Final Entry For Awhile. Thank You All.

It's been quite a ride, both blog-wise and Drift Away-wise.   Our first blog entry was January 13, 2011 and was titled Beginning of the blog of Drift Away, our 1980 46' Cheoy Lee trawler.   Including this one, there have been 633 entries since then, and over 200,000 page views.  One of our followers, MarkJ, happened to be the 100,000 hit.  He then prided himself on being number 200,000 and was kind enough to send this screen shot.  We have 90 regular followers, for which I'm grateful.  Each of you will be receiving a bottle of Dom with a thank you card.

I've tried to be honest in showing our lifestyle in this blog.  And that's what it is, a lifestyle blog.  It's not a cruising blog really, because we spend so much time in each place that we stop that we like.  We cruise, but at a glacial paces.  It's not truly a liveaboard blog because we actually move from time to time.  And move we did.  1,429 nautical miles.

We left Seaview House Marina in Stamford on September 20th, 2011.  Our intended destination was Liberty Landing Marina in New Jersey, but we lost both engines and were towed to Oyster Bay in Long Island.  Not a good start.  It's all in Getting SeaTowed.  But Pam and I eventually made it to Albany, got married, and then headed south.  Our worst time on Drift Away was losing both engines off Sandy Hook in very rough seas.  One to two foot seas was forecast, but kicked up to six footers, which shook up all the gunk in our old fuel tanks.  Luckily, I don't get seasick easily and I spent hours in the engine room, getting one engine at a time to start and move us a bit before it died again.  It's all in Getting the Snot Kicked Out of Us.  We spent almost three weeks in Atlantic Highlands while I fixed the problem of fouled fuel tanks for good, installing a fuel polishing system and two Filter Bosses.

Since that time, we've traveled all the way down to Florida, and Drift Away has been pretty much flawless.  In total, we've traveled 1,429 nautical miles, which for my landlubber friends is 1,643 statute miles.  We've gotten together with many friends along the way, most of which we've met through the internet.  Not a crazy one in the bunch.  Oh sure, a tad off center perhaps, but aren't we all?

We've made many new friends too.  Perhaps our fondest memories are our liveaboard friends and locals that we met at Isle of Hope Marina in Savannah.  Sadly, all those liveaboards have moved on, and it will never be the same, but I think we captured the spirit of that group fairly well in this blog.

This is the final blog entry for Drift Away for some time.  We're heading out, towing a U-Haul full of our stuff and headed for Bleecker New York where we'll begin the process of putting down roots and building our Unabomber homestead.  You can follow our progress on that blog, Bleecker Mountain Life.   Like restoring Drift Away, we'll be doing much of the work ourselves, which should be pretty comical.  As you know, I don't sugar coat anything to make myself look good.  I do stupid stuff all the time, and I'm pretty proud of the fact that I still have all of my fingers and appendages.

We'll be busy all day today loading up the U-Haul here, then driving to Brunswick to fetch the rest of our stuff out of storage, and then spend a few days driving up to Bleecker in upstate New York.  Internet coverage will be spotty, but I'll update Bleecker Mountain Life as often as I can.  I'll be looking forward to seeing you there.

Although I just found out the cabin we're renting has only a woodstove for heat, we plan on staying there through Christmas and then returning to Drift Away and heading south more.  Unless Drift Away sells.  Who knows?

Last night's  sunset.

Sunrise, sunset

Sunrise, sunset

Swiftly fly the years

One season following another

Laden with happiness and tears

See you in Bleecker. Or I'll see you here in January 2014.