Summer 2022

Damariscove Island

We divide our life into different time increments. In the short-term, it’s split into 6 week blocks: the time when Hans is not working and we’re actively cruising. Where should we go and where will we stop for his next work stint? Our geographic progress is made in starts and stops based on that schedule. In the longer term, our time is split into seasons: hurricane season, winter, summer. In the long long term, we look less at time and more at geography. Where do we want to go? If we sail for the south Pacific, when do we transit the Panama Canal? We have little say over our long long term schedule. Because of weather patterns, there are certain months to transit the Canal, there are certain months to be in the tropics, and there are certain months for ocean passages. We’re no longer living on a 3-year plan or a 5-year plan, but more like a solid 6-month plan with various not-yet-decided options for the following 6 months. But I know where we’ll be in February, 2024. It’s an unusual way to organize life, especially since it requires a high level of flexibility but also rigidity.

I feel exceedingly lucky that we have so much autonomy and freedom over our calendar, but at times it gets a little overwhelming, especially when we try to fit too much in. Over the past three months we transitioned from winter Caribbean trade wind sailing to land-based travel and reconnection with family and friends. Our summer was filled with fun times with family and friends (very important in our nomadic lifestyle since we can’t rely on regular visits), but it was also spent off the boat (away from our home) and nearly completely apart from Hans who spent the entire summer working, save for a short week around July 4. As with all lifestyle choices, this summer had a certain cost, but we also made great memories, replenished our cruising kitty, and PW got a little TLC in the boatyard.

After two months, at the end of August, we transitioned back to PW to start our next season of sailing, traveling, cruising, voyaging. We returned to the boat with some newfound knowledge: the kids loved sleep away camp and definitely want to return next summer; spending the summer in a more temperate climate, like New England, is ideal; reconnecting with family and friends is priceless; and we never want to be away from home nor split up as a family for so long again. Maybe away from home if we’re all together, but definitely not both. Needless to say, the past 5 weeks on PW (3 of which we have all been together) have been wonderful. We’ve cruised around Maine, had fun visits with old friends, met new cruising friends and boat kids, met generous, kind, and open Mainers, and put some more miles under the keel as we sailed from Maine to NYC. We’re back aboard, back to our cruising life, back to school, back to our regular routines, we have our sea legs back, and it feels great.

The summer started with a fast exodus from PW. We arrived in Portland, Maine on a Monday morning at 2:30 after a 5 day sail from Bermuda and we caught a plane to Jacksonville, FL on Tuesday morning at 7:00. Between Monday 2:30 and Tuesday 7:00, we filled our diesel tank, thoroughly cleaned the boat, removed all food, met Meme (Kristen’s mom) who graciously took President Periwinkle for the summer, packed our clothes for two months, emptied the water tanks, etc., etc., met with the project manager to discuss boat work, and hauled the boat where it could remain out of the water all summer. Whew.

We flew to Jacksonville, FL to attend Hans’s five year residency reunion and we spent time with friends in both Jax and Tallahassee.

Rock and Coda, our friends' corgis.
Matilda decided they both needed to be covered in blankets.

Maxing and relaxing off the back of the boat. We had perfect boating day on the Wakulla River which is fed by a spring. The air temps were HOT but the water was refreshingly cold. Plus, manatees.

Manatee sighting!

Our summer travel frenzy started at the Jacksonville airport when the four of us arrived on a Wednesday morning and went on three different planes—Hans to work in Wisconsin, Freja to visit a friend in Texas, and Kristen and Matilda flew to Boston to spend time in Vermont. We reunited in Philadelphia for a short week over July 4.

While Freja was visiting her friend in Texas and Hans was working in Wisconsin, Matilda and I went camping in Vermont with Meme.

It was rainy, and buggy. But then sunny and gorgeous.

We all traveled to Philadelphia on the same day.
Matilda and I took the train from Vermont.

Hans and Freja met at the airport in Houston and then flew to Philly together.

A highlight of our time in Philadelphia was the Chinese Lantern festival.

Hans flew back to work and the rest of us rented a car and drove to Vermont. Hans worked and worked and worked while we hopped between family and friends.

Making candles with Grampy at the Yankee Candle Factory.

Aunt Angie!

Matilda went on countless motorcycle rides with Uncle Larry.

Making slime with Meme.

Hiking with Meme.

At the beginning of August we reunited in Portland, Maine and got onboard PW for the first time in nearly two months. There was a slight snafu when the shaft seal started leaking, pouring copious amounts of water into the engine compartment, but besides that, PW was in excellent condition and ready to start sailing again.

Back on the boat and sailing again within hours.

Jobs completed over the summer:


• Flexiteak floor installed in the cockpit to cover the uncomfortable and perpetually dirty non-skid;

• Oil change pump installed in the engine room;

• High water alarm installed in the engine room (which paid for itself times 100 when the shaft seal started leaking);

• Blower installed in the engine room;

• Shelves constructed in the kids’ hanging lockers; and

• Automatic fire extinguisher replaced in the engine room.
  
  

Overall, we were very happy with the work completed and it was a real luxury to have someone else tick off our project list.

We had a few days on the boat with the kids before we drove them back to Vermont to attend sleep away camp for two weeks. They went to the same camp I went to as a kid. It looks exactly the same and gives the kids space to be free and autonomous. It was a little daunting to leave our kids for two weeks where it seemed like the oldest person there was 25, but it was exactly what they wanted and needed. They returned to the boat bursting with stories and three weeks later the stories, songs, and chants are part of our daily life.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

While they were gone, Hans and I spent a week sailing PW from Portland to Rockland, stopping at small islands and towns along the way, eating out, sleeping in, and basically being on our own schedule. We also did a fair amount of cleaning, reorganizing, and sorting out the boat after our long absence. 

The coast of Maine is almost embarrassingly scenic—iconic lighthouses, small islands covered with evergreens and ringed with massive granite boulders, a 3 meter tide exposing tide pools twice a day, lobster boats (and pots!) filing every harbor, thousands of hiking trails, lobster shacks, beautifully restored and active wooden sailboats, seals, harbor porpoises, bald eagles, osprey. The people of Maine are so generous and welcoming. They love their coastline and were truly happy to share it with us. I talked to as many people as I could to get tips and favorite spots and everyone was more than happy to share. After a few weeks, we’re definitely considering returning next summer.

The lighthouse from Forest Gump!

Maine is home to so many gorgeous sailboats, including tons of Cape Dory Typhoons, my favorite sailboat.

Our friends Matt and Suzanne came aboard for our second kid-free week and we had a fantastic time sailing around Penobscot Bay. It was a real treat to spend a week with friends, completely uninterrupted by kid chatter and demands.

Lobster boats. We were always anchored among lobster boats. Scenic, but also a little stinky and we were usually awoken in the pre-dawn hours as they went to sea to check their pots.

So we definitely needed a lobster dinner after our early morning wake-ups!

After a couple weeks without the kids, we rented a car and drove back to Vermont to pick them up from camp. They were so happy to see us and regaled us with camp stories, songs, and chants for the entire five hour drive back to the boat. Our nomadic life usually always gives them ample opportunity to spend time with other kids, either friends, cousins, or other boat kids, but there is something special about living in a cabin with 10 other kids your age without any parental influence. It seems like camp will become a new summer tradition for them.

The classic Swedish expression "borta bra, men hemma bäst," "Being away is fun, but home is best/home sweet home" was particularly fitting when the kids returned home from camp.

A new addition to the boat's toys: a swing made out of line used for lobster pots.

A few more weeks of cruising in Maine before it would be time to head south. We had scoped out a few uninhabited islands for the kids to explore and we had plenty more on the chart that we wanted to see for ourselves. Our friends Ellie and Chris drove over from upstate New York with their kids and dogs to spend a week with us. They stayed at an inn in Tenant’s Harbor, just south of Rockland, so we based ourselves out of there for a week. Unfortunately it was a very rainy week but we made the best of it and went for day sails and explored Rockland and ate lobster rolls. Ellie also ran a half marathon!

Go Ellie go!

Reading at dinner in the fog, rain, and drizzle.

We found a working rotary phone at a restaurant and the waitress let the kids place calls to our cell phones. They loved it and felt like they were in some kind of secret spy movie.

A kind gesture by a dinghy owner, also, classic Maine.
Using an L.L. Bean tote bag to cover the prop to protect other boats at the dinghy dock.

Learning how to sail in fog. At least we have tons of night watch experience so we're very comfortable relying on radar and AIS.

Hans towed the kids around on the paddleboard on a sunny day.

We wrapped up our time in Maine with a rendezvous with our boat buddies Adam and Cindi on s/v Bravo. They had spent the summer in Nova Scotia and plan on wintering (off the boat) in Maine. We hiked around Acadia National Park together and ate a few more lobster. We also met another kid boat, s/v Hasten Slowly, and the kids filmed an epic time travel movie, complete with on-location summit filming and costumes. Our final hurrah in Maine was a visit from my Dad and his partner Jeane. They came for a weekend and we were lucky to have beautiful weather. We squeezed in sailing, a run to the laundromat, a craft fair, and a lobster dinner.

Live location filming for the feature film.

Lobstah dinnah!

Acadia National Park. A lot of steep, scrambly hikes but always amazing views.

A final lobstah dinnah!

The day before we left (also our wedding anniversary!), we dried out on a beach in Southwest Harbor, cleared the prop of some leftover line from when we snagged a lobster pot, and refilled a few of our provisions. We sailed away from Mount Desert Island and Maine at dawn on the Tuesday morning after labor day, bound for points south. Maybe Provincetown on the Cape, or maybe further, weather dependent as always. We had a couple weeks to get to Philadelphia for Hans’s flight on September 22 for work so it was time to get going.