7 Years and Counting

Marathon, Florida
24 42.40 081 N 05.68 W

This is the week for milestones.  On Monday, I posted the 2000th article on this blog.  Now, seven years ago today we took possession of Tarwathie.

Our first day on Tarwathie, (my God, I've lost weight since then!, Libby looks unchanged)

Boy oh boy, that was one of the best decisions in our lives (the others being marrying Libby and having kids --- how boring and conventional but that's the truth).  After taking possession, we sailed to Jacksonville, and left the boat for two months while we returned to New York to prepare our house for sale.  After that two months, we have been cruising full time.  We now stand at 2,495 consecutive days cruising.

Our starting location, Venetian Causeway, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

What have we done?  Well, we average 5,000 miles per year, so we have sailed (or motored) about 35,000 miles so far.  That is roughly the same distance as 1.5 times around the world.  Here was our itinerary year by year

1. 2005-2006 Jacksonville - Albany, NY (open house on the boat for friends) - Lake Champlain, Marathon Florida - Yucatan Mexico, back to Marathon.
2. 2006-2007  Marathon - Maine - Vero Beach - New engine project - Marathon
3. 2007-2008  Marathon - Oswego - Montreal - Sorel - Champlain - Vero Beach - Bahamas 
4. 2008-2009 Bahamas - Washington, DC, Maine - Vero Beach - Stuart - Marathon 
5. 2009-2010 Marathon - Bahamas -  Champlain - Vero Beach - Stuart - Fort Meyers
6. 2010-2011 Fort Meyers - Champlain - Vero Beach - Marathon
7. 2011-2012  Marathon - Champlain - Marathon 

As you see, Lake Champlain and Marathon are our two favorite destinations.  We hope they continue to be so in the future.  As I'm fond of saying, our sandbox is 25-45 degrees North.

So far, we have managed to extend our envelope each year to visit some places we've never been before.  The only remaining major East Coast place unexplored by us is Long Island Sound and Connecticut.  Many people tell us that the cruising there is great.  We'll try it someday.  This spring I think we'll head up Florida's West Coast to areas we haven't been before.
 
We love this cruising life.  We have no plans to cease cruising anytime.  We think that life in a condo watching TV would be dull, boring, and much less healthy for us.  Besides, I suspect that if we were not cruising we would still be working full-time and being unable to afford to retire.

We think the idea of taking a summer off from cruising by water to tour the USA by car is growing on us.  No plans yet, just a growing seed of an idea.