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.

The End is in Sight!

We *FINALLY* got our transmission back yesterday. The repair guy has been nothing but great (albeit a bit slow) in helping us out and was able to fix it quickly once we finally tracked down all the parts. We drove to Charleston to pick it up so that we wouldn't have to wait for it to be shipped down to us. He had completely rebuilt it and also painted it a shiny silver - it looks fabulous! It is sitting cozily on our sole right now awaiting Brad's install of it later today (after lots of research mind you). We hope to have it installed today, checked and aligned by the yard tomorrow and we hope to cast off the lines on Wednesday.....for the first time in over a month! We are excited, and hopeful, to finally be on the move again.

We plan to take a week to make our way up to Little River where we will dock the boat for possibly the last time. We want to make sure we spend a few nights enjoying sunsets out at anchor and also take a few days to enjoy some sailing. She has been a great boat and we have loved *almost* every second of owning her.

They say the best days in a boaters life are the day you buy it and the day you sell it. But I can officially say that the day we sell her will be one of the saddest days of our lives. This is the first "home" we bought together and we have spent the entirety of our marriage in the cozy confines of her hull. She has taken us to far off places and shown us cultures and experiences most people only dream of. And she eased us into the wonderful world of sailing.

With the impending sale of "All In", I am going to be discontinuing this blog. I will document the last of our trip travels and probably a few more photos as we get her ready for market, but then this will be finished. I also, in my sleepless, pregnant nights lately, have realized that I never did a blog on Koa - so rest assured, that is of top priority and will be done as well before we close this down for good. Don't forget to read about our final sailing adventures and thanks for following along with us on our journeys!

In Limbo

So, these last few weeks have been a whirlwind of emotions: excitement, trepidation, utter sadness. Accepting the fact that we will be selling our boat has been so hard for us both - and add to that the fact that it was the first home we bought together and we are both having moments of doubt and sometimes complete depression. But, seeing all of our friends and family has helped us to realize that now that we are moving to land, we will have the benefit of being able to see all of these wonderful people so much more often. While we have made plenty of cruising friends, we have missed those land lubbers who have supported us and loved us through all of our crazy travels. They say it takes an village to raise a baby, and it will be nice to be close to people who can come running when we raise the white flag!

Being in this middle limbo between land and sea has only made this situation worse. Due to our transmission issue, we have been stuck in the same place for a month now. We are neither land lubbers nor out enjoying the ocean breezes on our faces, soaking up the last bits of sailing we will be doing for awhile. I think the latter part has gotten us in more of a funk than anything. Knowing that our time on the boat is coming to an end, we are both eager to get in as much sailing as we can and being stuck at a dock is just miserable.

On the other hand, we *think* we have decided that Little River, SC will be our new home we are eager to get her up to the marina and begin the process of decommissioning her to be sold. We have lots of cleaning, sprucing up and moving off to do before she can be shown and we both realize that the winter season is closing in on us faster than we would like. Ideally, we will have her sold before cold sets in, but time is of the essence.

Nor can we search out apartments and jobs until we have gotten settled in our new location. So, here we sit, in limbo - trying to plan out our next moves and get a jump on anything we can to make our transition easier, but also trying to enjoy the last few months of boat ownership. Neither is easy in our current state and I think we are both ready to get a move on and hurry this process up on all accounts.

I think a good day of sailing out on the water is just what the doctor ordered...