For Sale!

After 6 years of living aboard, a marriage, a pregnancy, two countries and hundreds of islands, we have finally gotten her all cleaned up and ready to list. This is such a bittersweet day for us. We have both already gotten in the land mode mind set and are enjoying A/C, running water, sleeping through the night without having to check the anchor, and dishwashing and laundry machines in our own home.

But, there are so many great memories on this boat, and so many adventures left undone. Moving to land, getting jobs and starting a family are new adventures in and of themselves, but we are going to miss this nomadic lifestyle. It was the best random decision we have ever made and I wouldn't change one second of it (well, maybe one or two of the less enjoyable moments). We have become better individuals and a more united couple because of our time spent at sea. We have met so many great people from all walks of life and will keep in touch with them even though we are no longer on the water.

And although this is goodbye to "All In", this is not goodbye to sailing. It runs deep in our blood now and I am sure that this is only a hiatus.

"All In" looks better now than she has since we bought her - isn't that the way it always goes?! Thanks to some sweat equity from my parents and of course my diligent husband and myself, we have her in pristine condition. My only hope is that she sells quickly and goes to someone who will love her as much as we did. I hope, like us, her travels are only just beginning and that she has many more miles to see.

Working hard:

The finished product:

Final Destination

We left Osprey Marina early this morning to make our way to Little River, the final resting place for our old girl. We had to make it through the "Rock Pile" and were a bit nervous, so wanted to hit it as close to high tide as we could. The Rock Pile has occurred because the ICW had to be blown out to get through Myrtle Beach. There are large boulders and rock piles along the sides, hidden beneath the water, just waiting to catch the bottom of a vessel. We studied the charts carefully and were diligent about staying to the center of the channel - luckily, we didn't have any issues whatsoever.

Must have been due to our excellent steering:

Or our first rate navigator:

The rocks were no issue, depth was great and the bridges all opened up on cue for us. It was a picture perfect motor through Myrtle Beach. We made it to Light Keepers Marina in Little River at 3pm and pulled in to a slip on a T dock - home at last.

Brad's mom met us shortly thereafter and we loaded up the Explorer with the first load of our belongings. We will be staying at her place (her retirement home here in Myrtle Beach) for a few months while we figure out where we want to live and while we get the boat ready to sell.

Although we had high ambitions to completely unload the boat today, we were both exhausted and decided to call it a night and start early the following day.

We managed to pack everything up the following day and got all of our belongings in just two car trips! I don't know if that's a good thing, or sad that we have so few belongings. Tomorrow starts the dirty work - getting her clean and updated so that she shows well for her final pictures.

A Great Day!

This morning we got up early and headed North. We were planning on just doing a half day and anchoring South of Georgetown, but when we got to our anchorage around lunchtime, the wind had piped up and the anchorage we had picked out was extremely choppy. With high tide still on our side, we opted to go ahead and press on towards Georgetown. We made it through the remainder of the shallows without incident and before we knew it, we were in the wide open river running by Georgetown.

We threw up our sails and killed the engine, eager to enjoy an afternoon of sailing. I had just settled in for a nap in the shade of the bimini when I felt the first flutter of movement from our little baby. The flutter turned to full on movement - apparently sailing was in his blood and he loved it as much as we did! He carried on for quite awhile as we made our way up past Georgetown. It was an all around fantastic day and we made it North of Georgetown, where we dropped anchor under sail along a wide stretch of the ICW. It was a perfect evening at anchor and we savored our final night out on the hook. Tomorrow we would stay at a marina.

The following day, we had a visitor bright and early when I took Koa out to pee. I snapped a few pictures of him as the sun was coming up.

Despite my early start, we had a leisurely breakfast and upped anchor by mid-morning. We had a great motor through some beautiful cypress swamps - the scenery was perfect. These waters were reputed to be some of the most beautiful on the ICW and we couldn't have agreed more. We even motored right by the building where we attended the wedding of some of our dear friends only 3 years before!

We made it to Osprey Marina in South Myrtle by early afternoon and tied up to the transient dock. The dock was quite a trek from the office, but that was of no concern to us because the dock master greeted us at our slip with a golf cart for our usage while we were there. Not only was that a first for us, but we were also given an awesome welcome bag - filled with information about the area, menus for the restaurants that delivered to the marina and some snacks and jars of locally made jelly. How's that for a welcome?!! This place was great!

We called Brad's mom and told her we had pulled in to a marina not far from her and would she like to come get us so we could all go out to dinner. We met up at the office and headed out for a nice dinner on land. We were happy to finally be close to our destination and turned in early for our last night on the boat.


Snapped some pics with our sailing mutt: