A cruising wrap up and goodbye to Borealis

We arrived back to our home port of Annapolis, Maryland on June 28, 2020 after nearly two years of sailing the Caribbean islands. What a feeling it was to sail into once familiar sailing grounds, but with so many more miles and stories under Borealis' keel! It started as a far-off dream in the fall of 2017, we sailed off far sooner than expected in late 2018, and here we were in 2020, feeling incredibly lucky to have had adventures for a lifetime and a treasure trove of new friends and memories. 

We were elated to be back "home" with Borealis, as we'd been sailing nearly nonstop since leaving the U.S. Virgin Islands in mid-May to escape the hurricane zone (after more than 6 weeks stuck in quarantine in St. Martin at the start of the Coronavirus pandemic). In the previous 40 days, we'd covered some 2,000 nautical miles and spent 16 overnights out at sea — and we were mentally and physically tired! 

Our 6,500 mile trek from Maryland through the Eastern Caribbean to Grenada and back

Homeward bound: USVI to Florida

After more than six weeks of coronavirus quarantine in St Martin, we made the decision to leave the French island and sail 110 nm overnight to the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

We'd held off on sailing to the Virgin Islands because hundreds of other American cruisers in the Caribbean had poured into the USVIs at the start of the pandemic and anchorages were reportedly very crowded and resources harder to come by compared to our comfy spot in St Martin. 

The captain happy to be on the move again after weeks of quarantine

An Update Amid Coronavirus

We’ve fallen a bit behind on blog posts as we’ve been island hopping so much recently while sailing north along the leeward Caribbean island chain. But all that ground to a halt last week as the global spread of the Coronavirus forced the shutdown of many island borders.

15 Seconds of Fame: Chicago Tribune profile

Back in September, a friend and former colleague of Sara’s named Erin Gifford reached out to ask if we would be interested in sharing our sailing adventures with any media outlets. Erin is a talented freelance travel writer, so it was no surprise when a short time later she shared that the Chicago Tribune was interested in her story idea.

We really enjoyed telling Erin about some our favorite destinations and the ups and downs of the cruising lifestyle, and then we anxiously awaited the news about the pending article’s print date. Earlier this month, we got the good news that the article was going live on ChicagoTribune.com and would appear a short time later in the papers’s Sunday print edition travel section.

Goodbye to Grenada

After three amazing months exploring the beautiful island of Grenada, on October 25 we officially checked out of the country and pointed Borealis' bow north.

Hashing it out in Grenada

One of the most unique and fun things we've done while in Grenada is participate in the weekly hash runs.

The Hash House Harriers are an international social running club. You can learn a little more about the 75-year old hash tradition here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_House_Harriers. Despite its popularity around the globe - friends have shared stories of hashing in the States and many other countries - we never heard of hashing before arriving to Grenada.

Chasing waterfalls in Grenada

Grenada's white sandy beaches are an attraction for many, but its lush green mountainous interior may be the biggest draw for us. Hiking has always been a favorite activity of ours, and when you add in a spectacular crystal waterfall as the destination, we couldn't ask for a better adventure.

Life Lately: Adventures in Grenada

We've been staying busy in Grenada while waiting out hurricane season by exploring the island, making new friends, tackling boat projects, and planning for our next cruising season.

Despite only one major hurricane this season (Dorian), it’s been an active weather season

Our first cruising season: 2018-2019 recap

While we'll be sailing around the Grenadines and Grenada until November and the end of hurricane season, our island hopping cruising season is over for now.

Here's a recap of our 2018-2019 cruising season:

Our 8-month and 3,200 nm trek from Annapolis, Maryland to Grenada, West Indies

Spinsheet: From Beginners to Bluewater Cruisers

Awhile back an acquaintance on Facebook passed on our story to the writers at Spinsheet, the sailing magazine for the Chesapeake Bay, our old sailing grounds. 

We had so much fun being interviewed and sharing our sailing journey for their Start Sailing Now column.

Our profile was published in the magazine earlier this month, and you can read it online here!

What’s next for Borealis and crew?

[Blog posts from our time in the Virgin Islands are coming very soon but, in the meantime, we wanted to share a quick update].

What's next? That's a question we get asked A LOT these days.

When we left Chesapeake Bay, Maryland and started cruising in October 2018, we told ourselves that we'd see how the first six months of full-time cruising went before making any decisions about our future, especially what we'd do for the summer hurricane season, with the goal of making it only as far as the British Virgin Islands this cruising season.

Starting our journey south

We did it! On Thursday, Oct. 25, we cast off the dock lines and started our journey south. It was a pretty quiet and ordinary morning, the sun was shining and the winds were light, as we pulled out of our slip for the last time.

There was little fanfare; we stopped for diesel at the fuel dock, waved to a dear friend watching our departure on the marina’s webcam, and then headed out of the channel and into the Chesapeake Bay. Despite the ordinariness of the day, it still felt like an important moment after so many months of planning and preparation.

And so it begins...

Well, we've done it, we quit our jobs and sold our home and are going sailing!

Big news: We are going full-time cruising!

For months we've been contemplating our future, and after extensive conversation, planning and effort, earlier this year we decided to take a big leap and make a major life change. We recently gave notice at our steady, well-paying jobs and listed our home of eight years for sale...we are going full-time sailing!

We bought a boat!

Nope, this isn't a re-post from three years ago when we bought our first sailboat, Houd Vast. We actually bought a new (to us) boat, a 2005 Hallberg-Rassy 37 named Borealis.

The word Borealis is Latin for "of the north" and since we hail from the northern state of Wisconsin we plan to sail her under that same name.