Thanks for visting our web site. We originally put this site together so any of our friends (both of them), or anyone else who
has nothing better to do, could follow our journey from Brazil to Charleston, South Carolina in our new Dolphin 460 catamaran,
roam. To relive that journey, click on the
2006 Voyage page.
Since we got back to Charleston, we have really settled in and love
it here. We built a new house (with a pool -something we've never had, but find we use extensively during Charleston's humid
summers), and keep roam at the Charleston Harbor Marina. When sitting in the cockpit, we look out over Charleston Harbor, downtown
Charleston and Fort Sumter. Karen started a private psychotherapy practice and it is thriving - she works three days a week
and is booked solid. The housing market kind of sucks, so I'm not as busy as I'd like, but I haven't lost any money either!!
And Karen and I have decided to go cruising full time. The departure date we've set is the Fall of 2009. By that
time, Bridey will be starting her Sophomore year in college and Lydia will be (hopefully) starting her final year. Our plan
is to spend at least the first winter or two in the Caribbean or Bahamas, and cruise the east coast of the U.S. during the summers.
That way we'll be close enough that any of the kids can visit whenever they want/need to. After that, we've decided to approach
it open-ended; we'll cruise for as long as we enjoy it. Eventually, this site will chronicle these new travels; until then it
will focus on our preparations of both the boat and ourselves. I'm planning some fairly extensive renovations and additions
to roam, so keep an eye on the
Boat page for details.
Summer's here and it's getting HOT!!!!! Heres' the update on what everyone is doing. Karen's practice continues to do
very well; she has all the clients she wants and is really helping many people. She also wrote a book loosely about our
own family's experience with child sex abuse, interspersed with her psychotherapist's view of various situations and real examples
of how others have dealt with their problems. When we were going through this, we found that there were a lot of books that
told stories, but none that talked about what worked and what didn't in various situations (sort of a "How to Get Through It" guide). Well, that's what she's done, based on her own experiences and those of her many clients affected by this horrendous crime.
And I think it's quite good. She's now in the process of trying to find a literary agent to work with.
Brien is still in
Chicago and doing very well with his work, and he's scheduled to begin classes this Fall at UIC to finish up his degree.
Patrick is on track to graduate from the College of Charleston's business school in December (with pretty damn good grades, I might
add). Caitlin has just returned from London where she completed her course work at King's College for her master's in International
Conflict Resolution. She's now working on her thesis and pursuing full-time employment. She had a great part-time gig
in London with Bechtel (the international construction/engineering firm), and may end up staying with them. Lydia will begin
her junior year at C of C (Business) in August, and had another successful year on the school's crew team. And Bridey graduated
from Wando High School (in the top ten percent of her class with lots of honors and AP classes, and scholarships!) last week and will
start at the other USC (or USC East as I like to call it) in their business program this Fall.
As for me, the housing
market still stinks, but I've gotten a lot done on the boat and am pursuing some other investment options (figuring the real estate
market has a ways to go before it will improve). So, I'm keeping busy.
With the kids deserting us, Karen and I took roam
on a 9 day Spring Break trip to the barrier islands of Georgia and South Carolina in late March. We started with an overnight
sail (150 +/- miles) from Charleston to the St. Mary's Inlet on the GA/FLA border. It was good to be out on the ocean again
and we actually were able to sail about 60% of the time. We left on a Friday afternoon and arrived at the inlet early Saturday
morning. The boat performed flawlessly, all systems were working and the new salon layout worked out great for the overnight
passage.
We spent the day Saturday looking around Cumberland Island and anchored off for the night. Sunday, we went up to St.
Mary's, GA and got a slip downtown. Monday, we motored up the Intercoastal to Jekyll Island, where we took a slip for
two nights and rode our bikes all around the island for two days. The motor up to Jekyll was directly into 25 to 30 knot winds,
so lots of waves and spray. But we were dry, warm and comfortable in the cockpit, thanks to the new dodger, which wraps
around the sides of the cockpit, too. If only we had had that on our passage from Brazil to Trinidad! After Jekyll, we
went to St. Catherine's Island, where we anchored behind the island in preparation for an early morning start out to the ocean for
a sail to Beaufort, SC.
The sail to Beaufort (about 30 miles or so on the ocean, then 20 or so up the sound and river)
was beautiful, although we could have used a little more wind. After a night at the town dock in Beaufort, we went up the intracoastal
and spent a night anchored in the middle of nowhere, then returned to Charleston the next day.
I've posted some photos
for the trip on Picasa, just click on the link to the left.
Karen and I also took a long weekend trip up to the mountains on
the NC/SC border. While we'd driven through the area many times on our way to and from Chicago and South Carolina, we'd never
stopped and looked. Wow!! This area is spectacular, with the long range views, waterfalls and great hiking trails, and
it's only about 3 1/2 hours away. Click the link on the left side of the page to see those pictures (and short movies).
We enjoyed it so much that we've booked a cabin again for the whole family for one of the weekends that Brien will be here over the
July 4th week.
The boat projects are moving along; we've completed the interior remodeling and the exterior canvas work.
The next big project is the electric/solar panel work, but I think we'll wait until the Fall or Winter when the trades are less busy
and more aggressive in their pricing.
Brien and his girlfriend, Molly, came from Chicago to spend the Fourth of July week with us here in Charleston. Actually, they flew into Charlotte and met us at a cabin in the mountains near the SC/NC border, where we spent a couple of days hiking and enjoying the area's many waterfalls and spectacular views. Then back to Mt. Pleasant for a week of doing some tourist things and sitting by the pool.
On the Fourth, we took roam up the ICW to Capers Inlet for some swimming and beach walking. Capers is 10 or 12 miles north of Charleston Harbor and, while the ICW gets crowded on the weekends, it's really an interesting trip going by the houses and docks on Isle of Palms and the Wild Dunes golf course. On the way up it was high tide, but on the way back the tide had gone out quite a bit and it got really shallow in many areas. We touched the bottom leaving the inlet going back to the ICW, then went aground a little while later right at the edge of the channel (actually, the chartplotter showed us in the middle of the channel!). Fortunately, we had put the daggerboards down a little to act as "feelers", so getting off just required winching the boards up and quite a bit of engine power. Unfortunately, quite a bit of sand and mud was stirred up by the engines, causing the raw water intake on the starboard engine to clog and the engine to get close to overheating. So, we shut it down and went the rest of the way on one engine. By the time we got back to the marina, it had cooled enough so that we could use it for a couple of minutes while docking.
We also could have gotten unstuck by waiting for the tide to come back up, but then would have missed the last (7 pm) opening of the Sullivan's Island swing bridge and had to anchor for the night off the ICW, missing the fireworks in Charleston Harbor and making the Captain very unpopular. Fortunately, we did make it back and bbq'd at the boat, watched the firewoks (shot off the deck of the aircraft carrier Yorktown, right in front of roam) and had a LOUD karrioke/dance party in the cockpit until a very late hour. You can see pictures from the week by clicking on the link at left.
