We spent yesterday finishing all the last-minute errands, provisioning, organizing, and making sure we had everything we’d need for the next eight months. I took the day off from work and even so, I felt like I barely had time to get everything done.
We left Huguenot for the last time this season in a bit of a nasty blow. The wind had been from the east all day at 15-20, and we were slamming into steep, breaking 2-4′ waves every two seconds for the first half of the trip. Poor Jack was miserable. I went below to soothe him, and it wasn’t a lot of fun down there. Honestly, there was a period where I questioned whether I really wanted to do this trip. The conditions were nothing Silent Sky can’t handle, nothing we haven’t seen before, but for whatever reason, this time it felt like more. Maybe it was just that I was tired after spending the whole day racing to get through the final items on our to-do list. But once we dropped the hook, a sense of calm returned and as I looked over the sea of anchor lights, I couldn’t help feeling that I’m doing the right thing.
It was admittedly bittersweet leaving – I already miss marina life and our HYC friends. Over the past three years, Huguenot has become home, especially this year while we lived aboard.
Today is gray and cool but still beautiful. I came on deck with the intention of reading, but even as a light mist falls off and on, I can’t help taking in the view. In the last eight years, I’ve spent so much time on these waters cruising and racing, and I know them like the back of my hand. It’s crazy to think that after tomorrow, I won’t see them again until sometime in the spring.
As I sit here watching the world go by, I find myself filled with a longing to get in those lasts – last sails to favorite harbors, last visits to favorite restaurants, last drinks with friends… but those lasts have already happened and instead I should be looking to firsts – first time seeing New York City from my own boat, first overnight passage, first morning coffee in new places.
I’m surprised at how calm I feel going into this, but at the same time, it doesn’t feel like anything we haven’t done before. It’s on a longer time table, but we’ve been living aboard since May, we’ve done several three-week cruises, we’ve done offshore passages, we’ve even done parts of the ICW. Maybe it’s just that it’s so surreal that the reality hasn’t started to sink in.