Dreaming of Adventures to Come

Happy Tuesday, readers!

It has been a long week with our COVID positive test results, but we made it through the CDC recommended guidelines of quarantining and we are now symptomless and much much better. We watched a lot of New Girl and a couple of really good movies (The Replacements and The Guardian) , did a puzzle that we got for Christmas, cleaned house multiple times, and napped a lot.

By Saturday we were both better, negative, and allowed to be out in the world again, but we decided to continue to stay a bit secluded. So… we went camping! Our original plans of having Steve’s parents come visit and hang in my home town with my parents were obviously canceled due to COVID, so we made new plans on the fly so that we could still have a fun day celebrating Steve on his birthday. We had a big breakfast post-camping, came back to the house and napped for another couple of hours, woke up and went to the beach, and then just hung out for the rest of the day. If anyone wants a chill birthday, it’s Steve, so that’s what he got!

Yesterday, I drove down to my parents to grab a few things that we wanted for the boat and our move back aboard next month, so that’s where I’m writing from this morning! With coffee in hand and dogs asleep on the couch next to me, it’s a pretty sweet setup.

When it comes to Steve, he would be happy doing anything or nothing on his birthday. Last year, we were working on putting in an outlet on the boat that provided enough power for us to blow up the dinghy with the new pump we’d bought. I mentioned that he didn’t have to work on his birthday and that he could just do it the next day, but noooooo. Steve Cooke wanted to work on electrical stuff and run wires and use the soldering iron on his birthday. He loves that stuff. So this year, I asked if he was having a good time even though we weren’t doing much or having a wild adventure and his response was “well, I’m not running wires but it’s still a good time”. He’s a mess, and I love him.

But really, I do love him. What a guy. I don’t want to get too mushy or sentimental, but man am I a lucky gal. I’m just happy to have spent another trip around the sun with him. So, one more time: Happy birthday, babe!

In other news, I am itching to be back on the boat. We have about a month before our official move out date of the apartment and I am so ready to be home again. The thing is, I love looking at photos we’ve taken and the adventures that we’ve been on, and most of them from this time last year are when we would take evening sails and we were getting ready for our overnight trips. One of those pictures is my background for my computer, so many of them are on the mentallysailing instagram, and I just can’t get enough of how much I miss it.

Making coffee in the morning on the stove that we installed with the propane locker that we made ourselves, watching the sunset from the cockpit as we eat dinner, anchoring out and taking early morning swims to shore- all of that is what makes living aboard and adventuring on Batland so much fun.

There truly is nothing like it. Plus, we always get so much done when we live aboard. Even though we’re only 2 minutes away from the boat now, it’s still an effort to go over there and make the time to get something done, but when we live aboard it’s a different story. On one hand, you have time to do it. When it comes to things that I can’t do alone, or need assistance on, Steve will work on something with me during his lunch or we will do it once he’s off work. On the other hand, living aboard almost makes you do it because there’s no excuse. You live there, you see the task staring you in the face every day, and then you just want to do it so that you don’t have to look at it everyday. It’s a weird way to be motivated, but it works! Either way, I’m just excited to be back again.

We have hopes to go North this summer. Where North? I don’t know, but even if we did have an idea of where we were going those plans would probably change because that’s just our life these days. I’m excited for the sunshine on our backs as we sail away, for the books to be read with the autopilot on, for the jumps into the water in the middle of the bay, and for all of the memories we’ve yet to make.

I think that’s what keeps us going when things get hard or boats break: hope. We have hopes for the boat, for new adventures, for memories we’re going to make. We have hope for the excitement and joy that those things bring us. It’s not always easy, living life without a real plan, but man is it beautiful anyway.

Find some hope today, in whatever it is you want, and I promise it’ll make things just a little bit brighter.

Happy reading & see you next week,

Skye