“So, are you going to make it Cape Town before Christmas or what?” Pete texts.

 I cringe and physically duck my head a little bit. “I don’t know,” I type out. “Andrew wants to stay a year in Knysna.” Mostly kidding, but afraid I might not be.

 “Oh, come on!  I don’t think the Skylarks are going to make it, either.” Pete responds.

“Oh no, where are they?”

“Still back in Richard’s Bay.” Pete says, “Are you sailing with us to the UK? I’m not going to say promises were made, but promises were made.”

“I don’t know!”

“You’re not. We all know you are not. Have you made a spreadsheet, yet?”

 “We need to make a spreadsheet.” I agreed.  

Long ago, that first Christmas we spent getting to know the Steel Sapphires, we exchanged notes and experiences about what it was like to cast off from our professional lives and lead a life as ocean wanderers. People ask us all the time “How did you do it?” And I, too, am curious about how my fellow sailors found their way to sea. Our common answer?

Spreadsheets.

“Oh yes! I just love spreadsheets!” I said.

“They call me “Spreadsheet Pete,” Pete said.

“They really did call him Spreadsheet Pete,” Jen had confirmed.

And so it was, our friendship was partially formed over the mutual love of spreadsheets. Thereafter, over all the adventuring and passage-making we did together, of course, there would be spreadsheets. Pete really does make the best passage spreadsheets, and Jen is a master of land travel spreadsheets. If I’m honest, I’ve gotten spreadsheet-lazy! Maybe this is why we are stuck in Knysna, we don’t have a spreadsheet with a date to tell us when we have to leave.

Or, it could be that our Knysna life was really nice. Each morning, I’d wake up and sit with Kitty in the cockpit warming ourselves in the sun and overlooking a calm anchorage. I would peck away at some work, and then I’d go sit at the yacht club patio and play with my watercolor paints for a bit.

Inevitably, someone from S/V Perry would stop by to make me laugh.  If it wasn’t something about pelicans, it was Mark dressed backwards so he looked weird when he walked forwards.

Some days, we would find somewhere nearby to go hiking…

Some days, we would search out Knysna’s fresh oysters that taste like heaven and the sea wrapped up in a little shell for you to slurp it from.

We visited the Knysna sea horse. Apparently, Knysna is the only place potbellied dudes like these guys live, the world over.

Within walking distance, we had found a sourdough pizza shop that also makes cinnamon buns to die for. Matt on SV Perry is a cinnamon bun connoisseur (frequently makes his own shipboard!) and even he said these were “pretty good”. The pizza shop happened to be situated right next to a gin distillery with snooker, chess, and a series of card games to keep us entertained from happy hour through closing time, when, the owner of the bar repeatedly took pity on us and gave us a ride back to the yacht club.

We had braai nights at the Yacht Club braai pits, of course. Complete with yacht club member arm wrestling matches… (I think she is cheating.)

And, we joined the Knysna Yacht Club for their annual Christmas luncheon.

It was getting very close to Christmas indeed, and this fast-slow decision had to be made soon.

“But, I loooovvvvveeee Knysna!” Andrew said again and again.

One morning, however, he looked at the weather and realized: “We have one more weather window to take if we are going to make it to Cape Town before Christmas. And…we have to leave tomorrow.”

Right, yes, exactly.

I’d had enough. It is high time we make a spreadsheet. I laid out each potential route plan on its own sheet. I harangued Andrew to place his list of objectives in order of priority, and I did the same. I also asked Sonrisa what her priorities would be.

We assigned the objectives a priority number 1-6, with the most important priority listed at (1) and the least important listed at (6). Then, for each potential route, we marked how well the route would serve that objective.  Good (1) Neutral (2) Bad (3).

Before tallying the actual totals, I asked Andrew what his gut feeling said we should do, and I marked my own gut feeling as well. Then, I multiplied the priority number with the priority-served value, added it all up, and figured out which route was most likely to serve our priorities well. The route with the lowest score would be the winner.

“Drumroll please…” I said.

The numbers told us we should sail slowly across the South Atlantic, explore the Caribbean until June of 2023, and then decide what to do after that.

There.

Done.

That’s the answer.

Interestingly, our gut calls were the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd ranked options. So, it does seem that our guts are fairly aligned with what the weighted calculations would tell us. Whatever that is worth, it at least feels consistent. It was also an amusing exercise if nothing else.

Predictably, Sonrisa marked adventure and exploration her #1 priority. She is also chomping at the bit to fulfill her destiny as a circumnavigator. She started her sailing days in the Caribbean long before she met the Oddgodfreys, and now her finish line is almost in sight. She marked “finish her circumnavigation” as priority #2. I placed adventure and exploration at priority #1 and my relationship with family and friends at home as #2. 

Andrew…?

I texted Pete and Jen: “Andrew just ranked our cats comfort and happiness as his #1 objective.  This is what I’m working with, people.”

Decisions made, I demanded that Andrew reinstall the cockpit steering wheel (one source of marital/passage making strife) and he insisted that I tie up the diesel jugs (the other source of marital/passage making strife). The Perry and Erie Spirit spreadsheets apparently aligned, too, and so it was that we all made our way out the Knysna Heads at slack tide the very next morning.

Cape Town Bound!