When going off on some grand adventure, there are always some expectations. Before this voyage, I expected beautiful islands, stunning sunsets, lots of water, interesting food, and great memories. The trip lived up to those expectations and more; but looking back - I learned some unexpected things as well:
- After a long crossing, land smells like warm, moist, potting soil.
- There's a lot of floating garbage in the ocean. Even days away from land, we usually were never more than 10 minutes from a random piece of plastic, a shoe, and once even a suitcase. (We turned around to pick the suitcase up.)
- Despite the fact that the rest of the world doesn't necessarily agree with USA foreign policy, I felt that as American travelers we were universally welcomed.
- Random strangers in the world can be very friendly. Government officials in other countries can cause needless headaches.
- We were proud to not have an outboard engine for our dinghy for the first half of the trip, but when we were given one in Australia, no one complained.
- Other cruisers sort themselves to different parts of the world by type. There's a distinct "Georgetown, Bahamas" type, a "Pacific Crosser" type (which sorts themselves into one, two, or three year Pacific transiters, "Australian Cruisers," and "Rally Sailors."
- You don't need 'things' in life: I used less than half of the stuff I brought on board with me. The rest grew mold.
- Other cruiser nationalities (my observations), ranked by quantity: 1) Americans, 2) British, 3) Australian, 4) Polish, 5) Austrian, 6) Swedish/Norwegian, 7) Dutch, 8) French.
- Nothing is as hard as it seems, but many things take a lot hard work.
There are countless more memories and lessons from the trip that I will always carry with me. Now that I'm back in the USA, I'm returning to work as an economist. However, I hope that my experiences will give me a new perspective in my work.
Finally, thanks to everyone that followed along throughout the voyage. It was a sincere pleasure sharing everything we could with all of you.
Fair winds.