Adios Mexico: Hello USA

After nearly four years of cruising we’re back in the USA.  We aren’t certain exactly how many miles we traveled onboard Atalanta (to be figured out on some cold winter night) but we estimate between 20-25,000 miles.  The adventure is certainly not over yet.  After a month at City Marina in Charleston we will sail to New England, enjoy our family and new home in Vermont for the summer, and take Atalanta to local waters in RI, MA, and ME. When the leaves begin to change, that is the signal to once again move south. 

Our passage from Isla Mujeres, Mexico to Key West went well. April Hayes and John Creelman joined us for the three-day/ three-night passage and helped out with watches. We sailed well if not on a bit more of a northerly course than we would have preferred.  Moving to the east is always a challenge especially this time of year as the trade winds are still evident and weather tends to move in from that direction.  Once in Key West, our crew departed and we once again became a crew of two.  Our friends Paul and Mary on Genesis III buddy boated with us from Mexico and continued with us up to Key Biscayne and on to Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades). 

Fort Lauderdale seems to have no shortage of extreme wealth as we moved along the ICW past miles and miles of enormous waterfront homes and super yachts of magnificent grandeur. 

One of Many on the Intercoastal

After spending so much time in places like Dominica, Guatemala, Suriname, and the Bahamas, we realized that we did not see this kind of conspicuous wealth anywhere else in our travels.

John, Kay, and Richard

The winds continued to blow so we continued to motor the ICW. In Vero Beach we had the pleasure of reuniting with our friend John Terry, our Casa Mate in Guatemala.  It’s fun to visit a native in his natural habitat and John treated us to a fun time in his hometown.   We then headed to Sebastian and a visit with our Vermont friends Peter and Blaine.  While squeezing into a favorite anchorage off their home, we found a sand bar that just didn’t want to let go of us.  With the assistance of Towboat US, we continued on our way the next morning.  As old salts say, “There are two kinds of sailors, those who have grounded and liars.” 

During a brief two-day stop in one of our favorite cities, St. Augustine, we reunited with friends we met in Guatemala, Rob and Rhian on Beyzano, who we hope to see in points north later this summer. We also enjoyed spending time with Jerie and John on Peking who we knew of in Guatemala, met in Ft. Lauderdale and traveled with for the trip north.  Our paths will cross again.

After a fast overnight of motor-sailing, we are now docked at City Marina in Charleston, SC where we will sit for a month to enjoy the pleasures of this fine City, visit with family and play with our grandson Liam.  

Also docked here is the magnificent Athena. Athena is a clipper-bowed three masted gaff rigged schooner built by Royal Huisman in 2004 for Internet entrepreneur James H. Clark. She is 295’ long, 40’ at the beam, and accommodates 10 guests and 18 crew. She carries 22, 712 gal of fuel and 6,426 gal of water.  She’s for sale so if you are interested in owning a $100 million boat, check her out here:
http://www.superyachts.com/sail-yacht-2276/athena-specification.htm

Charleston has become a home away from home so we are looking forward to the coming month. 

Best always,

Richard and Kay

Mary and Paul
Buddy Boaters
on Genesis III

Buddy Boaters Jerie and John
on
Peking

Kay Playing with the dolphins

Heading Back to the USA

After almost 9 months in Guatemala and a month Mexico, we are planning our return to the US.  Summer in New England will mean some time spent on Atalanta in Rhode Island and New England coastal waters and some time as landlubbers Vermont. We are looking forward to a summer that brings us closer to family and friends. 

Until then, our adventures at sea continue. Noah and then John Creelman joined us adding much enjoyment to our travels.  Sharing our life onboard with friends and family is an integral part of living aboard and we love it when schedules align and enable us to welcome guests.

Loving Great Food in Mexico

After tackling some boat jobs, provisioning, and sharing margaritas with friends at El Milagro Marina in Isla Mujeres, we realized it was time for another road trip. We picked up our rental car (ever heard of a VW Gol? We don’t recommend it) in Cancun and hit the highway headed for a night in the colonial city of Merida.  After one night at a great airbnb that once was a Spanish guardhouse and a delicious meal at Chaya Maya we were off on the 2.5 hour drive to Campeche (pronounced kahm-PEH-chay).  The town of Campeche lies in the State of Campeche and is visited mostly by those gringos looking to escape the resorts that crowd the beaches of the Yucatan Peninsula. A lovely 2-bedroom airbnb house in the historic section of town was our home for two nights. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999, over 1600 building facades have been restored. We visited a museum housing world-class Maya artifacts, walked the Malecon on the Gulf of Mexico, watched an amazing lightshow in the town plaza, and added dozens of photos to the 6,000+ we already have.  When you come to visit, Richard will show you ALL of them!

Back in Quintana Roo we drove to Tacos.com in Puerto Morelos where Richard claims to have discovered the best tacos in the world.  Although our stomachs were already stuffed we stopped in the plaza for ice cream and marquesitas. We also took our gringo selves to Costco where the hotdogs are served with jalapenos instead of pickle relish!

Noah Hand Steering
from Guatemala to Mexico

It’s almost time to make a multi-day passage from the Carebbean to the USA.. The trip north can be a challenge thanks to the Gulf Stream current and strong seasonal winds that, of course, tend to blow from whatever direction you want to go in. Sailing in wind-over-current conditions poses a number of challenges.  Waves build quickly and the interval between waves can be short making for a rough ride.  We had our share of 20+ foot waves and 30+ knot winds on the way here and hope to find a weather window that provides a comfortable, smooth and speedy ride. Yeah, right!

We wanted to arrive in the Dry Tortugas about 70 miles west of Key West. However, the DTs are not a port of entry so we will have make landfall in the US in Key West where we can check in with Customs and Immigration. Other stops on the way to Vermont may include Sebastian, FL (Peter and Blaine: prepare the anchorage), St. Augustine (Jason and Meredith: want waffles and milkshakes for breakfast again?), Cumberland Island, Ga. and then on to City Marina in Charleston for a month where ya’ll are invited to visit and enjoy warm weather and great food.

Adios amigos!

Richard and Kay

Noah and Richard in
Guatemala

John and Richard
in Isla Mujeres, Mexico

John and Kay in Merida, Mexico

Conversation Chairs
Merida

Campeche, Mexico

Light Show in Campeche, Mexico

Return to Mexico: Farewell to Guatemala: February 2017

Why Refurbish Atalanta?

We think Atalanta is a very special boat.  It was built in 1983 by the Little Harbor Company, a boat building operation owned and operated by Ted Hood.  Atalanta remained Ted’s family yacht for three years under the name of “Robin Too” (get it? Robin --- Hood).  All yachts personally owned by Ted were painted “stars and stripes blue”, a color resembling robin’s egg blue.

Just about ready to 'splash"

Returning the rudder to her proper location

The men at RAM Marina doing their magic

When one takes temporary possession of one of Ted Hood’s boats, it is expected that certain traditions be respected.  She must be maintained to traditional standards while embracing new technologies.  Not an easy line to walk.  When it became necessary to improve our battery system we considered both solar and wind.  Solar would have required an arch on the aft deck; one that we felt would ruin the lines of the boat.  While wind generation was not around in 1983, its installation on Atalanta doesn’t change her lines.  We opted for wind. 

Living aboard on a full- time basis as we have been for the past four years, puts considerable wear and tear on a boat.  Atalanta was last painted in 1989 with Awlgrip.  This material is like paint but more durable and with a higher gloss.  The time for Atalanta to be repainted had come.  Doing the job correctly required all the paint and filler to be removed and the hull taken back to bare fiberglass.  Then it needed to be sanded, re-faired, sanded again, and then painted with 3 coats of Stars and Stripes.  The preparation was extensive and took about 2 months to complete.  We opted to have the work done at RAM Marina in Rio Dulce, Guatemala where the cost of labor is low and the quality of workmanship high.  Henry, the head of the paint crew did a magnificent job and we are thrilled with the results. The RAM Marina is one that we would recommend to anyone looking to have serious painting or refitting done.  They are probably the best yard we have found in all our years of sailing. Now we have to dock very carefully with lots of fenders over the side so we can try to avoid getting that first scratch!

Where To Now?

With our nephew Noah on board, we left the Rio Dulce for Mexico.  On February 17^th, we ended our seven-month stay in this wonderful part of the world. We made many new friends on the Rio Dulce and hope to cross paths with them again.  We wandered down the river toward the Gulf of Honduras and checked out of Guatemala at Livingston. 

On the way down river: Cayo Quemodo Bay

Leaving the Rio Dulce

 After safely crossing the shallow sand bar we headed north in open water.  After an overnight sail we anchored at Long Cay in the Lighthouse Atoll, Belize for the night.  In the morning, we sailed 75 miles offshore in search of the Gulf Stream.  We sailed at 6 - 9 knots due north which is a reasonable speed for us.  As the day progressed the winds and seas increased as we found ourselves in 25+ knot winds and 15+ foot seas. 

Noah passage making

 Atalanta competently handled these conditions but the autopilot stopped working so someone had to be at the helm the entire time.  We took shorter than usual watches and arrived in Isla Mujeras, Mexico two and a half days after leaving Lighthouse.

We are docked at El Milagro Marina.  Isla Mujeres is beautiful, the food is great, and we are reconnecting with old friends that we have not seen for some time. Murray actually made friends here last year and he was pretty happy to see them. We’ll relax, eat, drink and socialize (and do boat chores) here for about 3 weeks and then sail to the Dry Tortugas and be at City Marina in Charleston, SC by April 15.

It feels so good to be moving again and many more adventures lie ahead…..thanks for following our journey.

Richard and Kay

More Pics

Los Tres Ricardos

Casa Mate John on board

Noah and Kay in the Rio

Livingston, Guatemala for Check Out

25 kts of wind
15 footers