Epilogue

Captain's Log

      Here's how Doug described our trip:  "It was, at individual times, beautiful, memorable, stressful, relaxing, troublesome, worrisome, frightening, frustrating, inspiring, and a wonderful blast."

      Kat was a bit more economical with her words:  "A beautiful mess."

      My biggest unanswered question still is:  which side is better, the southern Atlantic side, or the northern Gulf side?  Unlike boats with short masts, who could cross over back and forth at will, we were stuck making a decision early on and living with it.  Here is an analysis, by topic:

• Other sailboats:  I can count on one hand the number of sailboats we saw on the Gulf side, which often made us feel kinda lonely.  Would there have been more on the other side?  Possibly; Joe had told us that most of their charterers go that way.  The Atlantic side wins this one, by a narrow margin.
• Wave roughness:   The glassy-smooth Gulf side wins this one by a long shot.
• Water clarity:  The Gulf side clearly wins.
• Scenery:   All the little islands on the Gulf side were gorgeous!  I don't think the Atlantic side had anything like that.
• Snorkeling reefs:   The Atlantic side wins here.  All of Pinnekamp park is over there.
• Wind & weather:   Nearly every day we saw storms brewing out in the Atlantic.  Did that mean they had more wind there?  Well, yeah, but I don't really want THAT kind of wind.  The Gulf side wins this one.
• Anchorages:   I'm getting conflicting information on this one.  The cruising guide barely mentioned any at all on the Atlantic side, yet Joe said that they're there.  So I don't know.
• Marinas & provisions:   Probably more on the Atlantic side that could fit a big boat like ours.  But that conflicts with the next topic:
• Getting away from it all:  Yeah there were likely more man-made creature comforts over on the Atlantic side, but we pretty much wanted to get away from all that, especially considering that any facility of civilization comes with that noisy old Highway #1.  Gulf side wins this one.

      So all-in-all, I think we made the right choice.

So long, till next trip!

    And so, the conversation has been started as to where to go on our next bareboat sailing charter.  Perhaps back to the Caribbean, funds permitting.  Or the Bahamas; I'm trying to find a relatively inexpensive trip option there.  Still another option:  Puget Sound up in Washington State (where the water is too cold for swimming).

      Stay tuned!