Keep talking.

I'm actually convinced but reality rears its ugly head. Most observers think
I've already lost my mind anyway. My wife and I, who fell in love sailing
and cruising and then gave it up when we had kids, are buying this boat to
see if we can get our almost teenage sons interested in cruising and
sailing. We want to break them in easily and we are already in what many
consider one of the most beautiful cruising areas in the world.

My wife won't be able to take anywhere near enough time to do any
significant portion of this trip and doesn't want the kids gone for long
stretches. I work for myself (designing and consulting on commercial boats)
but have to be prepared for projects popping up that I can't turn down. In
order to get a fresh water boat of the type we want, I'm taking on a trip
already about 20 times as long as I should rationally consider.

This boat should really be going on a truck. Just a day sail from here is
country you wouldn't believe if you haven't seen it. One of the things I
always loved about sailing was making a ship work, covering the ground, and
getting into the rhythm of watches and life going on round the clock. It's
going to be a bit frustrating having a vessel out on the mooring capable of
going around Newfoundland or to Bermuda and doing mostly weekend and
daysails. This trip will let me get a lot of the passage stuff out of my
system before settling down to family sailing.

It's going to be too bad to go blasting past so many interesting places but
the alternative probably is a truck. That still is a distinct possibility if
clients I can't turn down are pressing to give me money. If I had the time
anyway and did the truck thing, we could pretty thoroughly explore the
southern coast of Nova Scotia in the same time frame. It's about 30 hours
across the Gulf of Maine to the other side, a good first time passage for
kids with the excitement of a foreign country coming up over the horizon.

The trip I really want to make is around Newfoundland.

(I still want to know what you mean by "doing a student body". That's a
sailing term I never heard.)

--

Roger Long