Back to the States! – the short version:

It took us months to wrap our brains around this idea, but it’s true: we headed back to the States, listed Luna Sea 1 for sale, and quickly sold her. We are currently indulging in some much needed Temporary Land Life!

Back Story – because I’ve been slack and not kept you all up to date

Back in January, when we were just lounging in our favorite anchorage of all time (Frigate, Union Island, Grenadines) and finding our Cruising Groove – we had a long chat about family and how much we miss by following our own dreams. After wrapping up our To Do list in Grenada over the 2018 hurricane season, the plan was to sail slowly up to Antigua for Race Week. And by slowly, I mean we sat at Union Island for six weeks with zero desire to sail anywhere…

From Antiqua, we planned to head back south to Grenada for Carnival 2018 (because, hello, if you have the chance to play, you play!) And then we were to carry on west – toward the ABC’s, Panama and eventually up to Costa Rica and Mexico, etc. All of this was expected to take at least 2 more years – and probably longer… But because we wanted to see family, we decided to keep heading north, past Antigua, bound for the States.

Just Visit!

Several people asked “Why not just visit?” And that is a legitimate question. But we chose to live on a tiny budget – and set sail quickly vs stay on land, earn a lot and spend a lot. That choice, which was absolutely correct for us, means that we cannot afford to haul our boat, leave her on land, fly to the States, pay for a rental car and hotel rooms and travel all across the country to see people. That option would have easily eaten up several thousand dollars. Dollars we choose to spend in other ways. But what was easily in our grasp was to sail back to the States, live on our boat, visit our friends and family, make a little money and head back out in November. Because, while we don’t have loads of money to spend on storing the boat – we do (theoretically) have loads of time to sail wherever we want to go.

Our Actual Path

We headed northeast from the Grenadines – via a very brief stop in St. Lucia, a quick stop in Martinique, and then a longer visit in Antigua. From there, we had a glorious downwind sail (fast, but wonky) to St. Croix. We missed St. Croix on our way south – and I’m SO glad we stopped on our way back north! I truly love that island. It was actually pretty tempting to stay there… But we had family and friends to visit. And at the time, we thought there was a chance we’d be heading back south this November…

From St. Croix, we popped up to St. Thomas – this time a truly fabulous sail. On the beam, quick, and calm. I could really see staying in that area for a significant amount of time and just going back and forth… We have friends on both islands, it’s an affordable (particularly St. Croix), convenient area, and there are beautiful beaches and great snorkeling. As well as multiple job offers to rebuild our cruising funds. All great things to lure us into a long stay. But, alas, we carried on.

From the VI’s, we hit San Juan, Puerto Rico. On our way south, you may remember that we had a rare West wind. That means we downwind the Mona Passage. Ok, technically, we motored the Mona Passage. Even better! It was glass calm, and we just kept zipping along the southern coast of PR – barely getting to visit anything. (This island deserves it’s own entire season) So, heading north meant we could stop in San Juan and check out the bustling capital and provision for the notoriously food deprived Bahamas. I was pretty stoked when the weather not only cooperated, but we found a great anchorage spot right smack in the middle of the port. Excellent holding, convenient and FREE. My favorite.

After a few days exploring San Juan, we had another weather window. We prepped for and completed our longest passage yet – about 480 nautical miles in one go. I seriously enjoy either a single day sail, or a multi day sail, WAY more than a single over night. So much more time to get into a groove and cover some miles. That being said, as soon as we dropped anchor in Mayaguana, Bahamas, we were zonked.

We hung out in Mayaguana as long as it took to explore the many, many coral heads in the bay. There were a few other boats coming and going, but it’s ultimately a quiet, secluded spot where you can just do whatever you want. If whatever you want includes swimming and snorkeling. Because that’s about all there is to do.

The Bahamas Round 3

This spring was our 3rd time through the Bahamas. And you know what? I was shockingly thrilled to be back! I mean, I knew I loved it the first 2 times, but I really expected to just have a Been there, Done that sort of attitude. But I truly, thoroughly enjoyed sailing through the Bahamas. We spent some time at islands we hadn’t seen before – Mayaguana, Crooked, Acklin, Long (the east side). And then nestled into Georgetown for a couple of weeks of making new friends and playing a ridiculous amount of volley ball.

Somewhere around Little Farmers our plans solidified. We had toyed with the idea of selling our girl while we were in Georgetown. Just like all the plans we make, we knew it was likely a whim, and who knew where we’d end up. But in Little Farmers we committed. Pictures were taken, an ad was written… Honestly, we expected it to take months, if not a year, for our girl to find the correct new owners. Plans were made for our summer visits, money to be earned, and our fourth season in the Bahamas. I mean seriously, who sells a boat quickly?

Reality

Anytime we make the decision to head somewhere, we end up going warp speed. Sure, we may dilly dally about various plans, but once we commit – it’s done. We dropped anchor in Andros – also new to us, and made the choice to head to Bimini instead of the Abacolds. It didn’t hurt that we had friends on Sommer Wind that were also about to make the trek across the Gulfstream. We spent a few days just soaking up the last of our visit – and, ok, waiting on a storm front to pass, and then booked it back to Florida!

With ads in a few different places, we wanted to officially be in the States on the off chance that someone wanted her right away. And that was a good call! Within 3 weeks of listing our Beneteau 393, we had an almost full priced offer! After the shock wore off, we had another 3 weeks to wait for closing before we could share the news. That was the longest three weeks ever! What if they backed out? What if they saw her and changed their minds? Ultimately, I believe what sold her was the obscene amount of photos and thorough description: when the new owners showed up, she was exactly as advertised. Better, in fact, as we continued to do small projects that we wanted done anyway – in the off chance they backed out.

Signs

Within our first week back in Savannah, GA – our home port, we not only had a full price offer on our boat, but we also purchased 2 cars, were offered two jobs and found a house to purchase. Every little thing just fell into place. It’s hard not to take that as a sign from the Universe that we are continuing on our correct path. And let’s not under-appreciate how nice it was to still have about half of our cruising budget to cover all of the new Temporary Land Life costs!

Future

So what’s next? All of those long conversations not only covered a visit home, and to sell the boat – but what to do next. Where are we headed? We love, love LOVE the cruising lifestyle. But in all honesty, a 39′ monohull is just not our Retirement Dream. We want more space. Heck, we NEED more space. Mark needs room for his kites and a full size bicycle or two. I want my oil paints on board (and plenty of drop cloths, I suppose) I want a bigger galley and WAY more space for entertaining. Neither of us enjoyed the cluttered feel of our boat. So more covered storage = more sanity. All of this adds up to us now being on the prowl for a 40’+ Catamaran.

Coming Soon!

I realize I’ve droned on for ages here, so thanks for hanging in there if you’re still reading. I’m going to break it off here and pick up next time with some of the important Lessons Learned: Living on a Monohull!

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