April 1, 2014.

This is always one of my favorite posts to write during the year.  Back in 2008
 I first got the idea to do a little fibbing in the spirit of April First.  I was surprised at the success of my efforts which garnered a lot of feedback including hearing that my Mother in Law had called me foul names after falling for my prank.

I followed up 2008's murderess with this effort in 2009 .  In hindsight, I consider it to be a disappointment.  Not with what I wrote but the fact that relations with Cuba were never normalized.  Truthfully, I did find my lie to be a little underwhelming.

As they say, go big or go home so I went a little more sensationalistic in  2010
The story met with mixed reviews as being a little too gory, which surprised me since 2 years before a man had been shot in the chest but tear a toe off a child and everybody gets all squeamish.

The pressure was on in 2011
and I came up with a post that all my fellow fishermen wanted to believe in.  It was a fun post that got a lot of feedback and people still make a reference to the lobster whistle every now and again.

In 2012
I decided to grab people by their empathy and squeeze it.  The feedback I got was touching.  Several people assured me that depression wasn't a weakness and offered to be there if I needed to talk.  I'm still not sure if they were pranking me back or not, but I still feel lucky to count those people among my friends.

We still have friends who believe in our posting from 2013
It's not that our friends are gullible.  It's just that the lie was easy to swallow as the trawler thing is so common when it comes to sailing cruisers.  Alright, maybe they are gullible.

But all this leaves me with what to do for 2014.  I was bemoaning the fact to Christy that I was drawing a blank.  She looked at me and said "I'll write it".  Christy edits most of the posts that I write but as best I can remember she's only written 1 post in our blogs history.  So if she wants the ball with the game on the line, I'll pass it over....

April 1, 2014.

As another great winter in the Bahamas comes to a close, we have been reminiscing about our journey as cruisers!  We have been so lucky to live this life, that many people can only dream of.  We were looking back through old pictures and reread our earlier blog posts, and OMG were we green!  When we look back, we are so proud of our accomplishments.

Yeah sure, there have been beautiful beaches, secluded anchorages, gorgeous sunsets, fabulous fishing and lobstering, really interesting quaint towns, fun restaurants and bars, stories and lives shared but the best of all these times have been the people that we have met along the way.  

Whether they have been fellow cruisers or locals, wherever we have been, the most important, fun, interesting, revealing, heartwarming and loving part of the whole adventure has been the people that we have met.  

So we would like to thank all of you who have been a part of our cruising life, those who have made the good times better and the not so good times bearable!!  We have so many awesome memories of these years and we know that we will relive them for years to come.

So with that, we have decided that the timing is right for us to move on to our next adventure, whatever that may be.

At some point after we return to Annapolis, the Veranda will be up for sale.  A new engine and new sails, its time.

We will miss all of you,

You know what they say....Timing is everything...........

P.S. Immediately after posting this we pulled the hook and headed for the states.  See you in a few days....