It’s been five months since we actually took ownership of our Leopard 48 catamaran which we have named Carried Away. What a whirlwind it has been! This first post is a quick recap (at least I’ll do my best) of the first few weeks. Next will be a quick summary of our trip home. This fall/winter I will do my best to provide regular updates!

Week T-1 We left Boston early on April 5th, 2023 (thanks for the ride Jack A!) and arrived in Tortola a week ahead of closing so we could be there for the final survey and sea trial. We stayed right on the Moorings base in Tortola on another catamaran just a few docks away from Carried Away (still named #ShipYouKnot) which was great fun as we could watch the comings and goings of the charterers and go aboard every day to see the final preparations. The sea trial went well and overall while there was a list of several things that needed fixing – and it was Easter weekend which meant holiday time in the island. All got done by the closing date of 4/12 – the boat was delivered back to St Thomas for closing and we took the ferry back to Yacht Haven Grande where the team there helped to complete the final fixes.

We were able to complete most of our provisioning in St. Thomas (with several trips to local grocery stores, marine stores and Kmart). Special thanks to Elaine and Richard Spencely who helped us with a local mailing address (Spencely Marketing Company) where we had many things shipped ahead of time. Phew! While there were a few more things we’d need to get we were pretty ready to go when Ryan and his friend Nate arrived to help us with the first shake down cruise….

Dubbed “#1 Crew” , our son Ryan and his friend Nate Witherell joined us the day after we closed. They flew into St Thomas and we put them right to work hauling packages and grabbing the really heavy stuff to put on board.

Ryan and Nate we able and super fun crew to have on board for not only getting ready but they were anxious to get sailing so with only 1 day of prep we shoved off from the docks at Grand St Thomas and headed to the island of St. John and Caneel Bay where we enjoyed a greeting from the local park ranger and had a lovely dinner on board. The next day we sailed up to Maho Bay where we visited with Richard Spenceley (neighbor from MDH) on his amazing Zeelander. Then it was off to Tortola and Sopers Hole to check in so we could then move on to Jost Van Dyke and #1 Crew’s choice to visit the Soggy Dollar (our first time too) – it was a blast getting on the live webcam and alerting the family we were there.

Luckily for us Nate is a great crew and photographer so we got lots of great photos.

The next several days we stayed at Nanny Cay Marina on Tortola where we had some essential boat systems installed (AIS, Radar, etc.). The boys took advantage of the marina’s bars and beaches and after 4 days of “boat work” we headed back to St. John (boys choice) to spend a few nights before dropping them back to St Thomas and their flights home. They definitely have secured their place as #1 Crew for life!