After the holidays … back to normal?

A good, old-fashioned New England white Christmas. Cold, but beautiful.

Leaving Cups to celebrate Christmas in Boston is not so out of the ordinary for us. Although we spent many holiday seasons abroad and aboard Nine of Cups, we’ve probably spent just as many at home with family. Yes, we love Christmas, but it’s physically and emotionally draining sometimes. We always feel a sigh of relief when the celebrating is over, we return to Cups and start a new year … back to our version of “normal”.

Looking at the year ahead of us, however, 2018, right from the git-go, does not portend to be “normal”. We plan to spend the New Year with friends in Delaware, then head back to Cups in mid January. Only this January when we climb back aboard, we won’t be unloading tons of supplies and spares and it won’t be to provision and sail off to our next destination. Instead, we’ll be unloading the last of our gear into Blue and completing the decommissioning of Cups so she can be trucked to her new home and owners in California.

Nine of Cups will be heading off into the Pacific with her new crew.

Sad? Not so much. I think it’ll be a bittersweet moment when we see her all bare and mastless loaded onto the truck and driving away. Perhaps when we see her splashed on the other end with a new owner at the helm will elicit some emotion. On the other hand, finding our new “normal” as we work to upfit Blue and make plans for our upcoming adventures is exciting and satisfying. We’ve decided that Blue doesn’t have to be completely finished before we begin our new journey. Much like leaving the dock the first time, we can leave at the point where the basics are covered. Blue will be a work in progress just like our lives.

Neither snow nor rain nor cold nor gloom of night stays this van-meister from upfitting Blue!