One Year Anniversary - What Have We Learned?

Leaving Gig Harbor - July 12, 2018

It's been one year today that we left our home port of Gig Harbor. We have travelled over 2,500 miles, visited 29 ports, cruised both coasts of the United States and a portion of the Sea of Cortez. I can attest to the fact that A LOT of lessons have been learned, both boating lessons and life lessons. Many overlap:

• You can choose a time or a place to arrive, but not both....We choose place, thus NoETA.
  
• It can be an adventure or an ordeal - you choose.
  
• There are ALWAYS people who know more. Ask questions. Listen.
  
• Take the good, leave the bad.
  
• Drop the prejudice.
  
• Hitting the bottom isn't always bad. Hopefully you recover and learn from it. You might even clean off some barnacles.
  
• Getting into and out of a dinghy is never graceful.
  
• Patience. There is probably a bridge ahead you'll need to wait for anyway.
  
• Stop complaining. Most people have so much more to be worried about. And most of them aren't complaining.
  
• Learn people's names. The security guard, the dock hands, the woman at the laundromat. Treating people as human goes a long way.
  
• Eat where the locals eat.
  
• Don't like it? Fix it.
  
• Everything is broken on your boat, you just don't know it yet.
  
• Need a 90 cent boat part to fix it? They don't have it. And it WILL halt your project.
  
• Be creative, you WILL figure it out.
  
• The cruising world is small. You WILL run into someone that knows someone you met last year or last port or last anchorage.
  
• We really need less than we have. Even true after downsizing and living on a boat.
  
• Chill out.
  
• Everyone does it different. And that's the beauty of cruising.
  
• Everyone cruises for a different reason. Hearing the stories can be eye opening.
  
• Is 'Busy' what you say when someone asks how you're doing? That was my go to answer for 20 years. Yeah, that's not said in Mexico.
  
• Mañana doesn't mean tomorrow, it just means 'not today'.
  
• Slow down, you might miss something, like a reef or a crab pot.
  
• Have a dream? Follow it! Sounds cliche, but if you wait too long, you'll never do it.
  
  
  

The crew of MV Noeta: Alexa, Hailey, Jack & Pat