The worst thing about cruising?

By Mike Jastrzebski

As we’re getting the boat ready for our next trip to the islands Mary and I were talking about one of the down sides of cruising–saying goodbye to friends and family. Christine is taking off on another trip and will be gone over the holidays. Tim and Joann, who are docked next to us here at Harbortown, are taking off this week for the Bahamas. Our friends Scott and Susan who we met last summer at the marina and ran into in the Bahamas when we were there this year have sold their boat and dropped out of the cruising life. And these are just the people who have moved on in one way or the other this month.

There are half-a-dozen others that we’ve lost touch with over the past year, and of course there are those we left behind when we left Minneapolis, Mobile, Key West, and Ft. Lauderdale. And as we get ready to head out again we’ll be waving aloha to many other friends.

Of course the upside of this is that had we not been cruising we never would have met many of these friends. In fact, one of the things we’re looking forward to on this next trip is meeting other cruisers along the way. It’s one of the reasons that we decided not to sell the boat this past summer when we returned from the Abacos.

When we returned to the States this past June we were determined to sell the boat and become dirt-dwellers. We started looking at RVs, condos and manufactured homes, but after awhile we decided that we’re not quite ready to make the move. Maybe next year or the year after we’ll be ready, but not today. There’s just something about boats, boaters, and cruising that’s addictive. Maybe that’s why we’ve been doing it for ten years.

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