Those who sail on Uproar are at the risk of being written about in the blog. Karen Shipley, your turn. Ken and Missy were planning to sail with us in Barbados. Missy mentioned that Karen had some time off work and would also like to join us. Of course she could, Karen is an accomplished MAST sailor and although we had met her before, didn't know her well.

Chris Crews, our South African friend was solo sailing his catamaran, Skabenga, along with us and he also thought it might be nice to have another sailor lady in the party. We had a lot of fun partying on the boats, exploring Barbados but not much sailing. We did go for a few sweet day sails, including flying Skabenga's spinnaker for the first time. By coincidence, Chris's spinnaker is the same colors as the Barbados flag. And they were celebrating their 50 years of independence that month! Talk about serendipity.

Karen was a lot of fun from the start. She introduced us to a new word, FOMO. FOMO is fear of missing out. She later proved that she can overcome fomo in a big way. Ken and Missy were preparing to fly back to Milwaukee. Karen was invited to stay with Uproar and sail with us to Carriacou and ports beyond. She got a better offer on Skabenga, sailing to Martinique and ports north.

Karen's original plans were to be home in time to prepare for a “friendsgiving” party at her house in Whitefish Bay. If she kept sailing, she would have to cancel the party. Well not exactly cancel but she would have to miss it. You see, her friendsgiving friends still wanted to have the party at her house. Karen said, “Why not” and they did. We were able to connect through the internet so she did get to see the party at her house...from the tropics of Barbados. No fomo there!

I'm pleased to report that Karen is still sailing on Skabenga. They have sailed from Barbados to Martinique. Then on to Guadaloupe, Antigua and probably to St. Martin. Don't know how long Karen will crew with Mr. Crews but we are pleased that she took on this adventure without fomo.