Dear Friends and Family ~

On May 4, 2010, the morning was cool and crisp in St. Augustine with the promise of even cooler North winds later in the day. Divers Tom and Joe had just finished cleaning and inspecting the hull below the water line and replacing one of the sacrificial zincs that protect the prop and shaft from electrolysis. Soon the mild St. Augustine spring would turn into a hot, humid Florida summer and, because we don't have air conditioning aboard Voyageur, we would head north, ending our ten month respite from daily migration.

It's been over thirty-five years since I first wondered what it would be like to live on a boat and almost fifty-seven years since I took my first sail on grey, windy Lake Winnebago one fall afternoon in 1953. A friend of my sister owned an M-16, the boat that put Harry Melges on the sailboat designer map. A fast, wet, low volume racing scow, sixteen feet long with a main and a jib, she had twin rudders and, instead of a deep centerboard, had two shallow bilge boards . . . perfect for the waters off the Oshkosh Yacht Club. I had spent the summer crawling over, under, in and around the sailboats at the club. I was hooked on the textures and smells of 1950s sailing . . . cedar, varnish, bronze, paint and canvas . . . which inevitably led me to harder stuff. I wondered what it would be like to cut through the water, tiller in hand, and feel the power of wind and sail.

Wishing turned to reality in a cold spitting rain that blustery fall day when my sister's friend asked if I wanted to take a ride. The next half hour was both terrifying and exhilarating! In spite of the fact that I ended up in the bottom of that boat screaming to be returned to shore, I've been happily sailing or paddling white water ever since. Thus ended my first bitter sweet lesson in "Being Careful What You Wish For". And as for living on a boat, you might say the second and third lessons came with sleet on the deck in Bel Haven, NC, pictured above, and frost an inch thick from a 9 degree wind chill in Fernandina Beach, FL, three months later.

It's been over a year and a half since we typed our last blog entry. During that time we left Long Island Sound, raced down the East River at over 12 kts, transited the New Jersey Coast and Delaware Bay for our first overnight passage, cruised the Intracoastal Waterway from Norfolk to West Palm Beach, Fl, crossed the Gulf Stream to and from the Bahamas and stood fifty hours of three on / three off watches aboard Voyageur from St. Augustine to Southport, NC. Along the way we enjoyed the warmth and openness of the boating community, visited old friends and made new ones, shared coffee with transoceanic veterans and circumnavigators, spent nights at sea under countless stars from horizon to horizon and slept in sheltering coves and harbors in places we never would have seen without Voyageur.

Pictures and stories of these and some of our other journeys are available on this site for you to explore. Click on "PHOTO GALLERY" to view sixteen photo albums which are arranged chronologically, top to bottom.

As it turns out, full time cruising (or "living aboard" if you like) is not a vacation . . at least not so far. It's just another lifestyle with both peace, stress, smiles and heartache and plenty of work to be done. We've not been at it long enough to be able to answer the question, "Is it all worth it?" However, I can say with some authority at his point that Jane likes livin' on a sailboat even better than I do. To see how fortunate and blessed that makes me, buy a motorcycle or a sports car, move to Tibet, run for Governor, quit your job or take a lover and, after a couple of years, see if your husband or wife can say he or she likes it better than you do.

On Wednesday, May 12 at 9:00AM we started out the St. Augustine inlet, bound for Southport, NC, a 300 mile offshore passage away. Jane's description of the journey appears above. From Southport we'll head North along the Intracostal Waterway to Norfolk. After spending June on Chesapeake Bay, we'll head for Long Island Sound and the docks where our journey began at Brewer's Pilots Point Marina in Westbrook, CT. When we arrive there, we will have been aboard Voyageur for two years, having put over thirty seven hundred miles under her keel. Then, in September, we'll turn around and head back to Chesapeake Bay to start south all over again.

We trust you'll come along.

Bob & Jane Fulton
May 2010