A photo collage

Thank You!

Before I loose my audience, I wanted to thank people who one way or another helped us accomplish our goal:

Karen and Earl Wilson, they managed to keep our mail in order, acted on our behalf for all the tedious tasks while we were out playing and kept me motivated to keep writing by offering constant feedback on the Blog posts. Karen also help me with my editing for the Articles I wrote for the local newspaper. It sure needed it!!

Sharlene Peters, she was my number one fan and supporter. She encouraged me to write and to publish. She would constantly supply me with useful advice on different topics; motherhood, writing, editing and photography. She had faith in me.

Richard and Melissa Chellemi, they open up their home in Costa Rica, modified theirs schedules and went all out for us. They took care of Matt when he was sick and fed us the most delicious Tuna I have ever tried!

John and Ginny Shasky they helped me edit the latest article for The Tubac Villager and John took the family pictures on board Endurance that I used for articles, web, blog and boat card.

Our family, friends and people I never met for writing to me with feedback on our blog, with encouragement and generous words of admiration; Nancy Bohman, Celeste Wisdom, Matt Dienes, Tod Harrison, to name a few.

The Tubac Villager for letting me share our experience with the community.

My Blog follower, you made it fun and challenging for me to write about our trip.

Our friends who put together the farewell party before we departed, they gave us the Kindle book that, at times, it was my only connection to the rest of the world.

Our Cruiser friends, for making our experience so much richer, for helping me endure the difficult times by being around, by sharing their frustrations, happiness, water toys and their wine…

My kids, for putting up with our gipsy life, they adjusted easily to the discomforts of a moving home, the lack of friends, the luck of THINGS, they followed safety instructions, they made this adventure so worthwhile.

My Husband who made it all possible, he planned it, he pushed for it, he made it happen, he took us safely away and brought us safely back.

My mother who made me feel safe and looked after from Heaven.

God for providing us with life, health, will, resources, Nature and all the people above!

A view from land

It has been a few weeks already. I want to hold on to all my memories tight, but the force of time and the need to move forward weaken my ability to grasp them. Places, people, sights, it all begins to fade into one flat vision. It’s “just something we did”. I know pretty soon people won’t ask much, I will have to bite my tongue not to brag about how brave, how lucky, and how strong we were. I will have to wait for opportunities to bring some remembrances to life and heavens forbid, I may even have to make the storms bigger and multiply the amount and sizes of the sharks we saw

Re-immersion into the “traditional” “old” “natural” “typical” “common” or however we call this lifestyle is like jumping into a running treadmill, no one stops it for us, we just have to jump in and keep running, no time to look back, no time to look down we can only hope it will slow down or we will get more in shape. There was a house to put back together, there were utilities to set up and there were festivities to plan; Samantha’s Birthday and Christmas.

It was nice to be back for the holidays, but I was not prepared for the chaos at the stores, physically and emotionally was a painful experience; crowded, messy, long lines, simply overwhelming. On the other hand, how nice it was to be “home” that morning after Christmas; the cold day, the tree lights twinkling to the music, the rug on the floor, the girls in their cozy robes, the smell of cinnamon rolls in the oven and the freshly grounded coffee brewing. It was a traditional Christmas setting, no adjustments were necessary, no swimming or sliding down the mast for Santa.