Happy New Year! We hope you are gaining ground to be successful in your 2020 pursuits.

It’s lovely here in the warm and windy Caribbean, and there’s so much more for us to see and do. We want more time to spend exploring islands and meeting interesting folks. So I’m writing this post to let folks know we have decided to extend our stay here in the islands this winter.

More reasons for postponing Panama

1. We had originally intended to sail north last summer from Massachusetts to Nova Scotia, and work our way even furtherNorth and East, possibly across the Atlantic. A primary reason this didn’t happen was due to delays from our not-so-favorite marina. (Don’t get me going on this one.) Regardless, we want to experience more from the Atlantic, including the northern parts before we go west.

2. We are really enjoying the Caribbean. (Oh, did I say that already?) We’re moving too fast.

3. We are learning a lot. It’s a steep learning curve, but our confidence is increasing. We’re picking up so much from our cruising south, down the Chesapeake, offshore to Bermuda, Antigua etc, staying weeks in places we like, keeping it brief in places we enjoy less. We have anchored in deep, shallow, rocky, sandy, muddy and weedy. We’ve enjoyed weeks offshore, mastered our wind-vane, reefed and unreefed in every point of sail. We are building more confidence, checking in and out of countries, and meeting countless new friends from all over the world. We’re learning so much from other circumnavigators. And there’s so much more to discover in this part of the world.

4. We miss our family and friends, and figure we’ll see them a bit as we swing back North. It was tough being without them during the recent holidays. Time to recharge 🙂

Here’s a brief schedule. Subject to change of course!

• Now through March: Sail around Leward Islands through winter. Mostly island hops including Sint Maarten (and French St Marten), Anguilla, Saba, Statia. Then BVIs, USVIs, St Croix, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and possibly begin north at that point.
• Late March: Briefly hit Bahamas on northern passages to Virginia.
• April is Chesapeake Bay month. We want to visit more beautiful anchorages we had missed when traversing south. Glorious private anchorages under comfortable conditions.
• Finish Chesapeake, RI, NYC, and arrive back in Newburyport late in the month of flowers.
• Late May through early June: catch up with family and friends, residing at our mooring in Newburyport.
• June to July: Nova Scotia, St Pierre/Michelon, Newfoundland. Head offshore to the East.
• August: cruising southern Ireland.
• September: Beginning to get cooler, so time to follow the birds and head to the Azores
• October: Canaries.
• November: heading south until the butter melts, then turn West to Barbados and the southern Windward Islands.
• December: Start process over, bagging a few more islands on our way west to Panama. Sounds familiar right?

Plans are written in the sand at low tide.

Enjoy your day, and hug your kids!