The difficulty with most oft quoted adages is that invariably they are incorrect, often diametrically. No fences make better neighbors than good ones. Enemies are far better a long way off and friends close. As to the happiest two days of a boat owners life. Well that's nuts. When we bought Mandy we were full of foreboding and worry that we had spent too much, that we knew too little, and that we were chasing dreams we had no right to. Now that we sell her we have knots in our stomachs and a cavernous feeling of loss - "saudade" I believe is the word in Gallego. Of course its crazy to feel this way about a bunch of plastic, wood and canvas held together with varnish but she was our ticket to adventure. Perhaps you have to be a sailor to get it.
But everything between those bookends of angst has been almost all joy. The skills we have learned, the mentors we have followed, the fear we have overcome, the wonders we have beheld and the goodness of the people we encountered, none of this would have been possible without our little boat.
At Green Turtle Cay in the Bahamas we met two young twenty year olds. Each had a boat of their own in which they probably had about $7,000 apiece invested. They came aboard Mandy in their blow up kayaks which served as their dinghies. On route to Cuba, these two young lads were bright, vital and totally engaged. How does it get any better? Here managing the Inn we have met countless folks who seem to be in a complex-life induced haze, to whom the promise of a weekend in the mountains comes laden with expectations, but in the event their senses are not alive enough in the moment to really see the place they visit. There has to be so much more. So, for those entertaining the dream, if we can give you anything, it is a nudge, a push, a shove, whatever it takes to make your leap, get your boat and cast off.
We are shortly to embark on a new adventure to the rigors of south central Montana, living in some of the most spectacular country we have ever witnessed. We now entrust Mandy to Bob and Erin Young, no doubt now full of the same excited apprehension that we had when we took over from Karen and Steve. They will be the fourth couple she has owned and in keeping with all their predecessors they plan to live aboard. For us this is wonderful since it ensures that this very special little ship can continue to be vibrant, cared for and off over the horizon on new adventures. We wish them the very very best and if they have half the fun we did they will never regret one minute.