1st Cruising Anniversary!

366 days ago we brought all the lines in and left our home marina in Maryland for the full-time cruising life! That day was emotional for some of our crew, but what followed was a year of new places, new friends, new experiences, and great memories. Was it always easy? No. We had plenty of weather challenges, a few “joys of living in tight spaces,” and of course COVID-19 to contend with. We were somewhat fortunate on the COVID front as we were already homeschooling, able to isolate for long periods of time, and already used to living non-stop with just our family unit.

Just for fun, the Skipper ran the numbers to see how we spent that first year (yes, he keeps thorough logs)!

Total distance traveled: 4926nm (5669 statute miles)

# days underway: 166 (44%)

# overnight passages: 14 (4%)

# nights at anchor: 187 (51%)

# nights on a mooring ball: 80 (22%)

# nights docked: 77 (21%)

# nights on the hard (in a boatyard): 8 (2%)

It was interesting to see how many days we spent on the move! I think another fun breakdown would be looking at how many nights we spent docked where we didn’t have power/water—I would bet at least a dozen nights were docks where we didn’t have services.

Last October we also started slapping stickers on the cowl of our dinghy engine. It’s partly an anti-theft measure, partly memory collector. We didn’t get stickers everywhere we stopped, but this is what she looks like after a year!

As we sit in Cambridge, MD getting drenched by the remnants of Hurricane Zeta (wow, 2020!!!), we are chatting with other cruisers and planning the next year of cruising. 

Safe sailing, everyone! ⛵️