We’re moving North. North is towards home, north is where we’ve already sailed, north reminds us of a few of our favorite places, and north brings us closer to family and friends. However, north also means that our time living on the boat is not going to last forever.
There’s a lot of sailing and exploring to be done before we get home, but there’s no question home is where we’re headed now. MB’s parents are joining us for a week on the boat next week which we are very much looking forward to. After they leave, we will probably putter around the Abacos for another couple weeks seeing some of the places we missed on the way down and then head over to the Florida coast. We are going to “coast hop” home in May instead of doing one long passage. This gives us the chance to see some of the south’s historic port towns and cities from the water.
I don’t think I’ve thought much before now about the word “bittersweet”. It’s a word that has fallen out of use and seems old fashioned, however, it describes the feeling Mary Beth and I have right now perfectly. We’re sad to see our trip end, yet we’ll be happy to get back to friends, family and home.
This adventure we have undertaken (and it seems, are likely to survive!) has been a special thing. Many boaters say they want to do something like this, but it is the minority who actually cast off from familiar waters and travel far away with their boat as their only home. There are so many unknowns when doing something like this. Is the boat prepared properly? Do we have the safety equipment we need? How will the crew and boat do in the ocean and in rough seas? Will we feel cramped living 24/7 on a 38 foot boat and did we bring the right stuff for relaxing and down times? Will we even like this life? Will we even like each other by the time we get home?!
Mary Beth and I are a good team. Her sailing skills are amazing and I’m a much better sailor than I was when we started as a result of watching and listening to her and from time at the helm in a wide variety of conditions. We both have some similar and many complimentary skills when it comes to maintenance and repair. We argue (mostly constructively) over alternate approaches to fix or improve something, but ultimately come together on a good approach. We make it a point of both taking turns with all the tasks so that we can each handle everything should the need arise. (We also both hope that need never arises!) The boat has proven herself well. She is a very stable reliable boat that is fun to sail in pretty much all weather. After our initial problems in the first month, she has really been low maintenance and almost trouble free. And best of all, we actually enjoy living on her and with each other 24/7!
Will we do this again? Yes we will. Our thoughts at the moment are to head toward the Caribbean this fall. It’s twice as far from home as the Bahamas, but there’s a lot to see and do there and we hear the winds blow from a more consistent direction there and with fewer of the “blows” that have pinned us down so much here. At some point we’d like to spend time in the Chesapeake Bay and New England, but those are summer destinations. We talk about doing a longer cruise (around the world????), but we both miss being home with friends and family so we really don’t know what the more distant future sailing holds.