After saying goodbyes to friends and family...and some dear cash to the boatyard - we were ready to tackle our second season on the boat.

We had great offshore sailing down the East coast and met up with friends in Florida.

We had a great gulf crossing from Fort Worth to the Abacos and sailed the entire way! In fact, after spending 4 more months in the Bahamas - we only bought 40 gallons of diesel!!!

The Bahamas and especially the Exumas were great. We really enjoyed the time spent playing in the crystal clear water, walking the beaches and chasing the fish. We also got to spend a lot of time with old friends from the first season, new friends we met along the way and two special visitors! Mom came out again for her third trip to the boat...quite the little sailor. Then my fake cousin Lois came out for some fun in the sun too.

After the crowds cleared out - it was time for us to start heading south for hurricane season. So we left the Georgetown crowd behind and took the road less traveled south. Technically SE. With a brief layover in the Turks & Caicos islands we made the "rainy" crossing down to the Dominican Republic.

We had a blast spending hurricane season in the DR, and took several trips inland to see the sights. Don't miss Santo Domingo! We also got to spend the summer with good friends...and get a bit of work done on the boat too - THANKS PETITE LOUISE for helping to build our green power plant!!!

Lessons learned in season 2:
*Pressure cooker is a must (stainless steel is best)
*Some sharks are very large...don't swim near cuts at their dinner time :)
*Bachata & Merengue!

After five months we were ready to go south again for our third season...

After buying the boat in September 2007, my mom came out to help get Ellida ready for her big adventure. After lots of scrubbing and my first lessons in boat-yard subsidizing we were off for our first sail!

What a great day! And even though my mom had never been on a sailboat before...she had a blast - even with a small craft warning on the weather channel! Little Ellida did great too, never gave us a worry as she blasted through the short choppy waters of the bay.

After spending another month in Norfolk getting her ready, I took off on my first solo cruise with Ellida down the ICW.

With lots of adventures on the way, Karmen joined in on the fun and we made it all the way down to Eleuthera, Bahamas. This was a great shake-down cruise and we learned a lot and met some great new friends.

My mom and Aunt J. also made an escape from the snow and came out for a visit to the Bahamas to soak up the sun.

We didn't want to leave the Bahamas but finally came back state-side and summered out in Charleston, SC with the best Chandlery in the world - Charleston Yachting Go Randy!

Lessons learned from our first year?
*Weather dictates everything...
*Grounding is inevitable...don't let it bruise your ego
*Karmen learned that the depth aka death guage is your friend
*There is at least one incredibly large golden turtle on the planet
*Karma
*Dolphins are awesome ableit a bit showy at times : )

After a little time away from the boat for us and then some much needed upgrades we were ready to head out for Season 2...

Even before I bought the boat I knew I'd need to come up with a new name.

The old name was difficult to pronounce, spell and just didn't seem to suit her. So I began looking for a better fit... I wanted something easy to say on the radio, something easy to spell and something that reflected her Swedish heritage.

So after some research, I happened upon a book of Norse mythology...in it there was a reference to "Ellida"

According to the Norse legend, Ellida was a magic dragon ship gifted to a wandering hero by the gods.

In a short recap, no matter how bad the guy screwed up - the ship always got him out of trouble. And, as it was made magically out of a single piece of wood it didn't leak. I obviously liked both of those attributes and thought it was a perfect fit!

There was a recent article showing archelogical evidence of boat building on the same Island ( Ellös ) where Hallberg Rassy's are built...dating back 3,000 years ago! I guess by now they have figured out what they are doing.

This section of our blog is dedicated to our floating home and the projects/upgrades we have made.

Here are a few bits to start out with about the boat...

Hallberg Rassy's are popular, well made cruising boats. This is their most popular boat, with over 900 made in their long production run from 1974 to 1982. Ellida is hull #12.

Want more info on the HR Monsun?
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Greetings!

And welcome to our long-over-due sailing blog. Karmen and I have been cruising (without a blog) since 2007, guess we just had a bit of writers block.

Ok - we were really just too lazy : )

So to make up for lost time I'll summarize the last three years in one blog for each year...and then make a non-contractural promise to blog more frequently going forward.

Enjoy!