It has been quite a while since my last post. However, that does not mean that we have not been busy! We departed from the Bahamas the day after we dropped off our last charter which was May 19th. We made great time and made it to Fort Lauderdale the morning of the 20th. We even had time to stop and sleep in Bimini for a few hours! We were planning on having to sail straight through the night, so this was quite the treat!
Once we arrived in Fort Lauderdale, we quickly checked in to customs and then sent Isaac on his way back home to Maine for the summer! Isaac had been with us since November, so it was a little quiet without him on board at first ;-). For the next few days, Jon and I spent time cleaning the boat, doing the regular maintenance, meeting up with our dear friends Caitlin and Ben, and then we decided would head home for a few days to surprise our families! This was the first time Jon and I would be home since October!
The surprise was a great success! We landed in Portland, Maine on the afternoon of my dad’s birthday! We quickly picked up our rental car and then drove home to Kennebunk. Luckily, dad was home from work a little bit early that day and I quietly walked in the door, was immediately bombarded by the pets, and then yelled “Dad?…” His reaction was priceless. “Oh my god, no way…holy shit!” Chazzy was shocked to say the least.
Mom was currently in Falmouth, getting ready for one of the biggest games of her lacrosse season. Our plan was to surprise her at the game that evening. When we arrived in Falmouth, mom was hanging out on the field with her team getting ready for their warm-up. She saw two oddly tan people walking towards the bleachers, did a double take, and then realized it was us. Her reaction was quite similar to Dads. “Holy shit that’s Kait and Jon!” She ran across the track to greet us with a smile from ear to ear, and then went back into game mode.
We were home for 4 days and were able to surprise both sets of our parents! There are very few surprises left in life, and Jon and I were extremely happy that we were able to pull this off! It was the first time we spent the night off the boat since the start of our season. It was like hitting the refresh button… and to top it off, we got to snuggle with our pets!
When I wrote this blog we were currently underway to Bermuda for the America’s Cup. We left the morning of 6/3/17 and had a great start to the trip. Seas were flat calm and we were cruising at a great speed. The seas changed quite a bit as we continued on, are the last two days were pretty rough. We arrived in Bermuda yesterday afternoon and were happy to come to a stop. Since we do not have Isaac on board with us, we hired two other crew members to make the transit with us. Mike Haith and Kyle Thomas. Both are engineers at Maine Maritime and will graduate next year! They are extremely helpful, knowledgeable, and most important of all…super fun!
I will be sure to post many photos of Bermuda and the America’s Cup. We are getting our spectator pass today and hope to watch the finals of the AC 45’s. We are so lucky to be able to attend such a prestigious event! Wish us luck in the remainder of our transit!
Cheers,
Kait and Jon