Taking time off for an eleven-month adventure like this is not only an investment in time and money, but also in relationships and feelings, as life at home will go on for a year without you. You will have to leave your responsibilities to somebody else (Tack Miranda och Marten!) while you’re gone, because birthdays and holidays are going to be celebrated, houses and gardens should be cared for, dogs and cats will hopefully be fed, jobs will come and go, and so on.
When I left home in August, I gave careful instructions on how to do this and that, and I said a special ‘Goodbye’ to Assi, our 14-year-old black mini-Schnauzer, that I was pretty sure not to meet again. That’s all you can do, really. Then just close the door, and trust that things will sort themselves out in the best possible way.
Yesterday, after days of cold and grey sailing down the coast of California, we finally had a beautiful sunset framed by dramatic clouds. I always watch clouds, and I love finding different shapes in them often amazingly correct and artistic. Watching the red sun emerge behind the clouds in the early morning, I noticed how many of them looked like happy dogs running in the colourful sky. Then the feeling hit me, that perhaps it could be a sign that Assi-dog had now passed. A light grey dove came flying around 9am and sat down to rest on our foreguys. She stayed for most of the day, and I commented to my crewmate that it might be my Assi-dog coming to say ‘Hello’ or perhaps ‘Goodbye’. Today I received the e-mail. It was her. She had passed a few hours earlier, and I had been informed, all in good universal order.
Thank you beautiful Assi and see you later!