It's All About The Peeps - The Longterm Peeps

Winter on land has felt interminable, even though the cold weather snap in St. Louis was relatively brief and the spring temps are rapidly climbing. It has given me a good amount of time to prepare for our upcoming trip to try to get First Light the rest of the way to St. Louis. It also gave me the time to do the printed blog books, which led to a whole lot of thinking about the cruising life, our travels, and what it has all meant to me.

Image courtesy of Alex Rooker

I've said it many times on this blog, but it bears saying again—the best thing about cruising for me is the cruising community. The friends you meet along the way become lifelong friends even though you might go years in between seeing each other. The relationships run deep, the trust true, the kindness flows freely. Some we met in passing and never saw again, but some became the Longterm Peeps—friends who we still keep in contact with, the friendships that lasted well through our 5 years on land building up the cruising kitty, that lasted through our transition from sail to trawler. One such relationship is with Alex and Diann of S/V Yacht-a-Fun.

We first became aware of Alex and Diann through the blog. We each visited the others' blogs and chatted back and forth, but it wasn't until January of 2015 that we actually met in person. They had their Gemini catamaran parked on a mooring ball next to ours in Dinner Key in Coconut Grove, and we finally got to meet them for sundowners and discussions about our shared Westerbeke pains (They have a Westerbeast in their Gemini like we did in Kintala.)

Over the years we continued to run into them periodically. They eventually bought property in New Bern, NC and kept a more or less permanent slip for their boat there. When we found First Light in New Bern in 2021, we had the opportunity to see them more often.

Alex is a tour guide par excellence. Everywhere he travels he makes it his business to find the best places to eat and historical places to visit. His brain is a virtual cruising guide, one that we have benefitted from on more than one occasion. He took us on a tour of New Bern in October of 2021 shortly after we bought First Light, pointing out the historical landmarks and taking us and a couple other friends to the best bars with live music, topped off by a visit to a classic ice cream store. Diann is a kind and gentle soul, one that makes you feel instantly comfortable. Her smile is constant, and rounds out the day with a pleasant softness. It was a terrific day.

Image courtesy of Alex Rooker

But it was our contact with them in 2023 that stands out. When Tim had his cardiac arrest, I contacted them on the way to the hospital. They dropped everything they were doing and met the ambulance there. Even though the hospital wouldn't let them in the waiting room with us, the fact that they dropped everything and came meant more to me than I can possibly say. We got to see them quite a bit while we remained in the area for Tim's recuperation and my later recuperation from my broken arm. It's odd that in all the times we've been together—for meals and walks and coffee and boat maintenance—we've never managed to get a selfie with the four of us together. So I confess that I robbed these few photos from their blog.

Alex and Diann, many thanks for your continued friendship, laughter, and support. It's folks like you that make the cruising community such an amazing place.

Special Peeps

I always talk about the "Peeps", the people we meet while we're out here cruising on the boat. Occasionally we run across some really special Peeps worth mentioning. Martijn Dijkstra is one of those.

We first met Martijn in 2013 when we were stuck in Oriental for some engine trouble on Kintala. We spent a month on the dock then, and had a chance to spend some quality time with him. Martijn is from Holland and has sailed extensively on both his first boat, Rotop, and his current boat, Prinses Mia, named after his daughter. Prinses Mia is a prime example of everything that makes a long distance cruising boat a worthy life. Everything is painted in splashes of brilliant color, from the freeboard, deck and wheelhouse to the interior woodwork to the sails and sail cover. It's filled with an eclectic combination of the modern useful and the historical classic. In every corner you look there are touches of his engineering genius and of his resourcefulness. Bits and pieces of salvaged boats are placed about—ship models that belong in a museum, a wooden wheel from a sunken tugboat, a ship's engine order telegraph, a huge iron coffee grinder, backsplash tiles handcrafted in Holland, a hanging oil lamp, a wood-burning stove, and polished bronze and wood everywhere—most of it acquired from the dumps in various harbors he's visited, other things traded and bartered for, a good bit of it handcrafted by Martijn himself. Martijn has an amazing talent of being in the right place at the right time.

A while back Drake Paragon did a 3-part miniseries about Martijn on his first boat. It's well worth the watch.

Martijn is the rare individual that's at home with both the sea and his fellow humans, and you feel immediately comfortable lounging among the collection of parts he's amassed into this floating home, listening to the tales of his travels interspersed with laughter. If you're lucky enough to run into him, you'll step off the boat and go on your way with a smile. And leaving your fellow humans with a smile is a bit of a lost art these days, so I'll take it. 

It's All About the Peeps—Again

The thing I missed the most when we sold Kintala and moved back to land was the cruising community. there's just something about this life that makes it so easy to make friends—the kind of friends that will drop everything to help you out of a jam, who will bring tools and parts and rum when you need them. I've thought a lot about it and I suppose it has something to do with the fact that you're all invested in the same lifestyle choice so there's no need to rehash that getting-to-know-you part of becoming friends. I think it also has something to do with the fact that this is not an easy lifestyle, and it isn't without some inherent risk, so there's a camaraderie that exists between folks willing to accept that. The only thing that made it possible to endure the years on land after selling Kintala was the close proximity of our many grandkids who are some of the best peeps in the world.

Our previous stays in Oriental have yielded some good times with good peeps, and this one has been no exception. The Wednesday night open mic night at the Silos restaurant has been a great time with many of the marina peeps playing guitars and ukes (and no, neither Tj nor I are brave enough). This past Wednesday our Dockmaster Extraordinaire played, as well as our diver and a few dock neighbors. The owner of the restaurant has a group that is really exceptional and the pizza is probably the best I've ever had. The evening was good music and good company with the best peeps around.

Best Dockmaster on the planet - Ceri Anne @ OHVM

Some of the best friends we've ever had have been made while we were cruising full time on Kintala (There's too many to mention but you all know who you are.) I'm really looking forward to a whole new cadre of good peeps on this Great Loop adventure. Now if I can just finish the shower remodel so we can get on our way...

Our cruising friends Anya and Mike from This Rat Sailed brought us rum all the way from New Bern! 

Chris Daniels, the owner of Silos, and his band who are all amazing.

Ceri Anne and Bruce, who it seems is perpetually smiling. I think it's because he plays the Use,
and does it unbelievably well.

It's the peeps

I've seen discussion on some of the Facebook cruising forums on what makes cruising special. On one occasion, two people got into a discussion where one said it was the people you meet that made it all worthwhile. The other disagreed hotly, saying it was the places they went, the beauty of nature, and the power of the sea.

While I do enjoy seeing new places and being humbled by Mother Nature and the sea, for me it's the "peeps" as my friend Sabrina says on her blog. We've met some pretty incredible ones, all of whom are noteworthy, but I wanted to tell you about one couple we recently met in particular.

Judy and David

Two years ago when we ended up stuck in Oriental for a month because the Westerbeast had blown the injector pump, we had the good fortune of meeting Ellen and Randy through the Inland Provision Company. Randy gave Tim another hand while he removed the pump, and Ellen graciously delivered the pump to the overhaul shop for us while she ran errands nearby, and loaned us her truck when it was time to pick it back up. When we were strolling down the street on this visit, Randy happened by, which led to some discussion about some friends of theirs that they were waiting for. Their friends, David and Judy, were arriving on an 80-year-old wooden fishing boat - a classic Eastern-rigged dragger. David is a fisherman by trade and fishes during the summer season in Cape Cod, but this year they decided to do some cruising on the Richard & Arnold during the off season. We happened to meet them during their stay in Oriental and had the opportunity to spend a good bit of time with them.

The Richard & Arnold

The first thing you notice when you meet David and Judy is their smiles. These are folks content with their lot in the world, and genuinely happy to meet you. They are settled inside, grounded, and exude a quiet confidence from every pore. Judy would disagree, I'm sure, since she is brand new to the cruising thing and a little unsure about the technicalities, but life as the wife of a New England fisherman has given her the strength and flexibility to go pretty much anywhere their travels take them. David has fished New England waters in the Richard & Arnold solo for so many years I don't think there is much that would phase him. His face is perpetually smiling, and there's a twinkle in his eye that suggests this friendship with the sea, while challenging at times, is a mystery he has untangled.

We spent an hour with them on their boat the other day, Tim with Dave in the pilot house engaging in a rowdy discussion from which copious amounts of laughter ensued, and Judy and I in the salon talking book writing. Judy has two published books, Nautical Twilight - the story of a Cape Cod fishing family (which I bought but have yet to read), and The Fisherman's Ball, her first novel. We exchanged stories of our respective publishing experiences, the advantages of self-publishing, of our upcoming projects, and of missing our grandchildren. We left with smiles on our faces, their contentment and sense of humor spilling over to envelop us, a common occurrence for anyone with the good fortune to meet these intriguing folks.

Of all of the many benefits this life has afforded, the richness that folks like David and Judy bring to our lives has been the greatest. It's cold and rainy outside, but my heart is warmed as images of the many people we've met come to mind. Each one has woven a new color thread into the tapestry that is our cruising experience, and for that we are extraordinarily grateful. On this rainy day I can think of nothing I wish for you all more than the blessing of good peeps like these in your lives.