Is this the end or simply a new beginning?

Croatia, 2015, giving Maple her name.

Last night when kissing Iris goodnight, I noticed she was cuddling her alpaca stuffy.  I couldn’t stop myself from grinning. To think that a year and a half ago we were traipsing around the beauty of Peru. What an amazing life you have led, baby girl. You have lived full time on a sailboat for half of your life, in that time exploring 32 different countries in 6 continents.  What a gift these 5 years have been for our family.  My heart brims with so much happiness with being able to pull off this lifestyle for as long as we have. 

We had some exciting plans this year.  We were going to add 5 more countries to our tally. But the world as we know it has stopped. Our good fortune has left us spending this time of great uncertainty here in the stunning jewel of the South Pacific. We have our health, we have financial security for the time being and we have a roof over our heads.  We have nothing but gratitude for what opportunities we have had in our lives. If we need to stop this lifestyle today, we have no regrets with the choices that have brought us here. 

We have been doing much talking and planning, as challenging as that is at a time like this.  We knew that we could not maintain this lifestyle forever, the bank account balance is dwindling. Our plan had always been when that time came, we would sell Maple and use the proceeds from the boat to settle ourselves somewhere to be determined to replenish the bank account. The reality is that time is approaching. 

We are not ready to end this journey.  We really wanted to explore Asia with the girls.  Unfortunately in this current climate, this is highly improbable. So what now?  Sell the boat?  Wait another year in French Polynesia to see if borders reopen?  With our current finances we will only pull off two more years if we are lucky. 

Hmmm...

....after 30 days of confinement we had a mind-blowing revelation...

....after years of saying we would NEVER sail to Canada, perhaps we could introduce Maple to her home port after all?!

Sure it is costly to import Maple and we need to reacquaint ourselves with winters (sob!). But by keeping Maple, we have a home that is already paid for so it means we could actually afford to live on the south coast again, enabling us to be close to family.  It also would allow us to feel we can easily adopt this nomadic lifestyle again as we understand the pull of the ocean is strong.

Even though the saying is “plans are written in the sand at low tide”, we are fairly certain this is the direction we are going to head. Sail to Canada, return to the only province the four of us have ever called home. What is unknown is the route we will take to sail there.  We hope as the months pass we will be able to form a plan on how many miles, countries and time it will take to sail Maple to her home port.  We have more questions than answers at this stage, but we have a goal that excites all of us!  

I hope this finds everyone safe and healthy during this time and we will post more as plans firm up.