A CASE AGAINST LONG GOODBYE'S by Rolynn Anderson

I’m not comfortable with long goodbye’s, tending to move ‘adieu’ events along at a good clip.  For instance: We’ve spent the four summer months on a boat for the last 20 years.  When my husband asked, “Should we think about selling Intrepid?” my answer was, “Okay.  Why don’t we plan to find a new owner for her by the end of the summer?”

Guess what?  We started advertising the sale (see: http://intrepid-for-sale.blogspot.com/ ) in July while we were in Alaska.  By September 10, Intrepid had a new owner.  We priced the boat fairly (without broker or title company costs) and we sold immediately.  Even better, we got to work with the new owners closely, offering them a notebook of instructions for managing our boat’s unique systems, and we even got a chance to take the new owners out on the boat two times.  

Yesterday, when I said goodbye to Intrepid, carrying all our good memories of years of boating in my brain and my heart, I was comfortable with the length of my ‘goodbye.’

Two months of constantly cleaning the boat for pictures and inspections; two months of tweaking the systems that needed fixing; two months of worrying that a system we HADN'T fixed would fail; two months of saying adios to all the marinas where we’ve made friends; two months of throwing kisses to our favorite anchorages.  Two months is enough.  I shudder to think that most boats take a year or more to sell.  Not for me.

My husband is fine with the speed of our sale; I was a little worried I’d taken this particular bull by the horns, but not to worry.  He was highly involved in our marketing process and today, he is as happy as I am.

So my question for you is: How are you with goodbye’s and do you worry about them being overly lengthy/painful?  Could be I have a strange approach to goodbye’s because I’m an Army brat, forced to leave dozens of countries/cities after two/three years.  Heck, maybe you don’t even try to manipulate your goodbye’s.  I’d like to know.

As you’re thinking, here’s a look at my website and my books.  Happy sales to you!  Rolynn

http://rolynnanderson.com/

HOW WOULD YOU HANDLE ROUGH SEAS? By Rolynn Anderson

We’re sitting on our boat in Ketchikan, Alaska, waiting for the waters to calm down so we can ‘take’ Dixon Entrance, a wide spot in the ocean that can cause big trouble for our 45 foot boat, INTREPID.  Now, you should know that our Kady-Krogen trawler is built to handle rough seas, even without stabilizers.  It’s a trawler, built to circumnavigate the globe, and she’s done exactly that with former owners.  But my husband and I are cautious about taking open seas.  When we have to cross them, we watch the weather predictions carefully, preferring ‘light’ conditions, and at the most, 10-15 knot winds, looking for winds flowing with the tide.  We’ve waited for a whole week in a port for the seas to subside.  Luckily, we don’t have a schedule to keep so we don’t need to grit our teeth and go when the weather report is less than ideal.  What’s more, our boat is slow, so some of the large expanses of water take two days to cross.  Not easy to cobble two calm days in a row, let me tell you.

Yes, I can ride the gigantic waves coming at me as a writer and marketer of my novels, but let me have flat waters when I’m in my boat.  I was a high school principal, for heaven’s sake, opening a brand new high school.  Lots of rough seas in that job!

What’s the difference?  Why can I take on huge challenges in life, yet look askance at six to eight foot waves?  I think it’s the feeling of helplessness one gets in big seas.  The waves keep coming and coming and despite what you might think, they AREN’T even.  A six foot sea may turn into a ten foot sea in certain areas, where seas converge of where it’s shallow.  Sometimes, for no reason at all, the waves grow ‘short’, meaning less space between waves.  In such conditions, the boat actually bangs up and down.  And the wind can change so that you might be cruising along with the wind kindly traveling with the current, and suddenly you’ve got white caps crashing into your bow because the wind turned against the current.

So it’s the helpless feeling, the inability to plan ahead, and the portent of physical danger make boating tricky.  Believe me, when I was a high school principal, I felt helpless and surprised often, but worry about my physical well-being was rarely on my mind.

Okay it’s time for you to share the places that make you fearful.  I will add to my list: small planes, zip lines and floating raging rivers.  Sigh.  I’m not very brave, am I?  Are you?

http://www.rolynnanderson.com

CRUISING by Rolynn Anderson

You'll be reading this blog entry when I'm on my way through Rocky Pass and El Capitan in Southwest Alaska, two tricky passages we'll traverse for the first time on our way to Dixon Entrance.  Not only are these routes serpentine and narrow, but they are shallow and we'll need to watch out for strong currents in some places.  So you might ask why we don't take a less tricky route on our way south.  Good question.  One reason is this is a shorter 'road' to Dixon Entrance.  Better: other boaters tell us the scenery is gorgeous.  My husband would add this reason: this is a challenge for us and a new experience.

We've enjoyed returning to familiar places on this, our last trip to Alaska by boat, but we've taken pleasure in new experiences as well.  Take a look at our journey in our blog: http://steveandrolynn.blogspot.com/  and follow our 'bread crumbs' on our SPOT GPS (you'll find the site on our blog).

Happy summer to you all.  Forgive me if I don't respond to comments...I won't have access to the internet for all of July.  Rolynn

111 DAYS OF ADVENTURE AND ROMANCE by Rolynn Anderson

It’s a record! My husband and I have spent 111 days together on our trawler, INTREPID, on our virgin voyage to Alaska! Yesterday we returned to our slip in Anacortes, Washington, relieved to tell our friends and relatives that we had a problem-free trip. Our sainted Ford-Lehman 135 performed perfectly, the generator and electrical systems amped correctly, our head (toilet) worked flawlessly, and our new Dickinson stove kept us toasty warm.

We traveled 3,000 miles in 111 days at an average speed of 7.5 knots which is about 8 miles an hour. Yes, we’re talking slow…a chance to take in scenery, for sure, some of the most beautiful terrain in the world. We watched glaciers calving, got up close and personal to black and brown bears as well as humpback whales, puffins and sea otters. And except for the times we moored in Ketchikan, Sitka, Petersburg, Wrangell, Meyers Chuck and Elfin Cove, we anchored, usually all by ourselves in the most isolated places on earth. Heaven help us if we encountered a serious boat problem or health issue…and in some places we anchored, not even the Coast Guard could hear our call for help.

In the dark of night, anchor down, when we’re floating alone in our little boat, we pretend that this adventure is no big deal. But it is, really. We give each other courage with a mixture of humor, logic and positive attitude. I suppose it’s like climbing Mt. Everest or trekking the Cascade Crest trail. We do it with a spirit of adventure as well as a love of nature. Because it’s there, we have to experience it.

But it has to be a pair. To problem-solve; to anguish over issues; to share amazing sights...it takes two of us. That’s the romance in the adventure, the deepening of a relationship that comes from facing new challenges together. In fact, an experience like this one, this cruise to Alaska and back, a trip we’ve been preparing for (and putting off) for years, is truly romantic in the spiritual sense. As a couple, we accomplished this feat together and we could not imagine being successful handling the task either alone or with any other person. That says something.

Are we ready to close up INTREPID and head for our house in California? Yes. Are we yearning for bigger spaces to roam and another kind of adventure to seek? Sure. But are we proud of ourselves for working together to make this cruise a success? Absolutely!

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