What Are We Going To Do On Our Summer Vacation?
We have a great adventure planned for this summer. We headed north through the Bahamas in late April with a goal to make our way across the Atlantic again, but this time, the North Atlantic. We departed Marsh Harbour for the Azores on May 7th. After a brief stopover in Bermuda for a few Dark & Stormy’s, we set sail May 14th for Horta on the Island of Faial in the Azores (about 800nm off the coast of Portugal). Meg decided to meet Ryan in New Zealand for some Mommy-Son time, while I was doing the hard passage work - Smart Girl. She will join me in the Azores on May 28th and we will explore this beautiful volcanic island chain for a few weeks. Our grandson, Arlo is flying in with Lauren and Rob in early June. I have promised him Big Fish and Pirate Adventures.
We then sail north to the Solent in Southern England (1,200nm) around June 9th. After getting together with friends and Crondall colleagues for some sailing, Meg and I fly back to the US for a wedding. When we return in mid-July, we will sail across the English Channel and the southern North Sea to Norway. We are looking forward to seeing our old friends and neighbors at their hyttes (cabins) along the southern coast and up the Oslo fiord. We won't be in Kansas anymore! This will be challenging sailing, but the reward of seeing some of the most beautiful scenery in the world and old friends will be well worth the challenge.
In late August, we sail south through the Strait of Gibralter into the Mediterranean Sea. That is if the Orcas don't have other plans for us. Seems that they have a taste for rudders. After we get through safely, we will be in France for some boat work for a few weeks. Then the BIG EVENT: The America's Cup [The Super Bowl of Sailing] will be held in October in Barcelona and we plan to be there. Meg made connections with some of my old friends while she was in New Zealand and I hear that we may have back-stage access to the NZ team while we are there. [Leon- you are a legend!!].
Then everything gets a little hazy: Do we stay in the Med over the winter or return to the Caribbean??? Our time in the Med is limited by Shengen visa rules. We can only stay for 90 days out of a rolling 180 days, so we may sail back to the Caribbean in November via the Cape Verde Islands. But who knows? So - the Adventure continues!
From what I understand, all the cool kids are now on Instagram and it seems that I am too. You can find me at Instagram here: RodelessTraveler. It may take awhile for me to figure out this new tech, but I can probably get some help from my friends [G.W.]. You can also continue to follow us on the “Where Are We” page on our Rodeless Travels website or go directly to https://forecast.PredictWind.com/tracking/display/SV-Rodeless/.
Dolphins kept us company on our passage to the Azores