During our holiday break from the boat, we made a very brief trip back through Toronto to pick up our car from storage — one of Brian’s favorite highlights (picking up the car that is). We stayed with our longtime friends Rob and Lisa and their daughter, Tory, who is Oliver’s bestie from birth.

It felt full-circle when we returned to Toronto to drop off the car — even briefer this time due to testing snafus — and waved goodbye to them as we turned south once again. Back at RCYC, their boat was parked right next to ours on the dock. When we finally threw off the lines last July, they were on the dock waving goodbye as we set off.

When we left, we knew that we would be taking this break after six months on the boat. Mentally, it felt great to know that part of November and all of December in comfortable, familiar surroundings, seeing family and friends — our far-flung, but wonderful community of people we love. Returning to the boat now feels like a new phase of our cruising adventure. I know that we won’t be seeing any of these awesome people for at least a year. And while I’m looking forward to what the next year brings, I miss my people intensely. It almost as hard saying goodbye this time around.

The flip side of this is that as much as I miss my community of great friends and family, I have no regrets about what we’re doing. (And I’m typing this after an AWFUL week on the boat! So that really means something.) I wasn’t sure how I’d feel being back in Toronto, whether I’d feel like I want to roll back into my old life and my house. And to my relief, I didn’t feel that way at all. I had intense joy at seeing friends, walking through my old neighborhood, seeing places that are so familiar. And no feeling that I wanted to be back yet.