16. What does homeschooling, the paleo diet, writing, and photography have to do with sailing?

We’re doing a lot of sailing preparation…

Next month I’m lined up to do a 1-day radio course. This course will professionally teach me how to use our VHF radio – to make calls, receive calls, do PAN PAN and MAYDAY calls (distress calls), and general radio stuff. Hubby has already taken the course so I’m just catching up with him. (Read my article: Is a VHF Radio course really necessary to take if you’re a boater?)

Aside from that, we’re taking a 5-day repair and maintenance course on boat engines and two first aid courses for boaters. (Remember to read: Diesel marine engine course – Top 10 interesting tid-bits I learned) Otherwise, I have my RYA Day Skippers qualification (5-day course) and Simon has his RYA Yacht Masters qualification. From a boating qualification standpoint, we have a few things under our belt.

By far, the most important knowledge we have includes our Flotilla Holiday experiences and of course, the last two years of owning our 35′ Moody Yacht. The courses are great but when it comes to sailing the real learning comes from getting out there and letting the experiences come to you.

What about homeschooling?

In addition to doing a few sailing courses, I’ve also made a list of some other things I want to learn before we set sail in March/April 2014. My first priority is understanding ‘Home Schooling’ and how it works. Our daughter, Sienna, turns 4 in May and should start formal school in September 2014.

I purchased three books thus far: ‘Learning without school,’ by Ross Mountney, ‘Project-Based Homeschooling‘ by Lori Pickert, and ‘The Everything Homeschooling Book,’ by Sherri Linsenbach. The first was mentioned on Amazon as the home-schooling bible so I started on that one. I’m halfway through and thus far I’m gaining more confidence on how it all works.

Interestingly, if I had read the book on a whim (without the plans of selling up and sailing) I would seriously consider home-schooling Sienna anyway. The book goes into the various short-fallings of school education and boy are they serious!

Travel writing and travel photography…

I’ve also purchased, ‘Break into Travel Writing,’ by Beth Blair and ‘Lonely Planet’s Guide To Travel Photography,’ by Richard I’anson. I’m not sure if either of these opportunities will arise but my aim is to enjoy life and find a way to make money from that enjoyment.

Up until recently I always found a way to make money but the enjoyment was something I tried to fit in between work and my other duties. The two were mostly mutually exclusive. I’m convinced that there’s another way. I truly believe that work can be fun, exciting and something that I do with ease and loads of passion. I’m convinced that I don’t have to spend 80% of my time doing grunt work that I don’t like simply to get 20% of my time doing enjoyable creative output. I’m aiming for 100% enjoyment…well, I’m aiming for that but if it’s less I’m sure I’ll still be quite pleased!

Yes – we’re Paleo Diet freaks too!

And as if that wasn’t enough, I’ve really been working on getting the whole family on what’s called a Paleo Diet. It’s not a diet to lose weight although many people do. It’s more of a ‘getting back to basics’ way of eating. The diet gets you to eliminate all processed and refined foods. Essentially, you go back to eating as they did before all our ‘technological advancements,’ so our meal plans consist of meat, eggs, fish, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and seed. We’re staying away from anything with gluten in it – a substance that most people can’t digest that’s found in wheat.

Changing our diet has been the largest learning curve. I’ve made this change for two main reasons:

1. While sailing our proposed route we will not have the luxury of processed foods. Most of our food will be purchased at markets, small shops and from farms directly. My ability to cook food from scratch needed an upgrade. (Yes – I admit it. I was a processed food junkie. Everything we ate came from a package – even our lunch-time sandwiches.)
2. More importantly, our health was a massive driver. When we finally realized that we’re going to live our dream I had this NEED to really want to be healthy. Thinking this way sounds a bit crazy. You may wonder why I wasn’t interested in our health prior to our plans? I suppose we all seemed ‘okay,’ so I didn’t really worry. I didn’t question our physical state. After seeing a nutritionist I realized that we were extremely unhealthy and I immediately started changing our eating habits. That’s an interesting case in point – when you really find a way to live your dream you really want to live. I suppose health wasn’t ever a main concern because I didn’t think that life was all that interesting anyway. That sounds so sad, but there’s definitely an element of truth in that statement. I didn’t want to be sick but since I appeared to be ‘okay’ I didn’t question the long-term effects of my eating habits. (If you want to read about my journey towards better health, read this article: Oh crap – Are we healthy enough to sail around the world?)

So, I’ve ordered books like, ‘Practical Paleo,’ by Diane Sanfilippo and have been cooking all our meals in line with the Paleo principles. I don’t follow them strictly, but the majority of our meals are far healthier than they use to be. Furthermore, I’ve changed to gluten-free bread and pasta in addition to drinking goats milk. And whenever possible we buy organic to avoid getting pesticides in us.

The results? Thus far I’ve noticed a massive difference in my energy levels. I no longer get tired after lunch (needing a nap) nor do I have a slump at 7 pm when I feel I’m ready for bed. My skin has been much better – I don’t get as many pimples! And I’m sure my insides are looking much better. Overall, I feel like I’m in control of my health rather than being at the mercy of big companies that want to fill me up with crap!

And the journey continues!

By getting home-schooling, travel writing, travel photography and meal planning out of the way I’ll have ample time to study the 100’s of operation manuals that come with the boat. There must be over 15 different RayMarine panels/computers on the boat so those will be fun to figure out!

Next Chapter: 17. I’m so freaking frustrated – the world is broken

Previous Chapter: 15. After sea trials and the survey I ran a marathon (accidentally)