Adventure of a Lifetime

One of the main reasons I retired from Johns Hopkins this past year was so that Ann and I could live out our dream of spending the Winter months somewhere warm on a boat. After years of planning, it all came together this morning. Our awesome neighbors Jeff & Stephanie (who always appreciate a shout out) came to see us off, and we set sail at 8:05 a.m. Here is Empty Nest last night at our home dock, our last sunset in Annapolis before heading South. Last Sunset in Annapolis As we prepared to leave, I plugged in our route to our first stop, Solomans Island, into the electronics. Empty Nest helm station Our first sight, of course, was Thomas Point lighthouse. Always glamorous. Thomas Point Lighthouse Our path today If you are tracking us using my Garmin Inreach site , you would see this path we took today. It was about 5 hours from home until we were on the hook. Once we were safely anchored in Back Creek at Solomons, we brought down the dinghy and took Gimel to shore to do his b...

It has been almost a year since my last post, when we first signed up to build our new Hampton Endurance. On Monday next week, Empty Nest will leave the factory in Shanghai, China. The boat will be loaded onto a large cargo ship that will sail for Miami on February 25. It should take about a month to reach the US, and then Empty Nest will be taken to Ft. Lauderdale where it will be commissioned for about another month. We should be ready to close in mid to late April, if all goes as planned. As soon as Ann and I are able, the plan is to rent a car and drive down to Florida with Gimel, our dog, as well as with lots of our boat stuff, and then to sail the boat home to Annapolis. Here are some pictures from the factory. Hull was just polished. Engine room: Galley with fridge/freezer drawers, oven, dishwasher, trash compactor Side view of galley with microwave, stove top and side door Helm station on flybridge, stairs on the left lead down to galley/dining area Needless to say, we are gett...

When is the appropriate time to start a trip blog? I doubt too many people would begin 26 months before departure like I am doing now. However, when you consider that I have already been planning this trip for about 7 years, perhaps it's not so bad. First, some background. For at least the last 15 years, I have been obsessed with boating. I don’t know why. I didn’t grow up boating, and had very little exposure to it as a child in mostly land-locked Tennessee. Ann and I lived in New Jersey in 2002, when I decided to move to academia from an industry research job at AT&T and an adjunct teaching appointment at NYU. I had several faculty offers in different locations, but the one in Baltimore, with its access to the Chesapeake Bay was most attractive to me, given the boating opportunities. In 2008, we purchased our first boat, a 40’ 2003 sailboat that I named Prime Factor and obsessed over for 8 years.  Prime Factor: A 40 foot 2003 Catalina MK II sailboat We had a lot of fun saili...