9/21/18: It’s been one of the most difficult decisions we’ve ever had to make, but we’ve decided to bring our sailing journey to an end and sell Shanti. We’ve been discussing doing this since we arrived in Kingston, NY this past spring. Since the decision was so difficult, we kept moving forward on our way to New Bern, knowing that would be a more permanent location for her and give us time to really think about it. But hurricane Florence changed that, and prevented us from making the final push to New Bern, at least for this season.
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9/11/18: After Solomons Island, we made our way down the west coast of the Chesapeake Bay. We were heading towards Yorktown, VA, where we wanted to spend a couple days exploring this historic town. We stopped twice on the way down: our first night at a small marina near Lookout Point and our second at anchor in a small bay at the south end of Fleets Bay. After Yorktown, we intended to spent a night or two near Norfolk before heading down the ICW on our final push to New Bern. But Hurricane Florence put everything on hold, perhaps indefinitely.
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5/29/18: Well, Pat went to the dentist today to address the pain in his molar. He has a cavity between the back two molars which is going to require a root canal and crown. Yay! Unfortunately, the entire process takes a month to complete. They first do the root canal procedure. Then, two weeks after that, they do a fitting for the crown. It takes another two weeks for he crown to be made before it can finally be cemented in place. His first appointment is next Thursday, and his final one is on July 5th. We’ve decided to hang out here in Kingston until (at least) July 9th – time enough to finish his dental work and also allow the 4th of July weekend to pass.
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4/10/18: Now that we’ve found a new home for Shanti, and knowing that we still want to sail this spring, summer, and fall, we’ve been asking ourselves, “Where should we go, knowing we want to end up in New Bern”? We’ve looked at several options, and after long discussions about the positive and negative aspects of each choice, think we’ve settled on one for this season’s cruise.
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9/6/17: After much thought and a lot of discussion, we are once again changing our plans moving forward. We have decided to have Shanti hauled and stored for the winter in Kingston, NY. There are many things that have factored in to our decision from engine issues, weather, and the desire to complete our originally planned journey.
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We are back in Buffalo, after a short visit back home, and are preparing for the next leg of our adventure. As we mentioned in a previous post, we won’t be going out the St. Lawrence Seaway and around Nova Scotia to Maine, but we have planned out a new route.
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We have decided to change our plans for the remainder of our sailing adventure. We are heading home for a couple weeks to be with family for medical reasons. When we return, it will be difficult to sail the remaining 2,000 miles before fall arrives. Therefore, we have made the decision to alter our plans and go down The Erie Canal to The Hudson River, then on to New York City and south to warmer waters. We plan to spend the winter in the southern states and also with family. Next spring, we hope to head back to New York City, up The Hudson River, through the Erie and Oswego Canals to Lake Ontario and pick up our journey where we left off. As it stands, we have no planned stops along our new route because we are now making this up as we go along. However, we still intend to keep up our posts, as well as our online map, as our new journey unfolds. We won’t be posting during the time we are at home, but will resume once our journey is again under way. If all goes well, this will be sometime in August.

As we write this, we are in Port Colborne, but are planning to head to Buffalo, NY, in a couple days. There we will go through US Customs and prepare the boat for a couple weeks of downtime. Transiting​ the Erie Canal will require us to take our mast down, so we will also be preparing for that when we return (taking down sails, etc…). We are excited to see where this new journey takes us!

Stay tuned…