The Final Year
Years 2020-2023 were for sail practice and research. In the fall of 2023, we met with the Head of School at Heritage Hall to discuss how Josephine would pursue her junior year. Lucky for us, Mr Carolan (school head) is a sailor himself and immediately saw the value of a year at sea. The school signed on for Jo to have a year “abroad” and we began to call our adventure a seabattical. Addy had her sights on attending Coast Guard Academy which made the possibility of her doing a gap year with us slim. CG Academy does not let students defer a year after being accepted.
Addy senior year and Josephine sophomore year
Nate found the University of California Scout program which would be perfect for junior year. The program was set up to support students in rural areas who don’t have access to certain classes, such as AP Calculus, because their schools or lack qualified teachers.
We gave Josephine a deadline of November 1st to make her final decision about taking a year away from Oklahoma. There was alot for her to give up (from left to right); her horse Vogue , an athletic internship, mentor athletic trainers, friends, a car and a fun job working at the barn where she rides.
Once Josephine had given the green light on our seabattical, we began exploring our house options. Do we sell or rent our house? For many months I was pro-rent and Nate was pro-sell. I am the nostalgic one in the relationship - I scrapbook, saved some baby clothes- and I thought I would feel better to know what we were coming back to in May2025 in Oklahoma. Nate’s dream is to only own what fits in his backpack, but really I think maybe he would need at least a van for his possessions. The upcoming election, uncertain economy and the fact that our house would be HUGE with Addy away at college were also playing rolls in our decision. Early this year, I went to look at the rental market in Oklahoma City and was surprised by the dog friendly options. We met with a realtor who we valued to also help with our choices. In February we decided we would try to sell by listing the house in April and could always rent if the house didn’t sell. This meant we had to get serious about all the house projects; stripping and painting doors (Bampi helped on a visit), painting the laundry room (Josephine helped me with this room), landscaping with native plants, trim trees, repoint the brickwork, drywalling old repairs, painting rooms, stripping carpet, repairing hot tub buttons, a new roof and endlessly scrubbing walls. I am sure I am missing many and I should have taken a photo of the “house projects” list that hung in the kitchen all winter/spring. The girls would help as time allowed and tried to use the line “we didn’t decide to move on a boat” to get out of a helpful chore.
We culled every nook and cranny aggressively to decide what we needed until August, what was worth storing until next year and which items would be good for the boat. Lots of selling on eBay and FB marketplace or donating.
We had two yard sales. And filled a small storage unit with mostly furniture for our return in May.
Trying to decide what would fit in our boat galley from our house kitchen.
We were very lucky that our house sold in 6 days and we were able to negotiate moving out of the house in early July. During this time Addy was accepted by both the Coast Guard Academy and Cal Poly Humboldt. She decided to take a rowing scholarship at Cal Poly Humboldt and was ready to move to California immediately!
