When the snow was 4′ deep and we hadn’t visited Brio in over three months…

When I was doing YouTube-yoga and trying meditation and Whole30 and running and metalsmithing and basically ANYTHING to make living a somewhat isolated existence on an island feel a little easier… (note to self: we do so much better with people around!)

When I realized packing a house-load into a boat was going to be SO. MUCH. HARDER. than packing a boat-load into a house…

When I was crying tears of sheer overwhelm, trying to juggle deadlines with us cleaning out our rental house with moving everything into the boat with getting said boat moved, launched, re-rigged, re-sailed and ready for a short jaunt… (I have much more empathy for people moving from houses into boats now 😉 )

When we only-sort-of-jokingly admitted that we both felt more nervous about this 13-mile trip to Portland than we had about transitting the Panama Canal or crossing the Gulf Stream… (where does boat bravery GO in the winter?? I swear mine just flew out the window. Thank goodness for Bill, our best into-sailing friend who came along for the trip to force us to put our brave faces on 😉 )

It was all for this.

This moment.

Right. Now.

Life afloat is good. Life afloat, at a dock in downtown Portland, Maine, is fantastic.

– LMK 🙂