I’ve been terribly remiss in keeping the blog up to date, but we have been so busy since the last post in Feb. 23, (Oh dear…) from the Bahamas.
The “cliff notes” version is that we left the boat in Hilton Head SC, flew back to Colorado in mid-March, then back to Hilton Head in May 23 with plans to sail up the East Coast to Maine for the summer.
We did make good progress, with wonderful stops along the way – and a great “photo op” in front of the Statue of Liberty (thanks to a French couple, Manon, Océane and Pierre on SV Culbuto).
We sailed up the East River and stopped at Port Washington on Long Island (great anchorage and cute town!!). From there we worked our way up to just south of Boston to meet friends for the 4th of July. Unfortunately, we got a call on June 24th, from Anthony’s sister that John (his Dad) was terminally ill and we should fly home as soon as possible. One concern was where to safely leave the boat for an “indefinite amount of time”. We called around to several marinas, but most were full. Finally, we found a spot back in Port Washington and headed south. We flew home on June 27th and John died peacefully on July 7th. We had 10 days with him before he passed, but it was a stark reminder that life is fragile and we are so lucky to be sailing. I’m sure John would agree.
We stayed in Colorado until late August and flew back to the boat to check on it, before flying to Croatia for the wedding of long-time sailing friends from Norway. That was a fabulous experience that requires its own blog post…but here’s a picture of people we sailed across the Pacific with in 2005 (Boats included: Sea Fever, Wetnose, 3T, Cintra, and Pomona). What a fabulous reunion for all of us!
After the wedding, we came back to Port Washington to sail south to Deltaville, VA to leave the boat for the winter.
We retraced our steps south to dodge cold fronts and maximize good sailing conditions – down the East River, Atlantic Highlands, NJ, Cape May, NJ, up the Delaware River, down the Chesapeake Bay, (from North to south) to Zimmerman’s Marine in Deltaville, VA.
We stopped in Annapolis again because it’s such a great town with nice walking areas. While there we reconnected with other friends we met in the Pacific – Greg and Vickie (S/V Erin Brie) and Javier and Francois (S/V Jiyu) whom we met in France (July 2021) and again in the Canary Islands (November 2021).
The sailing community is a small world, and you never know who you might meet or reconnect with at the next anchorage –It’s one of my favorite things about the cruising life!
We were excited to head home for a change of pace and looked forward to lots of time with family and friends. As some of you know, we drove home from VA, (in October 2023) so we could bring the dinghy back for Anthony to work on over the winter. Fortunately, our route took us right through Knoxville on Gameday for TN vs. Texas A&M – (what luck!). BTW: TN won!
It was great to be home for a while especially since I had a heavy teaching load during this time and I wouldn’t need to worry about Wifi access and time zones! Land-life also reminds me to be grateful for things like dishwashers, hot water, climate-controlled environments, and a big screen TV to watch the TN VOLS whenever possible.
We are currently on our way back to the boat after ~5 months on land (October- March) with plans to sail back across the Atlantic to Portugal. More details about our Atlantic crossing itinerary and “dinghy makeover” in the next post! Stay tuned!