In February 2021, Oceania Cruise line announced its January 2023 world cruise.
Almost one year into the COVID pandemic, I was at home sitting in front of my computer. Something tugged at me to sign up, and I had one day to decide. I had retired in June 2020 so had few constraints. I still remember the back-and-forth thoughts but, somehow, I plunged forward with: “Yes, I’ll do this.”
As I began to tell people about my plans for the trip, many were interested. Some were excited, wanting to share in the experience, wishing they could go now or someday in the future. Others wanted to know about it and were pretty sure that it wasn’t an experience they would ever want to have… “Six months is a long time to be away from home, I could never do that!” And, many people asked me to keep them updated during the journey. Out of my engagement with the challenge of responding to the interest of many different people, came the idea of a blog.
Since that February 2021 day when I signed up for this trip, my life has changed. Many of the accumulated belongings from forty years of family life have been donated, sold, or gifted; I have digitalized my records; I deposited my remaining belongings in a twelve- by fifteen-foot climate-controlled storage unit; I sold my house and then lived as a homeless sojourner for months.
The Oceania Insignia sets sail from San Francisco on January 15, 2023. On that day I will join 683 other guests and 400 crew on what Oceania calls a Grand Voyage. It feels like a Great Adventure. The ship plans to sail around the Americas, across the Atlantic, south around Africa, through Asia, across the Aleutians and then back to San Francisco in 180 days.
In the nature of full disclosure, though, I am of the generation that is not totally comfortable with blog technology. I do know how to type into a computer, do some basic tasks, manage many online functions, and look at “How to” YouTube Videos. Fortunately, I have younger relatives who are already more facile with this world and I am very grateful that they stepped forward to volunteer technical help and encouragement.
What will this blog be like? I guess the best answer is “we will all have to wait and see.” The YouTube video I consulted suggested that the first step is to get a domain name and theme. The name RobbinsRedThread, inspired by one of my favorite poems, leaves a lot of room for many different directions. I intend to include some description of places and pictures. I expect to be excited, unsettled and changed by this experience. I am going into a new community as a solo traveler. I value connection with others and also time alone. I want to learn from lectures and books, from direct experiences, and from people. I expect that some things will not go as planned. My hope is to remain as open as possible to all of this and to find ways to convey at least some of this on this site.
You are invited to join me in this journey. I hope you will contribute if you feel moved to comment (either publicly or privately) and also that you will feel good about just reading if that feels better.
Cathy Robbins