Category: Retoolyourself

Retooling Life Part 4: Livin’ On A Trip

21/4/2017

Have you ever taken a trip to someplace new? How long did you stay? What if you lived on a trip for months? This has become our way of life at this point. We are continuing our series with Dharam Barrett”s article: “How To Get Your Life Back On Track When You Feel Broken” as our framework for evaluating this process of getting ourselves back on track after massive changes in our life happened in June 2016. Part 1 is about doing something that flat out scares you. Part 2 is about unplugging from the digital world so you can experience the moments that are happening all around you right now. Part 3 is about learning a new language. Part 4 is Barrett’s number 6: Take a trip. The premise is that changing your surroundings can help you find a place of healing by entering into the new scene. The trip can be any length you desire.

What has our trip looked like? Just read the blog! In summary, we purchased our sailboat in August 2016, loaded it up and sailed it from the San Francisco Bay area to San Diego, CA. Once in San Diego we made improvements, repairs and provisions. We left San Diego for La Paz BCS, Mexico on November 21, 2016. We hung out at a marina and beach club there for about 2.5 months finishing up varnish and minor repairs. We pulled out of La Paz February 19, 2017 to sail around the Sea of Cortez as far north as Loreto BCS, Mexico.

Living on a trip has been a major healing force in our lives

The trip was stellar! We anchored in amazing turquoise waters, enjoyed amazing geology, and frolicked with wild sea life! We interacted with small communities in our different anchorages and met amazing people from the local area and beyond. We experimented with our different boat systems such as water, power, and garbage/sewage while honing our boat handling and anchoring skills. This time has been challenging, rich, and nearly beyond words. We have a great deal of content for the blog that will be coming soon!

We returned to La Paz for a week long stay in the yards, which means hauling the boat out of the water to inspect the bottom. This included new bottom paint, new zincs, and a delimitation repair that was a surprise. Once back in the water we provisioned for a month and waited for the right weather window to return to San Diego, at least start the process of our return.

The uphill return to San Diego, CA, about 1,000 nautical miles took 19 days and was grueling. This sort of traveling reveals a great deal about how tough you are and how tough your boat is! We arrived in San Diego on Easter morning about 0415 tying up at the customs dock to await our check in.

In all our trip was 5 months long. We have been back for about five days and things feel so different. We have truly returned as different persons. There is so much to share and so many stories to tell. As we prepare to return to our house in northern California, our views are so majorly different. The life that we once had feels foggy in my head and our losses don’t seem so large. I still have questions about what will be next and what we have become from our adventures, but my heart is so much more peaceful and whole than when we left in August.

Living on a trip has been a major healing force in our lives. Even though our suitcase is 35 feet long, it has been the trip of a lifetime. Now that we are back, we think we need a bigger suitcase so we can have others along next time we travel taking the next trip of a lifetime. Never underestimate the power of a trip, a very long trip, to places you have never been. Barrett’s supposition is quite true in this, we do see ourselves differently now.

We are including our Mexico wrap up video with this entry so you can hear about some of the things we learned, what we wish we had on our trip, what we could not live without and more!

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Retooling Life Part 3

14/3/2017

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In Part 1 we used the article: “How To Get Your Life Back On Track When You Feel Broken” by Dharam Barrett as our framework for evaluating this process of getting ourselves back on track after massive changes in our life happened in June 2016.
"Learning a new language may be one of the best available ways to remind yourself that there’s an entire world out there – one that operates on a completely different premise than yours. Committing to learning a non-native language proves that you could adapt and mould to one of those other realities if you wanted to – which consequently makes you feel a little less defeated by yours."

We are retooling ourselves and we really have no idea what the final products are going to be. Part 1 is about doing something that flat out scares you. Part 2 was about unplugging from the digital world so you can experience the moments that are happening all around you right now. Part 3 is about learning a new language, number 19 on Barrett’s list. Barrett says that learning a new language is a good way to expand your worldview of yourself. With four years of French textbook and classroom learning under my belt, I, Lynette, decided since we are in Mexico I am going to learn the language and be able to speak when I am out in public. I’ve employed DuoLingo as my instructor. I’ve had a great time with it!

While getting my credentials to teach English as a second or foreign language I learned when someone is in a new location and the language that is spoken by the locals is new to them, there is a silent period. This silent period lasts three weeks or more. In essence, it is culture shock. It is the time frame of making observations, making attempts at conversing and absorbing the sounds of the language. I am definitely experiencing this! I have gained a large vocabulary and I can read and write Spanish better than I can understand it. In my brain I know what to say, but when I get into the moment of needing to converse, only French comes up! I get frustrated with this, but I have to remind myself it is okay.

I am told by locals that my accent is very good. The people are so kind when you attempt to connect with them in their words. I find a great deal of patience and grace towards me from the locals as I try to speak and say what I want to say, or rather need to say at this point. When I tell the locals in Spanish that I am learning, the locals will often correct my words or sentence structure as I am speaking. This is very helpful. They will also speak slower, use less words, or use more simplistic vocabulary, just like I do when someone is learning English.

I’ve had a lot of laughs and funny looks from those I have talked with. For instance the laundry lady, I asked if she still had my soup from the week before instead of my soap. A local vender told me that I needed to use amiga for my female friends and not the term girlfriend which would imply that I was in relationship with another woman as in being a couple. I think the most interesting thing we have learned here so far is that adios, or goodbye is not a casual term for saying goodbye. It means “goodbye forever and I don’t want to see you again,” according to the locals where we are in La Paz, Mexico.

Learning a new language may be one of the best available ways to remind yourself that there’s an entire world out there – one that operates on a completely different premise than yours.

A couple weeks ago while on a solo shopping trip into town, I met a young lady who was interested in me and started speaking to me in Spanish. When I told her I was learning she said she didn’t speak English, only a few words. She pulled out her smartphone and started typing questions to me and I did the same. We conversed for nearly an hour as I waited for my shuttle. Its funny how we didn’t even exchange our names, just conversation. She told me about the foods I had to try before leaving and the locations of shops I could find gifts at that were less expensive than some street vendors. I really had a fun time!

My most recent experience was with the Port Captain at Puerto Escondido. When I went to check in with all the vessel documents and our passports, etc. I told him I was learning Spanish. He spoke to me in Spanish for all the official process. His friend in the office was giving him a hard time for “putting the pressure on” me by all the Spanish. It was fun. What I have noticed is that sometimes I may not be able to translate what was said to me but the answer is in my head as soon as I hear the question. I am learning to trust that a bit more. Our brains are so amazing! The Port Captain, who speaks English well, said it is really good for me to stretch myself because then I know what I know and what I don’t. Noting that at some point I may be solely on my own speaking to a person who only knows Spanish.

As we have been traveling now in the Sea of Cortez, we have not had internet or cell coverage much at all. I have missed DuoLingo because it is done over cellular data. It would be really wonderful if the computer program had an off line progression that could be uploaded when we got back to areas with cell phone reception.

According to DuoLingo, I am 13% fluent in Spanish. I’ve spent many hours with the app building up my skills. We will be moving on from Mexico at about the fourth month mark. I plan to continue working on my Spanish and hopefully find others to practice with in the near future. I can see that I am increasing my skills in the middle of all the change we have experienced. I’m feeling like this is a year of retooling myself, or should I call it a self enhancement year where I am adding to what I already have? No matter how I spin this, my life has more skills in it than it did a year ago.

Tell us what you are adding to your life this year?

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Retooling Life Part 4: Livin’ On A Trip

Retooling Life Part 3

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