I’ve mostly been reading, puttering around the boat and cooking. I also made a very long list of boat projects – enough to keep me busy for the foreseeable future. For better or worse we are pretty much tied to this place until I sell my old boat. I’ve had a few bites, and one couple went out on a test sail, but no serious offers as yet. Meanwhile, I will be content working my project list, spending time snorkeling, taking day sails and enjoying the beach. Could be worse!
We enjoyed meeting up with Dj’s old friends from New Orleans – Chuck and Janet on Solitude – a delightful 43 Hans Christian. Truly, the most beautiful yacht I’ve encountered. They spent 8 years working on her, adding every detail you can imagine to make her comfortable, safe and beautiful. They invited us over one evening for cocktails and I took away a lot of ideas that will work well in my boat – which added pages to my project list. The next evening we had them over for dinner – homemade pizza – and my now famous chocolate chocolate dessert (homemade brownies served with a frozen chocolate rum drink). We had fun swapping stories. One of the great things about cruisers is how quickly you can strike up a friendship – since you immediately have so much in common. We had read many of the same books, have similar goals and they were also new to their early retirement. I feel certain we will meet up with them again some day in a distant anchorage and I will delight in showing them how I implemented some of their ideas.
One of my new goals is to write every day. However, I may not have access to an internet connection every day, so will need to wait and upload to the website when I can.
I have been truly blessed by having a great career for many years, I had wonderful colleagues across the globe, interesting clients, and I’ve traveled to 46 states – either on business or vacation.
We won’t be living grandly in a worldly way – no spa days, pedicures, designer clothes, cable tv, air conditioning, or expensive restaurants – but with careful spending we will have enough to live richly -- in experiences, adventure & time well spent.
We are able to make enough power to meet our needs using the sun and wind – so no utility bills or dockage fees. We make our water from the sea – enough for 6 gallons a day – which more than meets our needs. We need only 1 to 2 gallons of gasoline a month – as we generally sail or row our dinghy to shore. We are able to store copious amounts of food on board – enabling us to stock up well when we find good prices. On a recent provisioning trip I purchased $700 in food stores at Aldi’s & Walmart- which is more food than you can imagine & even included wine, beer and liquor. It took me 3 days to stow it all, and I was seriously concerned that I would run out of space. Amazingly, the boat lockers managed to eat it up – and everything had a home. I even made an inventory so I can find it later. It should be enough to last for several months, by adding fresh fruits and veggies as available. We also canned 50 jars of pork, beef and chicken.
We have no air conditioning and as I write this it is a blue sky 90 degree, humid day. Thankfully our new boat has lots of ports and 3 hatches. We get an amazing sea breeze which is very refreshing – and in my opinion better than air conditioning. There’s just nothing like a steady cool breeze. We also have several well-placed cabin fans, but so far have not needed them. Of course this time of year it does seem to rain a couple of times a day in short spurts… so I am spending an inordinate amount of time opening/closing hatches & ports J
We rarely eat out, but we eat well – as I love to cook and especially enjoy trying new recipes, and even invent a few of my own. And we also have a waterfront view for every meal :-)
In addition to a great career, I was a very blessed to have lived in a fine house, in a great neighborhood, send my son to a private school, be a soccer/football/track mom and scout leader. I attended an awesome church for many years, enjoying wonderful friendships. All of those were wonderful days and I am very thankful.
I am excited about starting this new chapter of my life, a different journey, with new experiences waiting to spring forth, but I will always be grateful for the incredible journey I’ve had so far – and thankful it has led me to the brink of this new adventure.