For many families, planning a trip can be a stressful and time-consuming task. So when Kimberly Ward and her husband Michael decided to take their 10-year-old daughter Allie on a two-year voyage from Massachusetts to Grenada in 2014, they knew there would be a lot of training and organization ahead. I knew something.
They must navigate different types of boats, adapt to living closely together, and find ways to complete necessary tasks often taken for granted on land, such as finding a place to dump trash or do laundry. It didn’t happen.
Kimberly was inspired to write “.A crew of three: How bold dreams and careful planning kicked off our family’s sailing adventure.” talks about their journey. She, Michael, and Allie are currently 19 years old and studying at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. New Bedford Whaling Museum Sept. 7, 6 p.m. The event is $10 for museum members and $20 for non-members.
The two-year plan began with selling the monohull and buying a catamaran. Kimberly has since returned to work full-time, and the couple moved up their retirement plans by five years to save money for the trip. They rented out the house. We also made lesson plans for Allie’s 5th grade and her 6th grade students without considering her access to the Internet, since connectivity is often not possible from the boat.
When deciding when to travel, I felt I was running out of time to take care of my growing daughter. “[Ally] “He was 8 years old when we talked about the big trip and we knew time was up,” Kimberly said. “When children reach middle school age, they become less interested in playing with their parents.”
The family spent the first seven weeks of the trip sitting in a Washington, D.C., marina getting used to the changes to life on a boat, while Michael shuttled back and forth from Jacksonville, Florida, to finish work projects.
Kimberly says,boat galley cookbookThis book by Carolyn Sherlock and Jan Irons has become their bible. Because this book contained many substitutes for items they couldn’t always find at the stores they stopped at.
“I’ve made eggless pancakes once before, but I was surprised to learn that you can add lemon juice and vinegar to set them. I had never thought of that before,” says Kimberly. said. “And since everything is made from scratch, we learned how to make our own yogurt. We learned how to make our own granola. Her daughter baked all the sweet recipes.”
Michael said the hardest part of the trip was being close to each other for so long. “We all had our own corners, but our corners are about 8 feet apart from each other,” he said.
“When we left, my daughter was 10 and I was 45, so we went through puberty and menopause on a 34-foot boat. So this boat is kind of a saint.” Kimberly said, gesturing to Michael.
Along the way, families recorded special moments at the places they visited with a combination of commercially available and handmade postcards, signed with “I love you” and sent home. When they returned from their trip, more than 300 cards were waiting for them. Kimberly is currently working on digitizing everything. Website.
“It’s such a memorable thing for us, so we want to preserve it,” she said.
After returning to Massachusetts, Michael did not want to continue working in technical consulting and decided to become an oyster farmer, and Kimberly compiled all their memories into a book.
Kimberly said she is excited to publish the book at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, especially since she and Michael were married there 20 years ago.
“It’s a bit of a homecoming for me.”
Maddie Browning can be reached at maddie.browning@globe.com.