October 14, 2025

We had a fantastic summer at home in Marblehead – it just went by so fast! Since we made it back home relatively early (late May) we had an extra 5+ weeks at home this year and it still went by way too quickly.  

The rest of the summer was mostly land based with some really fun day-sails. Billy had his 50th MHS reunion (of course we had to make him go and then he had a blast) and we took several of his high school pals out for a sail. We got some golf and beach time in and had two more weddings: our niece Katie and Jack got married on the Cape in early September and then we celebrated with Matt & Ashley at the EYC. In great family news – Billy’s sister Pam moved back to Marblehead and has happily settled in to her Top Mast perch. Our last event at home was the Friends of Marblehead Hockey golf tournament. Our team (Trevor, Sarah, Willy and I) came in 3rd. Not too shabby – but they might replace me next time to get back to #1.

After all that fun, it was time to focus on getting ready for Caribbean Season #3. While maintenance and planning always keeps us busy – this year included Bill’s Big Solar Project (seems like it needed an official name). The solar power will allow us to rely less on the generator and provide us plenty of power. Billy did all the research and was project manager – it was a lot of work. He had great input from our friends the Bells who had installed a similar system on their Leopard 48 (SV Pilar). The big part of the project was actually the frame that holds the solar panels onto the boat. It’s typically quite expensive and can get massive (not what I wanted). So Billy worked with his childhood friend Donnie Tucker who has owned a machine shop with his wife Tina for over 30 years (a great story of hard work and great success). Billy sent the frame design to Donnie who got the aluminum, cut and assembled it. Billy loved spending a few days working in the shop and while Donnie ended up giving Billy an “A-” for his work (I think the long term friendship got him a half grade improvement) they both had a blast. Thanks too to Scott F & Jack for a full days work to help get the system loaded onto to the boat and attached to the coach roof and to Todd & Heidi for letting us use your dock so we could access the transom.

With the solar system completed just before sunset on Saturday evening, we quickly packed up and at first light Sunday Oct 5th we dropped the mooring lines in Marblehead and sailed off in the hopes of reaching Annapolis for the boat show (which started Oct 9th). We made it to Cuttyhunk (78nm) that first day – it was beautiful there with just a few boats in the harbor. Of course it’s October and so weather can be challenging so we had to head into Newport for a few days to wait out some strong Southerlies. Then we began to hear about the potential Nor’easter. Worried that we would get pinned in and not make it south for another week or more – we decided to pull the trigger and take advantage of a 48 hour window good for southerly travel.

We left Newport at first light on Thursday morning Oct 9th heading for Cape May, NJ (226 nm). With the Hunter’s Moon just beyond full we had bright skies and calm seas overnight. As we approached Cape May late the next day, with the forecasted gale force winds later in the weekend, we made the decision to keep going and turned up into the Delaware Bay. I took the evening shift (6 pm to midnight) – while it was calm, traveling in the night was challenging as there are so many lights in the the bay – channel lights, shoal markers and of course lots of boats – including big 900 ft tankers! Billy took over after midnight and took us through the C&D canal and into the Chesapeake. We arrived into Baltimore Inner Harbor Marina around noontime Saturday. This was the longest passage we’ve done with just the two of us. It was exhausting and we should have done a better job of setting our shifts, but we’re glad we got well out of the way of the impending weather. And while we didn’t make it to the boat show, we’re happy to have made it to the Chesapeake as the weather on the east coast continues to look rough.

Here’s the plan. We’ll continue on to Annapolis to get some electrical work done then make our way down the Chesapeake to Hampton, VA where we will meet up with the Salty Dawg Caribbean Rally. We’ll get the boat 100% ready to go – with Scott V coming to stay on board while we go off to Lake Oconee for Trevor and Sarah’s big day on November 1st! After the wedding, we will return to Hampton and as soon as weather allows, we’ll depart for Antigua!