Transition

“We are forever in transition–continually moving, changing direction, doing differently than we imagined. If we were to stop and analyze the past and what lies ahead, we would know that if anything is required of us, it is to be flexible.” A Cherokee Feast of Days by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Wonderstruck is now safely tucked away in her hurricane home at Brunswick Landing Marina.    But for our family this is a time of transition.  We have decided to move off the boat and back to land life.  We actually made this decision last year, knowing this last season would be our “last hurrah”.  After 6 years of homeschooling, the kids want to experience brick and mortar high school and all the extras that come with living on land as a teenager.  Benjamin will be a Junior, Aislin a freshman.  

We’ve already made a close acquaintance with our local U-haul.  We are moving everything off the boat into the apartment and a nearby storage unit.   It is a lot of packing and unpacking and sorting and figuring out what to keep, what to store, and what to give away.   It is quite a change.  The kids will need shoes other than flip flops and more than 4 T-Shirts (which is all they have now). We will have to get used to driving again.  The first trip I made when we got back I was driving a car in Savannah.  Cars were passing me like crazy, that’s when I noticed I was going 25 mph in a 40 mph zone.  But that 25 mph felt so fast,  way faster than the 6 knots the boat has been going. 

We found an apartment in Orlando.  It’s a reasonable commute for me, and close to lots of friends, restaurants, and shops (Starbucks and Target in walking distance).   And the kids are so excited about all the luxuries.   The apartment has flushing toilets, air conditioning, hot water, an automatic dishwasher, and a washer/ dryer.  Aislin stood in the bathroom and spun around with her arms out like she was Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music and said, “Momma look! I can spin around and not touch any walls!” 

We’ve had some friends ask us about moving off the boat with the uncertainties of Covid-19. We don’t know yet how our plans will work with Covid-19, but honestly even if we stayed on the boat Covid-19 would be affecting everything we do.  Some people are boating with Covid and dealing with international border closures and quarantines, other people are living on land with Covid and dealing with social distancing.   Either life we choose Covid is present as a variable.  So we have decided to stay the course and continue our plans of moving back to land life. 

We are going to list the boat for sale.  Although we love that boat, we know that once we are in land life, with me working and kids doing their activities, the probability of being able to take time off for boat trips is pretty slim.  And if we aren’t living on the boat keeping it maintained things will start becoming a problem.  That’s just how boat engines and systems are, they don’t like to sit in storage, they like to be ran on a regular basis with regular ongoing maintenance.  We think the best thing to do for Wonderstruck is to sell her and let another family have wonderful adventures on her while she is still strong and healthy.

So this is an emotionally trying time for us. We are sad to be leaving the cruising life we have loved so much, but we are excited for what lies ahead, all the new adventures our family will have with two teenagers in High School.