Monthly Archives: March 2020

Thanks to some hefty currents pushing us along, we catch the ride of a life, sailing along at 11 knots in glass calm conditions. Leaving the Sound of Jura, we tried to make a pass through some tricky areas at slack tide, only to find out we’d timed ourselves wrong. Luckily the current was behind us and in the end we had a wonderful case of being pushed along like a rocket in just a breath of wind.

Our sail leads us to Bangor Marina in Northern Ireland, which we found a beautiful town with great coastal paths for walking. Also wanting to explore Belfast though, we hopped the train into the big city where we spent the day exploring the Titanic Quarter, Botanical Gardens and museum of natural history.

Enjoy!

Much love from Scotland!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

We have plans to build our own catamaran. And we’re going to take you through the process on how it’s done!

Using a Schionning 1200 as an example, we walk you through the steps of what it would take from the time you receive your shipping container full of components, to when your new boat is launched in the water.

From finding and building a work space, to setting up the first panels, Matt will tell you each step that is involved, and what we estimate to be the time spent on each process.

We expect this build to take approximately two years for us to complete, and will be done in the US, although we have not decided exactly where yet. Make sure to stay tuned for the next set of videos in our build series, where we will go over the three designers we are looking at: Grainger, Schionning, and Oram; in more detail.

Christian’s website of his Schionning 1200 – WILD THING:
http://www.catbuildingblog.com/

Enjoy!

Much love from England!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

This week’s episode lands us in our favorite place of Scotland by far, Lochaline inside the Sound of Mull.

If you wanted to know our favorite place in Scotland, we absolutely fell in love with a small fjord called Lochaline, on the Sound of Mull. It was recommended to us by a friend as a great hurricane hole, and since there were heavy winds on the way, we decided to check it out.

What we were not expecting was the sheer beauty around us. Settling in to a glass calm anchorage at the height of the fall color change, we were anchored next to a prestigious manor and sheep that grazed along the waterfront.

There were so many hiking trails to chose from, and one of our favorites lead out into the Sound of Mull to a set of castle ruins. We even had a number of sheep to accompany us along the way.

Bottom line, if you’re ever in the area, make a stop here. We promise you will not regret it.

*Sorry for the poor audio quality in the second half of the video. We were having issues with the audio of our primary camera, and went to shooting everything with our GoPro Hero5.

Much love from Scotland!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

We have not had our fill yet of exploring the harbor of Portree on the Isle of Skye, but it won’t be protected from the southern storms headed our way, and we need to find protection FAST!

On a sailboat, you could spend a good month (or more!!) exploring all the harbors and towns in the Isle of Skye, and as much as we were enjoying our time in the harbour of Portree, some nasty storms from the south our headed our way, and there is just no protection offered here.

After taking one last day to get off the boat and do some wandering around town (where we also check out the Apothecary Tower overlooking the harbour), it’s time to find a sheltered spot to wait out the next week.

This means passing under Skye Bridge, known for it’s nasty currents that can run up to 9 knots. We try to time all the worst parts so we pass through at slack tide, and find we didn’t have much to worry about. And once we’ve made it safely to our anchorage, the only thing left to do is wait out the never ending storms sweeping over us.

Much love from Scotland!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

We take our boat to the mythical Isle of Skye in Scotland, and explore all the hidden treasures it has to offer.

Making a day sail down from our previous anchorage in Lochinver, we enter the harbour of Portree just as the sun is setting, and do our best to find a spot to anchor that is hidden from the swell wrapping in. The next day is filled with cruising life chores, such as getting provisions, doing laundry, and filling up our diesel.

Once the chores are done though, it’s time to have some fun! We rent a car and drive to some of the biggest attractions on the Isle of Skye, including the Fairy Glen; Kilt Waterfall, the Old Man of Storr, and the Fairy Pools.

An absolutely enchanting place, we hope you enjoy the ride with us!

Much love from Scotland!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

Leaving the Orkney Islands behind, we sail over the top of Scotland to take in the magic and cliffs of the western side of this island.

Parking ourselves about as far north as you can get there, we find ourselves in utter isolation, but with breathtaking views of cliffs and mountains surrounding us.

Just a little further down the coast we go ashore in a small town and take a hike along a riverside, full of rapids and waterfalls. If we didn’t know any better, we might think we were still in Norway.

Enjoy!

It’s been fun sailing the Northern Latitudes, but now we want to warm up!!
Finding VERY cheap airfare from London to the Canary Islands, we say goodbye to boat life for a few weeks as we enjoy all the spoils the island of Tenerife has to offer.

Instead of flying back to Michigan, and snow, to see some family members, we bring them out to us for their first taste of Europe and life in the islands. While Matt’s mom and step-dad are joining us for a week in our one bedroom apartment, we take in some of the highlights of this desert like island – including its black sand beaches, colonial Spanish towns, and miles of stunning coastline.

We wanted to test out our new GoPro Hero8, and gave it a test on a few of our outings, solely using this camera to record our Real Time Update. A proper episode will follow sequentially where we hopefully hike the forests of the north, enjoy an authentic Guachinche meal, and *possibly* meet up with a few sailors headed our way.

We hope you enjoy!!
Much love from Tenerife,
Jessica & Matt