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Gratitude
I realized yesterday that I hadn’t written a blog post in 3 years. I surprised that I just stopped writing the blogs. I’m also surprised I stopped exercising. Both of those were something I enjoyed and did consistently. Both of those stopped because they became too much for me to handle as my bandwidth became…
Lobster Pots, Fog and Beautiful Cruising in Maine
During our three long weeks on the hard during a heat wave in the Chesapeake, I dreamed about our reward: cruising Maine for the rest of the summer. I’d never been to Maine, but all the little islands and seaside towns to explore, along with the promise of lobster rolls, created enticing-looking cruising grounds. The…
The Hub of Caribbean Racing
After relaxing for almost a week in Guadeloupe, we had to quickly push north again to meet up with friends coming to St. Martin. We didn’t have a lot of time for stops along the way, but a quick visit to Antigua was too enticing to miss. English Harbour—and the larger nearby Falmouth Harbour—is a…
We ❤ the Caribbean
We’ve been in the Caribbean for almost three weeks now and I’m only now waking up in the morning not thinking I’m on a passage. It’s taken Brian and I longer to recover from the lack of sleep than I thought it would. We’ve also been interrupted by two overnights, one from Barbados to St.…
Atlantic Crossing!
A little over a week ago, we finally landed in the Caribbean. The elation I felt upon arrival in Barbados was unmatched by any other arrival in our three and half years of cruising. Even though we remain 1,000 miles or so from the coast of Florida, it feels like we’ve made it home—the big…
Cat vs. Mono!
Ah, the eternal cruisers’ debate. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen more lengthy threads full of strident opinions than when someone asks “cat or mono?” in a cruising Facebook group. We’ve now owned and sailed both for fair amounts of time and miles. After we sold our racing boat and bought a cruising boat,…
To Fix or Not to Fix?
We’re currently 2,300 nm into our 5,000 nm crossing of the Atlantic from Namibia to Barbados. After the first 1,200 nm, we stopped for a couple days at the island of St Helena. While there, we assessed a possible problem with our retractable sprit pole. The joint had an increasing amount of play and we…
Slow & Steady Across the Atlantic
The day after Christmas, we planned to leave Namibia to start our Atlantic crossing, but as Brian ran through his pre-departure checks on Christmas Day, he discovered the autopilot wasn’t working. Cue everything else coming to a halt while we spent two hours troubleshooting and trying to figure out why without any luck. Clearly, we…
African Holidays
Up until last week, we were planning to be on a passage across the Atlantic right now, bound for arrival in St Helena on December 23 or 24. Schedules while you’re sailing get interrupted all the time, of course, mostly due to weather and/or breakages. Thankfully, this schedule change has a less dramatic reason: we’re…
Back to Boat Maintenance
In case we needed the reminder this week (we didn’t), cruising isn’t all sundowners, shiny new places and triumphant cape roundings. Maintenance on an actively-cruised boat is a never-ending process. This includes the management of spares and making sure you have what you need aboard when you have the chance to buy it. Generally, during…
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SAILING SV ATLAS 