When is a Trip Not a Trip?

During a recent telephone conversation with a friend, I was asked if I was having a good trip. My first reaction was to assure him that I was. But as I thought more about it, my response reflected on a different question: was I actually on a trip at all?

This cruising life that we've adopted has begun to change the way I think about things. For instance, if we're on a trip, at what point does it come to an end – when we arrive in Virginia? In Maine? Back in Virginia in the fall? I could go on from here, but I suspect you get my point. Although we are traveling, the concept of a trip seems not to fit as it once might have. In the past, we'd go on a trip and then return home to pick up our lives where we left off prior to the trip. In our current lifestyle, we travel and then stop for a bit before traveling some more. Some stops may last two to four months, but the stops aren't necessarily in the same place, so it's not like that spot is home.

And this raises yet another question that has become somewhat difficult to answer: where is home? The question appears so simple, and yet when I'm asked the question, I've begun to struggle with the answer. If the question comes from another cruiser, I can explain our situation in a way that is understood. But if the question comes from someone else, I have some difficulty coming up with a meaningful response. I could say that our home is Gloucester, Virginia. However, what's there is a storage unit and a post office box that we don't use much. We are still registered to vote there, but we don't spend much of the time there anymore . But if that's not it, where would we say home is?

Sometimes I tell people our boat is our home wherever I may be. Home is no longer a geographical location for us. For most people, this doesn't really compute. Sometimes it still doesn't even compute for us either. This lifestyle just doesn't fit any norm that ordinary people can relate to. But it does seem to work for us right now. In spite of the strange nature of the cruising life, we really enjoy it and are therefore willing to put up with its non- traditional nature. In some ways I could say it's a product of our motto and boat's name: Carpe Diem.

For those interested in where we are, we're still in south Florida. We left Vero Beach today heading north on the ICW. We're aiming toward St. Augustine, America's oldest city and hope to be there by the end of the week. As always, you can check out our location on Shiptrak.org. Just enter my callsign N1SFR to get our latest anchorage.

Captain Bob

Carpe Diem