Sunset On Long Summer
This season is going to be an emotional one. Our last one.
After 4 years aboard it’s time for us to hang up our sailing gloves and figure out how to be landlubbers again. The sun is setting on our Long Summer era. Selling her has been a difficult decision, and has perhaps come sooner than initially expected. Although we know that ultimately it is the right decision for our family. Come the end of the summer she will be under the care of her new owners.
As self-professed non-boaters with no prior sailing experience, in the past few years we’ve managed to eke out an adventure full of ridiculous capers and halcyon days. In some ways it feels like we are only just hitting our stride - every season that we’re aboard gets easier. But in other ways the tide has turned and it’s time for us to settle on land for a while and see where that takes us.
When we started this journey our eldest hadn’t quite turned 4, our youngest was barely 2. They have spent more than half their lives calling Long Summer home. Living full time on a boat is hard work. Doing it whilst raising & educating two young kids, and running your own business, has been more challenging and rewarding than we could have ever imagined. And having unknowingly moved aboard just months before the pandemic hit, spending the Covid years on a boat with two preschoolers was both a wise and questionable circumstance!
We have made a lifetime of unforgettable memories aboard Long Summer, and have had so many irreplaceable experiences. This escapade has been more than we could have ever hoped for. We have poured our literal blood, sweat and tears, our hearts and our souls, into this project. And in return it has rewarded us to no end. We are so proud of all that we have achieved in this sailing life.
There are plenty of things we won’t miss about life aboard, and there is oh-so much that we will. Who knows, maybe the boating life will call us again in the future. But in the meantime we’re simply going to enjoy our last summer aboard. This is going to be a very bittersweet ending for sure.
