Transition Season – Preparing for Life on Land

We’ve been living in this odd limbo – not quite cruising, but not quite land-dwellers. After the excitement of dealing with the shaft issue, we spent the weekend on the dock so we could begin preparing to move off the boat. I packed up a bunch of summer clothes that we don’t need, bedding and towels and did some laundry. I also broke out the shop vac and started deep cleaning. We brought some books to the book swap (which is always painful – we hate parting with books, even ones we don’t intend to read again) and put together a pile of stuff to be thrown out. Chris gave Windara a good bath, which she desperately needed after a season of muddy Maine anchorages, and I deep cleaned the forward head. Afterwards, we moved out to one of Front Street’s moorings until they were able to make space for us to move back onto the dock.

We did our best to work through our stock of food, and it was really difficult to revert to a “just in time” approach to grocery shopping (now there’s something that also feels funny – we’re no longer “provisioning,” we’re “grocery shopping”). Over our years of cruising, I’ve learned to stock plenty of “just in case” items – powdered milk, lots of canned veggies and soups, extra toilet paper, rice, etc. I try to plan for a variety of scenarios – losing refrigeration, running out of propane, being low on water, getting stuck in a place where we can’t get ashore for an extended period of time for whatever reason – and while we may not eat like kings in one of those cases, we’ll still eat. I’ve developed a pretty good inventory list and do my best to keep it up to date, and I’ve gotten into the habit of replacing things before we run out. Breaking that habit is REALLY hard, and I had to fight myself at Hannaford’s to not buy all the things. 

We took a weekend to go to NY to pick up our car, and it was a whirlwind. We took the dinghy to meet our taxi to the airport in Bangor, flew to Newark where we caught the AirTrain to NJ Transit to Penn Station, walked to Grand Central (with a stop for ramen!), picked up some Jacques Torres chocolates and hopped on MetroNorth to New Rochelle, where we got another cab to Huguenot. We picked up our car (unfortunately it was a rainy weekend and no one was around the club), drove to our hotel in White Plains, and met Charles and Nancy for dinner at Pax Romana. The food was great and the company even better, and I’m glad we were able to spend some time with friends. The next morning, we got up and drove back to Belfast, finishing out our planes, trains, and automobiles weekend with one more dinghy ride back to Windara. It was a lot, but having our car again has been a game-changer. Grocery shopping got SO much easier, and we were able to run errands (and find places like The Only Doughnut –OMG).

The plan was to sort through and dispose of as much as we could before we put things in storage, but with the whirlwind of trying to get things moved off the boat, getting her ready to be hauled and separating out the stuff that was going to come with us, we did very little. Since we weren’t on the dock until the Monday before we were set to leave, we ended up using the dinghy to ferry loads of stuff to the car, which we then brought to our storage unit in Searsport (which is conveniently located next door to Hamilton Marine, which is AMAZING. It’s an absolute boater’s candy store). It took much longer than we anticipated, but loading and unloading the dinghy probably added a half hour to each trip. We weren’t expecting to have that much stuff, but we ended up filling a 8×16′ storage unit (only about 2′ high, but still). With everything gone, Windara sat a good 5-6″ higher in the water. We know we won’t be able to keep her that light, but we’re hoping at the very least to be more thoughtful with what’s on board.

We were in Belfast long enough that it was starting to feel a little like home. We found some favorite places and had our routines, and we were sad to be packing up our life there. And we loved getting to watch the leaves changing and experience a real fall. But as the days passed, the weather turned colder and I won’t lie that there was a part of me that couldn’t wait to be somewhere with heat (and where I didn’t have to spend the first part of every day wiping up condensation so intense that the hatches actually rained inside the boat to try to stay ahead of mildew).

Our last week was a blur of packing, transporting, cleaning, tossing things and prepping Windara for haul-out and the winter ahead, and our last day aboard was a frenzy of activity – doing all our laundry, making a last run to storage with some things that weren’t absolute necessities (there was no way our poor little Mustang could handle all the stuff we STILL had aboard even after all those trips!), and then getting the car all packed with what was left. When we were finally ready, it was so very bittersweet to walk away from Windara for the last time.

As we drove to the hotel, I noticed red clouds ahead of us, which made no sense as it was well after dark. And then it clicked – it was the aurora! We’ve been trying to see the aurora borealis for YEARS, and there it was, right in front of us. It was amazing how clearly visible it was, and we watched it the entire drive. I was so bummed that we didn’t get to see it from the boat, but it was still such an incredible experience.

Friday afternoon we picked up our keys from the leasing office at the place we rented in Portsmouth, NH and saw our apartment for the first time. Early Saturday morning, the movers showed up with all our stuff, and we were in shock just how much there was – we felt like we’d gotten rid of so much when we sold the apartment in White Plains. As soon as the movers were gone, we set straight to work unpacking as much as we could and getting ourselves settled in.

I’m taking it all in stride, but I felt kind of unmoored at first. When we started this thing three years ago, I was sure it would be a one and done experience. I struggled as we moved away from friends, family, and the life we knew, and literally sailed off into the sunset. Now I find I’m struggling to adjust to the idea that we won’t be seeing our cruising friends this season – I’ve been hearing from so many people as they get ready to head south and I’ve got a serious case of FOMO. I don’t know how well I’ll adjust to being back on land, being in the same place every day for the next six to eight months. I won’t miss the constant weather checks, anchor watches during storms, not having access to heat or constant hot water… but I will miss saying good morning to Orion as I settle into my early morning watch, sailing with dolphins, discovering new places and returning to old favorites. 

At the same time, I’m happy to get back to my New England roots. It’s been so good spending these past couple months cruising up here. I wasn’t a “neighborhood kid” – we only had a couple neighbors, none of whom had kids – so I spent a lot of time playing by myself in our big, wooded back yard. As we’ve hiked the Maine woods, I’ve encountered so many of the plants, flowers, trees and mosses from my childhood and in a way it was like finding old friends. And the vibe is different – it’s hard to describe, but after being away for 20+ years (barring visits home, which were never long enough for the feeling to really kick in), it truly feels like a homecoming. I can’t fully explain it, but I feel more like “me” here than I ever did in New York. I get the same feeling cruising, where you’re part of a tight-knit community and everyone looks out for one another, and I think that’s one of the things that helped me feel at ease with the cruising life. I’m looking forward to being a New Englander again and recharging myself for the next chapter of our cruising adventures.