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You are welcome to apply any part of this article to your own personal use. Please do NOT publish any part of the article or apply any part of it to any non-personal use without the express written concent of the author.
Today is the day we were to have left for Bermuda on the initial leg of our first trans-Atlantic crossing. Instead, we will be leaving next week for a six-week cruise of the Bahamas. What happened?
To answer that let's go back ten years to 1993. For years Plan "A" was to find the 'perfect' boat in the Pacific Northwest. We would cruise that region for a year or two as a shakedown, including a trip up the Inland Waterway into Alaska. Then we'd head down the West Coast to our home waters of San Francisco Bay. Finally we'd go "out the Golden Gate and turn left" into the South Pacific and points westward. But Fate intervened. Our broker found exactly the boat we had been looking for. She had been built in the Pacific Northwest five years previously and the owners had just taken her to Florida to sell in what they felt was a better market. Florida? What were we going to do with a boat in Florida?
On May 1, 1993, we took possession of Volant - or, more accurately, she took possession of us. We had a choice. We could ship her back to the Pacific Northwest to implement Plan "A", or create a Plan "B." Plan "B" took shape. We could cruise the Bahamas, Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Seaboard, then see what was next - which would either be heading out eastward across the Atlantic or going on westward through the Panama Canal. From reading our previous logs you know we eventually settled on Plan "B" with the next phase being a crossing of the Atlantic to Europe.
As we were making our plans to cross, Fate intervened again.
I had been noticing a small lump on the back of my leg just below my knee. After the last cruise I noticed that it was getting a bit bothersome. When squatting to work on the boat it felt as if someone had jammed a golf ball behind my knee. And when walking along the beach one morning it began to throb. Time to have it checked out.
At my annual skin check I asked my dermatologist who I should see about it. He pointed me to an orthopedist, thinking it was a Baker's Cyst. The orthopedist didn't think so and ordered an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). As the MRI showed that a growth was around a nerve, the recommendation was to see a neurologist. The neurologist sent a biopsy sample to the lab. The conclusion: Leiomyosarcoma - a very rare, aggressive and dangerous cancer. I found an orthopedic oncologist, had 21 days of radiation twice a day, then surgery on January 22, 2003, to remove the growth. I am now recovered enough to go cruising, although complete recovery is expected to take a full year.
We were still working on our plans to cross the Atlantic, departing about May 10. Sometime in early April a thought came up. Maybe we could ship Volant back to the Pacific Northwest, and pick up our original Plan "A." We have family in the area. Our three grandtykes (ages 6, 6, and 9) are young enough to enjoy being around the old guys and we enjoy being around them. Whether it's the kids specifically, the family in general or the reordering of priorities due to the cancer that triggered the change of plans, it's impossible to say. Maybe it's just that we're cruisers, and as cruisers "by the time plans come out of our mouths we've already changed our minds." Regardless, we changed our plans.
We found Dockwise (www.dockwise.com), a company specializing in shipping yachts to all parts of the world. One route goes from Port Everglades (Ft. Lauderdale, Florida) to Vancouver, British Columbia via the Panama Canal, essentially reversing the trip Volant took with her original owners ten years ago. Dockwise have a small fleet of yacht transport ships that are, in reality, floating dry docks. Ballast tanks are flooded, lowering the transport as much as 15 meters (nearly 50 feet) into the water. Volant, under her own power, will motor into position along with other yachts being transported. As the ballast tanks are pumped dry and the ship rises, divers position supports for the yachts. Eventually the deck is above water and the yachts are all positioned on the deck as if they were hauled out "on the hard" (on dry land). At the destination port the process is reversed and Volant will depart under her own power. As the only special preparation is to make Volant ready for sea, the moment she departs the transport vessel we will be cruising.
Loading is scheduled for mid July. The journey to Vancouver is expected to take slightly less than three weeks, including a stop at Ensenada, Mexico. The exact dates won't be known until approximately one week before loading or arrival due to the vagaries of weather, docking space availability, Panama Canal delays, administrative issues…
But we still have time for one last cruise before we depart this part of the world - thus, our plan to cruise the Bahamas for six weeks.
Next dispatch: Preparations.
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