Preparations

I'm really getting into the preparations for my voyage. This part is all just planning, of course, since the Argo II hasn't even arrived in Greenland yet. Joe Slocum is sailing her here from our home port in Portsmouth. Joe is a good guy; he worked on the Scopritore IV sometimes, and was kind of like an uncle. He always said he was named after Joshua Slocum, who was the first person to sail around the world by himself (he wrote a book about it, Sailing Alone Around the World).

It's going to be a lot easier for me, of course, because the Argo isn't a sailboat. I've been sailing, but just for fun, and not that often. My favorite kind of sailing is windsurfing, which I first tried in Madagascar. I got pretty good at it when were were in the Mediterranean for a year. It's not much fun when you have to avoid icebergs, though.

I sent Joe some lists of what I'd like the Argo stocked with in the way of favorite foods and books. He said he would take care of that before he left Portsmouth. I'll have an internet connection the whole way, so I'll be able to update this blog and keep up on things.

I wish I could go diving on this trip, but it's too risky to do that alone. I thought maybe I'd study astronomy and see if I could learn celestial navigation. I'll probably never need it, with all the GPS, LORAN, and inertial systems installed on all our vessels, but it would be fun. The original Joshua Slocum didn't really do that much of it, according to his book, but the real sea captains from the old days sure did. I love reading about them; those are some of the books I asked Joe to stock the Argo's library with. I should dig up my list and post it here.