Day 80 – How Did This Trip Change Us?

This is a question that we have been pondering for the last twenty four hours. As we thought about our response, some of the answers we came up with were expected, but some were totally unexpected. This trip has increased our confidence as sailors. This trip has forced us to cruise in all kinds of weather including fog, thunderstorms, gusty winds and high waves. We became even more familiar with all of True North’s systems such as the engine, electrical, plumbing, navigation and communications systems.

This trip changed our view of cruising from ad hoc sailing trips, to our floating summer home and led us to want to experience more of it. In a few short months, we experienced living in the middle of beautiful cities such as Montreal, Quebec and Portland and living on the water surrounded by nature and sea animals such as in the 1000 Islands, the Saguenay Fjord, the Gaspé Peninsula and the Maine coast.

While we missed our friends and family at home, we learned that one can have an interesting social network while cruising. We were reacquainted with old friends, living in places we visited, and made many new ones. And the boating community shares common interests and experiences, and cruisers look out for each other, just like a virtual neighborhood.

Unexpectedly, this experience enabled us to learn a lot more about what we want to get out of this retirement phase of life. Yesterday, as we approached Portland, we experienced a bittersweet feeling, and questioned where do we go from here. We were pleased to come up with numerous possible ideas on how to live closer to nature, closer to the sea, while spending quality time together with family and with friends. Also unexpectedly, we learned more about ourselves and about each other.

In thick fog and rain, we left Portland to move the boat to its winter home in Yarmouth. With the hurricane coming, we needed to get the sails and canvas down to be ready for an earlier-than-planned haul-out.