S/V Halley

32 23.679n 80 40.676w “Kan det jävlas så ska det jävlas”, a favorite statement of Kjell, my late father. It’s pretty much Murphy’s Law; if anything can go wrong, it will. Chris is now on a flight back to Cinci. He lost his driver’s license months ago and mine expired a few weeks ago. Turns out that you cannot rent a car even if your driver’s license is only a “little bit” expired. Chris will renew his license in Cinci, then come back on Monday to Halley, Lucy and me in Beaufort, South Carolina. It will be an epically expensive and time-consuming endeavor all for the purpose of getting Lucy with us back to Cinci. (Can’t fly dogs in the US this time of year - or really any time of year these days.). So once Chris is back with a precious driver’s license, we can rent a car, pack up and head back to Cinci to see the kids, other family and friends. After 6 months away it will be lots of fun. But we are on a somewhat tight schedule; we’ll also be busy packing up the apartment, putting thi...

31 49.068n 81 09.169w After four days on the move, we have the anchor down and are enjoying sundowners in complete stillness and quiet. We are surrounded by water and grasslands - not a soul around for miles - a stunning landscape in the evening sun. The area is teeming with wildlife - lots of birds and several sightings of dolphins as we made our way to the anchorage from the ocean inlet.  We’ll catch up on sleep tonight and tomorrow we’ll continue the last stretch to Beaufort on the Intercostal Waterway. Should be a pretty trip as the waterway snakes its way through the Lowcountry. A fun change of scenery from the open ocean of the past few days.

30 12.383n 81 10.831w Florida is a long state… our third day on the water is coming to an end and we are still 30 nm south of the Georgia border. But we are plowing along nicely and should be approaching Beaufort, South Carolina, by tomorrow night. We have a spot reserved at a marina near Beaufort and will leave Halley there for a month and a half while we spend time in Cincinnati and Montana. This is our longest non-stop passage yet. We’ve had better wind than expected and have sailed a good ¾ of the trip so far. The wind is predicted to die down over night, so the engines have to come back on, but we should be back to sailing again tomorrow if the forecast holds true. Right now, as the sun is setting, we have 10 knots from the east and are making 4-5 knots with a full main and the light wind screecher sail. Another night and another day is no problem under these conditions; Halley is comfortable, the breeze is warm and gentle and the seas are calm.

26 50.551n 79 58.241w It’s been over a month, but now Halley is sailing again. We are heading north from Ft. Lauderdale with the next stop TBD by wind and weather. The sun is setting over the Florida coastline, the wind is gentle off the beam and the Gulf Stream is helping us along with an extra 2 knots of speed. Soon we’ll settle into the night shift routine where Chris and I take 3-4 hour turns at the helm and Lucy keeps the off-shift person company in bed. And Halley is looking better than ever. While I spent May in Sweden with my mother, Chris oversaw a number of improvements and repairs at Just Catamarans in Dania Beach, Ft. Lauderdale. He was also busy with his own boat projects. Little to no mentioning of this during the phone calls to Sweden, but now I see many things fixed, cleaned and tweaked - nice surprises for sure. The biggest ticket items were the addition of 5 large and powerful solar panels, a new, heavy-duty chrome rack to hold them and an upgrade to lithium batteries...