1,000 days = 10,000 hours?
What better way to spend our 1000th day cruising than with a pleasant, drama-free passage. Yes, I know that we left on a Friday which superstitious types might get anxious about, but apparently we have enough points built up in the black box to overcome that. 🙂
As our course from Montserrat to Guadeloupe was roughly SE, as you might guess, we had the wind right on the nose when we first started off. Fortunately, as the day progressed, it backed a bit and increased, lessening our need for the engines. With the autopilot comfortably steering the boat in the minimal seas, we were able to simply enjoy the beautiful day on the water.
We rolled into Deshaies, the anchorage on the NW corner of Guadeloupe, about 1:45 PM. As we had been here before, we slid right up in front of the pack to a spot that we knew would be of comfortable depth for our boat to anchor. As Rebecca slowly motored us into position, I managed to place the anchor perfectly in a 5′ circle of sand. Bullseye! Have we done this before? Yeah, once or twice.
This situation, and the fact that yesterday was our 1000th day traveling, made me think of the oft-quoted 10,000-Hour Rule. Described in the book Outliers: The Story of Success, the rule basically states that “the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours” (source). Since we’ve been traveling on our boat for over 1000 days now, and living on it for a year longer than that, do you think we’ve reached that “tipping point” yet? Maybe.
- Note: Even though it sounds quite interesting, I have yet to read that book. I have, however, heard that rule quoted countless times.
Anyway, because we are anchored so close to shore, and because we’re only planning on staying here a couple of days, we opted to leave our engine off the dinghy and paddle to shore. We did the same thing in Montserrat and it worked out fine. When we paddled to shore to clear into customs and have some lunch though, we made the classic mistake of forgetting that EVERY STORE IN FREAKIN’ TOWN CLOSES FOR SEVERAL HOURS IN THE AFTERNOONS! Does that drive me a bit crazy? Only when I’m hungry. So, back to the boat we paddled to eat and kill a few hours until the shopkeepers returned from their break. I’m going to give the French a buy for their siesta habit but only because their customs and immigration procedure is so completely efficient. No stern faced gatekeepers to appease with Yes, Sirs and No, Sirs. No, all you do in the French islands is type your info into a self-serve computer terminal, pay 4 Euros (the exact price depends on where you are but it is usually 5 or less) and boom, you’re good to go. That and the inexpensive wine (in the grocery stores, not the restaurants) and fancy cheese made me forget all about having to row to shore twice to get the check-in completed.
Approx. 5:45 AM. We weren’t the only ones getting underway early.
Heading around the north end of Montserrat so that we’d have a better angle on the wind.
A sailors hammock?
That squall came close but missed us. We had full sail up so were paying close attention to its path.
Does this look like a customs and immigration office to you?
Samantha was quite unhappy because she thought the French pate we were eating was cat food.
I’m not so sure that she was wrong!
Deshaies always serves up such beautiful sunsets!
Congratulations Mike & Rebecca!
1000 days is a huge accomplishment and thanks for taking us all along on the ride!
You’re very welcome, Catherine.
Hi R&M,
Outliers is a book either of you could have written: ) it’s culture is certainly how you both live, train and succeed. Great book, its content will seem familiar if you do tackle it. From your photos it does appear your 10,000 hours on board is agreeing with you both. Happy sailing…
🙂
Thanks, Jamie. Miss you guys.
I bought postcards in that shop last month! Deshaies village was much nicer than we expected and the botanical gardens are superb. We called ahead for the free shuttle bus and saved the cost of a taxi for 6 of us. I expect you guys would just jog up the hill though! It is however one of the most “French” places we have been in the Eastern Caribbean as very few people spoke much English. The day we were there an American lady who lived there was waiting at the dock voluntarily to help translate for the cruise ship passengers from Star Clipper and one of the Seabourn ships. Not a problem for us as I used to work in France and don’t all Canadians have to learn French? Enjoy your stay! Jane x
We need more work on our French. 🙁
Ahhhh! Le Pelican. Tre bien. remember le boulangerie.
Merci beaucoup.
Oh to live vicariously.
Hopefully we’re inspiring people to live more fully rather than just living through our posts. I’d like to think so anyway.
Wonderful post. Congrats. Crew and I have been hard at work on our own Catalina preparing her to splash next week so I’m not 100% vicarious. Trying to get some points in the box. You certainly inspire me to get to the Caribbean. Great stuff as always. Thanks.
Good luck with the boat launch, Sal!
Great post Mike. I can’t wait to see it with my own eyes someday soon..
I’m sure you’ll love it!
The accountant in me can’t resist:
1000 Days or
24,000 Hours or
1,440,000 Minutes or
86,400,000 Seconds of cruising!
Do you need a vacation?
🙂