THE other day, our friends Peter and Gail of Jabiru V helped us lift Pip up the mast to inspect the rigging before our passage to Curacao. We first met these dear friends in Cape May, and hung out in Liberty Landing in NYC — in July of last year. In Dominica this April, we were stunned when they sailed up and dropped the hook right next to us.
Jabiru is heading to Trinidad for hurricane season, so we’ve parted ways, but we know we’ll bump into them again. It’s actually a small, small world.
ON June 16,2011, Picaroon cast off the dock lines and set sail from Annapolis, MD, headed for Solomons Island. (She did have some help in the form of two crazy humans and two miserable cats.) We only made it two rivers south to the Rhode that day, diverting because winds on the nose meant we wouldn’t make Solomon’s by nightfall – a story that would become increasingly familiar as we voyaged, but we had finally left on our adventure, albeit over 8 months after we originally planned to leave.
And here we are, one year later, sitting in the cockpit in gorgeous Grenada, enjoying morning coffee, after one of the hardest years, nay, the hardest year, of our lives. And one of the best years. All kinds of awesome and horrible, wrapped up in one.
In honor of our one-year anniversary, we’ll be doing a series of posts reflecting on the lessons and laughs, trials, tribulations and triumphs of the past year. OK, and more prosaic posts, like the other day’s on finances. So hold on to your seats, loyal blog readers, ‘cause here we go!
Miles traveled: 3,755 NM, or 4,318.25 of your land miles
Number of countries visited: 11 countries – U.S., Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, St. Barts, Nevis, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada. But only 7 nation-states, as the USVIs are part of the U.S., technically, and the French islands are all part of France, and Bermuda and the BVIs belong to the UK.
Average moving speed: 4.06 knots per hour, or 4.67 of your land miles per hour. Sad, we know. Did we mention how often we were beating into 30 knots of wind?
Highest speed: 7.6 knots – hull speed.
Hours spent moving: 924.5, or 38.5 days
Days on which we moved the boat: 93, or 25% of the days since casting off
Longest passage: 9 days (from Bermuda to the BVIs)
Gallons diesel used per month: 20
Gallons water used per day: 8
Blog hits: 23,313 visits by 7,078 people (55,264 page views).
Words written on Pip’s book: 39,502
Articles Heather had accepted for publication: 6
Pairs sunglasses broken or lost: 9