Intuition Log – 17 June

Thursday morning, 07 June, we were up to meet Pete Waterson at 0730 who stopped by to take our Raymarine autopilot head back for warranty service. It was good of him to stop by on short notice. After spending the day organizing and cleaning the boat and packing the Honda, we drove the 160 miles back to our house in Durham. Didn’t recognize the truck at first since Pat Gaglione had cleaned, waxed and detailed it as a surprise welcome home gift — thanks! Also thanks to Earl Quick who drove the truck to New Bern so it would be there when we docked.

Upon opening the front door and peering into the house, it seemed to have grown over the year away. Getting used to living in tight quarters makes our little 1900 square foot house seem huge. First things first, we unloaded the truck while Noah found his Lego collection. No problem dropping off to sleep, but Beth did wake up in the middle of the night wondering who was driving the boat. She made it to the hall before figuring out where we were. I woke up a couple of times, but fell back asleep as none of the homes in the neighborhood seemed to be dragging their anchors.

After a fast weekend of catching up with neighbors, it was back to work at Qualex on Monday morning after managing to locate both long pants and socks. I’ll be working on a project to help determine the most cost efficient source of transactional accounting for our little Kodak subsidiary. Not quite the same as charting a course to new islands, but it comes with a paycheck. In all seriousness, I am very appreciative that the company granted me the opportunity to take a year’s leave and pursue our dream. The photo is from Charleston, SC where this plaque was hanging over the gate to a boat tied up at Harborwalk.

The week flew by, catching up with old friends and going through a year’s worth of mail. Beth and Noah are off to Michigan so they can visit with family while Noah is on break. I’ll be in the office at Qualex.

We did get connected to high speed internet at home via Time Warner cable. After a year of not having TV, we elected to not bother with getting cable TV service. I put some rabbit ears on and we can get PBS and the local affiliates of the major stations. I’m hoping we remember that there are better things to be doing with our time than watching television.

This will be the last mass email of an Intuition Log. As time allows I’ll work on a compendium of things that worked along with a list of things that proved more challenging than we expected. Thanks for taking the time to read these logs and special thanks to everyone that took the time to write us notes of encouragement along the way. It is great to hear from friends via email when you are hunkered down in a windy, rainy anchorage.

Wishing you all a chance to live your dreams!

Mark