A year.
Specifically, a cruising year.
What a difference it makes.
Larry Webber aboard Catriona (one of our buddy boats from this summer in the Bahamas) hit his one-year cruising anniversary this past week and got me thinking about this. Larry logged just over 3,000 miles in his first year, from Maine to Florida to the Bahamas and back to Florida, all single-handing. As we talked about what this year has been like, it hit me again just how big that first-year learning curve is and how much easier things get around the one-year mark.
On the surface, it’s knowing your boat better. Knowing the lifestyle. Far fewer things are brand-new.
But there are other things such as learning how you prefer to cruise. Learning what you enjoy and what frustrates you. Experience makes such a difference. But it’s also a mental shift: getting used to living on the move, becoming comfortable with more uncertainty, learning to live in sync with the weather.
It’s not uncommon to struggle in that first year. We sure did! For specific steps you can take to make it easier, check out my free mini-course: Overcoming that First-Year Learning Curve.
Hang on: you can do this!
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