To Blog or not to Blog any more...?

[Kyle]Well, that's it. I have now run out of steam.

Maryanne and I started this blog sixteen years ago as a way for our friends and families to keep track of us as much or as little as they wished. The idea was that we could put the big adventure story here, and thus not have to be "those people" in person when talking to others who don't get as much vacation time.

To be honest, we find that most people really aren't interested in our travels anyway. I always wanted the life I ended up living to be interesting to the younger me as something I could dream for. When I compare the dream and the life after, I feel like I did a pretty good job. To others, it may be too unusual to their experience to have a common point of reference, or it might just be something that doesn't appeal to them. At any rate, it has been a nice record for Maryanne and me of our time together. Every now and then, we'll bring up some old entry and relive an event together as we read it to each other.

I have often thought of our cruising as a farewell tour of the planet. This is partly because Maryanne and I feel we have too limited life spans to see so many of the world's beautiful places that draw us. Also, especially lately, it feels like we're rushing to have one last look at our beautiful home planet before it is ruined irrevocably.

Plastic and other trash - seen all over on our travels

We have seen a LOT of places all over this blue ball - more than most people get to see in several lifetimes, and the changes are unmistakeable. Between the reports of others that came before us and our own experiences as we return to places from where we have been absent for a while, it is obvious that something is wrong. Huge swathes of coral are dying in bleaching events, fish are smaller and harder to find. remote beaches are covered in plastic trash that drifted sometimes thousands of miles to get there. Even birdsong is rare in places where we would expect it to be deafening.

Don't get me wrong. There are there are still more heart-achingly beautiful places out there than we will ever have time to see. We will still be drawn to them and even take small risks with lives to see some of them, but it is hard to shake the gnawing dread that things are about to start getting bad a lot faster.

So I can't imagine anyone wanting to read about a couple of spoiled, self-indulgent retirees seeming having a permanent vacation of beach walks and sunsets, not when there is so much more serious stuff to worry about. I can't even bring myself to care about those things myself, much less sit down and write about them anymore.

We're in a better position than most. We can still sail away, although there is no "away" anymore from what's coming. We will probably still keep sailing, because that's all we've known for so long and, at least for me, stopping and settling down somewhere to ride out the rest of our lives sounds even less appealing right now. Speaking for myself, I am hoping that if I go through the motions, I might have brief moments where I forget to be worried about the storm coming over the horizon and get to experience small glimmers of joy every now and then.

After reading the above, Maryanne convinced me to keep writing the blog anyway. Without it, she argues, places will start blending together in our minds and we will forget the little day-to-day events as they filter to the bottom of the inbox of our brains, underneath newer adventures. I accept that, but it still feels like the words are more noise than music, so to speak. Anyway, for the sake of keeping a record, I'll keep going for now.

[Maryanne]The 2024 USA presidential election results are IN, and hard right politicians gain power in so many countries, all seeming to want to curtail the happiness and freedoms of some group or other. This has left Kyle and I feeling deflated with the state of the USA and world at large. The continued normalizing of hatred and violence and fear, the empowerment of those who only want power for their own personal benefit, its all too hard to face.. Sharing stories of "what a nice beach" seems so trivial and inapproriate. There is a big beautiful world out there (on all our doorsteps), there are people of all types that bring joy and deserve happiness. This blog is of course trivial to the world at large, we know that. It is the stories we see from our friends and family that include them having fun with the kids, with the pets, enjoying a sunny day, celebrating the events of life, etc that keep US happy that life goes on and joy remains in the world. This blog, I hope, will continue to bring us personal happiness, and anyone who wants to follow every post or just dip in once in a while is welcome. I'm glad to have convinced Kyle to keep going, we will do our best to stop wrecking the planet and encourage others to do so also.

FYI:Here is a website from a lovely couple of Dutch sailors we met (Ivar and Floris) Sailors for Sustainability. For those looking for a bit of uplifing, you might well enjoy it. They travelled the world looking for the "good" people and projects working for the improvement of our planet. We were lucky enough to cross paths with them and loved their enthusiasm, and their catalog of inspiring solutions.