My Desultory Blog

Reposted on June 23rd … after Judy and Mark Handley arrived back where they started 5-1/2 years ago …

Day 241, Year 6 Home Again, Home Again

Date: Thursday, June 23, 2011
Weather: Totally Overcast with Rain Late in the Day
Temperature: 68 degrees daytime; 61 degrees evening
Latitude: 41 31.528 N
Longitude: 070 40.226 W
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Miles Traveled: 687

When our children were small, we read to them from The Wind in the
Willows by Kenneth Grahame. Our favorite line was, “There is nothing –
absolutely nothing -half so much worth doing as simply messing about in
boats.” We took that seriously and sailed away from Cape Cod over five
and a half years ago with the goal of sailing around the world. Today
that goal was realized when we returned to Cape Cod. We can now
officially say that we reached our goal and I don’t really have words to
express the feeling of accomplishment. What a wonderful world it is
out there and we can think of no better way to see it and meet its
people than sailing in the comfort of your own home, in our case,
Windbird. And now it is a strange feeling to say we are home. We are
always at home because Windbird is our home, no matter where in the
world she may be. We lived aboard Windbird in Boston prior to leaving
in October of 2005, but we will probably not be returning there. We
worked in Concord, New Hampshire, a place we called home for fifteen
years prior to leaving, but we will probably not be returning there.
When we have come “home” to visit during our circumnavigation, we have
stayed with our daughter here on Cape Cod. Two of our three
grandchildren live here and we are going to stay here for the summer
months and decide where to next. So rather than saying we are home,
maybe it is best just to say that Windbird in back in home territory. I
think we have become true wanderers. That might sound a bit roguish,
but as JRR Tolkien once said, “Not all who wander are lost.” The
statistics from our voyage speak for themselves:
Total Miles Traveled:?????????39,060
Total Miles In Passages:????????30,648
Total Islands Visited:?????????..~ 190
Total Countries or Separate Political Entities: ~ 36
Total Continents Visited????????.5 of 7
For those of you who have traveled with us through these logs, we
want to thank you for sticking with us. Even though the voyage is
officially ended, I’m going to continue writing logs. It has become
such a part of my life that I just can’t stop here. Besides, the
circumnavigation might be completed, but who knows what new adventure
lurks just around the corner?

On an ancient wall in China
Where a brooding Buddha blinks
Deeply graven is the message–
It is later than you think.
The clock of time is wound but once and
No man has the power,
To tell just when the hand will stop
At late or early hour.
Now is all the time you own,
The past a golden link.
Go cruising now my brother
It is later than you think.