“Are you qualified to do something like this?”

No. I’m totally not. Neither is Grete and our kids still poo in their pants.

We are not leaving for a while. As for now, we’re learning what we can through books.

I have recently started doing some lake sailing near Kansas City just to get my sea legs back.

For what it’s worth, I have been in the Navy in some capacity or other for over 20 years. I have been to sea a time or two.

My boat, Solveig sitting at the pier in Rainbow Bay Marina, Pearl Harbor, HI ~2000

I lived on an amazing sailboat (Solveig) for just shy of three years when I was stationed in Pearl Harbor. I sailed that boat quite a bit on the leeward side of Oahu and also did some island hopping, twice crossing the Kaiwi Channel. This channel frequently has ~20 foot swells and winds in excess of 60 knots, and my crossings were no exception. It has a reputation of being one of the toughest ocean channels in the world.

After 44 hours of getting beaten up on a hard tack from Oahu to Hawai’i

So I have been beaten around by the sea. I also volunteered for three weeks on the tall ship Lady Washington just over eleven years ago. I went aloft and packed sails, tarred the rigging and various other tasks as we moved down the California coast from Marina del Rey to San Diego.

We’ll be taking every chance we can to become more competent sailors as the trip nears…and by the time we leave, I’m confident we’ll be qualified to do it.