Much of what we’ve experienced while cruising has felt surreal. We’ve been in completely new-to-us situations while inviting the unexpected to interrupt those periods of calm. When preparing for our journey, it wasn’t without shades of anxiety that we anticipated some of those unexpected situations.READ MORE
Now this is more like it. After nearly 2 months of mainly motoring in a southerly race against winter, we are now into more leisurely, dare we say, more ariose sailing. Had we known the challenges we’d face, we may have decided against undertaking this adventure, but thank goodness for a bit of ignorance. It has gifted us with never-to-be-forgotten experiences and secured our sense of accomplishment. We don’t have a set destination, but since we have crossed the Gulf Stream to venture from the U.S. to the Bahamas, we both have begun to feel like we can now shift out of “getting there” mode and slip into “enjoying here” mode. We can now let our whims and the weather determine which way to point Ariose’s bow, and where to drop hook.
We’d like to share a bit of a photo essay of our first weeks here, where we are indeed, finding it better in the Bahamas. Hope you will enjoy it too.READ MORE
We wrapped up our last Ariose Note as we were bobbing in the Atlantic off the Florida coast about to cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas, with our usually reliable diesel engine sounding like it was taking its dying breath. As Tim and I trouble-shooted together, both of us had an ominous feeling in our gut as we thought back to fuelling up at the marina earlier that day.READ MORE
Our friendly Palm Beach area marina dock staff released our lines and we set off on Ariose for our long anticipated crossing of the Gulf Stream that would take us from Florida to the Bahamas. We responded to his “hope to see you soon” parting by letting him know that it wasn’t personal, but we hoped to not see him again for quite some time. Perhaps we should have been more specific. Had we known that a mere 18 hours later, his distressed face would be the first we would see upon awakening, we might have been less eager to leave. READ MORE