What's Next?

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 Prepping for the next cruise.








Bay Breeze on the hard

AQUAVIT in storage





AQUAVIT is hauled and tucked away in heated storage at Journey's End Marina in Rockland, Maine. We’re pleased to be establishing a relationship with Journey's End Marina, a large professional operation. Then, in the spring, Journey's End will launch and take AQUAVIT to our seasonal slip at Safe Harbor Marina. Then, we'll resume cruising coastal Maine.

Now, we’re anxious to get on with our next cruising plans. In a couple months, we'll cruise in Bay Breeze along Florida's coast. Recently, we visited Bay Breeze on jack stands in storage at Sailors Wharf in St. Petersburg to check on the service schedule before they launch. Bay Breeze will be washed and waxed, and, with electronic upgrades and washed sails, be ready to cruise again. 


One of the Ensigns we saw in Maine

Until we take off again, we’ll be working on Calypso, our Pearson Ensign. While in Maine we noticed several Ensigns moored along our course. We checked them out and got motivated to continue renovations to our 1964 boat. This venerable daysailer continues to have an active following and dozens of fleets scattered across the US. Carl Alberg designed the Ensign which has been awarded classic status in sailboat design. We added the Ensign to our “fleet" because we enjoyed tiller sailing on the Pearson Triton (another fabled Alberg design) that was our first sailboat, 45 years ago. We plan on reworking Calypso's teak floorboard, painting the hull and adding a roller furling headsail. 



So far, this 2021 hurricane season has spared us. Although we have experienced 3 storms, they had minimal effects to us. We were in Tallahassee when Fred came ashore in August as a minimal tropical storm. Two days after we returned to Maine, Henri brought stormy conditions to Rockland and in early September the remnants of Ida that devastated southeast Louisiana hit Maine with a lot of rain. By being in Maine, we missed Tropical Storm Mindy that came ashore on St. Vincent Island in our neck of the woods. 

Once hurricane season is over we will pick up Bay Breeze and start heading south, off and on, to Southwest Florida and the Keys.

While we’ve missed having Bay Breeze at our dock, we are happy that we can start sailing South Florida in the fall and avoid the 150 NM Gulf crossing to Clearwater. We've done this passage 28 times and, more often than not, it's been a cold and exhausting overnight trip for us old people.



Happy Sails!


Thanks for reading.

10.06.2021

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