Decisions Decisions: Plans Are Afoot

Sharlene and I have always been planners. I guess you could say, we’re goal-setters. We’ve had life goals and career goals. At work, we’ve had team goals and individual goals. I have read a lot about goal setting and techniques to help one achieve them. I have set short-term goals, medium-range goals and long-term goals. I have used software to track my goals. I have written year-end reviews of my progress towards my goals. I have made my goals public to help hold myself accountable. I have held people on my teams accountable for their goals. When it comes to goals and goal setting, I’m a fan but there’s a problem with goals. They are achieved. Goals are met which leads to the question, “Now what?”

When I was working, that question was never a problem. There were always more goals to be completed. In fact, the problem then was narrowing down my list of goals. It’s different now.

Retiring and moving onto a boat was an easy transition. The boat gave me endless goals. There was the big goal of sailing across the Pacific to New Zealand but there were many short or medium-term goals too. We had rigging to replace, new sails to order, maintenance schedules and so on and so forth. We had so many tasks to organize that I used some of the same project management techniques to organize them that I had used in my career. All of these tasks were in service of the main goal–sail to New Zealand. Then, we made it to New Zealand. We met our goal. It was time to take stock.

In New Zealand it was time for new goals, but this time they did not come easily. It was harder to define them. We decided to sail to Fiji and Vanuatu. We decided to spend this cyclone season in Australia but we didn’t have a big goal. We were procrastinating. We were avoiding making a tough decision. Should we sell Cambria or should we sail her home? In the end we decided we wanted Cambria home in Canada but we didn’t like the options for getting her there.

It’s hard to sail to Canada from New Zealand. It’s doable. Boats do it but it’s not easy. The prevailing winds and currents push west. Canada is Northeast, so sailing there is against wind and current.

Many boats just keep going west. They take the long way home. They circumnavigate, letting the prevailing wind and currents push them around. We have never had a desire to circumnavigate. It was never our goal and hasn’t become one.

Others circle the Pacific. They sail across the top of Australia. Jump to Indonesia, then north to the Philippines. From there they continue to Japan then along the Aleutian Islands of Alaska and eventually to British Columbia. It’s a long cold route. We were tempted to do it. We have friends that are on this route now. In the end, we decided against this route. Instead, we will ship Cambria home. Well, not exactly home.

Cambria will be shipped on the deck of a freighter to Ensenada, Mexico. What we took months to sail, the freighter will cover in about three weeks. Cambria will be back in North American waters in late February.

We will still have a lot of sailing to do to get back to Canada. It’s not easy sailing home from Mexico. Sailing north is against prevailing wind and currents but we can do it in stages. We will take our time, harbour hopping our way home. We will do our best to choose favourable conditions. It will give us a chance to re-visit some of the places we saw two years ago and to see some of the places we missed.

Do we have regrets? Yes, we do. I have always been someone that wants to see what’s around the next bend in the road. I spend hours looking at maps and charts, lost in thought–imagining what’s there or might be there. I would love to return to Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan. I would love to explore them with our boat. However, I am also looking forward to exploring Canada’s west coast with Cambria as it is a great boat with which to do it. There are countless nooks and crannies that we have not seen.

As for a future goal, there is a photo of Cambria that hangs in our main salon. It’s of Cambria posed in front of an Alaskan glacier. It was taken by the previous owners. I want to see that glacier myself. I want to see Alaska and all the places along the way.