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These are questions that we’ve been asked by friends and acquaintances when they learn of our trip:<\/p>\n
Where are you going?<\/b>\u00a0 We will cruise south, stopping along the way in California and Mexico. Then, we will go to Panama, through the canal, island hop in the Caribbean until May, go up the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S., cross the Atlantic, and then spend about one year in the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n
How long will you be gone? <\/b>Two years.<\/p>\n
Is your son going with you?<\/b> Um, yes. Yes he is.<\/p>\n
What are you doing for your son\u2019s schooling?<\/b> I designed a curriculum with the help of Clonlara that closely matches his elementary school curriculum back home and is up-to-date with the new Common Core Standards for California.<\/p>\n
Do you have to keep sailing at night?\u00a0 <\/b>If we are on our way from one destination to another and there is no shallow water in which to anchor, then yes, someone always has to be on watch.\u00a0 On previous night passages we have found that 3 hours on, 3 hours off during the night works well for us.<\/p>\n
How do you do laundry?<\/b>\u00a0 We will either pay someone to do our laundry (in countries where this is common) or we will wash clothes by hand.\u00a0 Not my favorite thing to do, but hey.<\/p>\n
What kind of sailboat do you have? <\/b>We have a Pacific Seacraft 40.\u00a0 Her name is Benevento, which means \u201cgood wind\u201d in Italian, and it\u2019s also the name of the town in Italy where Darold\u2019s family is from.<\/p>\n
How do you get groceries? <\/b>We expect to get them from the same place the locals do.\u00a0 We’ve stocked up on some favorite foods and things we know are hard to get outside the U.S.\u00a0 Fortunately, we like trying new things.<\/p>\n
How fast do you sail?<\/b>\u00a0 Not fast.\u00a0 This is no America\u2019s Cup catamaran on foils. \u00a0We weigh 13 tons. \u00a0We will average about 6 knots (7 mph).<\/p>\n
What do you bring with you?<\/b>\u00a0 Everything we can think of that we might need and can be difficult\/time consuming to get while on the trip.\u00a0 This includes lots of spare parts (and not nearly as many clothes and shoes as I would like.)<\/p>\n
Do you have a shower?<\/b>\u00a0 Yes, and it has hot water too.<\/p>\n
Aren’t\u00a0you afraid you\u2019re going to want to kill each other?\u00a0 <\/b>I decline to answer on the grounds it might incriminate me.<\/p>\n
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