Apartness

Marathon, Florida
24 42.40 081 N 05.68 W

Togetherness is a common word, so I presume that apartness must also be a word.  Right?  M dictionary doesn't have it.

Libby and I both volunteer at the library.  Today, as Libby was leaving, I was arriving.  Bob, another volunteer, remarked that he never sees the two of us together.  He said, "Are you really married?"  

It's true.  When we go ashore, we tend to do it separately.  When on the boat, we have the ultimate of togetherness, when on shore we live separate lives.   It's not something we planned, it just happens that way.

Actually it makes sense.  One of the riddles of the cruising life for many people is the forced confinement in close quarters.  On the boat, while at anchor, there is really no place to escape, no place to find solitude.  That would drive some people crazy.  We like it.   However, our apartness in shore life may well be an unconscious compensation.   That way we do have opportunities to be apart, or alone for some periods.  Libby has time to spend with the gals, and I have time with the guys.

When under way, either at sea or on the ICW, we almost always have one person on the helm and the other below.  That's the other extreme, and actually feel lonely after several days at sea.  On the ICW, we are together again as soon as we set the anchor.