Why do we cruise?

There are a lot of reasons we choose to cruise. There's the family time.

There's the self-sufficiency. The beautiful sunsets. The incredible friendships. There's the joy of moving our home with the power of the wind.

The reasons go on and on.

We're deep in project mode right now, with the interior of the boat ripped to shreds as we work to completely redo the main salon and forepeak to make it work better for the cruising life we have now, as a crew of 2, not a family of 4. A crew of 2 50-somethings, not a crew of 2 20-somethings. There are changes that need to be made to the boat!

*Removing fiberglass bits from a pulled-out shelf*

We tend to cruise in spurts. We cruise for years, then work on the boat for what feels like years. Sure, there's constant maintenance, but our pattern seems to be workworkworkwork sailsailsailsail workworkwork.

Buy boat in 1992, work on her for 2 years.

Cruise for 3 years. (Destinations? Gulf Coast US, Florida, Bahamas, DR, PR, Eastern Caribbean, Trinidad, Venezuela, Bonaire, then race back up the East Coast of the US to Virginia.)

Haul boat out and leave her out for 3+ years. Put her in, sail her occasionally. Work some more.

*Pregnant with my 2nd; laughing with my first.*

Every now and then, though, you have to remind yourself of why you're working so hard.

The first time we did this, in Houston, was almost literally when we splashed the boat. We purchased her on the hard, worked like devils to get the blister repair done before splashing her, moving her to a marina, and promptly hauling her out again for a paint job. By the time the hull looked fabulous, we'd owned her for close to a year and had not been sailing yet.

The interior was a mess, with the project list a mile long. Still, we shoved off from the dock to SAIL. It was just what we needed, a reminder of what we were working so hard for.

This summer has been no exception. Living 3 hours away from the boat is not easy when your project list is longer than the weekly grocery receipt. So many items could be done with 30 minutes here and 30 minutes there; many more of those actually need drying or curing or sitting time, and the size of the boat means you sometimes can't work on something else while you're waiting.

So this weekend, we did both. We worked - ripping out the galley (did I mention we are redoing that too? Who's got counter ideas for us?).

And we sailed. We took friends on board, packed on a couple of coolers and some water, and we sailed.

Ahhh.

*Who says you can't pack a lot of people on a 28' boat?*

This. This is why we cruise. Friendship, freedom, and flying through the water.

Can't wait to see you out there!