I’ve probably written this exact post on this blog before. The last 5%. The final push. The loose ends. The big hurrah. Call it what you want, the last 5% has never been my favorite.

I think to some degree it’s part of how I’m wired… I like deadlines and I do especially well under pressure, and there’s some law that says that projects will always expand to the time you allot them (especially true in boating??) but to some degree just the *idea* of packing up 4 years of life in Maine, adding in a baby, and disappearing into the sunset really is challenging! Even the last 5%!

One small story to illustrate the current state of affairs…

We’ve had one bimini hoop for six years (bought second-hand in Mexico, woot woot). It took approximately 5 minutes outside with Zephyr on a sunny day to realize that we needed more shade, stat. And we’d wanted to add more solar panels anyways, so a bimini project was in order!

We ordered a length of stainless. Jon drove to Portland and borrowed a tube-bending tool, to make a second hoop. We dragged that hoop out to the boat in the dinghy. We patterned the new bimini while Nancy, our amazing baby-sitter, watched Zephyr. I sewed the bimini over the course of a couple evenings, in that blessed 6:30-9:30 period when the baby was actually sleep (god bless sleep training) and we hadn’t entirely fallen asleep ourselves yet. We ordered industrial strength velcro, new solar panels, and some thin lexan sheets to go under the solar panels to give them an air gap. Cut out the lexan on my mother-in-law’s kitchen table while Zephyr slept 10′ away in her bedroom (have I mentioned I have the best MIL?? I do). Dragged that whole setup out to the boat. Installed all of it on a Monday. Went out the boat on Tuesday to finish wiring those solar panels, only to discover…

The entire thing had blown away.

Gone.

Poof!

No more $500 solar panels that we just bought and installed.

I laughed when Jon told me.

Cuz what else can you do in the face of such a ridiculous setback?

***

We went out to the boat to test fit the lee cloth for the vberth. Now that Zephyr has figured out how to string rolls together (“how’d you get all the way over there?!?”) the priority of lee cloths has gone wayyyy up and I’m not quite ready for him to sleep in the quarterberth yet (that’s a whole other lee cloth set up 😉 ).

While I worked on the fit of my pattern inside, Jon was outside entertaining Zephyr in the cockpit. I stopped for a minute and watched Zephyr giggle as Jon sang him silly songs and danced him around in the crisp Maine air, and it hit me: this is it. This is literally the moment of perfection I have been dreaming of. The one where my sweet baby giggles on our boat as the sun sets on the day.

Living and cruising on a sailboat isn’t perfect, and it isn’t always easy, but if you’re really lucky you get these little pearls of perfection that make everything else fade away. The highest highs and the lowest lows. Kind of like life with a newborn, actually 😉

***

Anyways, we’ve had lots of plans… one of which involved us leaving September 30th (that didn’t happen), another which involved us leaving this week (not happening) and the current one which involves us leaving at some point in the next 1-2 weeks. Still hopeful that one will happen 🙂

People ask me if the constantly changing schedule drives me nuts, and of course it does… but it’s also a huge part of this life. You can’t rush the weather. You can’t always know exactly how boat projects will go. And leaving in a not-ready boat in not-perfect weather is never fun.

So that’s where we’re at. Adjusting to the latest situation, wrapping up projects, watching the weather, ordering more long underwear for everyone, and wondering just how this winter will turn out…

Guess we’ll find out when we do!

(Side note: Dad’s been reminding me since I was 6 years old that ‘life’s what happens when you’re making other plans’. So I try to remind myself of this too, and enjoy the unexpected extra time here in Maine, surrounded with friends who love us and our little boy, easy conveniences like cars and thermostats and unlimited hot water and Amazon Prime, while still holding on to hope for our winter plans and checking the 5 weather sources I have like a mad-woman.)

You can take the girl out of the plan, but you can’t always take the plan out of the girl…

LMK