It’s been so long since my last update I don’t even know where to begin. I do appreciate so many of you reaching out and asking if everything was ok. Seems our radio silence has sent the message of unhappiness. It’s definitely not that. It’s that the Hill Family has found religion and we’ve been busy worshiping at the alter of the Cruising Life.

When we set out on this adventure it was not without risk and done on faith. Faith that this was worth the cost, worth the interruption to a good life and career, worth pulling our thriving kids out of a fantastic school with great teachers. Faith that a higher power would shepherd us to the promised land. I’m here to tell you, 4 months in, I have seen the light and we have been delivered.

The last 5 or 6 weeks have been transformative. We are beyond happy, satisfied and fulfilled. Let me try to bring you up to date. We have been so busy and have experienced so much that I’m not sure how to best tackle this.

Annapolis will always be remembered by us for when things really changed and our happiness began to soar. We ended up staying in Annapolis for just over 4 weeks. We got to see our great friends Krysia, James, Sienna and Parker. We went to Mount Vernon and spent 3 days in Washington DC. We hosted my brother, Mike, his kids, Alexis and Evan. Cousin Time was pure bliss. We also met up with other kid boats. That has been the accelerant to our happiness.

Our plan was to take Atlas down the Chesapeake and up the Potomac River to spend 3 to 5 days in Washington DC. This was a terrible idea and once we spent a week in Annapolis we quickly realized we were not in the mood to spend the 6 days transiting back/forth aboard Atlas to see DC. So we rented a car and drove the 1 hour there (truly, it would take us 3 days to motor Atlas from Annapolis to Washington DC!) instead. We had a great time there but the boys weren’t super impressed with the monuments. However they LOVED the incredible museums.

Spending so much time in Annapolis allowed us to get in to a routine and this was highly beneficial. It’s ironic as so often while living back in Toronto we bemoaned the grind and our “boring” routines. Having been moving constantly for 3 months it felt great to get in to some sort of routine. It allowed us to develop a boat schooling routine which has continued to served us well. It even allowed us to bump in to and reconnect with old friends. While eating dinner in the cockpit one night we were again admiring a beautiful lobster boat that we had seen almost every day. The boat slowed as it went past Atlas and then came back for another pass. I was certain I recognized the occupants but simply couldn’t place them here in my mind. Turns out it was our old friends and dock mates from RCYC in Toronto! Alexandra and Bill had moved away from Toronto a year before us but we weren’t certain of their ultimate destination other than it definitely wasn’t Annapolis!

It was great to catch up with Bill and Alexandra over the next few weeks and we were so fortunate to be introduced by Alexandra to a lovely family living just by where we were moored in Spa Creek. Aude, Osman and their 3 wonderful children welcomed us with great hospitality and access to a dock and shoreside parking, a godsend to cruisers. It was so much fun getting to know this interesting and fun family. I’ll never forget the dinner and having the most interesting and delicious rums from Osman’s native Reunion Island.

The boat show lived up to the hype and was an overwhelming, exhausting and delightful experience for all of us. It was so much fun to watch the Annapolis waterfront transformed before our eyes for both boat shows. The boys were just JAZZED to see so such a wide variety of boats. We went to both the Power and Sailboat shows and Melissa, ever the Best Parent, spent hours indulging Oliver’s desire to climb aboard every boat he could. Hours. My goodness she’s a patient human.

As the show approached its conclusion the topic of conversation for all of us (“all” being the kids boats who were heading south) was the schedule for getting south. “Where are you going?” “When are you leaving?” We didn’t have any firm plans but expected to take our time making our way south, stopping at interesting and historic sights along the way. While we wanted to stay with the other kid boats in theory, we’ve learned that we need to do what’s best for our family rather than follow others. We figured we’d let the weather guide us and watched a gaggle of new friends depart the morning after the boat show.

We had seen this weather window but it didn’t seem ideal to us and we still weren’t sure exactly what stops we wanted to make. We did know that there wasn’t much in the Chesapeake that actually interested us (with the exception of Yorktown and, possibly, the Jamestown settlement). It’s interesting to look back on this as I try to write this post as this day became the template of how we’ve lived our life for the past 3 weeks. Basically we kept checking the weather (wind direction, speed, tides) and overlaying that with where we wanted to go, the range of our boat (and our capabilities, both physically and emotionally), and when we could leave once we arrived.

This is no small moment and really deserves a post of its own, but that’s not going to happen. Long story short, Melissa once again said “let’s leave tonight and let’s do the entire Chesapeake and sail directly to Norfolk.” This wasn’t really our plan but the weather window was too good to pass up. And with that morning conversation, we furiously made our preparations ahead of a 5 p.m. departure. This is where sailing is a bit different than RVing (I think). We need to time bridges, tides, business hours (for fuel, pumping out and taking aboard water), in addition to the myriad variables that go in to a weather window. I’m not saying this is hard, just a bit complex. We knocked it all out and departed on time at 5 p.m.

Our sail down the Chesapeake was pure magic. We had a full moon and perfect 12 knot winds with a AWA of 60-80 degrees. Atlas glided down the bay for hours upon hours in flat water. This is why we sail!!! We’ve had far far far too much motoring so far (sadly this seems to be the norm) and this was our longest sail ever! Of the 19 hour passage from Annapolis to Norfolk we sailed for 12 of it and it was magic. Lifetime memories!

Because we went directly overnight and didn’t stop we actually got ahead of the various kid boats that departed before us but chose to spend the night on anchor. There was some furious texting about where everyone would stop once in Norfolk but we really wanted to show the kids the Norfolk Naval Station for obvious reasons. Not only that, we had met a delightful woman back in July in Oswego, NY while we were furiously working on getting our rig tied down for our journey through the canals. Marie was so interested in seeing young boys aboard a boat and our planned journey south. She suggested we should “reach out to my son and daughter in law in Norfolk, he’s in the Navy.” With that we exchanged information and moved on with our journey. I wasn’t really sure if I should reach out to a stranger of someone I had met for no more than 10 minutes in passing, but Marie was absolutely delightful and the offer truly seemed genuine. Plus I love meeting new, interesting people.

So the day we left for Norfolk I reached out via email. “Hi! We’re a young family living aboard our boat and we’ll be in Norfolk tomorrow. I met your mom 3 months ago and she gave me your contact information. I’ve got 2 young boys who love all things military, especially Navy. It would be great to meet you.” I have to say I was a bit amazed that Colin responded. Would you? We traded some emails back and forth that night as we glided down the Chesapeake and made plans to possibly see each other. Maybe.

We struggled to find the right place to stay in Norfolk as we were keen to anchor and break our habit of paying to sleep aboard our own boat each night. The anchorages around Norfolk aren’t great but we discovered a small anchor symbol next to the Norfolk Yacht and Country Club and we looked up that facility. Turns out our RCYC membership allows us reciprocal privileges at the club and we could bring our dinghy to their dock to walk Bo. Done! We anchored off the club around 10 a.m. having not slept more than 2 hours and promptly went about fixing our jammed mainsail.

In our reading about the club we were anchored next to I realized that their Sailing Director was a fellow Camel though we didn’t overlap during our time at Connecticut College, having just missed each other by 1 year. I had met Duffy years ago and had met her hubby, Mike Danish, a few times as he was a USCG sailor. It was fun to say hello to Duffy, get some local intel about the place and trade stories about common friends. Bo was thrilled to get a walk after 19 hours as well. We learned that Wednesday night also meant all you can eat Pizza and Pasta Bar for $18 and KIDS EAT FREE. This was thrilling to an exhausted family. Dinner was done!

Later that afternoon I got a phone call from Colin. He asked where we had anchored and then offered to get together that evening…you know, in about 3 hours from now. I have to say that the only thing Melissa and I had on our minds was dinner ashore (KIDS EAT FREE!!!) and then blissful sleep after sailing through the night, but you only YOLO once, right? What made it even crazier was that Colin and Melissa lived on the water about 300 yards away from where Atlas was anchored. CRAZY!

After a lovely dinner ashore we rushed back to take showers and prayed to the god of good children that Oliver and Elliott would allow a pleasant evening since we were heading over past their bedtime. With zero familiarity with the area, no charts or light and a few beers, we set out to find Colin and Melissa’s house. Colin had earlier sent me some pics of his house from the water…in the day light. At the time I thought to myself “yeah, cool story, Bro, it will be dark.” I knew I was going to like Colin when he followed up with more pics of his place in the dark and a self deprecating message crafted with perfect profanity. So after running over an oyster bed at pace (the prop survived) we found ourselves at our destination meeting complete strangers who were hosting complete strangers that had been introduced by his mother…to a stranger. Isn’t life great?!

We proceeded to be enchanted by Colin, his wife Melissa and their incredible daughter, Susannah, for the next 3 hours, not returning to Atlas until almost midnight. What an incredibly memorable night and delightful conversation. Colin, you may remember, is in the Navy. He’s had quite the career and is rather high up. His stories are unbeatable. It’s always a pleasure to meet someone so accomplished, so confident and yet utterly humble and gracious. He presented both boys with numerous patches and paraphernalia from his incredible career, with perhaps the highlight being the patch from his time at Fighter Weapon School (yes, people, Top Gun). Or maybe it was a 12” long piece of arrestor cable from an Aircraft Carrier? I’m not sure who was more enamored of Colin, me or the young boys. All we can say is that it was an unforgettable night with absolutely delightful people. Life is good!

We’re glad we YOLO’d and had that dinner as another weather window suddenly opened for the next day and we needed to get going. We decided that life was better with kid boats and wanted to try to stick with our friends aboard Passat (Steve and Vicki) and Noonsun (Ted and Amie). A plan was made to reconnoiter in Hampton, VA that afternoon for an early morning departure to round Cape Hatteras. Hatteras is notorious for dangerous weather, especially this time of year, due to the confluence of the Gulf Stream, the continental shelf and gales. Additionally there are no places to stop once out there. Get it right or suffer through until you make it around. We saw a short window that would allow us to get around safely and we grabbed it. While there would be no sailing, it was a clear window and worth making the 31 hour motor.

We weren’t the only ones looking at the weather and there had to have been 30 or 40 others making the passage at the same time. We found this comforting and were happy to be going with our new friends, knowing aid was never too far away and further play dates were assured upon arrival. Our destination? Cape Lookout, North Carolina.

There are no words to fully describe and convey the beauty of Cape Lookout, NC. Our 31 hour passage from Hampton, VA was without incident. We were relieved to get anchored and get Bo ashore. This was, by far, his longest passage and of course never went to the bathroom. We truly worry for his health and safety during these passages. He’s clearly not happy or comfortable. However he refuses to go. Anyone got the answer for this? Anyway! Back to Cape Lookout. It’s stunning. Truly gorgeous. Atlas and Noonsun motor at the same speed and arrived simultaneously while Passat arrived a few hours later. We were keen to wisely anchor in a protected location as there was a forecasted gale that would last for 2 days, beginning the next day. With everyone letting out a healthy amount of chain we all went ashore for some exploration. We were left in awe and so thankful we made it to this spot.

In total we spent 3 days at Cape Lookout, Oct. 24-27. We absolutely would have stayed longer, but a new window opened to make big progress south and we decided to jump on it. Our calculus on where and when to go has changed somewhat, remaining complex but more collaborative and fluid as our desire to remain with our friends has increased. Melissa and I, thankfully, hadn’t spent much time planning each stop of our route months ago. Perhaps, if alone, we might have gone at a different pace, made different stops. But our group of 3 was on the same page of making progress south as quickly as possible and being aggressive with taking every comfortable weather window that opened. There would be no lolly gagging, passing up a window to get south because we wanted to extend a stay at a great location. This really suited us and it was great to have a gang of like minded families executing as a team. We are also thankful to have the leadership of Ted and Aime, aboard Noonsun, as they’ve done this before and are exact in their study of weather and kept the group focused.

We left Cape Lookout for Georgetown, SC, another passage of 30 hours but one that involved much much much more sailing. It was awesome, but exhausting. I’ve done lots of sailing before but I can say that spending tens of hours heeled over on our family boat with a dog that won’t pee and a family prone to seasickness was new to me. There has to be a better way…and we’re learning there is. Catamarans, when done properly, can dramatically improve the experience, both at sea and at anchor. It’s not a free lunch, obviously, but it has us seriously considering different options going forward. 🤔 Regardless, the passage was both exhilarating and tedious, exhausting but fun. It’s always great to sail your sailboat.

Leaving the beauty of Cape Lookout was eased upon our arrival to Georgetown, South Carolina. What a charming town! This is where we would be spending Halloween, something exhaustively debated by the group as it was critical to our children’s happiness. I know this is really dragging on so I will try to use more pics and less words. We had another fantastic time. Georgetown has great civic pride and is a must visit if you’re even in the area. Thank you, Georgetown, for a wonderful time.

Ok, almost done! I’ve begun hour 4 of writing this post and I’m sure you’re just as exhausted as I am. Of course, while in Georgetown, we spent a lot of time discussing where we would go next and when. Charleston has been on our Dream Board since March and it was a natural stop on our way down south. It was a relatively easy 8 to 10 hours away from Georgetown. However the weather looked like it would trap us there for at least a week. Really! And with poor anchorages or expensive marinas as our only options, Charleston became less appealing. We also had another 36 to 48 hour weather window open and we didn’t want to throw that away, especially with some seriously ugly weather in the forecast. It appeared that the group might break up at this point with Passat needing to get to FLA, Atlas wanting to go to Charleston and Noonsun considering Charleston but capable of going to, well, it wouldn’t have surprised us if they left and stopped next in the Bahamas. We asked Oliver and Elliott what they wanted to do. The question was pretty clear, we could go to Charleston and see the USS Yorktown, but getting stuck for a week and losing the other kids. Or we could stick with the gang and head for Cumberland Island, GA, another highly rated National Park and anchorage. They immediately voted to stick with the kids boats. This was the right decision.

Another 30 hour passage followed, this one really rather unpleasant for us aboard Atlas. While the wind strength was good, the direction was directly on our stern for all 30 hours. So we motored. And rolled. A lot. It was really uncomfortable. We’d like to not repeat that again, ever. Our departure from Georgetown was also rather intense as we had some rather big and ugly waves as we exited the Winyah Bay channel with about 20 knots against current. We tried to time it right but still got smacked around a bit. We were relieved to arrive to Cumberland Island after this passage. No one was happy and Bo had an especially miserable experience.

I know I sound like a broken record, but Cumberland Island is stunning. We’re not idiots and we’re not picking lousy spots. But we sure feel like we’ve been lucky to have had the windows and range to make the stops we have. The last month has been intense but incredibly memorable and fun. Is this really our life?

On our way back from our first dog walk on Cumberland Island we ran in to Noonsun and Ted mentioned that he was in touch with a great friend who had a friend who lived on Cumberland Island. Ted had reached out to this friend of a friend and we might get together and have a tour of the island with a local. This is exactly what came to pass and after a rather unpleasant night at anchor due to an INTENSE current against a strong wind we met up with Ben and his son Ronan at 10:30 the next morning. It would be the beginning of an incredible 36 hours.

I’ve, finally, found the time to write this post as we’re currently sheltering from a simply ferocious storm. After 3 increasingly uncomfortable nights at anchor at Cumberland Island, including moving to seek better shelter, we saw the latest forecast yesterday (Nov. 5) with an alarming change. We had positioned ourselves for very strong N and NE winds (gusts to 44) the forecast was now calling for some westerly to those North winds with gusts to 55. Having already been uncomfortable at this anchorage it was now clearly untenable to stay. Noonsun had already bailed out, Passat had found a slip at a marina down the river in FLA and we knew we had to go. Ted and Aime aboard Noonsun had found a hole up the Saint Mary’s River and promised to report back on what they found. But after a conversation with a local captain informing us we would see minimum 3’ waves simply due to wind against current we didn’t wait for Noonsun to report back. We were anchor up in 25-30 knots of wind and just before the tied turned. It was a rather gnarly ride downwind against opposing current and winds now gusting over 30 knots. Waves were getting big and we couldn’t imagine seeing anything like this while anchored for the next 48 hours. Thankfully the location here at Saint Mary’s, GA could not be better. Once again we are thankful to have been with Noonsun, learning from their experience and relentless preparation. The winds have been howling and gusting to over 40 knots but in our location we’ve seen flat water and have been protected from those winds. We’re tucked up right beneath the town, protected from any waves and all NW/N/NE quadrants. We are SO THANKFUL to be here. Melissa has seen all sorts of bad videos of boats getting hammered and our dear friends aboard Passat have had a really bad experience over the last 24 hours. We hurt for them and perhaps Melissa will post all the links to the scary videos.

So what’s next for us? We will haul Atlas out of the water late next week. She’s going to have some work done and we’re going to spend 6 weeks away, seeing our families in Michigan and Colorado. We’ll spend a month skiing in Colorado with the boys and we can’t wait. We’re so sad to have to say goodbye to Noonsun and Passat. The time together has been so memorable and fun. At the end of December we’ll splash Atlas and make our way south along the Florida coast and in to the Bahamas ASAP. We’re keen to meet up with other kid boats and continue our adventures. We had high hopes for this trip. Only 4 months in they’ve already been exceeded. This is such an incredible trip. Thanks for following along. Apologies for the long post and duration between posts. Please follow us on Instagram for more frequent updates @_svatlas.