Sail or Sale?

They say the happiest days of a boater's life are the day the boat is purchased and the day the boat is sold.   Not sure about that because we are having some fabulous days in between.   However, we have come to the momentous decision to put Short Walk up for sale when we get back to Rock Hall in the spring.
 
Joe says he has been in the Navy or had access to the water or owned a boat for over 50 years.  We started sailing together on Lake Nockamixon in his Flying Scott and then bought a Beneteau 23' together.  We've owned Short Walk for 11 years and we had the prior boat (Vixen - 32' ketch), for 7 years.  All told that is many years of lake sailing, 18 years on the Chesapeake and 2 trips along the coast from Maine to the Bahamas.   Lots of sailing and lots of fun.   This winter, we began to discuss what the next phase in our lives should look like.  Kind of a "what we want to do when we grow up" discussion.   Initially, we are looking forward to a bit of reconnecting with family and friends at home.   We downsized in 2008 and haven't really spent much time in the townhouse since then.   We have been traveling for 16 of the last 24 months and although we have made many wonderful and lifelong (we hope!) new friends through cruising, we miss everyone at home and long to reconnect.  After the boat sells, we plan to take shorter journeys to see all 50 states, Canada, Europe, Africa and other far away places.   The bucket list is pretty long.  Heck, we may even charter a boat sometime.   Think about it, we could sail for 1-2 weeks per year without all the endless boat maintenance and expense.   A novel concept.
The hardest part about the decision has actually been accepting that we won't be seeing all our cruising friends on the ICW or Bahamas again (well, we hope to see them on land sometime) and that we won't be spending most of our summer weekends at North Point Marina in Rock Hall.   North Point has been our summer home for 18 years and we love the owners and the slipholders there.   Meeting for coffee under the pavilion, happy hours watching the sunset, hanging at the pool, Fourth of July fireworks from the boat and so many more great memories.   North Point will always have a place in our hearts.   We hope to rent us a motel room a couple times a season so we can stay in touch.  We definitely can't say goodbye to North Point.
As when we sold our home, our timing for the market couldn't be worse.  So to our friends at North Point, you will probably have us to kick around for a bit longer while we try to sell the boat.   If anyone knows of a prospective buyer, just let us know.   We are working on the logistics for selling the boat and will keep you posted.   We consider the Island Packet 40 to be a great cruising boat, lots of room, lots of amenities and we have always tried to keep her in good shape.   We hope she finds a good new home.