Expectations vs Reality

Yes, I know that a cruisers plans are written in sand during low tide. I understand the need to be flexible, but I still have expectations and I still do make plans and oh, so often lately, those plans have to change. 

My expectation for this season,our second season of cruising, was that we would complete our circle of the Caribbean, going North from Bonaire to the Virgins, and continue slowly to Grenada, enjoying the places we bypassed last year, finding new things, enjoying the discovery and benefitting from our gained experience from last year.

Sailing Yacht Columbia racing in the Antigua Classics

Well, the slowly part has worked out, but not as expected. We loved our time in Bonaire, but when it was time to move on, the weather did not cooperate. We spent an extra three weeks in Bonaire waiting for a weather window.

Next stop was a quick stay in the USVI to have a few items shipped in- new batteries, additional solar panels, a watermaker, a new, more powerful alternator, a voltage regulator ( for the new alternator), and a washing machine. Many calls from Bonaire to the US were made to set this up, and it still took us three weeks, three separate trips to Customs and staying in three different marinas to pull it off.

We made it to Antigua.

Expectation- just a few days in the harbor, a few more days exploring parts of Antigua that we didn't see last year, and then move on to other islands down the chain.

Reality- Three weeks in Antigua. Sense a theme here?

Now we have polished fuel, an installed voltage regulator which now alerts us when the alternator is not charging as it should, a new chart plotter, with working GPS and AIS, and various other small issues fixed.

We are almost 3 months behind where we wanted to be. Time that we could have spent exploring, we spent waiting. We have less than two months to explore what we had hoped would take 6-7 months to see.

On the upside, we are still in the Caribbean, on our boat. We have met some wonderful people here in Antigua and got to see the beautiful ships racing in the Antigua Classics Week. We did some hiking and we have things fixed and upgraded on Rhapsody that we have spent some time hoping for.

We will enjoy the time we have left this season. I will continue to make plans, and I will continue having to change them. This is the life we have chosen, and we feel very lucky to have the opportunity to change those plans written in the sand, low tide or not.

The adventure continues...