Is it Time?

By Mike Jastrzebski

As we sit here in Marsh Harbor in the Bahamas Mary and I have been wondering if it’s time to give up the cruising lifestyle. On September 2nd of this year we will have been living aboard Rough Draft for ten years.

We moved aboard in Minnesota on a beautiful fall day and except for a few short road trips and a stint of living in a house for a couple of months in Alabama while we repaired the damage that Katrina did to the boat, we’ve been living and traveling in this little space we call home.

This is our second trip to the Abacos in the Bahamas and we’ve been living on the hook (at anchor for all of you non-boaters) continuously since March 2nd of this year. That’s nearly three solid months of hauling water, groceries, trash, and laundry back and forth to shore by dinghy.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s been an interesting life, but we’re beginning to wonder if we want to do it any longer.

Mary is beginning to have a hankering for a washing machine and dryer along with a full size refrigerator. I on the other hand am longing for an office to write in with a full size desk and internet service I can count on. I’m also getting tired of working on boat repairs.

And we’re both beginning to feel our age. Mary’s having knee problems and my back has been bothering me for years. I’m beginning to think of boat tasks in terms of 3 or 4 Ibuprofen jobs.

For those of you who are still young and thinking about cruising–go as soon as you can. When you’re forty or even fifty it’s hard to imagine what being sixty is going to be like. I don’t even want to think about doing this when I’m in my mid-seventies.

If you’re wondering if we’ve made the final decision to sell the boat, not exactly, but we’re talking more and more about doing so. We plan on being in the Bahamas for another month and then when we get back to the states we’re heading north to see the grandkids. When we get back to Florida we will either start prepping the boat for another year of cruising, or put it on the market and start planning our next adventure.

For those of you out there who have given up the cruising life and moved back to land, how about a little feedback. Do you miss cruising? Regret your decision? Or are you glad to be back among the dirt dwellers?

 

Share on Facebook