As we’d ‘mastered’ the overnight slog on I-95 on the way down, we prepped the kids and went for it again, leaving Indiantown one afternoon and pulling into my sister’s driveway outside of Portsmouth, NH the next evening. It takes a day to shake the exhaustion from the effort to be sure, but still worth the time, since it was as if a flip was switched when we pulled out of the boatyard- spring responsibilities in Maine were calling.
And just like that, we’re back to the northern climes that are so desperate to freeze any memories of warmth as quickly as possible from our fading skin. After an all-too-brief enjoyment of the silent cleanliness that our home greeted us with, we settled in with gusto, firing up the wood stove and unpacking the bags that seemed to have bred in the back of the car while we were underway.
The things we read about are proving to be true: we do already have a countdown until we head back again, and I’m lamenting the loss of our simple life onboard to a great degree. Plan-making! Pets! Dentist appointments! After school activities! Board meetings! Kids and toys here, there and everywhere! (Not to mention actual work days…) Re-entry, yeesh. Our multi-faceted social whirlwinds have meant exhausting days for all of us, and the girls were both a bit bleary-eyed after their first day back at school. I’m bleary-eyed from the cold, but I’ll stop complaining about that.
With this ‘newfound’ thingy called Wifi, I’m able to do all sorts of things online, so I’m busy ordering boat cards and checking pricing on the life raft that we brought back to sell. (Anyone?) I love my lists, and I already adore those of the ‘Chickadee 2017’ variety. As soon as we sell our life raft, generator, strip and varnish the cockpit table and coamings that we brought home, sew new cushion covers for the main salon, rebuild the old starter that we brought home, send in the broken binnacle for repair and order cards, we’ll go ahead and get started on the things that are on the lists that have yet to be listed since we’ve yet to think of them. I’m sure it’ll be lengthy. I’ll surely keep you posted.
