View towards St Thomas from Honeymoon Bay.

The wedding was great, pics to follow. Had the checkout aboard the Hunter yesterday morning and were sailing out of Frenchtown to St Johns by late morning. We didn't make the bay we wanted to stay in originally so we ended up picking up a mooring at Honeymoon Bay for $15 for the night. Very rolly mooring location with ferry wakes and some surge keeping the boat moving all night. For the first night on the boat it was a rough night sleeping. The nice thing is that we are not going far today so a nap is certainly in the offing for the afternoon. Dinner last night was chips, chips and a fantastic turkey wrap. I think the menu for tonight is pasta and sauce, then tomorrow night dinner ashore on Jost Van Dyke or some similar location.

Winter is just beginning to curl its icy fingers around the upper part of the country and the Northeast. In less than 2 weeks though the skipper and his little buddy, along with a dozen or so mates will be headed to the warmer climes of the Virgin Islands. We are flying down on Thanksgiving day and will be picking up the marriage license Friday. Saturday will find us all gathered for what is sure to be a memorable sunset island wedding in St Thomas at the Sugar Bay Resort. Monday we bring all the paperwork back down to the courthouse and on to Frenchtown to meet up with our friends Richard and Susan at the CYOA charter center for our first night aboard the 45 foot Hunter " Island Sister". We'll do our provisioning that evening and briefing/checkout on the boat Tuesday morning. We hope to be headed out in the afternoon on Tuesday to our first destination, wherever that happens to be. While we do have some "must see" places, we left the itinerary open enough so that we can accommodate everyone's interests with an eye on weather as well. Diana and I are both excited about the wedding, but we are also pumped to be getting this glimpse of what our life is going to be like in just over 6 months when we cut the ties to land and begin our new life as a retired couple and setting out on another stage of our lives as full time cruisers.

Wedding is closing in fast. Diana and I will be tying the knot on November 29th at the sugar bay resort in St Thomas. The following Monday we will be meeting another couple who sails with us and are very good friends for a 10 day bareboat charter aboard a Hunter 45 DS through the US and BVIs. A preview of our new lifestyle albeit aboard a much newer and much larger boat. We are totally stoked about the wedding and the trip! We have some family flying down to join us for the wedding so should be a great time.

Will be posting pictures here as well as maintaining this blog while we are gone. Having done one for our Asia trip, I know how hard it is to keep up with a blog on a short, intensive trip so hopefully will be better about updates than I was with Asia.

Next week the boat comes out of the water for the season. This year has mostly been a "working" season doing projects on the boat in order to be ready to leave for warmer climes next year. The Frigibote system is in and working nicely and I have all the heavy components for the a/c system installed and ducting to the v berth run. But with the Northeast winter coming on, I know there won't be much work getting done. I used to love winter before getting into diving and sailing. Now, not so much. I guess my time in Iraq and Afghanistan thinned out my blood. But such is the yearly ritual in the north country. Boat in, boat out. Diana and I have been asking ourselves if we would even bother if we didn't have this plan before us for the 5 months you get to have a boat in the water in the Northeast. I'm not sure we would to be honest. Thank God for the escape plan! We did do some sailing with family and friends so the summer was not all work and no play. Just mostly work and not much play. That will hopefully change in June of next year when we finally can put to rest the majority of our planned major projects and hit the coastal waterways, then the ICW south to Florida and eventually the Bahamas and Caribbean.

Hi everyone. We are new to the site but not new to the cruising dream. I ran across this site a couple of weeks ago and decided it might fit our needs for keeping a blog running once we get out and on the water next year and allow for friends and family to follow along with us on our journey south and then to wherever. My fiance Diana and I will be retiring next year at the ripe old age of 55 and follow our cruising dreams aboard our boat Winddrifter, a Pearson 323 which has been undergoing major refits as time and money allow. Last project (completed last weekend) was insulating the ice box and installing a Frigoboat refrigeration system. This weekend is the installation of at least the compressor section of a Climacontrol 4200 btu air-conditioner that should help keep the boat cool and dry when we are in a slip vice being out on the hook. Windrifter has also received new standing rigging, new sails, a new radar and chartplotter combo from Simrad, new interior upholstery, Newfound Metal ports and lots of little things -- too many to list. Of course as all boat owners know, the list is never finished but with the refrigeration in place, that was the last major project that I wanted completed before our journey begins in June 2015. Everything else is gravy! Hope to keep up with learning this site as well a few posts now and again to let everyone know of our progress.