TIME....LIKE MOLASSES

10 Feb 2014

Kandahar, Afghanistan

Moving really slow for me.

Isn’t it funny how the passage of time is relative to what’s going on in your life at that particular time?  I’m not talking about at our current ages vs. when we were much younger.  I think everyone will agree that the older you get the faster time seems to speed by.   

But, no matter what your age, if you are eagerly awaiting an event, or thoroughly enjoying your current situation in life (vacation, retirement, etc.), time passes like a blur.  I remember when I was in school it seemed like the school year moved at the speed of molasses on a cold February morning.  Then, conversely, the summer breaks we had always went by in the blink of an eye.  By the same token, now when I am on break with Dahleen the time flies; I come back to AFG working till the next 90-day break, and time creeps by. 

Well, it is “double-creeping by” now…..moving at a snail’s pace.  Since I had to go home for a couple of weeks in Dec on emergency leave, I had 5 months until my next break instead of 3 months.  I am now scheduled to go on break is around 2 June, 2014 …..so, I still have a long wait.  The good news is that break will be a long one….44 days.  I asked for, and was granted, an extra two weeks to move the boat from Cleveland, OH to Deltaville, VA. 

I will have a couple of days of recuperating from the trip while packing for the trip to Cleveland.  We are doing a one-way rental of a 16’ box (moving) van from Penske to take the things we need to the boat.  The biggest of these, and the main reason for the moving van is the 10’ rigid (hardbottom), inflatable dinghy and outboard.  Additionally, I will have to take a fair amount of tools to construct a rack for the mast to ride on as we transit the Erie Canal.  It was easier and more cost effective to rent the truck than to worry about trying to get it all there packed into my pickup and then have the logistical problem of getting the truck back to Tennessee as we take the boat across Lake Erie, down the Hudson River, and south along the Atlantic coast to the Chesapeake.

We estimate the need to be in Cleveland about 5 days before we can set sail across Lake Erie.  The Lake Erie should take a couple of days and then the trip across the Erie Canal to the Hudson should take about 11 days, if I correctly recall what I researched.  Two days down the Hudson to NYC and then we will have to wait for a weather window to go offshore to the Chesapeake.  We should be offshore and up the Chesapeake for about 3 days.  Hopefully, we will only have  3+/- days in Deltaville, getting the boat ready to stay on the boatyard until November.  Then a couple of days driving back to home.   I almost forgot, throw in 2 more days (one at Buffalo, NY to remove mast and one at the end of the Erie Canal to step the mast).  Not counting any weather delays, that’s 30 days.  I suspect it will take longer than that, as I am generally too optimistic and things seem to take longer than planned.  We could very well have a longer delay in Cleveland than we anticipate since the sail loft will be installing all the new sails and there may be some adjusting issues….who knows.  We are definitely going to wait for good weather before departing NYC harbor for the Atlantic.  

The anticipation of closing on the boat, and delivering the boat to the Chesapeake is causing the calendar to stand still. Time is really crawling along.  One should not wish their life away, but I do wish that June 2014 would move my direction just a little bit faster.