About Us

     Since we seem to be gaining a following, I’ve decided it might be helpful to provide some details about ourselves and our personal mission. I met Shaun about a year ago (September 2018) in Woods Hole after he had sailed from Connecticut where he purchased his 1973 32’ Conyplex sloop. As the winter was nearing and we grew closer, I convinced him to winter with my family and I before heading north. 

     For most of the winter I struggled with the idea of going on this trip with him because as most people might see this as crazy, so did I. After I personally made it through this long, sad and confusing winter I was forced to look within and decide how best to move forward in my growth. In the month we’ve been at sea, I’ve grown exponentially. Shaun insists I need to start writing about what a ‘bad bitch’ I’ve become, so here you have it. I’ve never felt so free and capable.

     Our dogs, Brik and Luna, are as happy as they could be to see new beaches and trails almost everyday. We’ve heard many concerns from strangers about where they will go to the bathroom, etc. We take them in to shore early morning and early night to run and play. Some days we spend our entire day on land exploring whichever town or city we happen to be in. They make friends everyday and love the attention. 

     As far as concern for our lack of experience goes, it’s unnecessary. We are concerned enough on our own. We spend hours each day calculating weather, tides, winds, distances and charts. We use our navigational depth finder. We don’t sail in inclement conditions. If there is rain or storms in the forecast, we either find a mooring or stay on the one we may already be on. We respect the sea before anything else and put an incredible amount of thought into every move we make. What should be understood is that we aren’t sailing to make time, we aren’t boating for the interests of anyone else, we are on a journey to learn and grow and to see some cool places along the way.

     We don’t have any source of income and we don’t have a hold on the wallets of anyone else in our lives. We have been fortunate thus far to receive bits of monetary help from a few people that love us but it is not the backbone of our journey. We are completely stocked with non-perishables and dog food. We eat canned goods, rice and beans in various combinations and enjoy fresh fruit and veggies when we can. 

We are excited to continue our journey with the support of our new followers and hope that we can offer some enlightenment to those in need. Ahoy!

After being disappointed by cancelled plans with a good friend, I spent some time considering their perspective. It is easy for the people from the previous chapter of my life to become enveloped in their misguided concerns but it’s unfortunately disappointing how much things like this can affect the logistics of our day. We ended up deciding to walk to Walmart, which was 4 miles away. Temps were in the 90s so we had 7 water bottles with a bowl for the dogs and aimed to make the journey slowly. We stopped in every patch of shade we came to. About a mile into our walk, taking a break for water in the shade on the sidewalk, we started joking with each other about walking into the church or police station across the street to inquire about a ride. Just as we finished kidding around and got ready to start moving again, an AMAZING local woman of Nahant pulled over to the side of the road to check on us and told us to get in as she was heading in the same direction and didn’t mind helping us out! Thanks to Terry Clark of Nahant, we made it to Walmart in ten minutes as opposed to the multi-hour walk we had mentally prepared for. Thanks to Shaun’s sister Amanda, we grabbed some canned goods, a new battery and a bag of dog food! We are finding support in surprising ways every day. As I waited in the shade with the dogs for Shaun, Terry pulled up and offered us a ride back! We are so blessed to know and meet people like her. She showed us the nearby ‘doggie beach’, told us a bit about her town and community, and even gave us her phone number and address to reach out should we need anything else. She told us she’d never done anything like this before and from what we can tell, she is connected to a higher power that called her to us. Once we got back to the boat around 2pm I sent Terry a text message to thank her again and ask how we could return the favor. Her reply was only to pay it forward, which we intend to do. Thank you again, Terry- you have restored some of our faith in humanity! We hung our tarp for shade, went for a swim and even dunked the dogs in the ocean for a quick cool off. We all napped through the heat and woke up for dinner time. I made corned beef hash with corn and rice for dinner- best served with hot sauce!

We took the dogs to shore around 7am where we were greeted by a group of geese, one of which I believe was the one I carried to shore! ‘You’re welcome, goosy!’ We sailed out of Boston Harbor to Nahant. We had originally planned to sail into Lynn Harbor where we would be at a good walking distance to a nearby Walmart but the sea didn’t want us to go that way. The winds and tide shifted just as we rounded our way into the Lynn Harbor channel, we waited it out and tried to regain our heading for about half an hour before we decided to take the message and slip onto a mooring in Nahant, which we could see in plain view! It was good but slow day of sailing, we saw lots of big cargo ships through the Boston Harbor channels which aren’t actually as scary as I’d thought they would be. Not sure if it was a tide or winds but we got almost no sleep as the boat rocked all night long on the mooring.

We took the dogs to shore around 5am while there was a break in the rain showers. Then we napped on the boat until 11am when the rain let up! We left the dogs on the boat while we explored Fort Warren since they are not allowed. It was a perfectly nice cool day to be able to leave the dogs without worry, with temps in the low 60s, a strong breeze and overcast skies. I’ve explored this island before, when I worked at the Boys and Girls Club years ago. It was a cool experience then but having the freedom to go on my own time, read all of the historical information at my own pace and check out every corner of the fort with no schedule but my own was an entirely different experience. We even spent some time on the beach before heading back to the boat to search for sea glass that one of my high school teachers mentioned on facebook. (Thanks, Mrs. Mil!) We were gone for maybe two hours and they did great! Luna didn’t damage a thing to our surprise! We talked on the phone with Shaun’s sister Amanda for an hour or so, it’s always a funny conversation catching up with her. She is sending some cash to help us out with a new battery and other rations, we couldn’t be more grateful for the people supporting us in these ways. We took the dogs to shore around 8pm. Luna found a struggling goose with an injured foot, and we helped it to shore where it was happy to swim away for the evening.

We hoisted the sails and lifted anchor around 8am after our walk with the dogs. We sailed into Boston Harbor and found a mooring off of George’s Island! Heavy storms came through around 4 pm with torrential rain and gusty winds up to 30-40 mph. The winds let up within an hour but the rain continued through the night. We watched the radar closely and found a good portion of time around 6p to take the dogs to shore to do their business, even though they were content with waiting out the rain until morning.

We woke up and took the dogs for a 6am walk and run on the beach. We had a light breakfast and hoisted the sails at 10:30am. The winds are light but favorable, and should start to pick up as the day goes on. We will most likely anchor in Hull instead of going into Boston Harbor just yet . A hazy Boston skyline emerged just after 1pm. We anchored off of Nantasket beach for the night. It was a nice cool evening with a breeze. The dogs loved running the spacious stretch of beach at low tide!

The dogs woke us up at 5am! We took them to shore for a nice long walk and run along the beach before heading back to the boat. We cleaned and organized the cabin to prepare for today’s leg of the trip. It was 85 degrees and humid all day. Brik had a belly ache and jumped in to try and swim to shore mid day. We jumped in dinghy and brought the dogs in for an early walk and stayed ashore until the early evening so they could get a good stretch. We are all exhausted from the heat today, everyone was asleep by 9:30.