Perhaps the only good thing that came out of needing a new engine is that it caused to us to sit down and take a really hard look at what we want out of cruising and our post-cruising life. After all, we aren’t going to travel on Pegu Club forever. We were going along day-to-day on autopilot, but when Big Red died we heard the sound of a needle scratching on a record. We found ourselves looking at each other and saying, “What’s next?”
Last summer we decided to make Annapolis our cruising home base. It shortened up the travel time to get south and north which would allow us to have a bit more balance between traveling vs. staying in one place. I could drive the water taxi during the summers, and in a pinch we could stay over for the winter if a health issue prevented us from going south. We registered the car in Maryland, got our drivers licenses, rented a new UPS Store mailbox, and moved the items in our small storage unit from Groton to Annapolis.
With the need for an engine replace to the tune of $15,000, there was no doubt we were going to need to stay in Annapolis for a winter and fluff up the cruising kitty. Our savings were reaching a point we weren’t comfortable with, so it was time to work for a bit. But living on the boat in Annapolis? In the winter? Even plugged into a dock, this was NOT what we wanted. It was one thing to be forced into it for health reasons. We could suck that up. But for this? That’s not what we envisioned when we decided on Annapolis.
Long time readers of this blog know that our number one favorite spot is Beaufort, SC. From our first visit, we knew it’s where we wanted to buy a house when we swallowed the anchor, and our love for the area has only grown each year. In fact, we had decided to make it our home base last year, but my worry about hurricanes had us switching to Annapolis within a few days of that decision.
Well, it turns out my aversion to cold is MUCH stronger than my worry about hurricanes. So we decided to move our home base to Hilton Head. Why Hilton Head and not Beaufort? Because I could easily get a captain’s job there to pad our savings. That isn’t the case in Beaufort, but we would be less than an hour away so visiting friends and getting tomato pie would be easy-peasy. But then fate intervened.
I was offered – and accepted – a position as the dock master at Lady’s Island Marina in Beaufort. WHAT?? Yep!!
Back in 2020, we spent a week at Lady’s Island Marina. The owner touched on the idea of my working there, but we had only been cruising for two seasons and weren’t ready to give it up. Ever since then, I had wished the timing had been different so I could have worked at the marina. Well, now the timing is right. It’s my dream job in our dream location.
We are both thrilled with this opportunity. We love Beaufort – the low country scenery, the friendly people, the delicious food, the top-notch beach at Hunting Island State Park. We’re close to Charleston and Savannah when we want a taste of a larger city. We’ll get enough winter so that it feels like the seasons are changing, but not so harsh that I’ll spiral into my seasonal winter depression that I used to get in Connecticut. It will be hot as hell in the summer, but that’s what air conditioners are for. And I’ll take heat over cold any day.
So are we permanently swallowing the anchor? Not necessarily. We both feel we have a few more seasons left in the Bahamas, and we really like the idea of being so close to it. There’s no need to spend 6+ weeks just getting down to our jumping off point to cross over. We could dawdle, do nothing but day trips, and be in Lake Worth in around 10 days. So we’re going to take it year by year, just like with cruising.
And what about the blog? I have a few posts drafted that I still want to post, but obviously I won’t be posting as frequently as I used to. I started the blog as a “memory book” so to speak for Jeff and me, so I’ll keep posting with that in mind. Day trips by land, weekend trips on the boat (yes, we’ll still be using Pegu Club – she won’t simply be a dock queen), the occasional vacation, future trips to the Bahamas. We’ll see how it develops.
It’s all a big change for us, but morale is sky high on the Pegu Club. And we wouldn’t be in this position if Big Red hadn’t catastrophically failed. Talk about making lemonade out of lemons!