Expectations

We concluded the summer where we began this fifth year of summer cruising. The mission for 2016 was to explore the Chesapeake, and instead of wandering freely as we have in the past, we choose to have a home base. It was a good call as various complications made having a slip advantageous. Though, I will admit it felt odd to end in the same place we started.

The first complication was Carrie Rose’s house battery failure and the second was a malfunction in the charging system. And then there was the unprecedented heat. If you can imagine, we fled home to Chicago in August to escape the heat! On the face of it, that made little sense but it proved to be another good call.

Carrie Rose (CR) was lifted out of the water on September 19, probably prematurely. Locals were quick to explain that the best part of the cruising season in the Chesapeake is fall. But there were other considerations; two of the most pressing are Charlotte’s 92 year old parents.

When I reviewed the logbook for this year, we cruised for over thirty days. By that I mean in transit, lying at anchor or in a distant marina, and exploring the rivers and creeks that make up the Chesapeake. I will venture to say that before we started spending the summer on the boat, thirty days doing the above would have constituted a lifetime of cruising.

Expectations, even if met, are an odd trap to be caught up in. Odder still is that within certain bounds we do not need to have any. We are healthy enough to do what we want despite some mild stiffness and arthritis. Both of us have had run-ins with the medical profession that have left us better off. Charlotte assures me we are firmly rooted in the middle class, and memory and brain function, though slightly fleeting is serviceable.

This year’s anchorages are already appearing in my dreams, and the material for next year’s dreams is being researched. To put the last five years in perspective is a noble thought but I think I will look to the future. By my reckoning, there are eight months left to ponder next year’s expectations.