Well, we've been busy making things official (marriage and cruising). In the last several weeks we've both given notice at work, and Julia's last day is 1 week from today. In fact, both of our jobs were very supportive and offered 6 month leaves of absence. It works out very well given the timing of the Mexico cruising season, if we get down there and have had enough, we'll have great jobs to come back to.

It's been interesting now that we are in a position to speak more openly with our friends at work about our plans. Most people are supportive, but there's usually an element of hesitation, or a feeling that they are holding back from saying what's really going on in their head. Often I get the feeling that it would be much easier for people to fit our trip into their cognitive framework if we had some goal. If we were doing a long-distance ocean race, people would get it immediately. We could probably even be tracing the route of some obscure lumber schooner and people would still accept it more readily than just going cruising.

The author of one of my favorite sailing blogs refers to his sailing as a '15 year circumnavigation to say goodbye to the world.'