When we purchased our 42 ft 1979 Tayana Vancouver sailboat in 2009 we had hoped to take a sabbatical from our jobs in 2015 to do some cruising. We chose to name our boat Sonho, as it means “Dream” in Portuguese and adopted the motto, “Vivo O Sonho” … Living the Dream. 

But Life Happened: lay-offs and, most importantly, my care for my beloved Nana kept us tied to the dock. There was no way I’d leave her; we just didn’t expect her to live as long as she fortunately did. After Nana passed in the fall of 2017 just shy of her 99th birthday, my sister and I made the decision to sell her home that we had inherited. Aaron and I would use our share of the proceeds to finish the work on the boat and invest the rest to take early retirement.

With that in mind, on April 16, 2018 I launched this blog with the goal of sharing our extensive work of preparing for circumnavigation. Yes, that would be sailing around the world! Just us and our little chiweenie, Tiki, Living a Dream that we have had for a decade … family and friends serving as crew on long legs and visiting us in exotic ports. (Click on this link to read the inaugural blog:  April 16, 2018: 365 Days & Counting.)

We fully intended to cut the docklines on April 16, 2019 and begin our journey down the California coast and into Mexico, with our mind set to cross the Pacific Ocean to the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia in Spring 2020. We’d take our time in the islands, eventually sailing to and exploring Australia and New Zealand, South Africa and the Med. Then on to Aaron’s ancestral country of Portugal. Our coldest location would be the United Kingdom; it is my dearest dream to sail into my father’s harbor, Belfast, Northern Ireland and visit my Benson family. From there we’d head back to the United States and end up in the Caribbean. All over the timeframe of about 10 years. We told people to save the date for a bon voyage party and began planning in earnest.

But again, Life Happened. The house sold at the end of 2018, but the funds would be delayed at least six months due to probate. Major essential purchases for the journey would have to wait and we changed our anticipated departure to Fall 2019.

Then (see the theme?), yet again, Life Happened. Our son-in-law, a highly respected enlisted member of the US Coast Guard West Coast Strike Team, was accepted to Officer Candidate School on his first application, which is rare. He would begin training in January 2020 on the east coast and my daughter and our grandchildren … including a brand-new precious baby girl … would be on their own for five months on the west coast. The decision, and the right one at the time, was to stay at the dock for another year. We were so proud of their new life direction and happy to support them. (Click on this link to read the blog entry detailing our decision: March 9, 2019: Living the Dream … One Year Delayed.)

All of those highly anticipated plans came crashing down in the spring of 2019 when Life Happened. Again. First, Aaron developed excruciating pain in his left leg and it was determined that he needed a hip replacement. He went on disability and scheduled surgery for early June. He would need to be near his doctor for at least nine months for follow-up as he healed.

Then our soon-to-be-ex son-in-law chose to end the marriage. He became a stranger, forcing my daughter to give up being a full-time mother and moving his own mother in to their former home to raise their children during his fifty percent of the custody arrangement. And then the shocking news that not only would he be turning down the opportunity to become an officer, but he would also not be re-enlisting in active duty. He’s now a stranger, living a whole new life with a Coast Guard girlfriend and her children. Suffice to say that he isn’t the husband and father and man that we so respected for eight  years. (I’m only posting facts here; if you want to know my honest opinion, feel free to reach out to me privately.)

That said, our focus is on Meghan and our Grands. Their divorce will be finalized in the coming months and we are trying very, very hard to not give any energy to the past, and instead look to the future.

Where Does that Leave our Cruising Plans Now?

Being safety-first sailors, we understand and embrace that courses often need to be changed. We would never pull up anchor and head towards a storm just to adhere to a calendar, and we always err on the side of caution. We’ve had to re-think our cruising plans, but we haven’t given up on Living Our Dream.

Meghan is settled in a nice home with a roommate who we adore, getting into a custody routine and navigating the nasty waters of divorce with grace. Her focus remains on her three babies, first and foremost. No longer committed to following an egotistical husband wherever his military career takes them, she is now free to explore her own career options. She continues to grow her photography business, Anchored Images, capturing memories for families with mini portrait sessions and at special occasions. She just accepted a position with Gateway Learning Group as a Behavior Technician Specialist and is excited to soon be working with special needs children and their families. All three of our Grands are growing before our eyes and are happy and healthy.

Harley, his lovely girlfriend, Jenna, and their bunny Pomegranate have moved to a new home in Washington with more space for their many hobbies (which now includes salt-water fish tanks!). Jenna is excelling in her job as a graphic artist for a prestigious development firm and always amazes us with her gorgeous, intrinsic artwork (visit her Etsy page: JennaKMillerArt). Harley’s home-based business, PNW Porting, is steadily growing and he’s learning new skills with a side-hustle at a powder-coating company. They are incredibly talented young adults with promising futures.

Aaron is fully healed from his hip replacement and healthier than he’s been in years. He hit his 30-year mark as an IBEW 595 Union Electrician last year, but can’t officially retire and collect his pension without huge penalties for a few more years. He has recently accepted a short-term job with a stellar company supervising a small crew on a wastewater treatment center rebuild. This will help us make the transition into retirement with a bit more money in the cruising kitty. Most importantly, this position should allow him to leave his lifetime profession on a proud note. He’s continuing his guitar study, coaching our #1 Grand’s baseball team, racing on other people’s sailboats every chance he gets, and is working his way through our long boat “to do” list.

After being laid off from the Jewish Federation last June I’ve enjoyed not working, to a point. There’s plenty to do on the boat, and I’ve been grateful for the time to focus on my writing and fitness and being a housewife, but I also love being part of a team. So I’ve taken on a few part-time, contractual jobs that I can do on my own terms and schedule. I’m bartending once a week at the Boathouse Tavern, a local beer and wine joint mainly patronized by regulars whom I adore. (Come see me on Tuesday nights from 5 to 9 pm!) I recently finished extensive training to become a global meeting planning and booking agent for HelmsBriscoe, and just joined the staff of On Lok as editor of the monthly internal company newsletter. (Their mission makes my heart so very happy!) I’m also still writing, cooking, blogging weekly, swimming, kayaking and loving life on our floating piece of paradise.

My big news is with the complete loss of hearing in my left ear and the official designation of “single side deafness,” I now qualify for a bone anchored hearing aid (BAHA). After consulting with an otolaryngologist (also known as an ENT – ear/nose/throat doctor) and my neurosurgeon, I will be having surgery in March to implant a titanium screw behind my left (bad) ear, to which a processor will be attached. This will allow me to “hear” from my left side! I expect my quality of life and safety onboard our boat to be greatly enhanced from this procedure and am over-the-moon excited! But … and here’s that Life Happens thing again … it does mean that I need to be stateside until late fall 2020 for medical monitoring of my body’s acceptance of the device, so staying put for a bit longer again makes sense.

So When do we Leave Alameda?

Our loose plans are to continue the necessary work on Sonho to prepare to cross oceans … we’ll haul out in May for bottom work and pull the rig for a complete tuning, install our watermaker and new electronics, and purge our storage. We’ll take some mini-trips up and down the coast to practice anchoring and break in our new systems. When hurricane season is past in November, we’d like to head down the Cali coast slowly, enjoying ports of call such as Monterey, Morro Bay, Long Beach, Catalina Island and San Diego along the way.

Our goal is to be tucked up into the Sea of Cortez by New Year’s Eve 2020, where we’ll spend the winter. From there we’ll decide our next course … or maybe our next course will be determined for us, as we’ve seen happen for the past five years when Life Happens.

What Courses are on our Radar in 2021?

• Stay in Mexico, where we can easily fly home if needed and friends and family can come for quick visits
• Keep heading south to Central America
• Go through the Panama Canal and head for the Caribbean
• Cross the Pacific to the Marquesas Islands
• Return to the Bay Area

We’re not tempting fate anymore by having a pre-determined course. We’ll figure it out one port at a time.

Life Happens … Don’t we know it!

No matter where we are, as long as we are together we are

Living the Dream!

Vivo O Sonho!