So…for those of you out there who can do some simple math, it’s been 11 months since my last post. A lot can happen in 11 months and a lot HAS happened since our time in the Hub of Abaco. While I will be revisiting the end of our Bahamas adventure, I had to restart my posts somewhere so I’ll start with a little explanation of where we are today. Many apologies to those of you (there were quite a few!) who were following along with our trip and weren’t sure whether we met a watery end after not hearing from us for a while.
Let me start by saving that we loved our few months of cruising and have absolutely zero regrets about the whole process. The costs were all worth the journey and it was an amazing time together as a family. The water was beautiful, the people were incredible, and we learned a lot about ourselves and each other in a short period of time. The Bahamas will always hold a very special place in our hearts.
However, I’m sure you can hear the “BUT” in my words above. Those of you who have spoken to us recently know that we have settled back into land life and are selling Horizon. There are a lot of reasons why we believed this to be the best choice for us, but here are the big ones:
- Cruising is a lonely business. I’m not going to lie, I did not expect loneliness to be an issue for Dan and I. We generally are pretty independent people who aren’t big on crowds. Also, there were generally people around to have great conversation with, cruisers and locals alike. People always talked about how quickly you make amazing friends while cruising, which is SO true, but they somehow forget to mention how quickly you sail away from those friends as well. That constant cycle in just the year and half we lived on our boat moving between marinas and cruising was a lot tougher all three of us than we had ever considered.
- This one goes together with number 1, but has to be its own reason. Carter was lonely. Our social butterfly does great with adults, but he thrives with other kids to play with. If it was hard for us to say good-bye to new friends, for him it was like ripping his heart out. As a child of parents who moved every few years, I just couldn’t bear to watch him go through the good-bye process every couple of weeks. It was hard for us to weigh this against the benefit of cruising for him and us as a family, but this one was definitely a major factor.
- Carter and I both got seasick…a lot. Short trips were fine but throw in any kind of waves and more than a few hours and all bets were off. This made for a lot of discomfort for Carter and I and plenty of lonely hours at the wheel for Dan. The prospect of sailing farther than the Bahamas in this state just wasn’t super appealing for any of us.
- Finally, there wasn’t a particular call for Dan and I to keep going. That may sound like a lame reason to stop, but for us it just made sense. Cruising is not something that we felt like we could keep doing just for the sake of doing it. It is an amazing life-style, but it could be a nightmare if you went into it without enthusiasm.
Will we ever go cruising again? There’s a good chance we will. Or maybe next time we’ll try out an RV or go backpacking across Europe. Honestly, we don’t know. What we do know is that living on Horizon was one of the best things that we have ever decided to do and we wouldn’t change one thing about it.
Follow your Dreams. Follow the Horizon.
I was following your blog as we prepared for our own adventure and often wondered what happened, so thanks for the update. Loneliness and seasickness sounds awful but how great to have no regrets and have taken chances and followed your dreams. Life is such a rich tapestry! All the best as you move forward to the next adventure…. thanks for sharing. -Lucy
Lucy, good luck to you on your adventure and I hope you’ve found some helpful info on our site. They say cruising is always a balance of the good sides and bad and you just have to decide if the balance is right for you. Thanks for following!
So happy to see your post. We were wondering what had happened. Happy that you have no regrets and enjoyed the time you had.
We are still traveling and working part time. We are planning on doing the Great Loop this year.
It was great meeting you and we enjoyed the times we had together, brief as they were.
Gary and Georgette
Greetings from Oman! Sounds like another turn in the road of life! I wish you all the best as you continue to search for your next dream. Keep us all posted.
Winkels, hope you are all loving your new adventure in Oman! We were thinking of your family this last week with all of the news of Ft. McMurray’s fire situation. Hoping you and your extended family are all doing well!
Great to hear from you guys! We’d love to do a Great Loop in the future, say hi to Peoria for us on the way back down from the Great Lakes!