The next chapter..........

Last sunrise of trip - over Bimini

We left Bimini early last Wednesday morning.........it was cold (kind of like football weather). We muscled L'ORIENT out of the channel and into deep water.......finally.........hand steering towards Miami (autopilot still gone).

The wind was completely missing (again) so we were forced to motor most of the way. We knew our next destination was different by the number of AIS targets that appeared on our screen as we approached. Freighters, tankers, many cruise ships.........dodging them as we approached Miami Beach was necessary as the rules of the sea are similar to the rules that apply everywhere else (big things eat small things).

Miami - Here we come...

We called the Miami Beach Marina and they cheerfully directed us to our slip........B-13. Their instructions for getting there sounded suspiciously simple. "When you see the large motor yachts, you're almost there".

As we zig-zagged deeper into the marina channel, we noticed a small gap between two mega yachts that we needed to traverse. it was about 25 feet wide. As our boat is 15 feet wide and the mega yachts have all kinds of flourishes on them, we were really nervous. We squeezed by, quipping to one group of crewmen "there goes the neighborhood". L'ORIENT was about 150 feet smaller than these boats.

We tied up and then looked at each other for a minute. "I guess that's it"...........(only for now). The suddenness of our trip's conclusion was jarring, to say the least. St. Barths, Dominica, Bonaire, the Virgin Islands, Marie Galant..........and 20 other islands.......all gone. Our first date with the cruising lifestyle was a long one (13 months).........but every first date has to end (even if it ends with the walk of shame, but I won't go there). We hadn't been in the USA in 2012 until the moment of our arrival here. Our immersion into the cruising lifestyle yielded one inescapable conclusion............we love this........when can we go again ? The answer remains tied up with money and the assumptions you make about it.

So, hello South Beach. We quickly decided that we will live on L'ORIENT for the foreseeable future, so no house or condo is in the plans. I'm all set with my employer to resume work in 3 weeks. We joined a gym (I'm the most out of shape guy in Miami Beach right now).........have begun sampling the restaurants......riding our bikes around.........in short quickly re-establishing our old (and very happy) "shore" life. We are also working on the boat 4-6 hours a day to return it to "cruising shape". Most of the required parts have already been ordered. If this sounds a bit bipolar (preparing to both stay and leave), it is.

What does the future hold for us ? In short, cruising again. It's just a matter of when. For now, we'll lead a more conventional life (if that's possible in Miami Beach) and prepare for both our "now" and our "later". We just need to fill in the dates.

South Beach, baby - 80 degrees and wonderful