Jason and Arlo Reading-in-Place in the backyard.
Today is Day 11 of California’s Shelter in Place order as the result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and we’re doing just that. We’re healthy and, most of the time, in good spirits. In some ways our time on the boat prepared us well for this sequestration. We can stock a galley and make do with what we have in our lockers, we’re used to filling large chunks of unstructured time, and spending a lot of time together–and away from others–in a confined space isn’t new to us. If you want to skip our thoughts about this strange time and hear more about sailing, scroll to the end on this post to see the link to the cool podcast about our voyage. Otherwise keep reading.
In a lot of ways sheltering in place is easier than going to sea. Ashore we can visit Costco, go online, and walk through the house without bracing ourselves for a big sea. In other ways, though, it’s harder. Navigating grocery store aisles and consuming the internet’s incessant bad news bring their own challenges. Screens are connecting us, but they’re not making us feel good. The way forward often isn’t as clear here as it is at sea, and there’s the added difficulty that none of us chose this particular voyage.
But there are real similarities between life here and ocean voyaging beyond what’s obvious, beyond the alone-ness, the boredom, beyond the underlying threat that something could go mortally wrong. Both ways of living offer the pleasures of moving more slowly and of being with family. In both settings, we are continually adjusting to changing context, finding that fears and anxieties walk alongside opportunities for making do and ingenuity. In each setting there is the good in focusing on food and shelter and health and the safety of the people you love, of focusing on what matters. We’re all feeling the pain of this pandemic differently of course, and some folks are under the greatest of stresses. Our hearts go out to everyone who is struggling now.
Then of course, there’s school at home. If our year of school at sea offers us anything here, it is a reminder that the education we offer our children is so much bigger than the classes we call school, and that how we are in these strange times is part of a powerful education. Talking together as a family about where we are getting our news or about who we need to reach out to, we are learning. Talking about how to stay connected and how not to, about opportunities for creativity and political action, about caring for our bodies is an education. When we think about what feels most important, daily schedules and schoolwork can feel less stressful.
As we settle into this, we are finding our way. Arlo’s been making his own arrows with materials he finds around the house, learning to drive, and running every day. Alma’s been reading as much as she can, memorizing lines for a play she hopes will be staged this spring, and taking bike rides. We, Jason and Caitlin, have each lost some work, but we’re also both lucky to be able to continue to do the rest of our work from home. We’re working to focus our scattered brains so we can get back to the woodblock printing we haven’t been doing. And we’re all still hoping in spite of the odds that in a couple of months it will be possible to return to Alaska, where, under a layer of snow and with newly blistered paint, Debonair is waiting for us in her berth in the Kodiak boat harbor.
We’re keeping our fingers crossed. We’re hoping for so many reasons for the crazy political seas to calm, for the curves to flatten, for healthy folks to stay healthy, for the sick to recover quickly, for all who are struggling emotionally and financially and physically to find ways forward, for everybody, for all of us, to be as connected as we want to be, and above all to be well.
Although there seems to be no dearth of media to entertain us in our seclusion, we offer this episode of the Out the Gate Sailing podcast–an interview Ben Shaw recorded with the four of us in January. It’s long, and our voices sure sound funny, but we think it captures a lot of what’s important to us about our voyages. Enjoy.
Sending you love in these crazy times.