The Best of Both Worlds

Thank you all for weighing in on yesterday’s Life of Dilemma post. Todd and I talked some more about it last night, and I think we’re going to do both. Kind of. Our vacation starts on Saturday 23 August, and ends on Monday 1 September. We have 10 days to play with, and there is a lot that he and I can do in 10 days.

We decided to bail on the Block Island plan. As much as we love Block, and as sad as it is that we haven’t been there for 2 years, there’s simply too much to do so that we can make that trip happen.

1. Our diesel engine eats fan belts. We don’t know why. Every mechanic we’ve spoken to doesn’t know why. The last thing we want is to be so many miles from shore and have our fan belt bite it. The stress that possibility produces would outweigh any relaxation benefit we’d get from being on Block for an entire week.
2. We don’t have any chain on our anchor. On Block Island there is a gimondo anchorage. Which is great, because anchoring is free. But if you’re us it’s not as happy of a thing. We do not have chain on our anchor at the moment, because while chain does wonders for helping to keep the boat where we left it, it’s impossibly heavy to lift by hand. And while we have a new anchor windlass in a box, we don’t have the time it would take to install it before the trip. Anchoring with a rope as the anchor line would also cause more stress than it would relieve, as we would constantly wonder if our boat will be where we left it.
   
   

At the moment our solution is to be on the boat for 5 of the 10 days. There are still plenty of places in Narragansett Bay that we haven’t been: Dutch Harbor, Allen Harbor, Westerly, etc.

Then for the other 5 days we’ll dive in some places we’ve never been. We’ll camp, we’ll hike, we’ll swim and all around rock out.

A Life of Dilemma

Vacation time is nearly upon us, here in Podunk, RI. I am offering you, Internet, the opportunity to weigh in on what Todd and I will do for our week of vacation. Normally we do 2 weeks, but because I’ve started a new job in June I can only take a week. Todd will take the second week anyway, and will likely do cruel things like email me pictures of him and the dogs napping, lounging, and goofing off while I am working. Nice guy, huh?

On the way in to work this morning we talked about our upcoming vacation, scheduled the last week of August, and what we should do with that week. Originally we intended to sail to Block Island and anchor there for the entire week. But this morning he brought up sailing for half the week, then doing day trip adventures for the remainder of the week: diving, canoeing, camping, etc.

I am torn. Both ideas are equally attractive to me. Here are the pros and cons of each vacation idea. Tell me which one you would pick if you were on a game show and had the chance to win either of these vacations.

Behind door number one, the sailing vacation.

Pros

1. We will be on the boat for an entire week. Our boating season has been off to a late start due to the big leak. We only went on 1 weekend trip so far and have only been night sailing on weeknights a handful of times so far.
2. We haven’t been to Block Island for a few years now. We love Block Island, and the idea of spending a relaxing week there is very appealing to us. Oh, and there’s a guy who sells pastries off his boat every morning and every evening in the anchorage on Block. There’s nothing better than hearing the guy on the Aldo’s bakery boat calling out “Andiamo! Andiamo! Andiamooooo!” every morning as you wake up. *sigh* it truly is a magical place.
3. Then there’s the restful vacation aspect of spending a week in 1 place.

Cons

1. There is little variety in activity in Block. I mean, sure we can rent mopeds or bring out bikes and explore, go kite flying, lounge on the beach and chill out. But that’s just about it.
2. We’d likely kennel the hounds while we’re on this trip. So we’d spend about $500 on kennel for them.
3. Coming and going to Block is very weather dependent. If there’s fog we’re stuck out there or stuck at our home port because our radar isn’t working yet.

Behind door number 2, the multi-adventure vacation.

Pros

1. Variety. We’d sail for a few days. We’d camp for a night, we’d canoe, we’d dive, we’d do this and do that.
2. Cost savings because we wouldn’t kennel the doggers.
3. Our adventurin’ season has gotten a late start because Todd was sick this spring. We haven’t yet been diving, camping, canoeing or anything that we love to do. So this kind of trip would give us the chance to do a lot of that.

Cons

1. We wouldn’t get to go somewhere for an entire week and just chill out and have a relaxing vacation. We’d likely be on the go constantly.
2. We wouldn’t spend much time on the boat. We spend so much money on it every year, that it feels wasteful to not spend as much time on it as possible.
3. We would probably spend a lot of money in gas getting to dive sites, camp sites and everywhere else we’d go.
   

So, knowing what you know now, which would you pick?

Thirteen Things I would Like to do This Summer 1. Scuba dive at least once per week. Todd and I like to go on night dives after work, so hopefully this one won’t be too much of a stretch. 2. We have put in for our vacation days, and if all goes well we will be on the water for roughly 16 days. We haven’t yet decided if we will sail up the coast to Maine, or if we will putter around Martha’s Vineyard, Block Island and Long Island sound. 3. Every day when I go out for lunch I pass a surf shop. One of these days I will stop in and inquire about surfing lessons. You know, because I need 1 more hobby. 4. Sail to Block Island for a weekend. We didn’t go to Block at all last summer, and we both love to sail there. 5. Live aboard our boat to the point where we only come back to the house to do our laundry. If all goes well we will move aboard this weekend, and then I might just have the cable TV shut off for the summer, and save us some money as well. 6. Remember to use sun screen every time I will be outside. I do use a body lotion that has sun protection in it, but I would like to be better at remembering to put on the sunblock too. 7. Ride around with the top down on the Jeep. Right now the temps are in the 50’s and 60’s, so it’s too cold for me. But I love nothing more than riding around with the top down, and sometimes with the doors off too. 8. Keep up with my jogging. It’s my goal to get my pedometer up to 2000 miles buy the end of the year. Right now I am at 1566, so I have a few more miles to go. 9. Go on a weekend canoeing and camping trip. Similar to the one on the CT River that I’ve been writing installments on. But shorter than that. 10. Spend a day with Todd while he’s flying his kites, and I am sitting on a blanket reading or playing my guitar. I love those days. 11. Take the dogs hiking somewhere that they will get so muddy I will have to hose them off when we get back. (Or just throw them into a body of water, that’ll do too.) 12. Take our friends on night sails during the week. Night sailing is great because most other sailors are at home in the beds. Not us. We own the bay when we are out there at night. 13. Learn how to sail our boat by myself. Links to other Thursday Thirteens!1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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Thirteen adventures Beej would like to go on Looky Looky! My first Thursday 13! 1. African Safari 2. Scuba diving in Belize. 3. Climb to the top of some very tall mountain. Not exactly Everest, per se, but some ridiculously tall one, like Rainier. 4. Canoe the entire length of the Connecticut River, from it's source in Canada, all the way between New Hampshire and Vermont, through Massachusetts, to end in Long Island Sound on the Connecticut coast. 5. Sail through the Panama Canal. 6. Visit Alaska during the Summer Solstice. 7. Hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. 8. Visit the pyramids in Egypt. 9. See penguins in their natural habitat in Antarctica. 10. Walk on the Great Wall of China. 11. Hike the Appalachian Trail. 12. Sail the South Pacific. 13. Learn to surf in Hawaii. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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