Moving Day

It is the last day in our little apartment for most of the rest of the year. The trailer is packed and waiting to go. Deb is doing last minute cleanups where I help by mostly trying to stay out of the way or doing whatever she needs help doing.

The plan is to be out the door no later than 0700 tomorrow to start the two day drive; though I am not at all sure we can do it in two days. My normal running speed on this trip is right against the speed limit. (Honest officer!) In a borrowed car and towing a trailer my guess is those (ahem) doing the speed limit will pass us like we are parked. The 15 hour drive time will be closer to 20. In addition we will have Grand daughter youngest along which will certainly add stops. Deb has an additional stop planned at Pilot Mountain State Park, the one we visited on a previous trip when the boys were along. It is really too wonderful a place to drive past when there are grandkids in the car. But we are in no hurry. I have already switched to cruiser standard time, which is the next best thing to no time at all. Tides, weather, currents, locks, bridges, and broken boat bits decide when and how far one goes when traveling by boat. To a long distance boater, discretion and a willingness to roll with the punches are the only parts of valor that matter.

Getting this close to returning to the water had me going back and reading a good portion of this blog. It always had a dual purpose. The first was to keep family and friends informed of where we were and what we were doing. The second was to share our adventures and challenges with those who might be considering a similar journey. We were as honest as we could be with both the ups and downs of full time cruising. Since we are about to drop the dock lines again after a nearly 5 year stint on land, a review of what we encountered that last time out seemed reasonable.

To be honest it provoked a few thoughts of “Why are we doing this again?” In the nearly 6 years we out the first time, less than half was spent wandering the Islands / ICW or anchored out in pretty places while rocking in the hammock and watching the world drift by. Most of the time we were dock bound fixing broken things, struggling to get to a dock to fix broken things, waiting out and/or hiding from weather, or holed up somewhere doing some of the toughest work I have ever done to refill the cruising kitty so we could keep going. (And, as always, fixing broken things.) Looking back it is a wonder that we managed to keep going as long as we did. Reviewing the challenges it took just to get Kintala to big water and underway had me wondering how we managed to get going at all. And yet here we are, eager to get back on the water to do it again.

There are a few differences this time around. Though we are not salted sailors like friends who have thousands of miles under their keels and ocean crossings in their logs, we are not newbies either. We have been this way before, are carrying Coast Guard licenses, and have taken a full measure of both the good and the bad of the marine industry. We know what questions to ask and, even more important, know when the answers we get are...shall we say...questionable. That doesn't mean I expect moving First Light half way around the Great Loop is going to be a breeze. Just getting her in the water was a year long struggle...but it was one we expected. Something that makes a huge difference. A good sign is that our experience with brokers, marinas, and contractors has been near the exact opposite what we struggled through with Kintala. I suspect they have all been just a different class of people than those we encountered at the beginning of our first sail. On the other hand, maybe we just sensed when trouble was afoot and immediately started looking for a fix or an alternate before things got out of hand. 

Another difference is that First Light is a trawler. Though I am going to guess that trawler living has its unique challenges, as a general rule I expect it to be far less taxing than was trying to cover miles on a 42 foot, underpowered and wayward handling sailboat with a 62 foot mast and massive sails. Particularly since this trip is going to be largely along the ICW and inland waterways. (Though I would not be surprised if the Great Lakes have me wishing that mast and those sails were at hand.)

In any case...here we go again.