The end of the road - for now
Currently at: Beaufort, NC

After catching up on our sleep, we played tourist at Cape Lookout National Seashore, visiting the small museum in the old lighthouse-keeper's house and taking a long stroll on the beach.  After the sugar-fine white sands of the Exumas, it was interesting to feel the coarse red sand of North Carolina's Outer Banks squishing between our toes.  Back at the boat, we washed down the last of our fish with the last of our wine, with delicious dark chocolate for dessert: a celebratory meal for the end of our vacation.

Because even though we're not back home yet, the fun stuff is over.  Right now we're in a slip at the Morehead - Beaufort Yacht Club, working from dawn to dusk to get Windom shipshape.  Refinishing teak, polishing stainless steel, and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.  On Monday morning we'll motor a few miles up the ICW and get hauled out.  Windom will be on the hard - and on the market.

As some of you know, we've been wrestling with this decision for quite some time.  The problem is that although living aboard is cheap, maintaining both a house and a cruising boat is not, especially when we live so far from the boat.  If we could get out for week-long trips here and there it would be different.  But storing the boat for long periods just isn't good for it, and there's always a lot to do when recommissioning, and financially it just doesn't make sense for us.  Also, there are a lot of other adventures we'd like to have and places we'd like to visit.  (It's like that old line about having a hammer as your only tool: when all you have is a sailboat, all your vacation possibilities look like cruising!)

We're not done with sailing.  We have friends in New Zealand who have invited us sailing with them - and we have to admit, that would be a lot easier than sailing back down to Panama and then across a big hunk of Pacific Ocean just to enjoy the cruising there.  (Nothing goes to windward quite like a 747, as the saying goes.) We might do a little chartering.  And there is a good chance that eventually, after doing other things for a while, we'll buy another boat and head out again into the blue.

And I'm not done with writing, either.  As I mentioned before, I'll have a few articles in the September issue of Cruising World, so be sure to let the magazine know how much you love my writing so they'll hire me to do more stuff!  (Just kidding.  Hey, it never hurts to ask!)  I'll try to write up our mountain adventures a little more frequently, and when we do any major adventure travel (and let me tell you, we're considering all sorts of wonderful stuff) I'll be writing it up as well - and trying to get it published.  Keep an eye on the main page of this site for pointers.

We both want to thank you all for reading our stories, for emailing us encouragement when we've been down, for laughing with us at our follies, for cheering our successes.  When cruising was still just a dream for us, we depended on the narratives of people who were out there already to fuel our imagination; when our plans started coming together, we relied on information and opinion from experienced cruisers to help us select equipment and choose destinations.  This site - both the equipment information and diagrams, which Britt did most of, and the ongoing narrative by Ilana - is our way of giving back, of "paying it forward," of being part of the chain of cruisers past and future. 

Those of you who we met out here, who told us, "Hey!  We read your website!" - it always makes me happy to know that our adventures have helped spur you to turn your dream into reality.  And for those of you who are still dreaming about going cruising...wanna buy a boat? :-)

- posted by S/V Windom @ 6/23/2007 [link]