s/v Field Trip

Wow. It’s hard to believe that the rest of our sailing will involve very little wind forward of the beam. It’s going to be almost all downwind. We’ve literally spent 12,000+ miles sailing from a beam to close reach. In many way’s we’ve become accustomed to this type of sailing…and have actually enjoyed pushing ourselves to master these points of sail on Field Trip. Points of Sail We’ve tried most sail combinations, worked on using our Code Zero for close hauled sailing – and have enjoyed creating our own apparent wind to go faster. Now, it’s a different ballgame. We find ourselves reducing our apparent wind as we go faster, relying on stronger prevailing conditions to make us go as fast as we could if sailing the other direction in less true wind. Cruising is not about fast. I need to get that into my head…. Sailing 'Wing on Wing' Wing on Wing view from Trampoline Boat motion sailing downwind is generally calmer than sailing the other direction. ...

Sunset at St. George's anchorage, Grenada During our eight weeks in Colorado, we loved seeing dear friends and family, going trick or treating, and eating our favorite American foods.  It was a great visit, but BUSY!  With the car and the house on the market and all the doctors appointments scheduled for each family member, we returned to our old ways fairly quickly.  Running from place to place and relying on our calendars more than we had for months!  The snow and cold was refreshing for a few weeks, but soon we were more than ready for the tropical warmth of Grenada again.  The grass is always greener, I guess. Gutting pumpkins for Jack 'O Lanterns The good news is that the house and car are both sold (pending all the paperwork, of course), and we are all happy to be back on board.  The first night we arrived, the kids ran to their room, shouting, “We’re home, we’re home!”  They couldn’t wait to play at the beach with all the boat kids....

We’re back in more than one way! Back in Grenada. Back on the blog. Back on the videos! Yeah! It’s been a VERY busy summer for Field Trip. Lots to let everyone know about over the next couple of weeks. We kicked off with Field Trip being splashed back in the water after being away for six weeks. I had a very short window – 72 hours – before some of my friends arrived for a guys sailing trip. Needless to say, it was scramble, scramble, and scramble. Galley Mess! Salon Mess! All turned out well, and we had a great time sailing, fishing and touring around the Grenadines and Grenada. On beach Tobago Cays with Bobby and John Four Amigos Seven Sisters Waterfalls- Bobby, Myself, Ken, John The Waterfall - Seven Sisters Grenada Here is a video of our trip. The BIG news - we are getting ready for the next leg of our journey - Bonaire, Colombia, Panama & South Pacific.  There's a lot to cover on this topic over several posts, so stay tuned ...

Have you ever felt like you were flailing between who you were and who you were becoming?  Like in junior high when you couldn't quite figure out where you fit in or where you wanted to fit in?    That's how I'm feeling today, stuck in limbo between my new cruising life and the one I knew for years in suburban Colorado. A few days ago, we finished the painstaking job of packing up the boat to protect it while it will be on land in a boatyard for the next six weeks.  We'd compiled a back-breaking spreadsheet of items we needed to check off before we could head to the airport on Thursday. And while crisp, cool Fall weather was creeping into Colorado, Grenada was blasting us with temperatures in the high 90's and full blown humidity.  We literally could have swabbed the deck with the constant stream of perspiration running down our backs!  Needless to say, it was a torturous couple of days.  Mark and I agreed that we'd do anything to avoid storing ...

We are tweaking our boat with lots of little items. None are essential, but most are further refining our live-a-board experience. Others are fixing mistakes made in hopes not to make them again! :-) We’ve not finalized our future plans just yet, but have a fairly good idea (plenty of back and forth) what we are doing beginning in December. Let’s just say it involves remote locations, no marinas or chandleries and limited access to most western ‘things’. This anticipation is driving our craze to get things done and tweak the boat ‘while we can’. I’ve broken up our tweaks in categories, with a brief explanation. Electrical The boat is wired beautifully. It’s easy to slam in wires. Antares has taken great care in making most of the wiring easy to follow and it is well labeled and organized. Wiring panel organization Anchor Light We added a sunlight sensor to the anchor light so it will turn ‘on’ automatically at dusk – when the anchor light is turned on at t...