather. The same procedures that worked on the Erie Canal could result in very different outcomes on Lake Erie. We needed to be a bit more shipshape. Like the tender, we can tow it, hang it in the davits, or haul it onto the foredeck. The later is where it needs to ride in the Ocean. The davits are okay as long you’re not expecting waves more than 3 feet. And towing it is dependent on the sea state; long line for or super short for big swells and something in between for flat water. Whatever you start the day with is what you’ll end the day with, transitioning in deteriorating weather is not going to readily happen. In fact it may be more risky than just chancing it. But laziness priorities the list opposite of safety, towing is the easiest and stowing on deck the hardest. It takes time and energy to be safe, thus we tend to slide into unsafe practices.
The Erie Canal was safe. As long as you are a lert, it’s hard to get in trouble. So, we got sloppy with stowing things below decks and didn’t plan the day as well as we should. Our lines weren’t coiled and the fenders lay on deck, it became a pretty sloppy ship! And we didn’t wear life vests or use jackstays to clip in before going on deck. I didn’t always have a destination or know whether we needed to reprovision. We were spontaneous, things just happened.
Lake Erie is an inland Ocean that has a wide held reputation for fast changing weather. The same procedures that worked on the Erie Canal could result in very different outcomes on Lake Erie. We needed to be a bit more shipshape. Like the tender, we can tow it, hang it in the davits, or haul it onto the foredeck. The later is where it needs to ride in the Ocean. The davits are okay as long you’re not expecting waves more than 3 feet. And towing it is dependent on the sea state; long line for or super short for big swells and something in between for flat water. Whatever you start the day with is what you’ll end the day with, transitioning in deteriorating weather is not going to readily happen. In fact it may be more risky than just chancing it. But laziness priorities the list opposite of safety, towing is the easiest and stowing on deck the hardest. It takes time and energy to be safe, thus we tend to slide into unsafe practices.
All that to say, we have some apprehension starting the Great Lakes leg of this journey. And each day I will have to remind myself that we can’t go forward if we are holding onto the past.
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