Lessons From Sea – Zero to 10,000 Miles in Two years
Looking back at the last two years of our life I am both exhausted and exhilarated. We’ve gone from road warriors to salty sailors. RVers to Cruisers. Landlubbers to Shellbacks.
And, we did it all with zero previous sailing experience.
We’ve never worked harder, or pushed ourselves more, than we have in the past two years. We’ve also never had so many jaw-dropping-breathtaking-awe-inspiring-make-me-want-to-pee-my-pants moments. The pendulum swings drastically in the sea dwelling world.
We answer directly to mother nature and so far, we’ve managed not to get in her way. Which means, we’re still floating and exploring.
So, grab a sundowner and join us on the deck! We’re celebrating another year as sailors by looking back on the major milestones and biggest lessons we’ve learned.
It’s been a helluva couple of years! As we sifted through over 10 terabytes of documented footage, we laughed, cried and cringed. But mostly, we were amazed at what two painfully ordinary humans can accomplish in as little as two years. You don’t have to be uniquely qualified, or special in any way, to do something extraordinary. We are all capable of doing anything we put our minds to.
“When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself.”
-Jacques Cousteau
As ordinary as we may be, we do lead an extraordinary life. Sharing this incredible journey with you has made it far more meaningful than we could have ever imagined.
Your support big and small is what makes sharing these adventures possible. So, big bear hugs to everyone who has left words of encouragement, shopped through our Gear Store, left a tip in our jar or joined our virtual crew over at Patreon. We love you guys and couldn’t do it without you. It takes a village and you are our virtual community, no matter where in the world we might be.
In case you missed it, here’s a recap of what we talked about in the video. (And here is our Year One as Sailors video for perspective: gonewiththewynns.com/dream-first-year-sailors)
Major Milestones Of Year 2
To see our full map with interactive pins, click here: gonewiththewynns.com/map
- 7,000+ Nautical Miles Sailed This Year (over 10,000 in total)
- 4 Countries Visited – Bahamas – Panama – Ecuador – French Polynesia
- Transited The Panama Canal (Without An Agent)
- 3 Big Passages Made
- USA (Florida) to Panama – Passage Time: 13 Days Nautical Miles Sailed: 1,610
- Panama to Ecuador – Passage Time: 6 Days Nautical Miles Sailed: 680
- Ecuador to French Polynesia – Passage Time: 24.5 Days Nautical Miles Sailed: 3,588
Big Passage Making Takeaways
- Sail Conservative – Do not push the boat or ourselves too hard. This means reefing early, putting Curiosity to bed for night sailing, being well prepared and doing whatever necessary to keep ourselves rested and feeling good.
- Mind The Weather – Sea Conditions affect everything, especially crew morale. Wait for a good weather window on short sails and research wind/weather/wave/current patterns heavily before setting sail on longer passages. Never have rigid plans, sail only on Mother Nature’s schedule.
What Does Year 3 Hold?
We’re not sure but we do have a few goals.
- Explore as many of the 118 islands and atolls of French Polynesia as possible (we had to jump through some hoops to get the French Polynesia long stay visa, so we may as well enjoy it).
- Going through all the necessary paperwork and processes to get the cats, ourselves and Curiosity into the countries of New Zealand and Australia.
- Host at least one grand Patron group adventure.
The Unofficial, Marquesan Greyhound Recipe
For my fellow grapefruit lovers out there, this one is a solid twist on an old classic. Salt the rim and you could call it a Marquesan Salty Dog.
- 4oz Marquesas grapefruit juice (or any sweet grapefruit, we like to leave the pulp)
- 1oz Gin (we’re nursing our last bottle of the good stuff, Swallowtail Small Batch)
- 3 Small basil leaves pinched (to release oils) as garnish on top
- Ice
