Almost one year out of NY

Holy crap that time went fast! I have to work on an anniversary post, as we are nearing the one year mark in our adventure. What was supposed to be a step by step process of getting ready to cruise into retirement, turned into a "Cut the lines and get the flock out of here!" scenario which, looking back was probably a good thing. Easing into anything is often preferred to jumping in. Though nothing beats the adrenaline rush of just doing something spectacular and daring without much planning.

Were we over planning this exit of ours? Should we have taken a machete to the docklines years before? Probably. Deb says "yes", but she would have left as soon as our youngest graduated from college. I wasn't ready. Kind of the opposite of what you normally hear.

Reading some of the blogs out there I get the feeling we over plan our departures. I wanted to wait until we had a chartplotter, radar, powered windlass, autopilot, etc.  I also wanted to obsess over the charts for each leg, and get about a thousand waypoints loaded into a nice touch screen. I wanted to wait and get everything "perfect". It didn't happen. As it is for many folks out there, things did not go as planned. We had to accelerate our departure, and quickly decide if the boat was ready or not. Well of course she was ready. She just didn't have all the little things that make life aboard easier. After whining that we needed this and that, Deb just looked at me and asked, "Can we get by without it?" Well, of course we can. "Then let's go Captain!" And off we went on our adventure.

One year later and we're doing well. We are still transitioning into the cruising life, and still taking steps towards our goal of cruising. We did the right thing. We made the leap and we do not regret it. Life down here for us is much better than life up north.

A Thirsty Thursday photo. Those look like six pack eyes.

So, quit your planning and get the hell out of where you are at. Even if you float twenty miles down the coast, or decide to live on your boat in the backyard, just go and try it. Do your planning and improvements along the way. Listen to your inner Debra.

Cheers,
PJ

Look, we have a working freezer! Not sure why we need one.
I guess I'll make 100 veggie burgers and store them in there.