synopsis

Allison and Chris finally set up that oft-promised blog.

Everything has gone great so far on our voyage. The boat has performed well with no major issues. Chris and his father Darrell began the trip from Chestertown, MD on Oct. 12, the same day that Allison headed north to Kripalu in Massachusets to complete her 500 hour yoga teacher training. Darrell has caught the cruising bug from Chris over the years and he helped us out incredibly during our refit. So he was more geared up than anybody to be on the water. He proved to be perfect crew, the old days of long haul trucking coming out again on some dark cold nights. Allison met up with the boat in Charleston, SC, where we first met in '04. We had a great time in that wonderful town and spent some quality time with our friends Hank and Mary, Cameron, Charlie, Mimi and Jay. Dad left, much to his chagrin, and Allison and Chris set off south through the marshes of the Intracoastal Waterway. We stayed in the ICW till Savannah, where we jumped offshore till St. Mary's River and Fernandina Beach FL. Then, we went south in the ICW to St. Augustine and met up with Royce and Jay. At Cape Canaveral we jumped off again and travelled offshore to Ft. Lauderdale. In Hollywood, FL we spent time with our friends Paul and Bonnie and their kids Dillon and Braydon. We are currently in Coconut Grove Fl, where we hung out with our friends Dave and Barb. We were able to visit Dave's latest project, restoring the Waterworld trimaran. Now we're waiting for a weather window to cross the gulfstream and enter the Bahamas. The gulfstream can be tumultuous in a North wind, and that is all we've have for some time now. Tonight it looks like there may be a chance so we'll try it, if it is too rough we'll come back and wait more. Here are some pics from the trip.

The ready and willin' crew and ship ready to leave the dock in Chestertown