Saying Yes
Hello pluff mud and humidity! Beaufort, South Carolina, we have arrived!
It’s been a long and incredible couple of weeks, but oh boy are we happy to have the boat somewhere safe and a place to sleep with air conditioning. Sweet, sweet air conditioning.
I had no idea how uncomfortably hot I’d been until I was back in air conditioning for a few days. I’ve never been called high maintenance (that I know of), BUT feel free to call me high maintenance because I have realized I LOVE AIR CONDITIONING.
Since our last post we’ve moved the boat some 400 nautical miles, met some awesome people, and eaten some incredible food. We made stops in West Palm Beach, Vero Beach, and St Augustine. Highlights include the Flagler Mansion in West Palm, AMAZING food and beer in Vero Beach, and literally everything about St Augustine. We spent almost 10 days in the oldest city in the continental United States, and we would go back in a heartbeat!
Flagler Mansion - West Palm
In addition to the beautiful scenery and mouth watering food, the best part has definitely been the people. We’ve made some great friends, and the past few weeks wouldn’t have been nearly as fun without them. Meeting new people while living aboard and cruising has proven to be a challenge, so we are grateful for the handful of friendships we’ve made. Unless you’re at a marina dock (we never are, for a number of reasons, but mainly they’re expensive), there just aren’t that many opportunities to socialize. We will often exchange a wave and a smile with fellow cruisers, but hardly ever get any closer than that. When we do meet people a quick conversation about our boats is all it usually turns into, but occasionally we get an invitation to hang out. Cue the sweaty palms and uncomfortable shifting of weight back and forth. You want to hang out? With us? Never have I experienced more social anxiety until I moved onto this boat and now go days of only talking to Arthur. We’re just out of practice at making friends! Besides, do we really want to hang out with these people and get stuck on a stranger’s boat? Do we want strangers on our boat?
I have said YES to living on a sailboat. YES to being seasick, exhausted, and sunburnt. YES to learning how to fix dry rot, picking a good spot to anchor, and YES at attempting to dock our 42’ boat (which I still need LOTS of practice). YES to waiting until it’s pitch black outside to run to the back deck butt naked, shower as fast as I can, then run back to the cabin before anyone can see me. Of all the things I’ve had to say yes to, do I really want to agree to put myself in an uncomfortable situation with strangers on a boat? After weeks of semi-isolation, I broke down. I’d been dying for some decent human interaction. Okay fine, lets hang out….
We met a woman single-handing a 36-foot center cockpit motorsailer, working remotely so that she can sustain a cruising lifestyle permanently. She gave us a healthy fear of offshore passages with stories from her time as a tow boat captain.
We met a landlubber from Holland who was spending time in Vero Beach, Florida (less distractions I guess) to write his master’s thesis. We met him at a dessert bar one afternoon, and by the end of the night we had plans to meet for beer and tacos the following day. Nothing like a good craft brew to grease the wheels of conversation.
And then we met a cruising couple on the city dock in West Palm Beach that we followed all the way to Beaufort, S.C. (or did they follow us?). JOSH, ARE YOU READING THIS? THIS IS ABOUT YOU AND MAYA! (Josh has been asking me when I’m putting out our next blog post. I guess he thought he might be the main character. One thing’s for sure, he’s definitely a character!)
Josh and Maya are blue water sailors, meaning they prefer to sail in the ocean (where the really blue water is), as opposed to the inland sailing that we gravitate to. Sailing in blue water presents a unique set of challenges. It takes an incredible amount of teamwork, discipline and expert skills to pull it off, but Josh and Maya make it look easy. They moved onto their beautiful 30 foot sailing vessel Heike just over a month ago, and plan to circumnavigate the globe. Yep, you read that right. They want to go around the world in a 30 foot boat. And people have called Arthur and me crazy… I won’t lie, I do think they’re a bit crazy, but in the best way possible. And honestly, I hope a little of their crazy has rubbed off on me. These two love life and jump at any opportunity for adventure. If there is anyone that says yes more than I do, it’s Josh. The guy is down for anything. Dirty disgusting bilge pump broken? Josh is elbow-deep in dirt and grease in no time. Electrical issues? Josh may not have any idea what he’s doing, but what he lacks in skill he makes up for in enthusiasm. Need help hoisting your 13’ dinghy onto the back of your sailboat? He’s way ahead of you, devising a plan to use the mizzenmast like a crane. Maya is a top notch first mate, keeping Josh focused and grounded, and Heike on schedule. She is a fantastic listener and has made me feel so much better about Arthur’s obsession with the Egret (I guess Josh has a similar love affair with Heike).
These two have reminded us that life can’t be taken too seriously and when you meet good people, you hang onto them. I had to leave Arthur in St. Augustine to attend a bachelorette party, so his Aunt Ginny climbed aboard to make the passage to Beaufort. Since I wasn’t going to be on the boat for that leg of the trip, Josh convinced Arthur to follow Heike offshore with them (I get pretty darn seasick out in the ocean, which is why we’ve been sticking to the ICW). Being that this was Arthur’s first offshore passage, I was so worried about them going on the outside I cried when I said goodbye to him. I hugged Josh and Maya goodbye, and Josh promised me Arthur would be okay. I knew he would be okay, the Egret is a tank and Arthur knows what he’s doing, but knowing someone like Josh was looking out for my dude made me feel a lot better.
Since Arthur agreed to follow them on the ocean voyage, we convinced them to spend some time in Beaufort with us. It’s one thing to have a good time with new friends, but it’s even better when you introduce them to your families and they immediately take to them. Lounging around my mom’s living room talking about our next adventure, we felt like old friends.
I’ll stop bragging about our cool friends now, but I want to leave you with three important lessons we learned from this couple: 1. Laugh every chance you get. When you’re losing, when you’re winning, when shit hits the fan, find a reason to laugh 2. Help other people when you can. Even if you don’t totally know what you’re doing, the support of someone else means so much more than no support at all 3. Hold onto good people and let them know you appreciate them. One of our last conversations with Josh on the phone, we were about to hang up when he said “Bye guys, love you both!” He was on speaker and Arthur and I looked at each other and half laughed and said “WE LOVE YOU JOSH AND MAYA!” At first it felt like a strange thing to say to someone we’d met only a few weeks ago, but really we do love them. They have become such amazing friends in a short amount of time and it’s important to tell people that you love them. It’s important to let them know that you support them and that you are excited for them, and we are so freaking excited for their journey ahead and hope that we get to join them again!