 We have owned and co-captained three different boats. We started sailing in 1986 when we bought a 25-foot Cape Dory. This boat was named Yarley and we sailed her for three years on the Chesapeake Bay.
In May of 1989 we bought a 35-foot Dickerson which we also sailed in the Chesapeake until we moved to New Hampshire in 1990. We sailed Sky Breaker north in 1991 and kept her in Casco Bay in Maine that summer. In the fall we sailed her to New Hampshire where we had her hauled out for a major refit. For the next three years, Sky Breaker sat in our yard as we cleaned, sanded, repainted, and reworked all her systems. Once we put her back in the water, we made two trips offshore to and from the Chesapeake Bay and one trip down the Inland Waterway to Little River, South Carolina. After struggling with a north wind in the Gulf Stream, we made an offshore run home from outside the Pamlico Sound to Buzzards Bay in Massachusetts.
In 2001 we bought our current boat, Windbird, which is a Tayana 42. We sailed this boat from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, to Boston in three offshore hops. First from Ft. Lauderdale to Charlestown, South Carolina, then around Cape Hatteras to Norfolk, and finally from Norfolk to Boston. Each leg of this trip took three to five offshore nights. We have since sailed throughout New England, doing several overnight trips to and from Maine.
We are both experienced helmsmen and navigators. In addition, Mark has taken classes for the Coast Guard captain's license and expects to receive the license before departure in October. We have both taken two safety-at-sea seminars, attended two offshore rally seminars, and a weather class. We will be taking an offshore medical course in October just before departing the US. We know that our learning experiences have just begun, but we hope that the preparation will help us to meet difficult experiences with confidence.
|
Home |
Travel Logs |
About Windbird |
Planned Route |
Where We Are Now