I've been fully retired for4 years, wife for 1. The boat is 2 hrs north, (Lake Champlain). Just going sailing for a day is pretty much out of the question.

During my working years I envisioned doing the ICW and on to the Bahamas. Now that reality has set in, I no longer have these aspirations. We find that 3-4 days aboard satisfy our needs to be on the boat. We used to quantify our level of a successful trip to the boat as how many nights we could anchor out, well away from the marina. Now, day sailing and returning to the dock for the night is perfectly OK. Been caught out in thunder storms too many times, had enough of that! Seems that storms are getting more severe and more numerous than in the past, (or I'm getting too old for that stuff).

Sailing is not our only passion. We have many other interests. It used to be that I couldn't imagine being without a boat, but after a season of having the boat on the hard, (health issue), the realization is that there may well be life after sailing. We found many other things to do.