You can do anything, but you can't do everything.

Timing is everything, but the timing wasn't right for us to shove off sailing in the 1990's - careers and other responsibilities pushed that thought to the back burner, and then somewhat off the list. Five years ago we were fortunate to retire early from our careers and move to Arizona, in part for the climate, but primarily to be closer to scuba diving and sailing in the Sea of Cortez. Our many driving trips through Mexico led to exploring the possibility of living there, first in the beautiful colonial town of Alamos, and then in the magical Baja town of Todos Santos on the Pacific coast. But over our years of travel we had also fallen in love with France - the scenery, the food, the culture, the easy connections to exploring the rest of Europe - the thought of spending a few years immersed in another culture appealed to both of us, so in the fall of 2009, we started to explore the possibility of combining boating and seeing the sites. We stayed on board a barge in Burgundy, hopped a ride on a barge going through some canals, looked at several barges on the market, and we were hooked.

We returned to the states, decided to put our house on the market, downsize once again and find a barge to be our home in Europe for the next oh, 5-10 years or so. Given the current real estate market, we expected it would take 6 months to a year to get going. Well, the house went on the market in March and quickly sold. We scrambled to find a little place in Tucson (a 906 square foot loft), closed on both properties and moved in late April!

In early May, we traveled to France, first to attend a barge handling class in Cambrai, where we received our RYA Inland Waterways certification. We then set out shopping for a barge, but returned home empty handed, and somewhat discouraged. But obviously there is a happy ending. More later, Captain Deborah.