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(Year in) Review | Word of the Week
Friday, December 30, 2016TheCambrians
It never fails. No matter how hard we try to slow things
down, time passes much too quickly and
another year has come and gone. I have no idea where it went, but the calendar
is telling me it’s over so that can only mean one thing – it’s time for another
Year in Review. Here’s a quick look back on 2016:
We went
camping.
We
weren’t in a big hurry to get back to Cambria after spending the holidays in Wichita last year, so I decided we should camp our way
home. I’m not sure what’s wrong with me, but I have a thing for late-winter
camping. And my practical side (i.e. David) was distracted at the time,
allowing me to run amok (which I did, dragging him from Wichita to New Mexico,
through Arizona and across Southern California before heading north to
Washington and back to Cambria in
April).
It’s
not that winter camping is a bad idea. It’s not, especially in the desert. It’s
just that our last attempt didn’t go very well: It snowed, it was cold, it was
windy and we encountered a drunken fool who decided it would be fun to shoot
off a handgun and say things like “I’m going to light you up.” So, why on earth
would I want to give it another try? The answer’s simple: My practical side
usually loses out to optimism, which is a good thing because we had a great
time.
We went
to Mexico.
Both
David and I have been putting off going to the dentist for years, using just
about every excuse in the book to avoid making appointments. But we finally broke
down and made a trip in March. We don’t carry dental insurance and it’s
expensive in the US, so we opted to go south of the border to Los Algodones, Mexico. I’ve written a couple of posts about our
experience (you can read about it here and here), so I won’t go into detail
other than to say we’re both really happy with the results . . . and so is our
bank account.
We spent
a month tied to the dock in Ocean Falls.
Normally
the last place you’d find us during the cruising season is in a marina but last
winter was really wet (even by Pacific Northwest standards) and we didn’t have
time to do many of the jobs we wanted to before leaving Kingston in May. Ocean Falls, in British
Columbia’s Central Coast, is one of our favourite destinations and the monthly rates are
very reasonable so we decided to tie up and get to work. We didn’t accomplish
everything we wanted to, but Cambria left looking much better than she did when she
arrived.
We saw
some amazing things.
Most
years, I spent the winter months pouring over cruising guides and charts,
putting together a plan for the season well in advance. But that wasn’t the
case this year. We actually completed the Inside Passage last season when we sailed to Alaska, so we decided to concentrate on some of our favourite
anchorages instead. And even though we spent a month in Ocean Falls and another in a boatyard, we still saw some amazing things.
We spent
time with friends, old and new.
One
of the great things about cruising is all of the people you meet. And because
we’re regional cruisers, we get to reconnect with them every season . . . we
even managed to make a new friend or two along the way.
We spent
a month in a boatyard.
In
September, the stern gland started to leak and we had to haul-out to replace it.
While we were on the hard, David decided he should completely redo the drive-line
and changed the engine mounts, flexible coupling, stern gland and cutlass
bearing. But what should have only taken a week quickly turned into a month as
we waited for parts to arrive from Virginia. Living in a boatyard is never easy and the
weather made sure it did its part to make things even more difficult by
producing record rainfall for the month (along with several nights of
gale-force winds). The weather didn’t improve much from there and by the time
we were ready to go back in the water, we’d had enough so we made a b-line for
Kingston and tied up for the winter.
What’s in
store for 2017?
I
wish I knew. One of the few things I can say for sure is that David will be
leaving Wichita soon with a truckload of boat gear that needs to
be returned to Cambria. I’ll stay with my mom and work through the boxes and boxes of things
we have stored here. It’s my job to decide what we want to keep, what we want
to get rid of (and either sell it off or give it away), and what we want to
take with us when we eventually move back to England. Meanwhile, David will attack some of jobs around
the boat that I can’t be there for (anything involving varnish, glue or epoxy
fumes makes me sick and turns me into a bit of a nagging wife).
Another
thing I’m sure of is that we’ll officially put Cambria on the market. We’ve been dragging our feet, hoping
to get a list of “point of pride” jobs completed before we do, but we really
can’t wait any longer. It’s time. We’re ready to move on and the only way we
can do that is by selling the boat. If we’re lucky, it’ll happen quickly. And
if that’s the case, 2017 will include a lot of big changes for us (namely
moving to England and starting our search for a narrowboat). But
chances are Cambria won’t sell quickly and we’ll be spending another cruising season at
anchor . . . in other words, 2017 will be a year of uncertainty for us. Hopefully,
that won’t be the case for you.
Happy New Year, everyone!
What are your plans for 2017? Did you make any New Year’s
Resolutions? Join the conversation below in the comments section or on our
Facebook page. We’d love to hear from you!
