Sailing Positive Waves

After leaving the boat for over three months, at least one of which the boat was literally iced-in, we had a fair amount of spring time commissioning to do before going sailing. Overall, Positive Waves was as good as new as soon as we opened the main cabin door, but there were a number of systems that Hans winterized back in January that we needed to get back online. He drained the fresh water lines, for example, so they didn't freeze and split in the below zero temperatures. Sails came down, gas was turned off, and more. Little Boat Projects We spent about a week in Smögen getting the boat back up and running, including a few trips to the store to fill the fridge and lockers with fresh food. There were no big surprises, thankfully, and we were able to tick jobs off the list quickly. Although we had friends watching over PW diligently the whole time we were gone and we knew that Hans did a thorough job winterizing, it was still nerve wracking sitting in St. Croix watching the bo

 We left St. Croix after a nine week vacation of sorts. The kids plowed through a lot of school work and Hans and I left the island more determined than ever to get Positive Waves to the Caribbean where we could enjoy the sunsets and underwater life from the comfort of our own floating home. Experiencing the Caribbean via sailboat is hard to beat, at least in my opinion! Our family split up for 2 1/2 weeks, something we're getting used to doing. The kids and I flew to Boston and then took a bus up to Vermont to spend time with family while Hans flew northwest to Wisconsin to work 12 shifts. I hadn't been to Vermont for almost two years and was long overdue for a visit. Channeling my inner chill I have a tendency to have, let's say, "elevated blood pressure" in airports and prior to our travel day from St. Croix to Vermont I had a lot of interior monologues about keeping my stress in check. I built in plenty of time for transfers and unforseens and coached myself t