The February 2017 Bare Necessities Big Nude Boat cruise was our fifth Bare Necessities cruise. We have frequented various nudist resorts for 23 years. We have formed several friendships with others we have met on the Bare Cruises and have visited our nudist friends at the nudist resorts where they are members and also at their homes. We have found that our nudist friends are the most relaxed friends we have and the ones we find the easiest to socialize with.

Over the years, for several reasons, we have not told any of our neighbors or family that we enjoy social nudism. We have also discussed the possibility that someday, somewhere, we just might see someone that we know (but not as fellow nudists) and how we should react. We had decided that if we ever did see someone that we know, the only way to react would be to act as we normally would no matter who the person(s) we know are. For approximately 23 years, up until the February 2017 cruise, we have never come across any neighbors or relatives at any resort or Bare Cruise. Well, it finally happened.

As we were disembarking in Tampa, we were in our assigned area waiting for our deck number to be called for the early disembarkation. When we were called, we got into the line of people disembarking and we found ourselves to be immediately behind a couple that lives five houses away from us in our neighborhood. They are winter residents in Florida & have a second house up north; so we do not see them in the neighborhood year round. We found that meeting a neighbor in this situation was not stressful and we simply said hello to each other and asked each other how many Bare Necessities cruises they had been on. As it turned out, this cruise was their fourth Bare Necessities Big Nude Boat February cruise and it was our fifth. We recall seeing this couple on the cruise ship, we knew they looked familiar however we could not place where we knew them from. We figured we recognized them from being on the same ship for nine days. In our brief discussion, it was revealed that we are both frequent visitors to Cypress Cove!

We are certain that our part-time resident neighbors will also be relaxed friends that we find easy to socialize with. This situation tells us that we probably have other neighbors and possibly relatives that we may run into in the future.

-Tim & Karen