Fourth Anniversery

Marathon, FL
No LL

Four years ago today (and 1114 posts ago) I posted the first contemporaneous post to this blog. By my reckoning, that was the day Libby and I began our cruising life.

March 2005, Fort Lauderdale

The time since then has been absolutely wonderful. We bounce from one happy enjoyable experience to the next. On rare occasions, moments of terror, doubt, or disaster interrupt, but they are soon forgotten. We can both say confidently, that our decision to retire and to cruise was the best possible choice for us. We have no regrets.

Appropriately for this anniversary, Libby and I asked the big question. Are we tired of this life style? Are we ready for something else? The answer is no; heck no. The idea of living a retired life in an apartment somewhere sounds so dull. Besides, we are now confirmed wanderers by habit. More than a month in one place, and we itch to be somewhere else.

Even if we did want to change, I don't think we could. I don't think that we could afford to move back onto the hard. We would have to get a place to live, furniture, a car, appliances, and then pay all those bills and all those taxes. I estimate that it would cost about twice as much to live on the hard as it does to continue cruising. Can you believe that; all this luxury cruising life and it only costs half what conventional retirement does?

On the other hand, are we ready to range further, to explore other countries or to sail across the Atlantic or the Pacific? The answer to that is yes and no. We do yearn to sail to places we've never been before. However, I'm convinced that we can't do ocean crossings without at least one more person on board, and we're nervous about taking on a crewman without being certain that we would get along.

Another factor is the lesson we learned during our first year of cruising. Namely, that we don't have to circumnavigate to have fun. The East Coast waters that we have been traversing are wonderful -- a paradise for sailors and cruisers. After four years, we've visited perhaps only one third of it. That takes the shine off the lust to explore afar. It leads to a nagging doubt that if we did go to those far places, we may find them less appealing than the East Coast of North America. Nevertheless, we would like to sail to Sweden to visit our friends. Not this year though.

So, hang around and see what we will have to say in our eighth anniversary blog.