Time For The Adventure To End

We began cruising six years ago in 2007. The dream began well before that. We don't really remember exactly when we decided to go for it. We identified the Island Packet 380 as our ideal cruising boat when it was introduced in 1998. We bought Ariel in 2001 and immediately began outfitting for cruising. When we set out in 2007 we didn't have any predetermined timeline. We did come up with the a potential target of six years only because we put the money from the sale of our condominium into certificates of deposit and adopted the concept of laddering. We had two year and three year certificates and with rollovers they would all mature at the same time in six years. Nice concept but we bailed out of certificates of deposit without rollovers with the interest rate decline.

When we decided to go to Panama we expected to stay two years and that would make at least seven.  Before returning to Panama last autumn, we had reached the decision that we were ready to move on, and so we changed our plans. Rather than spend an extended period in the San Blas islands in Panama and then sail on to Cartegena, Colombia, we shortened our time in the San Blas and began the long trip back. We feel fortunate that we both were ready to give it up at the same time. We have spent two previous summers living and working on a property we bought three years ago as the site for our post cruising life. We have really enjoyed these summers and it was becoming harder and harder to leave.

We are so fortunate to have been able to see and experience so much over the past six years. We cruised the east coast from Maine to Florida and spent one summer season exploring New England and more specifically Maine. When we lived in Massachusetts and kept our boats in Rhode Island we never had the extended time required to take a boat to Maine. We spent another summer on the Chesapeake Bay and have returned there at the end of our cruising years. We made three round trips on the Inter-coastal Waterway which when we started out, traveling the ICW was probably our number one goal. We especially like South Carolina's Lowcountry and Eastern North Carolina. These areas are mostly undeveloped where the ICW passes through, mostly because they are such wetlands, and if you haven't figured it out by now, we really like nature.

Before we began our journey we really expected to visit the eastern Caribbean. Much of our reading and research was about these island countries. We spent two seasons in the Bahamas, which would be a natural jumping off point to the eastern Caribbean, but we started hearing about the western Caribbean and the more we looked at it, we realized it was a much better match to our interest.

The biggest leap for us during the entire six years was setting off from Key West for the three day and three night trip to Mexico. Our buddy boat had to cancel due to medical issues just days before our departure, so we set off alone.  That trip really built our confidence and set the stage for exploring Central America.

Guatemala became our home port of sorts as we left Ariel there during two hurricane seasons.  We came to love Guatemala and toured inland in Guatemala more so than any other country we visited.  The cruising community on the Rio Dulce is large and active, so it was never boring. 

After we arrived in Rock Hall, Maryland we immediately started unloading our stuff.  It took three trips, once with a rental car and twice with our SUV to cart off everything, and each time we were packed to capacity.  Ariel has been put on the market and we are back working on our gardens and landscaping.  We plan to meet with a builder later this year to replace the small beyond salvage house that came with the property.

We feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to cruise.  We are often asked if we are going to miss it.  We don't feel that way.  We enjoyed it immensely and have so many fond memories, but we have turned to the next chapter and are too engaged in that to spend time thinking about alternatives.

This, needless to say is the last posting for this blog.

"Fair Winds And Following Seas" ~ /) ~