Hi All,

I know, this is a sail blog, so we rightfully should not be on it at all. But here we go again, and all of your addresses are here!

Well, while we would DEARLY like to be aboard Katannah heading down the eastern coast again, the boat has gone to Maine for some work over this winter, and we are--as is promised--in our rented Cruise America RV!

The kids are appalled, and until the end of the first three days, so were we. Here goes....

Wed., October 17: After a huge photo finish leaving the house (we had the house painted, and the painters lost a week to rainy weather and were finishing up and reinstalling shutters the very AM that we were leaving), we left Clifton Avenue in mid-afternoon and shot our way towards the Cape and Middleboro to pick up our "rig".

Got checked out on "the campa", dropped off our rental car and headed to Chris and CC Cunningham's for the night. We had a wonderful evening with these good friends who we had last seen aboard our respective boats in Marion in July.

Thursday, October 18: We have showers and breakfast chez Cunningham and then head out for Sag harbor, LI, NY by noon. Steve has a nice drive to the New London ferry
where we cross to Orient Point and then over to Shelter Island and on to Sag Harbor to my college friend and husbnd's home on Noyack Bay. We have a great dinner with the Birchbys and turn in in their driveway, ready to leave for points south the next morning.

For all pictures go to the gallery and scroll all the way down to the end (page 17), click on that and that should hopefully bring you to the pix of this latest adventure.

Well, it has now been three weeks since we quit our lovely little residence on the water. One year ago on this date we left the harbor and headed south on our adventure! We have had a hard time remembering all that went on this time last year. All we have to do is to reread our log/blog and we can literally relive what was then so new to us.

We spent an hour or so tonight srubbing the daylights off the three inches of growth on the bottom of the inflatable which had collected since South Carolina.

Now we are chagrined about but resigned to being on land. I have thrown myself into the house, garden, and going back to work feverishly as has Steve with his business.

We try to get out to the boat but can only do so infrequently. It is just not the same. How could it be? I am VERY envious of our new-found friends on board "Tashmoo" and others who are southward bound in September. We read old copies of "Chesapeake Life" with a vengeance, and it brings smiles to our faces to recognize SO many places where we have been. It was so great to be gypsies and AWAY from the abominable winter weather here that we have decided to get away again, the next time this fall in a camper. Well, why not, the Clampetts (sp?) can go in an RV just as well as on the boat (which is going to Maine for the winter for a well-deserved re-fit). The plan is to go south in the fall in an RV and cruise around on wheels seeing the places that we could not see from the water, plus our beloved spots...Charleston and the like. Think it sounds like a ball, and now that Steve has been able to work from afar with his brain/talent, a laptop and a printer, scanner and cell phone....well, again, why not???

The kids are appalled at the camper idea....Mom ,are you kidding???, an RV??????????????????????????????????

For all those of you out there dreaming of doing a trip like this, find a way to make it happen..... This was the best sabbatical ever, and we can't wait to do it again (although S says next time it will be in a trawler). Linda of 1,000 chores/errands of a year ago has of necessity been left far behind. I am hoping that that persona will not creep back up on me as reality sets in for good. This trip has taught us that we need to let some, if not most all of, the trappings of everyday life, go.... You can manage so well without it all, the way cruisers do. That's the goal. We'll see if we can get there again.

I cannot recall where the following came from, Mark Twain perhaps (?), but it says it all:

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do.

So throw off your bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

We are signing off on this blog now. It has been so much fun to do (even with all of my computer crashes and tardiness) and we hope that the text and pix have provided some of you with a bit of entertainment in dull times. Maybe we will start another blog on the next trip. We have loved all of your comments and emails...so much fun to read as we have moved every day. Thanks for keeping up with us all along the way!

Linda and Steve
aka The Gypsies
S/V Katannah


And the following... corny maybe, but oh, so very poignant.


Sea Fever

"I must go down to the seas again,
to the lonely sea and the sky.
And all I ask is a tall ship
and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song
and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face
and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again,
for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call
that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day
with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume,
and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again
to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way
where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn
from a laughing fellow rover,
And a quiet sleep and a sweet dream
when the long trick's over."



L and S

We motorsail up MA Bay and arrive at Tinkers Gong by mid-afternoon. There are a zillion Optis and Lasers sailing off Marblehead Harbor, and as we round the lighthouse we are aghast at how congested/tight it is with boats by the Corinthian Yacht Club. We are sure that it has always been like this, and maybe we are just used to more open space, but this is unreal. We pick our way gingerly through the harbor to the EYC and wait for a spot to open up on the dock where Susannah is waiting for us camera in hand. Once in, Mike Smith gives us a cannon salute..... Really cute, as that is the way we left.

We feel excited but have mixed emotions about being back. We hose down and scrub the boat to within inches of our lives (she needs it) and offload our diesel jerry jugs and any of the ondeck equipment that we can to make us "look better" and not so much like the Clampetts (sp?). Back out to our mooring as fast as we can get off the dock. We have dinner on the porch with Susannah and then FLEE to sleep aboard Katannah. We have breakfast in Old Town the next morning, hang out on the boat and take a few trips home with stuff but again head right out to the boat for dinner and sleeping....this is going to take some time to adjust to.

Mark's parents are here visiting so we spend the next night (the 4th) trying to celebrate aboard having dinner and watching the fireworks. It is COLD and rainy, and at the end of the night with everyone aboard trying to do dinner, the town winds up cancelling the fireworks until a later date! Hello. Everyone heads home to get out of the rain and the cold, but we stay aboard, happy/content in our little home and not wanting to "face the music" back at the house.

We get to sail with the Thomsons the next day which is fun, but the day when the fireworks have been rescheduled becomes iffy-looking weather-wise and we go to Kate and Mark's Salem loft for dinner and fireworks watching from the roof deck. Back to the boat for the night and another fun breakfast the next morning in Old Town. We SLOWLY start to offload stuff (this will take multiple trips) and plan for our reentry. Again, this is hard.

The house is looking terrific, as Kate, Mark and Susannah have done a great job taking care of things. Nevertheless, it seems REALLY weird to be on "terra firma" never mind in a home with big spaces, so we stay on the boat and try to transition ourselves day by day. After day four Vinnin Square doesn't seem so daunting, but our hearts are in the middle of Mhead Harbor. It is fun to meet up with hugs and kisses lots of folks on the EYC porch.... I guess a bunch more people than we realize have known that we have been gone for the better part of a year.

I need to pick up my Mum in CT on 7/11, so off I go and the game is then on for living at the house instead of on the boat. This will be way weird but we have to do it. Some cruisers who have done these trips report that they cannot sleep well at all on land. The good news for us is that we don't seem to have "cruisers' sleeping angst" in our onland bedroom. That part of this transition has seemed to be seamless. Emotionally, well that's another deal.

In the gallery are some pix of our beloved home for the last eleven months. People ask how we could manage, but it was REALLY a comfortable space for us. Sailors understand.