Phase 1 – April 27th – May 14th

#1 Crew (Ryan and Nate) headed back to Boston and the next day Billy’s sister Pam and our hired Captain – Pirate Mike Brown – joined to start the 2300 mile journey home. We had a great dinner at a local spot in St. Thomas then departed the next day just east of the St Thomas airport to Brewers Bay where Captain Mike took us through safety procedures and even ran us through a real (unexpected) Man Over Board drill! We passed (barely) as we actually got him back on board!

Our first destination was Culebrita in Puerto Rico which is an amazing national park with so many sea turtles, and then Culebra where we had a great meal right on the water a short dingy ride from Carried Away.

Some of our favorite (too many to include) experiences in Puerto Rico.

Next we headed west to San Juan PR, at the direction of Pirate Mike we anchored right off Fort del Morro, the Governors mansion and the “Red Gate” where diplomats used to arrive. It’s also a famous scene in the movie “Captain Ron” which was referenced often during our trip (Pirate Mike’s favorite). While we didn’t expect to love San Juan, we really did! The people were extraordinarily welcoming and helpful. Old San Juan is just beautiful and fascinating to explore the fort and other historical places.

We then spent a couple of days at the San Juan Bay Marina getting provisioned and ready for our first overnight (3 day) passage. We left San Juan on May 3rd which would have been my moms 90th birthday and I was hopeful that she was keeping an eye on us and keeping us safe! The journey was going to be 450 miles which felt daunting. We took regular shifts and Pirate Mike took some really long ones so we all got some good rest. The weather was mild and while we saw some storms in the distance we avoided them and had overall had a very good trip up to the Bahamas.

Once in the Bahamas we continued a pretty quick pace north as we had a long way to go! We stopped at Great Inagua, Acklin, Crooked and Long Islands. Too many stops and amazing experiences to capture in a quick update – but pictures below tell a little of it. Weather overall was good – winds were up and we did spend a “snow day” as Pirate Mike called it – in Georgetown Harbor where it was too windy and wet to leave the boat – a good day to rest. And Georgetown is where Pam disembarked (thank you Pambo!) and Pirate Mike helped us move up to Emerald Bay before he jumped off to head back to his own boat and home in Honduras. Thank you Mike – we learned so much – and had a blast!

Phase 2 – New Crew Bahamas to Newport!

We got some important things done (refrigerator fix – for $200!!) and then relaxed at the Emerald Bay Marina and Spa waiting for our next crew member, Billy’s good childhood friend Scott Vorhees (Captain and Marine biology expert!) to arrive. After convincing the local authorities that he was legit (he needed our cruising pass which luckily we were able to get to him – Scott arrived and we had a great first evening with dinner on board.

We took off the next day heading North to Staniel Cay, Big Major and swimming with the pig as well as a nurse shark which Scott quickly explained was not dangerous at all!

After Staniel we worked our way up to Wardrick Wells which is a wonderful and fascinating National Park. Got a great mooring and did some snorkeling. The next day we headed North toward Shroud Cay but the weather didn’t cooperate and we dashed into Hawksbill Cay, Ship Channel Cay and then on to Spanish Wells in Eluethra where we had wonderful visit into the town.

We spent a night at Royal Island (just west of Spanish Wells before heading off to Tilly Cay in Abaco where we were headed to pick up our next crew member Karl Hoyt. Once we entered into the Abacos it was quite a ride to make it up to Tiloo – avoiding the shallows in the middle of the bay. We found a great spot among some amazing homes. The next day we headed West across the bag to get to Hope Town – which I think was my favorite stop of the entire trip. We tucked right into the harbor (tight fit with many boats) but the town was wonderful and the old lighthouse recently restored was incredible.

Next we headed up to Marsh Harbor to greet our next crew member – Karl Hoyt (also an experienced Captain – lucky us) who would be joining us for the passage back to the US. A couple of “fun” days there and we were ready to head for the US coast – with a lot of help from Chris Parker and his weather forecasting group.

We left Sunday May 28th from Marsh Harbor heading to Charleston SC (398 NM). We spent 3 days at sea – crossing into the Gulf Stream and battling several storms along the way. Somehow Karl always seemed to hand me the helm with a storm ahead! We blew out the zipper on the steering station so it made for a wet and windy watch but there was some nice sailing too and we arrived into Charleston accompanied by dolphins (the first we saw) who came to play off our bow. Charleston was a blast – visiting with friends and waiting for the right window to complete the next leg up to Beaufort NC.

Karl departed for home and we added Scott’s good friend Hans Johansson who is a great sailor and was another great addition! We departed Charleston on June 6th bound for Beaufort NC. We hit one really bad squall but otherwise had a good trip and arrived June 7th. We were amazed by the very cool town and the wild horses on the reserve right next to the anchorage.

We got word it was a good weather window and we were well provisioned so we headed for Newport RI! This would be our longest passage but got everyone where they needed to be (home!) in shortest amount of time. We headed out of Beaufort, rounded Cape Lookout and cleared Cape Hatteras (we were expecting the worst based on its reputation for being treacherous, but it was pretty calm). We entered the Gulf Stream and Day 3 was the worst – winds out of the Northeast as we tried to drive north – poor Carried away she took it well! And then finally just south of Long Island ….after days and days…Billy finally caught a fish!! A beautiful Mahi Mahi which the boys filleted and grilled for a yummy dinner! We sailed into Newport tied up at the new racing Marina. Funny how the familiar waters of Newport felt like home! We enjoyed dinner with the crew at our favorite spot “Scales”. They then headed back to their families. It was a long treck but we were all glad we’d done it.

Final plug for home: Newport to Marblehead

At this point it was just Billy and me – we made our way to Cuttyhunk (so surprised how quiet it was! We were the only boat there on Wednesday morning!). We sailed up to Onset waiting for the early morning canal to be “with us” and the next day headed for home where were greeted by Beth and Steve in their Whaler which was awesome because we had to find our new mooring!! Phew! time to clean the boat and do a lot of laundry! Felt great to be home.

Phew! That’s it for the 7 week 2300 km journey!

Season 2 is in the works..