Q & A

The Petersen family sold everything in 2004 and with no prior knowledge of boating or boat building, moved to south Florida to complete construction on catamaran yacht. Aside from hiring help with the electrical and engines, they built the rest by hand before moving aboard with their two teenagers. Homeschooling, they cruised the eastern seaboard of the United States, Canada and the Bahamas, before crossing the Atlantic Ocean in 2007 aboard Chrysalis becoming the first private power catamaran to do so. They spent over two years in the Mediterranean making it as far as the Red Sea. Listed below are answers to some of the FAQ’s. To learn more about their voyage, you can read Kim Petersen’s book, Charting the Unknown: Family, Fear, and One Long Boat Ride, or visit www.chartingtheunknown.com.

What made you decide to embark on this journey? Many professionals might consider this grounds for commitment into a clinic with some type of bars over the windows, but we really had a desire to spend time with our teenagers. And we wanted to live a simpler lifestyle, learn about the world and face our fears.

Did you do all the building of Chrysalis yourself? Since you didn’t have any boat building experience, how did you accomplish this? While the superstructure of Chrysalis was finished, it was completely empty inside. We did all the interior work ourselves, woodworking, plumbing, etc. I think we went through a few hundred tubes of Gorilla Glue. We spent a fair bit of time reading books and owe a great deal to the writers of the “How-To for Dummies” series. There was lots of trial and error. Our kids helped, too. It was sort of one big homeschool project.

If you don’t mind, how did you guys fund such an extended journey? The internet was a big factor in our decision to chuck it all and live on a boat. Mike is a money manager (Chrysalis Hedge Funds, LLC.) and is CIO of a charitable foundation, so he simply continued to trade and consult while we were underway. My goal was to freelance and write a book or two. We sold everything, house, cars, etc., and used the proceeds to help with the building of Chrysalis. Building it ourselves greatly helped to reduce our costs.

You have likened your travel experiences to a pilgrimage. Could you expand on that? I guess I mean that our journey was not intended to be an extended holiday or an escape from our normal routines. Historically, pilgrimages have been journeys of the soul with a holy destination in mind. Although we were traveling, my destination was an inward one as opposed to a shrine or mountain.  After so many years in the rat race, I longed to reconnect with myself and with God. I hoped a season of exploring the world would instruct me in this regard.

What was it like traveling with teenagers? Didn’t they miss their friends? They did miss their friends. We tried to incorporate as much time with peers as we could. Summer camp and having friends to the boat helped. An interesting thing happened to our family social structure on board. While our kids matured a great deal by participating in night watches and caring for the boat, Mike and I regressed a little. We started playing Nintendo, filled up water balloons, t-peed staterooms. There was a meeting of minds in the middle relationally that helped build friendships between us.

In 5 years of cruising, what were the largest seas you experienced? The biggest seas we faced were off the coast of Florida in the Gulf Stream. We ventured offshore after a strong northerly wind had been blowing for several days. We knew it would be rough, but we wanted to see how Chrysalis would handle larger seas. This was important, as we were planning to cross the Atlantic, and didn’t want any big surprises should we run into seas of this sort hundreds of miles from the nearest help. That day the sun was shining, but the wind was fierce. Seas were stacked upwards of 14-15 feet, confused, and coming rapid succession. Things spilled out of cupboards and drawers. If I recall, the large locker in our stateroom separated from the wall and fell over. Chrysalis handled the seas quite well, but after an hour of bashing around, the four of us were exhausted and relieved to make our way back to Government Cut in Miami.

Most interesting meal in the Med? As the question pertains to the most interesting meal and not the best meal (of which there were too many to recount here anyway) one particular meal comes to mind. On our way from Gibraltar to Barcelona, we had been forced to seek shelter from a storm in the small Spanish fishing village of Calpe where no one spoke a lick of English. As we usually do after a crossing, we went out that night to a local restaurant and found the menu was completely in Spanish. Our server just shrugged his shoulders when we asked him about it. So, much to the amusement of our server, we put our menus on the table, closed our eyes, pointed to something, and hoped for the best. When my plate arrived, it supported the largest purple octopus tentacle I had ever seen, probably 3 inches in diameter and 10-12 inches long, the tip draped over the plate. It was well salted and sitting in a puddle of pale green olive oil. That was it. When I raised my eyebrows at our server, he nodded, went away and came back with a large pepper grinder with which he generously peppered my tentacle before nodding again and smiling. Never mind that I had been hoping for a cup of garlic aioli. Once I got past the look of it (the suction cups were large), I found it smashing. Tender, so tender, with just a hint of the sea, and dipping small bites in the fruitiest olive oil I’ve ever tasted made the simplicity of the whole dish brilliant.

Give us 3 famous people who you wouldn’t mind spending the 9 days across the Atlantic with: For starters, Annie Dillard, because I’m pretty sure she’d be up for the adventure and I have a large debt to pay for Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and for teaching me to pay attention. Then, I’d have to have Wayne Brady because what could be better after a long day at sea than playing theater sports with Wayne, laughing into the wee hours? And of course, Rachel Ray, because she’s fun and would cook these amazing meals for us (and BONUS –I wouldn’t have to cook!) We could hang out in the galley and compare recipes. I know I’m over the limit of 3 here, but if they wouldn’t mind sleeping in the cockpit (I have a feeling they wouldn’t), Merriweather Lewis and William Clark, would be fabulous to have aboard. Nine days at sea would fly by, drinking coffee in the cockpit, listening to all of their stories.