Summer at HOME

Hayden and Radeen at Amy & Brian's Wedding

We are BACK, the blog is back, and we will soon be living on Island Spirit time once again. In May we moved our boat to the Island Packet Yachts Factory for a refit and then we moved home to our passive solar home for a summer. This was the first summer in 22 years of Island Packet ownership that we did NOT sail during the summer. Instead we enjoyed some peaceful time at home and also took some amazing trips.

A highlighted summary:
...27 day trip to Italy
...New Hampshire Cottage with a close friend
...Williamsburg VA with boat buddy friends
...Family vacation in Florida
...Family Wedding in California
...Friends and Family dinners at our home

The other highlight of the summer was simply enjoying land based life where we (you, too) are seriously spoiled by life on land. Features such as curb side trash pick up, HOT water, endless electricity, 24/7 Broadband Internet, driving a CAR to get your groceries, and multiple places to lounge and relax around the home! WOW, life on land is soooooooooooo easy, when compared to life on a cruising sailboat.

Island Spirit, Exumas, Bahamas, THIS is the DREAM

But, we are very excited to depart this land based life of comfort and easy living and trade it in for life on a cruising sailboat. Life where you live fully with the weather, where you know exactly what the winds are doing, and what direction the wind is blowing from. You know if it is cold, rainy, windy, sunny, hot, mild or comfortable outside because you are living outside. You watch the sunset. You watch the sunrise. You listen to birds as the dawn awakens. You walk, hike, and climb miles everyday. You walk for all your food, water, and sightseeing. Car, who has a car? You read on a cruising boat, you write, and you study and you learn. TV, what TV? You visit and you talk, and you actually have lengthy conversations.

Life simply slows down, and life is peaceful. This is WHY we do it. There is no better life than on a cruising sailboat, especially when all systems are working well.

So, in the near future, we will be relaunching the boat out of the factory, splashing it and then spending the month of November rebuilding the on deck systems. We have allowed the first three weeks of November to rebuild. After that, we will set sail and re-explore Florida's West Coast, and then onto Biscayne Bay. From there, we will set sail for the Exumas for year two of exploring there.

Thank you for following along, we hope you enjoy the sharing as much as we do. We look forward to another wonderful year of cruising.