Our Rondy Experience

 Vero Beach, FL

It has been a while since the last blog post.  That is because we have been busy.

Friday-Sunday we spent at the Port Canaveral Yacht Club for the Westsail Rendezvous.   We had a great time.  The yacht club was wonderfully hospitible, and our hosts, Charley and Paivi were gracious.

What do people do at a rendezvous.  Most important, they sit around and tell each other stories.  Then, we visit each other's boats.   No two Westsails are alike, and it is impossible to see one without seeing some clever idea that would be fun to adopt.  Westsail owners lavish so much labor, attention, and ingenuity to make their vessels sail worthy, beautiful and comfortable.  That humbles us because by comparison we have done almost nothing to Tarwathie since buying her in 2005.

Then there is the eating, drinking and fun.  Lots of that.  It is amazing how a bunch of strangers can come together and becaome instant friends.   We had one owner who came from Massachusetts and another from Houston just for this rendezvous.

Below is a picture of the PCYC docks.  Tarwathie is second on the left.  Centered in the background is a Disney Cruise ship.   Part of the entertainment for me was to watch the cruise ships come and go.  They seem majestic as they move and spin using their modern propulsion pods.  There are 9 cruise ships that make Port Canaveral their home port. They are serviced by 4 passenger terminals.

But I must tell you about how overwhelmed Libby and I were at all the attention we got.   It seems that most of the W owners at the rondy were blog fans.  One of them, Peter, is what I call an archival fan; he went back to read every post from the start.  That's a lot of reading.   We were even surprised by people who came to meet us who were not part of the rondy.

Being shy, we were a bit embarrassed and humbled by the attention.  What did we do to deserve that.  Well, Peter put it into words better than I could.  Peter said, "You guys really nailed it.  You found what it takes to make you happy."   In other words, it wasn't because of high adventure, sailing around the world or anything like that.  It wasn't because of my theory about this blog that it is directed to people who want to live the cruising life.  It was because we have been successful at finding a retirement life that suits us so well, that we are happy almost all the time.   Our loyal readers don't necessarily share the same dreams we have in detail, but they are just nice people who are happy to see us being happy. That, is very touching.

Thank you Peter, and thank you all, we'll try to live up to that.