LESSONS LEARNED WHILE CRUISING by Jamie and Behan Gifford
in less than an hour. Our weekends
could be spent happily swinging on
the hook in a beautiful location, with
a minimum of rushing around. It gave
back valuable time into our lives: not
only to slow down, but to redirect our
TIME OUT!
effort into the projects to accomplish
before taking off to go cruising.
Is relaxing part of your routine?
When our days were filled with
juggling the demands of two careers
and three children, we established a
When you’re in the middle of internet access was more difficult still. routine for relaxing by making pizza
a hectic week, looking forward to a For example, I wanted to look up a at home on Friday nights. The working
weekend of boating can seem like a familiar recipe on the Internet as we principle was to make enjoyable, good
light at the end of a frantic tunnel. But came down the Oregon coast, but made food from scratch: by the time cleanup
when you’ve been rushing around for do with an alternate instead. Have arrives, a decidedly fun time has
days to keep up with non-boating life, things gotten better? Immeasurably, kicked the stress of the past week out
all too often it seems that the boating though we use the single sideband the door. Jamie is the pizza chef in our
weekend starts with a similarly rushed radio to update our blog or Twitter house, and makes fantastic pies. We’d
and non-restful experience. This can (to propagate status on Facebook, of sit around and talk, he’d turn out a
make it tough to slow down and enjoy course). Perhaps there is still progress succession of delicious food, and our
it once Friday evening arrives. On to be made. mindset would shift.
Bainbridge Island, we’d be so stressed The truth is, there’s so much Sometimes Jamie would complain
out from our work week that by the more to enjoy when we take our time. from the rigors of his week: “I’m tired;
time we got to the boat and were ready Changing your pace doesn’t have to I don’t want to cook.” I would remind
to take off, the first day of a longer wait for a full-time cruising lifestyle. him of the routine cherished by our
weekend trip wasn’t actually very It might even help you get there. For family. A few thousand thin crust,
much fun. non-liveaboards, when was the last cheese or not, red sauce or pesto, or
Learning to slow down has been time you spent a weekend at the dock? no sauce, myriad of toppings and
one of the benefits of cruising for our Got to know your neighbor a couple of combinations pizzas later, he finally
family. On our trip back from Mexico slips down? Used a day to take stock understood. It was more than just
to the US visiting friends and family and get familiar with safety gear on a favorite dinner for the children. It
this summer, the difference in pace by board, instead of rushing to get from became a mechanism for our family to
nearly everyone around us brought marina A to mooring B? change gears and reconnect. Doing this
clarity to just how much we have The last couple of years before enabled Jamie and I to find the lucidity
changed. we sailed out of Puget Sound, one of we needed for conversations about
It wasn’t easy. It took nearly a year our favorite destinations was Blakely our priorities and our cruising path.
to slow down after we started cruising. Harbor. Just around the corner from It also meant we stopped working on
Getting rid of the blackberry left me our home slip in Eagle Harbor on our automatic to-do list and discussed
twitching for a month. Giving up 24/7 Bainbridge Island, we could putter over what was most important.
48° No r t h , Se p t e m b e r 2009 pa g e 42
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