Roxy - Capturing the Light on Sky Pond #2 posting

Attached to this section is the map of our 9-year route from Vietnam east to Canada and returning via Mexico to Brisbane, Australia. Every color represents 1 year from 2016 through 2024. Also a photo of our blue-water (ocean going) catamaran, Sky Pond.

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Taking delivery of a new boat in the South China Sea was more challenging than we had anticipated. Our first night anchored at the mouth of the Saigon River, a fisherman boarded our boat and stole my iPhone and iPad. Fortunately, we did not encounter the pirate, but this incident added to the stress. After setting sail, beyond practicing sailing and seamanship as new sailors, we learned all the onboard systems on-the-fly during our journey to our first port in Darwin, Australia—a five-week passage. Everything was breaking - and as sailors know, catastrophe usually happens in pitch black at 2:00 a.m. while we were weaving between the flashing lights of fishing boats, strung fishing nets, jammed VHF channels, and foreign speaking sailors.

Each system required several days of analysis and repair - I thought my husband’s engineer-brain was going to explode. Every day he woke up with a new solution to the previous days’ problem whether it was the software in the chart plotter, the electrical connections of the ignition, the starter battery that expanded and spewed acid like volcano or the rigging. Who could have guessed that a new boat would have issues immediately after production! The intensity was palpable; the seas were bright and hot during the day, filled with the lights of thousands of wooden fishing vessels at night. Daily we faced challenges and the only mean of communicating with the Seawind support group was slow, text email or our narrow band satellite phone system which was impractical for long complicated discussions.

The emotional challenge of reaching Darwin left me with little mental capacity to focus on art. I struggled to redefine myself in circumstances I hadn’t anticipated. Taking delivery of Sky Pond was a difficult experience, marking a serious and challenging beginning to our cruising lifestyle. I had just left behind a career that defined me personally and nationally in the renewable energy industry and hoped to transition to being an artist. While many other women seemed thrilled to be sailing and taking the helm as solo skippers, I wondered if I would ever feel the same.

Over the next six months, we made our way along the eastern seaboard of Australia and crossed to Fiji, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia. Joining a cruising rally in Fiji finally made the cruising lifestyle enjoyable for the first time since we took delivery. Until then, it had been a series of stressful boat projects and a steep learning curve of passage-making.

At the end of the sailing season, we sailed to Whangarei, New Zealand, to enjoy their sunny winter. On Waiheke Island, east of Auckland, we met a master watercolorist during a an Open Studio event. He was in his nineties but still painted daily. Our visit with him marked the first profound artistic influence I had experienced since spending time in the library with Rembrandt. We sat in his studio discussing watercolors and art books, and he kindly offered me a small set of pigments, brushes, and paper to spark my interest.

The medium of watercolors can be challenging to learn and master. It is thought to be one of the most difficult mediums since it requires the artist to work in the inverse, that is, painting from light to dark pigments - preserving the white of the paper, instead of using white pigment, as the light in the subject. Fewer strokes to convey the subject is key - once it is muddied, it is worthless.

As a teenager, I struggled with the technique and materials. Trying to relearn color theory, design, and technique alone on a sailboat was incredibly frustrating. Watercolors seemed like my nemesis; it felt impossible to develop any skill in painting. Meanwhile, Carl and I had a goal of sailing to Washington State, on the West Coast of the United States, within the next four months, more than 6,000 miles away sailing eastbound - against currents and trade winds.