All posts by Diana

Back in Annapolis!

June 15, 2014TourismAnnapolis, Maryland, Naval AcademyDiana

After a few stops as we made our way up the Chesapeake we were finally back in Annapolis! Annapolis is such a fun town. We took up residence on a mooring ball behind the bridge on Spa Creek and settled in. Ryan was going to school for his Captain’s License for 2 weeks and I had some free time on my hands. Luckily for me our friend Cynthia made a surprise visit and kept me company for a few days while Ryan was in class.

I took Cynthia on a tour of all the Annapolis attractions…

The Capitol

The Naval Academy

The Happy Hours

Ryan joined us or a Sunday afternoon at Pussers. Always a fun experience people watching. 🙂

Bonus picture of Ryan with his diploma from Captain’s School. Yay! So proud of him!

Bonus Stanley picture of Stanley being weird and sitting in the window.

Our Top Ten East Coast Destinations

June 10, 2014UncategorizedTop 10 boating destinations on the East CoastDiana

Because who doesn’t love a top ten list… This is our list of favorite places that we have visited on the East Coast.

1. Annapolis, MD – It should be no surprise to those that know us that this city tops our list. It’s a great town for boating, has great happy hours and you can either be in the social tourist areas or go to some of the more low key places in Eastport. Plus watching all the boats, big and small, around the harbor is very entertaining, and the Wednesday night races are great fun to see.

State capitol building.

2. Newport, RI – This is another town rich with boating history and just history in general! The rugged shoreline is exceptionally pretty and the old mansions from the Gilded Age are quite a sight to see. Sitting in the harbor you are apt to see the old America’s Cup boats racing around as well as the biggest yachts we saw in the US. We also happened to be there for the Newport Folk Festival which was an unexpected bonus!

One of the gilded age mansions.

3. Boston, MA – While the moorings here leave a little to be desired (very rolly) you can’t beat the location for access to the city. We spent our time here doing the Freedom Walk, eating awesome Italian food (holy cannoli!) and frequenting the Irish pubs. The vibe of Boston is a great mix of old and new and if you’re on foot it’s a blast (those in cars didn’t look like they were having as much fun. 🙂

The bell that Paul Revere rang…One if by land, two if by sea!

4. Beaufort, NC – Beaufort is a nice mix of southern charm and modern ideas. We have enjoyed chatting with many a local at Stanley’s favorite bar, the Backstreet Pub. Although we did find out that most of the “locals” are transplants from other areas. It seems people come to Beaufort and then don’t bother leaving. There are charming neighborhoods and a cute downtown area right on the water.

Horse on the island across from downtown Beaufort.

5. Portland, ME – Not to be confused with the Portland in Oregon, the Portland in Maine is a pretty, highly walkable town with great folks, the Mainers. It’s a foodie town with good restaurants on every corner.

Lighthouse

6. Nantuckett, MA – This is a great place to have fun for a few days. I’m not sure I’d want to spend extended periods of time here but we enjoyed our visit. The town is beautiful and the island’s history is interesting and there is always something going on in the many shops and restaurants.

Grey shingle house in Nantuckett.

7. Mt Desert Island, ME – This is a gorgeous place with lots of access to hiking and kayaking. The LL Bean free shuttles are an awesome way to get around and make everything you want on the island accessible. Bar Harbor is a great town with a lot going on and we met many nice people around town.

From the top of Penobscot Mtn.

8. Port Jefferson, NY – This is a quiet, quaint town with a nice protected harbor with water warm (and clean) enough to swim in! We spent two weeks here visiting with family and enjoyed our time walking around and visiting the nearby beaches on the Long Island sound.

Ryana at sunset in Port Jeff.

9. Gloucester, MA – Gloucester is a working town with a lot of history and the fish stick factory! The air smells like fried goodness (only sometimes!) and the town ranges from an industrial feel to an artists colony down the way.

Some delicious local lobster.

10. St Augustine, FL – This was our first stop in the US after being out of the country for 6 months and boy were we excited. As the nations oldest city there is a lot of history here and combined with that is a fun walking downtown tourist area.

Backyard in St Augustine.

One year on Ryana

June 9, 2014PhilosophyI'm on a boat!Diana

We have made it halfway through our journey and completed one year living on a boat! During the time we’ve had the boat we’ve sailed from Florida to Maine, back down to Virigina, through the Atlantic Ocean to the British Virgin Islands, down the Caribbean to Dominica and back up to Florida through the Bahamas and now back into the Chesapeake Bay. Phew!! We’ve been moving around a lot and probably have done about 6000 miles on Ryana. After all this moving around it’s time to stop and reflect on the previous year.

Our greatest accomplishments in the past year:

1. Still being married! Living on a boat in close quarters 24×7 can be stressful! But we are hanging in there!

At our April 30, 2011 wedding in the British Virgin Islands.

2. Keeping Stanley alive and not quarantined through 11 Caribbean countries! We underestimated the amount of bureaucracy we’d have to go through to have Stanley with us and often got frustrated by the paperwork run around. But, having Stanley with us is more than worth it!

Stanley guarding the life jackets.

3. Keeping the boat and crew safe and sound! Sailing all those miles by ourselves would be tiring. We were lucky to have friends and family come visit and help crew the boat. Thank you to all (in order of appearance): Jack, Cynthia, Greg, Cindy, Chuck, McKenna, Brett, Sally, Kay, Tokkie, Graham, Tony, Jeff, Kacie, Pete, Patrick, Kara, Dwane & Beverly. A special mention for Greg who has visited us the most number of times (3) and was with us on the Atlantic passage and to Brett who was with us the longest (6.5 weeks).

Brett keeping watch for lobster pots in Maine.

Greg at the helm somewhere in the Atlantic on the way to Tortola.

Other thoughts and statistics about our year at on Ryana.

In 365 nights on the boat we spent:

20 nights out at sea
117 nights at anchor
133 nights on a mooring ball
95 nights at a dock

The longest we stayed in one place in the Caribbean was in Antigua where we stayed in Falmouth Harbor. This was our favorite Caribbean destination and we had a great time. It’s located right next to Nelson’s Dockyard which is a great place with a long history.

The longest we stayed in one place anywhere was Annapolis. Annapolis also happens to be our favorite East Coast destination! It’s a great town for boating, has great happy hours and you can either be in the social tourist areas or go to some of the more low key places in Eastport.

While we enjoyed all the places we went (some more than others!) it was really the people we met who have made this trip enjoyable. Nothing bolsters your spirits like arriving in a new port to see friends there! The new friends we’ve met and the old friends who have visited are what has made this trip great for us. Thank you!

Rounding Hatteras

June 2, 2014OffshoreCape Hatteras, Hatteras, Rounding HatterasDiana

When we left Beaufort, NC headed to the Chesapeake we were facing a 36 hour sail and the danger of going around Cape Hatteras. Rounding Hatteras is something all East Coast sailors like to talk about. (Just yesterday someone at the Boatyard asked me about this and high five me because I said we made it around!!) If conditions are bad, they can be really bad and dangerous. However, if you time it right with the weather a cruise around Hatteras can feel like nothing to get all worked up over. Luckily for us, both of our coastal trips north we rounded Hatteras in extremely calm conditions.

We left Beaufort in the morning with our buddies Kirk and Donna on their boat Ainulindale.

We saw some dolphins playing.

We relaxed with Stanley.

And saw a beautiful sunset right off of Hatteras. Doesn’t look so scary does it? 🙂

Beautiful Beaufort

May 29, 2014TourismBeaufort, North CarolinaDiana

Beaufort North Carolina that is. Our our way north we stopped at one of our favorite places. We have now visited Beaufort 4 times! We like it because it is such a cute town with beautiful houses and nice people. We like the neighborhoods so much I think Stanley’s walk time doubled! We met up again with our buddies Kirk and Donna from Ainulindale and had a nice dinner out with them and several boat dinners and generally just had a great time!

Ryana at the Beaufort Docks

The wild horses on the island across from the city front

Stanley, visiting his favorite bar The Backstreet Pub and just hanging out.

Sail away (up the coast)

May 27, 2014OffshoreDiana

We left St Augustine, FL headed to Beaufort, NC. Beaufort is one of our favorite places and we were excited to return. We were at sea about 3 days which was the longest it’s just been the two of us out there. Luckily it was a nice sail and we easily fell into our routine of two hours on and two hours off. That works best for us. While one of us is on watch the other will sleep in the cockpit or just be puttering around the salon. Stanley is usually sleeping somewhere!

New to sailing? Let us help you master the basics with these handy sailing tips and instructions for beginners. You can also read our sailboat buying guide and watch videos on sailing, plus compare sailboat brands to find the right one for you. Both novice and experienced sailors alike can benefit from a quick review of these beginner sailing basics, including taking the right instruments, like nautical clocks, barometers and more.

Choose calm, uncrowded waters If you’re just starting to master sailing basics and learn how to sail, then one of the most important beginner sailing tips to remember is to practice in ideal conditions of light winds and low traffic.
Choose a small boat to learn how to sail It’s easier to learn how to sail with fewer lines and sails. A small dinghy will be more responsive and easier to maneuver, and is also perfect for practicing test capsizes in (see tip #7 below).
Begin on a boat rigged with one sail Similar to the above, beginning on a boat that’s rigged with just one sail will make learning sailing basics easier and less complicated.
Follow sailing basics for safety There are certain sailing basics for safe boating that should go without saying, no matter what your level of expertise. These include always telling someone before you go out on the water, always bringing a floatation device and knowing in advance how to swim. For additional information, please see our safe boating pages.
Research tide, wind and weather conditions. Check the weather forecast so you can be prepared for whatever the weather might bring. Be sure to bring along adequate provisions, clothing and basic weather gear as needed. Boating and sailing basics means always being prepared.
Become familiar with sail control The best sailors are the ones who are able to adjust sail settings to take the best advantage of different wind and water conditions. In general, sails should be relatively flat when the wind is either very light or very strong, and full when there is a moderate wind.
Capsize on purpose. This may seem like one of the oddest beginner sailing tips we could suggest, but it’s better to practice how to handle a capsized sailboat within a controlled environment, as opposed to an uncontrolled one. We learn best from experience, and the valuable sailing basics you’ll pick up from going through a test-capsize in a small dinghy will serve you well in the event of a real-life one.

Here is Stanley enjoying the sail.

A beautiful sunset.

On the second day we caught a tuna! Yes!!

More St Augustine

May 21, 2014TourismAmerica's Oldest City, Florida, St AugustineDiana

While in St Augustine we enjoyed more than the cute neighborhoods.

We went to the Fort and looked around. We’ve been to a number of forts over our travels, the most impressive being the one in Old San Juan Puerto, but still enjoy visiting them and learning about the history of the town.

We tried the local winery which we would not recommend. Our tasting started off with one dry wine and the guy pouring it said “don’t worry, just get through this and we’ll get to the good stuff”. 🙁 The rest of the wines were really sweet or fruit infused. One wine had hints of bubble gum ice cream. Yeah… we wouldn’t recommend it! It was fun though because we went with our friends Kirk and Donna. (They didn’t like it either!)

Kirk and Donna are not impressed.

The winery had a nice logo.

We had our boat in the marina the whole time in St Augustine, mostly because it was easier for when we went back to the west coast. The marina was nice and good walking distance to everything in town.

St Augustine – The Nations Oldest City

May 20, 2014TourismFlorida, Nations Oldest City, St AugustineDiana

Our first stop once getting back to the US was St Augustine. We’d heard from many people that we would like it and we did! St Augustine is the nations oldest city and was founded by the Spanish in 1565. It still has a little bit of that Spanish flavor, lots of nice old houses and a cute downtown walking area / tourist trap.

While in St Augustine we docked the boat at the City Marina which was quite nice and took a quick 2 week trip back to the West Coast to see family and friends. It was great to see people and recharge and we returned to St Augustine feeling good!

Views around St Augustine:

Back to the U S A

May 11, 2014OffshorePassage Bahamas to FloridaDiana

Our sail back to the US from the Bahamas was uneventful. We left Green Turtle Cay headed for St Augustine FL on a morning that was so calm we could see every blade of grass in the water beneath us! It was a nice send off from the Bahamas and a reminder of how beautiful it is!

We exited Powell Cay Channel and finally got into some deep water after being in about 20ft the entire month of our Bahama stay. It was slow going for the first day as we were pushing about 2-2.5kt of current! But we had an amazing sunset. No green flash though!

We saw a few passing ships at nice but it was pretty quiet out there. On the second day we finally started to get a current assist! Woohoo! At some point this day we must have been in the Gulf Stream, but unlike our previous experiences it was not horrible! 🙂

After one more night we finally saw the shores of Florida before us! Home at last after about 6 months out of the country. It was a nice feeling to be back! We got into the St Augustine Municipal Marina about 9am and breathed in some of that USA air.

Last of the Bahamas

May 10, 2014TourismAbacos, Bahamas, Bluff House Marina, Green Turtle CayDiana

We’ve already been back in the US for awhile now, but had such a blast in the Bahamas and with Dwane and Beverly when they visited that I wanted to do one last Bahamas post. We spent our last few days in the Bahamas on Green Turtle Cay, first in Black Sound and then in White Sound. Our sail through “The Whale” was quite uneventful though we’d heard it can be treacherous with big seas. Beverly loved the seat up on the bow and stayed there enjoying the view every time we sailed!

The town of New Plymouth was quite cute and we had a nice walk around and lunch there. They have a statue garden which I found slightly creepy but the history is really interesting!

We had a nice dinner on the boat in Black Sound with Ryan (unintentionally) cooking some flame broiled steaks and Dwane trying (unsuccessfully) to catch a fish!

Over in White Sound we walked around the island and enjoyed the beaches as well as the marina facilities at Bluff House Marina. The dock hand here, Andrew, was one of the friendliest guys we met and very helpful! The beaches here were (as usual) gorgeous. Dwane was such a fish and took every opportunity to get in the water and swim. Beverly, while being a little more hesitant was usually game to get in too. Ryan and I watched from the shore and enjoyed the view.

All too soon it was time to say goodbye to Dwane and Beverly. We had a blast during their visit and hope they did too!

The Voyage of Ryana

Ryan, Diana and Stanley explore the world Western Atlantic by boat