Chris & Irina's Excellent Adventure: Epilogue Part I: Arrived at Osprey Marina, North Myrtle Beach:

On Monday afternoon, we arrived at Osprey Marina, our final destination of this leg of our journey. We had a relatively easy run to the Marina, only having to pass through two swing bridges!! The day was lovely, sunny and warm, and we floated into our spot on the dock at about 2 pm. We now have a few days to clean up, fuel up, and get the boat ready for a 2 month hibernation until we come back in mid-January to embark on the second part of our adventure, onwards to Florida and then onto the Bahamas.

We have truly had a wonderful adventure. We had good weather and bad, but all together, a very successful delivery cruise. The last part of our journey, through the Intracoastal Waterway, was truly delightful, with a community of cruisers who were all heading south like us. We saw many unusual sights (unusual for us, anyway!) including new landscapes, birds, bridges, and many glorious sunsets and sunrises. We were fortunate to have no mishaps, groundings, or otherwise mechanical problems to plague us, and so we feel pretty lucky. We learned a lot about ourselves, and even though we work very well together as a team, this journey taught to rely on each other even more, and to stay focused on the important elements of navigation, good housekeeping, and discipline.

Living on a boat for an extended period of time teaches you to be frugal (with water), to pay attention to little details like “where did I put that flashlight” and “did I take my vitamins today”. So many of the little things that we take for granted when we have our routines at home are taken over by the more important aspects of paying attention to safety, like “watch our for that power boat trying to overtake us” and “is the anchor set properly”. Meals also need more planning, as you never know what the road ahead for the day is going to bring, so having sandwiches and snacks at the ready is also critical. I won't even get into how many days between showers….

In any case, we are finishing the first part of our adventure, and fly home on Sunday. When we return in January, we head off for Florida, where we plan to spend a few days to take care of some repairs, meet up with some friends, and then look for the window to make the trip across to the Bahamas. We will pick up our blog again at that time, and hope to have many funny and interesting stories to tell. Until then, hasta la vista and thanks to all for coming along for the ride. Your comments and notes made us feel good!!

Chris & Irina