Annual Update!!!!

Hello, hi, Meagan here. I am writing to recap our last year on the boat. I've been motivated partly by myself, so I have written memories of this phase in life, but mostly Pastor Bill and Pastor Mac (shout out to you guys!). So here we go, onto the highlights of the 2022-2023 sailing season! 

 

GUATEMALA

(Kristen, Alex, and Julian with Feeding Faith Missions)

Last time we wrote, we were walking you  through how we came to purchase Sommer Wind and what work needed to be done on her. I can happily say we got that list of work done! We ended up spending 8 weeks in Guatemala getting Sommer sailing ready. While we were in Guatemala, we met some wonderful people and had some incredible experiences. We met Julian and his wife Kristen, who are full-time missionaries and started their non-profit, Feeding Faith Missions. 

They were gracious enough to let us tag along with them on their regular weekly activities of service. We got to experience delivering fresh water to families in various parts of the mountainous villages, as well as assisting the local church in cooking and delivering meals to children. I could go into much more detail about this wonderful couple, their love for God, the life-changing work they do, and how God is using them to bless communities in Guatemala. There is so much to say so I'll need to check back in and write a separate post solely on that, but for now, just know we feel so lucky to know them and have been a part of what they're doing, even for a few days!

(Delivering water to remote houses)

(The amazing local church after doing their weekly soup kitchen)

Some other fun we had in Guatemala was hiking to the top of an erupting volcano and spending the night watching lava flow from our tent, exploring hot waterfalls, and enjoying Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas festivities with fellow cruisers. We met so many incredible people during our time here!

    (Hiked to the top of Acatenango and watched it erupt)

 

 

            (Halloween with other sailors)                                                                                (Lake Atitlan in central Guatemala)

(A Christmas party- cruiser style!)

HONDURAS

After leaving Guatemala, we sailed overnight to Utila, Honduras. We arrived on December 23, accompanied by our friends Will and Olya, who we met in Guatemala. We spent the first few days enjoying the island, snorkeling, and had a nice Christmas Eve party and Christmas dinner together

However, on the evening of Christmas Day, a big storm blew in. For the next three days, we were met with angry seas, strong winds, and a changing current. This combination caused our anchor to drag several times, almost pushing us into a coral reef. The conditions were so bad and uncomfortable that we were unable to get off our boats for three days! Luckily, the storm eventually passed, we were all safe, we celebrated the New Year, and then we took off towards Mexico.

MEXICO 

Sailing to Isla Mujeres, Mexico took three days. The autopilot that was supposed to be on our boat when we bought it was not working, so Travis and I took turns hand-steering the entire time. We were exhausted, but we enjoyed some beautiful sunrises and sunsets out there on the water. Our cat, Kalla, got seasick on the first day, but ended up settling in towards the end!  When we finally arrived in Mexico, we were eager for some street tacos. On this sail, we sailed again with Will and Olya, and we were able to explore the island with them. We snorkeled, scootered around the island, and walked around local shops.

 

 

Will and Olya were nice enough to watch Kalla for a night while Travis and I took a ferry and then rented a car to go to mainland Mexico. We explored Chichen Itza, Tulum, and Cancun, swam in cenotes, and had a wonderful time enjoying Mexican culture. We also were able to pick up StarLink here! Before StarLink, we had been trying to get by on the 5 gigabytes of international data that my phone allows. Now, thanks to Elon, we have high-speed unlimited internet on our boat!

  

FLORIDA KEYS

We were sad when it was time to leave Mexico because that meant we had to leave Will and Olya. They are professional filmmakers and so we were on different sailing schedules due to their work. We said our goodbyes and set off for the Florida Keys. We left and had dolphins swimming with us! This sail took another three days and luckily, this time, Kalla did not get seasick. 

 

We arrived in Marathon, Florida, and it felt like Christmas. Up until this point, we knew we had more work to do on the boat, but we couldn't get packages to the middle of the ocean. In Marathon, we arranged to have our rigging re-done, and luckily we were able to send Amazon packages to that address! We got many creature comforts added, including an ice maker, a toaster oven, a bimini (cockpit shade cover), and I completely remodeled the bathrooms thanks to a Home Depot being close! And were so grateful to complete that huge project of getting new rigging and new lines. 

(Picking up all of our Amazon orders and taking them back to the boat!)

      

        (Before and after of our main bathroom)

  

          (The team taking the rigging off the boat. Had to re-anchor her without her mast and rigging for a week)

While the rigging was being completed, we rented a car and drove up to Orlando to see my brother and his family. We spent some quality time with them and got to go to Disney! We wrapped up our fun and work in Florida then set sail for the BAHAMAS!

THE BAHAMAS

Overall, we spent 6 weeks in the Bahamas. There are so many tiny islands and beautiful places to see! From Florida, we stopped in a few islands before going to Nassau to pick up Travis' mom and stepdad. They flew in to spend two weeks with us. 

We explored the Exumas, swam in the beautiful water, and soaked up all the gorgeous sunsets. Shroud Cay is our favorite place in the Bahamas. There are small waterways that you can take your dinghy up and explore around. Everywhere you look, it looks like a postcard! A huge highlight of the Bahamas was that we were able to get our autopilot working thanks to Graham on Gypsy!!

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(A local sailor in the bay hosted "piano nights" off the back of his boat so we could all listen to him play live music at sunset)

(Shroud Cay, our favorite!)

SEVEN DAY SAIL

After the Bahamas, we needed to get to the Virgin Islands to meet our next set of boat guests. Now if you look at the Bahamas on a map, it looks like if we wanted to head south, we could just island hop through Turks and Caicos, DR, PR, and then to the VI. While this is technically true, there are winds and sea currents that you cannot see on a map. The way the wind blows and the way the currents move, if we were to follow the island chains, we would be going directly into both wind and waves. This makes the sailing more challenging, slower, and very uncomfortable. So in order to get to the VI, you can go one of two ways. 1) follow the island chain and be able to stop every day, but get beat up and go slower, or 2) go offshore for 7 days straight out to sea, and sail more in line with the wind and waves. This is obviously a longer sail and more nerve-racking as you are completely offshore and not close to an island. After weighing our options, we opted for number 2. 

  

(The route we took going off shore, instead of "island hopping" down the Bahamas, through Turks and Caicos, to the DR, and then to PR)

I was super nervous about being 3.5 days from land in either direction, but now that it's done, I'm so glad we did it. We did have some breezy nights and some big seas where we needed to rely heavily on our faith in God. Several big parts of our boat broke while we were out at sea (but in case my mom is reading this, nothing broke and everything was fine and perfect! Love you, Mom!). We did a lot of praying and a lot of thinking while we were out there alone in the ocean. We had a lot of quality time and got to focus on our marriage, our communication, and how small we are and how big this world is. We experienced some miracles (again, I should come back and write a separate post about this in detail), star gazed at night, and accomplished a huge feat! We were sooo happy our autopilot worked this entire time! 

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PUERTO RICO

After 7 straight days at sea, we arrived in Puerto Rico. This was our longest sail to date! We originally were aiming for St. Thomas, USVI, but due to a big storm coming in behind us, we tucked into Puerto Rico for a week to hide out before continuing on. While we were in Puerto Rico, we discovered that our starter had gone out on our engine. This was stressful as the part we needed had to be shipped from Europe, and we had friends flying into the USVI the following week. We prayed a lot and experienced another miracle! Our engine started ONE MORE TIME after it was completely shot, and we kept the engine running while we sailed two days from Puerto Rico to St. Thomas, USVI. When we arrived in St. Thomas, we turned the engine off and it never started again, until a week later when our new starter arrived. Luckily, we were able to meet our friends there and had a great time with them exploring the islands.

(Made it in time to grab our friends in the Virgin Islands! Sailed over to Jost Van Dyke, BVIs)

  

VIRGIN ISLANDS

We stayed in the Virgin Islands for two months, bouncing between the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the British Virgin Islands. This area is our favorite in the whole Caribbean! There is so much to see and do. From hiking, to snorkeling, to historical ruins, and delicious restaurants, it has it all. We had three sets of friends and family come to visit, and we met a lot of great people along the way.

(Maho Bay, St. John, USVI)

(Hiked up here from our boat pictured behind us!)

(The Windmill Bar, St. John, USVI)

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ST. MAARTEN & GUADELOUPE

As we were getting ready to leave the Virgin Islands, we were chatting with some friends we met during our time there. This couple, Austin and Lydia, were taking a sabbatical from work and were renting a charter boat for several weeks in the Virgin Islands. We had only hung out with them a few times but instantly knew we'd be friends. They share a love for The Lord, for traveling, and for McDonald's (Dons!)... What more can you ask for in friends?! We had planned to part ways as we were sailing south and they were going to hop on a boat to cross the Atlantic and go sail in Europe. They had some plans fall through and one thing led to another and soon enough, they were on board our boat and helping us sail for a week! With them, we sailed to St. Croix, St. Maarten, and Guadeloupe. 

(St. Maarten)

(Met a local gal in Guadeloupe who took us on a tour while driving us to the rental car pickup location)

The sail from St. Maarten to Guadeloupe was special because we hit a huge milestone. We sailed a total of 5,000NM on open ocean!! This is between our first sailing season in 2018, and the current trip. This is a big deal for sailors and there is a tradition that dates back to 16th century sailors that warrants getting a swallow tattoo after this achievement. Even more special is that we HAND STEERED 3,700 of the 5,000 NM (would not recommend). We were so lucky to have our friends aboard who surprised us with a champagne celebration and took memorable photos and videos for us!

 

ST. LUCIA

We had a wonderful time in each of these countries and I have so many stories I could share (wow, maybe getting back into writing is making me want to do this more often?!). After Guadeloupe, we went to St. Lucia. Travis' brother and sister-in-law flew in to meet us there. 

 

BEQUIA & TOBAGO CAYS

We spent a week exploring the beauty there before heading down to Bequia, Tobago Cays, and ultimately to Carriacou. Tobago Cays has the most beautiful water you can imagine, and there are sea turtles everywhere! That place is one of our favorites. We were excited to get back to Carriacou because this is where we bought our first boat back in 2018! We chose the same boat yard and so we knew the yard manager and some of the workers. It was such a cool feeling to be back in the same place where we started this journey five years ago. So much of it felt the same, yet we now are much saltier sailors and have seen so many things. 

CARRIACOU (GRENADA)

We hauled out Sommer Wind in Carriacou to keep her safe for hurricane season. We flew back to Utah to enjoy some time with friends and family for the summer. Utah is our favorite place to be during the summer months so we got to take advantage of some mainland perks as well, like air conditioning and hot showers! We're heading back to Carriacou at the end of the month for one more sailing season. The plan is to sail her from Carriacou up to Florida. But with much of life out here, so many things change so quickly! We'll do our best to update if things change. In the meantime, I may go back and expand on some of these stories, but for now, thanks for reading. And thanks again to Pastor Bill and Pastor Mac for giving me the motivation to write this recap! Hopefully, I'll see you back on here soon!

     

(Our entire sailing season summed up in one photo!)