rudderless

Back Aboard

Last week we rented a 15- foot truck and when I saw the thing, I imagined our stuff barely filling one corner. As it turned out, we filled the darn truck with boat gear, bikes, a boom, roller furler, clothes and endless kitchen implements. I think we both panicked a bit when we imagined fitting a truckload of stuff onto an already overflowing sailboat. Granted, much of that stuff goes in strange places- attached to masts and forestays, nailed to the ceiling, being towed behind us. But still, it was a bit overwhelming.

Somehow the stuff is here and the truck is gone. Granted, it’s packed into weird places and much of it resides in nooks and crannies onshore, but it’s with us. Not in a house. We have cut the umbilical and now fully reside on the boat. Liveaboards once again.

I spent most of today offloading things we can’t keep. Things we just don’t have room for. The stream of exiting stuff will continue for the next few weeks until we are bound for the mooring field here in Marathon. Last night we took a dinghy ride through the harbor and past our old haunts. There were boats we recognized from five years ago. Dogs greeted us from their foredecks, wearing tiny lifejackets. Sophie and Rosy were waved over to one cockpit where a sweet couple passed over a few daisies. Flower petals in the dinghy. This is our new life.

I have missed the internet and will get back on a regular posting schedule soon. For now, we are simply adjusting. Adjusting to being so close together, adjusting to less water pressure, a smaller stove, daylight savings time, and sleeping arrangements (John and I WILL have the forepeak for our own, as soon as I can piece together a containment device for Rosy’s bed). I need to take some pictures of the boat with its mast up. For now our Buddhist prayer flags and tiny flipflops in the cockpit mark our territory. Our new home.