The blog is ba-aack!

Hello from rainy Juneau! The view gets better if you choose to read on... ;)

It would be an understatement to say it's been a while. It's hard for me to believe that it's been over two years since I've written here.

The reasons excuses are plentiful, but perhaps none of them good enough to justify dropping off completely. For a while it felt like a relief to not have to blog regularly and between work and new career challenges, there never seemed to be enough hours in the day.

But I missed this space and the process of writing and reflecting. Maybe I just needed to take a step back and refocus for a while. As a result of that, the blog also has a new name: Tide Travels. I wanted it to be re-designed too, but it continues to be a work in progress (this includes broken photo links from when I migrated back to Blogger form Wordpress in 2014- those are being fixed, slowly).

So, please excuse the construction. For now, I'm going to write anyway.

Wind-Lass docked at St. John's Yacht Harbor in South Carolina ~ November 2015

With that, the boat is still a big part of the picture and our future plans, even if it's currently a bit farther away from us for now, at least geographically. After a couple of cold winter breaks in South Carolina we decided to go a little warmer...

Wind-Lass in sunny Fort Pierce, Florida ~ March 2017

Last fall, we untied Wind-Lass' lines and headed south to Florida on our first overnight passage with just the two of us. It was a farewell (at least for the foreseeable future) to the Charleston area marina where we were married just over two years before. After three nights at sea (with a stop in St. Augustine to wait out some uncooperative weather) we arrived at our new marina in Fort Pierce.

In March we returned for Spring Break and readied the sailboat to go into dry storage on land.

Flaking sails for storage ~March 2017

Having to haul out for long-term storage always provokes some hand-wringing ("Are we doing the right thing? It's just so SAD!"), but we've gotten used to it. And, after the nerve-wracking experience of Hurricane Matthew narrowly missing the Southeast coast last year, we weren't going to take any chances in leaving it in the water unattended (it's damn near impossible to travel to a boat faster than a hurricane will, let me tell you).

Back onto the hard she goes :( ~ March 2017

Scotty and I are also still in Juneau, living in our little cabin next to the sea. Three years in a one-room, semi-off-grid cabin in Alaska will give you some stories and lessons on resilience if nothing else will. I mentioned a bit about our living situation a while back, but there's more to come for those who are interested.

Best view in town

But back to the boat. I checked on it last month when I flew south on a whirlwind trip to visit family in the Lower 48.

Wind-Lass showing off her pretty blue and red bottom in Fort Pierce, Florida ~ July 2017

Wind-Lass looks about as happy as a boat on the hard can look. The hull needs a good sanding and fresh paint, but that is soon to be accomplished. Checking inside, I poked around, lifted up cushions and looked in lockers and drawers. Happily, I didn’t find evidence of a single bug or leak. Both are probably there of course, but no signs means nothing is out of control. It also smelled remarkably good for an old boat, thanks to a very thorough deep-cleaning and the anti-moisture bags we’d hung up all around.

And, after sweating bullets inside- because it was July in South Florida- I rewarded myself with a cold beverage and some really, really good food. It wasn't by accident as the Tiki Hut had already became a regular stop during trips there- to the point where I had to limit myself on the poke bowl. Mercury fears be damned, it's still one of the best things ever.

And then, I drove across the bridge to the beautiful, non-touristy beach on Hutchinson Island (only about a five-minute drive away) and jumped in the ocean. I didn't plan on it actually, but the water felt so nice on my feet that I decided to just do it, even though my bathing suit was buried somewhere in my suitcase back at the car. If there's one good thing about getting older, it's being able to enjoy life and caring less about who's going to judge.

Me, happy with my decision ~ July 2017

And sometimes, you just have to jump back in, ready or not. Hopefully, I'll be posting here more regularly as there are some new adventures coming up fast.