This August 2017, it will be 10 years since we returned from the 14-month sailing adventure we took with our two young sons. Our oldest son will graduate from college this spring and our younger will enter – time passes too quickly! My husband said a final good-bye to his remaining parent last year and these life events have us evaluating the finite time we each spend on this earth. Certainly, Tom and I are still young by several measures but the exploration we long to do requires a physical strength and vitality that will not always be as readily available to us as it is today. So, we’re headed back to sea, at least part-time … for now!
Our initial plans have us embarking on the ‘Down-East Circle Route’. For those not familiar, this route will take us from our home port of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, down the Massachusetts coast, through the Cape Cod Canal, along Long Island Sound then up through New York State on the Hudson River, on to the Erie Canal and into the Great Lakes. The route completes the circle by heading out the St. Lawrence Seaway — which draws the boundary between the US and Canada – into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, around Nova Scotia and back down the coast of Maine to New Hampshire. We plan for six months on the boat and six months off for the first couple years and that is as far out as we are currently looking!
Most common question we get – “… so, is this … like … ‘retirement’?”
Our most common answer is this – “Maybe … at least for a couple years – we don’t really know how either of us will respond to this change and what, if anything, we will miss from our current lives so we have decided to not decide!” In our months off of the boat we hope to connect with current and old friends, enjoy mid-week skiing and hopefully do some on-land travel excursions.
Tom has a huge check-list of boat projects he is working through since he left his job a couple months ago and I am winding down my last couple months of employment. I’m telling my team this week and that will be bitter-sweet, for sure. I think I work at the best company in the world. Tremendously intelligent people, lots of healthy competition and maybe a little too much fun to call it ‘work’!
Stay tuned as we write about our preparations and launch. Connect with us if you have enjoyed, are in the midst of or plan to be part of the cruising life! We love to share our experiences and to learn from those of others.