Sailing Genevieve…

Since our last entry a great deal of water—and land—has flowed under the keel! We post this from the ski slopes of Whistler in Canada, but we did not get here by boat! Instead of sailing this winter, we are midway through a land-based road trip. But grand sailing plans for 2023 and beyond are afoot—read on for details…

The sail from Ft Lauderdale back to New York took a bit of a turn when a positive COVID test crossed Neil off the crew list at the last minute, and so Andy and I sailed Genevieve two-up, non-stop from Fort Lauderdale to Port Jefferson, NY. We experienced a variety of weather: wind, calm, fog, but nothing went awry and we arrived safely, albeit a little sleep-deprived.

Once home, summer social plans kicked off, but having Genevieve in tip-top shape and ready to sail, I decided to test my mettle by means of a significant single-handed sail to Bermuda and back. It was a successful trial—I got used to the interrupted sleep patterns and quite enjoyed the solitude, although one does feel quite alone out there when you are alone out there! Bermuda was friendly and lovely. No mishaps occurred during my arrival at or departure from the hard and craggy harbor sea wall…probably the most stress-inducing part of the sail.

Once home, Genevieve rested on her mooring for a chunk of the summer aside from a few day trips, but as August rolled around we took off for points north to explore the coasts between NY and Maine. A lovely, if windless, change of scene for us. Highlights included Block Island, Cape Cod Canal, Provincetown antics, lovely harbors in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and the excitement and stress of dodging lobster pot floats that are ridiculously dense in some places. We took revenge by eating many of the decapod critters!

On the return from Maine we stopped at the tony Martha’s Vineyard to see Danielle and Tony get hitched and we picked up stowaways Anne and Deedie for the return sail…fun crew, although we had precious little wind.

Come Fall, we gathered a bunch of pals and pointed Genevieve towards New York City and then up the river Hudson all the way to Kingston, NY. The Fall colors were not quite at peak, but the trip was a great way to see NY from the river and to understand how the mighty Hudson drove development and commerce before the motor age.

In early November, with a definite chill in the air, we took Genevieve across the Long Island Sound to Bridgeport where she was hauled-out, winterized, covered up and put to bed. Her first winter in the cold, and our first time winterizing all the plumbing, water maker, engine, outboard, etc.

With Genevieve sleeping in the yard, we finalized plans for our non-sailing winter and closing up the cold house. First stage was two months in Brooklyn, exploring our old haunts, catching up with friends, and exploring parts of the city that we had never been to in the 25+ years that we had lived in NYC.

Then in late January we shipped our car and flew to catch it up in Phoenix, AZ for some warmer, sunny family time before high-tailing it to Palm Springs for a dose of high-style mid-century antiquing in the desert. From Palm Springs we headed to John’s favorite place, Santa Barbara, CA for the month of February. We rode bikes all over, attended the film festival, tasted great wine, enjoyed the weather and great Californian cuisine, living just a couple of blocks from the beach.

Next stop was San Francisco to be spoiled rotten by our pals there. We ate fantastic sushi, sailed the Bay aboard the gorgeous S&S designed Windhound, dined at the venerable St Francis Yacht Club, ate platefuls of oysters on the shores of Tamales Bay, bonded with huge elephant seals snoozing on the beach, devoured the famous local crabs, and shopped Heath Ceramics in Sausalito. It was great to see our various West Coast friends, but after a full week of socializing it was time to head north.

We drove up the beautiful coast seeing craggy coast backed by huge redwood forests heading for Vancouver and then on to Whistler. So now we are trying to get our legs tuned-up for a few weeks of skiing in Whistler, Fernie, and Kicking Horse before pointing east to drive home via Chicago and a couple of targeted Frank Lloyd Wright architectural wonders.

Once home the grand plan kicks off. It turns out my sail to Bermuda and back ignited grander plans: in late May I am going to sail Genevieve solo the 2000 miles from NY to the Azores. John will join me there for a couple of weeks of Azores cruising before a new, eager crew, Neil and Mike, plan to join for the leg from the Azores to Falmouth, UK. This exciting and challenging passage across the Atlantic will open up a whole new chapter of our sailing adventures for the next several years. We plan to sail UK and Irish waters and then head for Scandinavia, the Atlantic coast of Europe and then into the Mediterranean.

Anyway, more details on our future plans as they unfold…but in the meantime enjoy the pics from our latest adventures.