It ain't over...however;

We made it to Sardinia and are busy winterizing Gertrude. The weather is getting worse by the day. It’s in the 50’s and 60’s now and really windy. Burrrrrrr.

We have decided to leave Gertrude here for the winter and return to Charleston. We needed to make a change as the weather won’t allow us to continue sailing like we have been the past few months. Our options were listed in our poll and even though most wanted us to sail back across the Atlantic it was vetoed by Charles and me.

In order to sail across the Atlantic we would need to be in the Canary Islands by mid November. To meet that deadline we would need to do some serious sailing over the next month. Neither one of us was up for that. We also thought it would be better to keep Gertrude in the Med so we can enjoy her next summer. We have been cruising the Med for a couple of months and we still have a lot we want to see. If we brought her back we wouldn’t be back in the Med until we circumnavigated in a few years. Leaving her in Sardinia will enable us to be back in May and spend a couple weeks sailing her to Tunisia and Greece. Then we can sell her, sail her back, or keep her in Greece.

It’s actually cheaper to keep her here than it would be in Charleston. So even though it is tough to leave her and leave Italy, in the long run I think it is the right move.

So now what are we going to do? We will live in my parent’s condo on Daniel Island temporarily. Our tenants will be moving out of our houses in a couple months. Once one is free we will move back home. Charles will get back into diving. He has missed it. I have not decided what I will do yet. I am still processing our adventure. I have several options, and one of the things we are both looking forward to in our return is making money again!

Here is a list of some other things we have missed over the past 5 months.
Normal Milk

West Marine

TV: Super Natural, CNN

Consistent refrigeration

Barack Obama

Being able to easily communicate

Chicken Fingers

Smiles and waves

Charleston Restaurants

American Hamburgers

Friends/Family

Olivia

Fossil diving

dolphins

dock fingers

Easy Access to Fresh Water

Good night sleep

Cheaper Gas

American Dollar

Ice

Target

Sticky Fingers Ribs

Real BBQ!

Pizza Delivery

Large Cokes with lots of ice