An Unplanned Delay to my Non-Plan Plan.

My poor Bella waits another year.

Back in 1986, I entered the corporate world and hit the road selling automotive packaging in Detroit. Each morning I read a few motivational quotes and reminders that were scrawled in the back of my calendar. Not unlike the chants I often do now, these quotes helped to set my intentions for the day. One of the quotes was "Luck is when preparation meets opportunity" apparently spoken by Seneca, a first century Stoic philosopher. Yesterday, the preparation I've been doing for several years met the opportunity of a lifetime.

My trip on my boat, Bella, will be delayed for a year. I have the chance to help Alex Dorsey, a well known sailor, writer and documentarian, sail his boat from the Hudson River upstream of New York City to Panama. This incredible opportunity came together rapidly and I will be leaving for New York in a couple weeks. We will head south, hopefully yet in April, out around New Jersey and into the Inter Coastal Waterway, then down to Florida where we will jump offshore to
Panama; likely through the Windward Passage between Haiti and Cuba. This will be rock solid foundational experience for my own planned voyaging.

Alex and Eleanor last fall.

Alex, and his wife Carla, have two(!) boats right now. The Westsail 42 in New York needs to get to Panama so they can move their stuff over and sell their current boat. There is a little bit of prep work to be done in New York and then we'll be off. We are hoping to get to Panama in July, just skirting the beginning of hurricane season. I'll fly home in August or September. Then I'll have to get back to work to save money again for my trip.  Bella and I are on the same Non-Plan Plan, but with an unplanned delay of opportunity. Perfect! 

Information about the boat is here.

Alex and Carla

Alex, Carla and another sailor blog at his site here. Check the "Blogs" menu tab. Also on the site, you can watch both of Alex' original documentaries.

"Eat when you're hungry,
work when you're broke."
    - Bubba the Pirate.