Spindrift Travels

There is a beginning, middle and end to this journey, and we seem to find ourselves suddenly nearing the end. As we slowly sail up the east coast, moving further north when the weather allows us, we have time to reflect on the past few years, remembering the good times and making lists, 19,972 nautical miles sailed, 23 countries and 74 islands visited, 7 seas navigated, two ocean crossings, 82 nights under sail at sea, and 13 things lost at sea, some recovered, some not (thankfully our sanity is not included in that number). We are adjusting to the changing times in the stops we make along the way, during these days of continued quarantine, in this world where face masks have become a fashion accessory. And adding to the list of lessons lea...

As we prepare to head home after two and half years away, we do everything we have gotten accustomed to doing before a long passage, readying the boat and stocking up on food. The emotions on board are so different than we had expected at this point in our journey though, who could have prepared for what is going on in the world right now? We thought we would have mixed feelings about returning home, and we do, some things we are sad to leave behind, and others we are so excited to face ahead. But there are so many more unknowns, just like everyone everywhere, we are not sure what the future looks like right now, when things will return to normal, if there will be a new normal. So we prepare as best we can, but also know that we will have t...

What strange times these are. Pandemics were the subject of movies, not something we expected to experience first hand and Corona used to be a beer with a lime. This is a first for all of us, we are in uncharted territory. Sailing around the past couple years we have realized just how connected we all are, people are so mobile, going from country to country, we are all entwined globally through work and travel, and now we are seeing the difficulty of trying to contain a virus in such a global community.

At first we were pretty removed in the Caribbean from what was happening back home and around the world, until we weren't. Suddenly there was talk of the virus and posters warning of it's spread started showing up, and then quickly it all esc...

I have been procrastinating, my camera has gone missing and with it all the photos we have taken since we returned to the Caribbean, lesson learned, always back up. So I find myself writing without the help of pictures. If a picture is worth a thousand words, I am short on words to replace all those lost pictures. But I continue to write to keep the memories, afraid that they may fade over time if I don't write them down, also aware that they are morphing in my mind, excluding what I'd rather forget, making a new reality filled only with happy thoughts. And as I watch tourists embark from the ferries donning cameras I think maybe being camera-less is not such a bad thing, maybe we will blend in more, experiencing the days instead of attempt...