Each of our airline tickets included two checked “bags” and two “cabin bags”. We spent a few days digging through our boat stuff trying to decide how to limit everything needed to live comfortably into four suitcases. “Will it all fit?”, people asked, building up to our departure date.
Whatever you want to call them - suitcases, bags, luggage, etc, I use the various terms interchangeably.
We know the “cabin bag” as whatever we feel like literally dragging through the airport and will be hefted (assuming it fits) into an overhead compartment. In any case we’re gonna max it out!
We started by moving and emptying boxes and bins leftover after selling our last Fayaway into the hallway, then sorting and ranking items by level of importance:
- Critical, can’t live without
- Nice to have, but…
- Save for the next trip!
- Maybe save for the next trip, but maybe not?
- Just keep in storage – for if we live on land someday?
- Not really trash, so leave it in the “giveaway” pile
- Haul it to the trash bin
Two days until until departure:
We pushed items in and out of the various piles for a week. We moved as much stuff as possible to the last five categories. But no matter how we squeezed and scrimped, too many doohickeys didn’t fit, or just weighed too much. We really tried!
Eventually I went online to see about adding another bag to one of our tickets – and cha ching, $205 bought us the ability to move a few items into the first two tiers! Phew!
That should do it!”, we said confidently.
One day before departure :
Oh, oh, it’s looking like we’re gonna need to spend another $205.
Six suitcases (and $410) later…
We also had four “cabin” bags into which we could jam-pack worldly possessions. I guess we can call it eight bags total? And yes, size seems to really matter – at least to the airplane people. We’ve observed people measuring for size (aka jamming carry-on bags into those devices at the gate) but didn’t anticipate them weighing the carry-ons at the check-in counter; they never do that; or do they?
Oh yeah they do. Our gate agent patiently waited as we shuffled a couple of pounds between bags to squeeze under the prescribed acceptable bloated mass: 23kg and 8 kg respectively. (That’s about 50 and 20 pounds, respectively, to normal folks.)
Yep, that’s our vagabond life packed up into six randomly selected donated large suitcases and then some. How else do homeless people move stuff across the world?
Upon arrival and through the passport control we found a guy selling coins for the luggage carts. (Since the Turkish lira coins had been so devalued nobody carried them anymore. 100 TL = approximately $2.) In any case there was no way we could carry these out to the waiting van. We needed two carts!
Two cheery customs agents barely glanced and waved us through (with our towering carts).
Of course, we couldn’t get through this endeavor completely unscathed. One bag (loaded with expensive marine electronics) didn’t appear on the carousel as we watched the last of the bags tumble out and be picked up.
One suitcase didn’t make the connection from Istanbul, as evidenced by an AirTag. Fortunately the van guy patiently waited as we filled out the claims forms at the service desk. (However he did receive a talking-to from law enforcement just as we were about to pull away from the curb.)
More than a day after leaving New Hampshire we safely arrived at our Airbnb, hefted the eight bags up to the second floor, ate Melba toast crackers (and Oreos left by our host) and hit the sack.
Excitement continues to build. Only a week away from scheduled vessel completion! This week we’ll do some final inspections before she leaves the Izmir factory. I promise that the next post will include our junk on the boat!
Disclosure: All text composed and written without AI involvement. (Not saying anything about the pictures 😉
