Life without Winni

[Dave R]

Originally Posted by LIforrelaxin

Honestly after over 30 years on Winnipesaukee, the change has been refreshing and welcomed with open arms. While Winni, has some undeniable charms.... they have also caused her to become a popular destination. It simply isn't the same lake I grew up on. With my family owning on the lake I was allowed some luxuries that kept boating enjoyable, such as the easy of early morning or late evening boat rides in the summer on the weekends before and after the crowds. My biggest joy here in Texas, is not feeling like I have to "Time" my rides to avoid high usage times.......

I do have a goal, in retirement to do some boating on the ocean..... time will tell if I get there or not.....Because I also want to spend time RVing around the country....

My switch to "coastal" boating coincided with a massive lifestyle change/simplification too. A year after my wife and I started boating exclusively on the coast, we sold our big country home (kids had grown up and moved out) and bought a small but comfortable Hampton Beach condo 1500 feet from the boat.

Hampton Beach is definitely not a place I would have wanted to raise my kids, but it's a blast to live here now, even in the Winter. That said, we hope to start cruising full-time next year, so our Winters will be spent down south and some future Summers will be spent lake boating, just on bigger lakes, like Champlain, Huron, Michigan, and Ontario.

Ping me if you ever want to discuss coastal/canal/river/big lake cruising, it's pretty special, but there's LOT more to think about and deal with compared to Winni boating. It's so cool to leave my slip and spend weeks away every Summer exploring the New England/NY coast, can't wait to turn those weeks into years and extend our cruising from 7 states to 20+ states and a couple of countries.

How cool is it that we can just anchor pretty much anywhere we want and take our dinghy out to explore stuff up close and personal?