Scott and I left Chicago in September of 2010 with big plans to see the world. We headed to the ocean the "long way": up Lake Michigan, down Lake Huron, across Lake Erie and ultimately through the historic and totally underrated Erie Canal. Once through the canal, we meandered down the Hudson River, and were finally spat out into the Atlantic Ocean under the bright lights of New York City.
We then sailed down the East Coast, hopping in and out of the Intracoastal Waterway passing through historic towns like Cape May, Annapolis, Yorktown, Charleston, Oriental, St. Augustine and more. We had a blast.
We made the crossing to the Bahamas from Dinner Key Marina and landed in Bimimi. From there, we hopped over to the Berry Islands for a bit, but spent a large bulk of our time coasting through the beautiful Exuma Island Chain.
From the Bahamas, we started our way along the "thorny path" and headed down to the Turks and Caicos, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. From there, we hopped over to the British Virgin Islands where we played for a week before hopping across the Sombrero Passage. Areeeeeba!
BVI's made way to Sint Maarten which began our journey through the Windward and Leeward Islands. We finally came to a halt in Grenada, where we ended up staying for seven months. Scott got work. I got pregnant. We came home, had our baby girl, bought a bigger boat and cruised from Florida back to the Caribbean where we discovered, much to our surprise, that we were pregnant with twins. Must have been all that good clean livin', ocean air and sunshine. Needless to say, the twin card was a bit of a 'game changer' for us. We continued cruising for the first two-thirds of my pregnancy, sailing up the windward and leeward island chain, finally putting our boat into hibernation in the British Virgin Islands and flew home to await their arrival.
NOW WHAT?!
Well, our twin girls, Haven and Mira, were born full term and healthy on March 6, 2014. We remained landlubbers until they were ten months old (the first eight months were NUTS and, to be honest, I think I lost a decent chunk of my brain and sanity during that time) at which point we returned to our boat which was on the hard in Tortola to test the waters of living aboard with three kids age three and under. Many told us we were nuts, that it was silly and could not/should not be done - but we were game. And, guess what? We thrived. We loved the British Virgin Islands (BVI) so much we made the decision to put a halt to long-term cruising while our kids were so little, and started looking out for work opportunities here.
In 2015 we bought Aristocat Charters, which Scott runs while I take care of the girls. It's a ton of work on both our parts, but a labor of love and one that we believe will lead to great things. It's a live-aboard island life for us right now, and we are digging it.
No matter where we are our life is a never-ending adventure! We hope you enjoy the ride.
In 2015 we bought Aristocat Charters, which Scott runs while I take care of the girls. It's a ton of work on both our parts, but a labor of love and one that we believe will lead to great things. It's a live-aboard island life for us right now, and we are digging it.
No matter where we are our life is a never-ending adventure! We hope you enjoy the ride.
Thanks for stopping by!
