All Hands On Deck   Adventures on land and at sea

Lee and I are weighing anchor and heading out to sea one more time together in the Caribbean. I am certainly ready for our time in the tropics to be over. I think Lee is too, although we will both miss swimming off the boat in turquoise water, buying bags full of mangoes and papayas […]

I miss Port Antonio already. On this cool, calm Monday morning Pirat is anchored off the Montego Bay Yacht Club. Montego Bay is a big tourist/cruise ship port near the west end of Jamaica. We sailed here yesterday from a little anchorage called Fosters cove. We spent one night in that solitary spot after a […]

Jamaica is both nothing like we expected and everything you’d think it would be. People are friendly (sometimes a little too friendly). Mountains cloaked in tropical jungles serve as a backdrop for clear, blue bays and sandy beaches. There is plenty of Red Stripe and there would be plenty of bananas if, according to one […]

I had every intention of writing blog posts to publish via sat phone internet during our passage. That possibility went out the window when it became clear that the seasickness medication I took wasn’t going to keep me feeling 100%. I felt better than I would have un-medicated but sitting down to type something sounded […]

I think we’ve spent just the right amount of time in Curacao. I’m no longer overly apprehensive about the passage and Lee and I are both sick of the bugs and heat, which are always worse in port. Lee has been driving us around in psycho traffic for almost a week and he deserves a […]

Its amazing what you can accomplish with zero energy. I guess I’m speaking for myself. Lee seems to have plenty of energy and is a regular machine working on the boat. He cleans. He organizes. He spent half of yesterday and the day before up the mast cleaning the rigging and re-attaching things. Of course, […]

I’m an idiot and forgot the cable that connects my camera to the tablet so this will be a boring, wordy post. We arrived in Curacao yesterday afternoon and I immediately remembered why we are leaving the Caribbean. Its just too hot. It’s too hot to function, too hot to enjoy much of anything. My […]

Losing hours of sleep and jumping ahead to Saturday was difficult. Here we are in the Newark airport, taking advantage of a United Club pass to sit in some comfy chairs. Lee and I were brainstorming the game plan for once we arrive in Curacao this afternoon. First and foremost, we need to make sure […]

We got a Delorme Inreach so you follow our track, wherever we end up going (we still don’t know). Right now you can see Lee’s usual commute to and from work – exciting stuff! Track Lee and Rachel on Pirat! More on this later, but don’t freak out if our track ends suddenly – this thing isn’t necessarily […]

Okay people, it’s time to go sailing. It’s T-minus 5 days till Lee and I fly to Curaco to put Pirat back in the water! It’s been a year and we both miss our boat like crazy. We’ve been doing some racing on the bay and puttering around in my dad’s boat but nothing compares […]