My oh my - how I have let the time slip by since the last posting. We haven't been experiencing life afloat, and that's what this blog is really about, but we have been doing some fine land based living.

We've visited with fellow sailors both at home and away - Sandra and Steve (Yonder and Hillary) stopped by on their way north where they spent the summer sailing the shores of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Quebec. David and Alex (Banyan) came over for dinner one night and we loved hearing about their first long cruising season as we remembered ours - they left Halifax in July 2012 and travelled all the way to Grenada, where they left Banyan for the summer. Mona and Nancy (formerly Gemini from Kingston Yacht Club) were in town between touring Newfoundland and a train trip back to Kingston. They are always full of delightful stories of sailboats and beaches and cruises. We visited Carole and Richard (Kilissa) in Lusby, Maryland, and met up with Tessa and Jeff (Inamorata) in Baltimore. We stopped by Trident Yacht Club in Gananoque, ON to say hi to Liz and Lee and Phil and Donna and Grant and anyone else who wasn't too busy with the mast installations that were going on that day. And we spent a couple of wonderful evenings with Mary and Blair (Strathspey) in Ottawa - catching up on their cruise to the Bahamas and Cuba last season. Jim spent an afternoon sailing in Mahone Bay with our neighbour, Wake, on a boat belonging to a friend of his, and we had a fabulous sail one breezy afternoon with Pam and Gary (Atlantic Star).

It was great fun to see the large sailing yacht, Infinity, on the waterfront in July. We were anchored near it in Placencia, Belize, as well as in other spots throughout the cays. When we spoke to one of the crewmembers, he remembered us as "that small cutter" that was also anchored off Colson Cay one morning when we all had to relocate because of changing winds and uncomfortable waves. Small cutter! Hmph! But at least he remembered us!

For the rest of the time, we have thrown ourselves into the "around and about at home" part of our lives - visits with family, seashore time at our Northumberland Strait cottage, gatherings on our deck with neighbours and friends, and regular infusions of theatre and music. We've kept active with yoga (me) and the gym (Jim), regular walks along the Halifax waterfront - where the amazing solar vessel Turanor Planet Solar was docked for a week (check it out at www.planetsolar.org) - and bike rides on the trails of Nova Scotia's South Shore and in the Lehigh Valley that lies snuggled into the Pocono mountains of Pennsylvania. We satisfied some of our parental instincts by helping Alex move from one Ottawa apartment to another, and feeding Mary Beth from time to time. We listened from afar to Liam's stories of life in New Zealand and gave them all a proud hurrah for the way they have developed and grown.

In July, we enjoyed a fabulous first trip to Les Isles de la Madeleine with friends Peggy and Glenn. We have no real excuse for taking so long to get ourselves over there, but we sure do wish we had gone many years ago. Although these islands are part of the province of Quebec, they are closer to Prince Edward Island, and we reached them via a 5 hour ferry ride from Souris, PEI. All except Entry Island are connected by a road, and our short stay was filled with drives from top to bottom - stopping off to enjoy the gorgeous beaches in the northeast and the lovely village of La Grave in the southwest. We biked around Havre-aux-Maisons and visited the Fumoir and the Fromagerie there. All the harbours were well maintained we were told that visiting sailboats are welcome. Guess where we will go when we eventually bring Madcap north again?

It is a little bit difficult to maintain a house, a cottage and a sailboat, and we re-examine our choices from time to time to make sure they still work for us. When we left Ottawa, we sold house and cars and many of our belongings - not knowing quite what we wanted to do next. Over the course of those first 16 months full time on the boat we decided that we wanted a land base for part of the year. A year in a condo taught us that we still wanted a house and garden, and that we wanted to be part time on land and part time on a boat. It's 4 years now since we bought our Halifax home and it is still feeling good - with a sweet back garden and fabulous neighbours and easy walks to everywhere we want to go. Time at the family cottage reminds us that Amherst Shore is still a treasured space full of past memories and present joys - and one we want to continue to enjoy. And then, we look at our beautiful Madcap - that boat we fell in love with back in 2003. She has carried us many miles - down the eastern seaboard and back up again, to the Bahamas for 3 winters and to Belize and Guatemala with stops in Mexico and Cuba, and she waits for us now in the Rio Dulce ready for another winter of revisiting familiar places and discovering new ones.

And so, the decisions are made for another year: all three "homes" are still important to us. Both our lifestyles - the one afloat, and the one on land still suit us. We'll embrace the next two months of our land life, and then we'll set off again on our nomadic life, and we'll see what happens after that.

We wish you all happy times of introspection, decisions, and plans for what will come next!