
Nicole with a Stingray- French Polynesia ©Nicole Duke
We hope you enjoy reading this amazing story as much as we do here at OCSC… If you missed Part 1 of this interview please find it here. You can look forward to Part 3 next Tuesday!
[OCSC]: Can you describe the feelings you felt the day you went out the Gate and turned left?
[Gar]: It’s still as clear for me as the day we left. I was a total wreck emotionally and psychologically exhausted from all the work getting ready to actually leave for good. We had been working non-stop for months when we sold our houseboat we lived on, sold our cars, and pretty much everything we owned. On top of that I was working on the boat constantly installing gear and getting our boat ready for the big journey. We had high expectations of doing some smaller trips to prepare for the big event, but never felt like we had the luxury of time to do it if we really wanted to leave before winter storms blew in. So we never did any smaller overnight trips and we had lots new gear we still hadn’t used much like our radar, windvane, etc
When we actually sailed out the Gate a couple of days after Thanksgiving in 2006 it was a powerful experience. It was a gorgeous crisp sunny Autumn day and a school of dolphins escorted us out into the Pacific. Nicole’s folks were on the bridge waving a flag to us and Nicole was waving one back from our bowsprit. We were on a beautiful beam reach and everything was perfect. It finally hit me that we were actually on our way and I was so exhausted, so excited, and so nervous all at once, that I just broke down and cried for a long time.
[Nicole]: It feels like a lifetime ago. I remember being excited scared and open to everything. Mostly I was scared and my stomach was somewhere up in my throat. The universe reconfirmed my capabilities when the darkness of a new moon night descended upon us, and Gar was really seasick. I knew in that instant when I took my watches and when I lay awake listening to him wretch and then the clinking of his tether that I had everything under control for myself and I could do it. My fear evaporated on my 4 am watch and was replaced with peace as I sat in darkness and listened to the ocean against the hull.