S/V L'ORIENT

It's early October and we're leaving in 6 weeks !!!  This time it's not just a trip- it's actually our new lifestyle (which is thrilling and scary at the same time). Tom will be working in the USA every March, April, September and October. The rest of the time we'll be on L'ORIENT, wherever that may be.......the Caribbean for at least the next 3 years. Kirstin is fully retired, yet busier than ever. She's overhauling our yacht canvas piece by piece, as well as making pillows, tablecloths, and even winch covers. She loves her sewing machine, and the inside of our boat now resembles a sweat shop.......fabric, grommets, other tools of the trade everywhere. Our boat projects are coming along slowly. It's dawned on us that anything we need to order (especially something big and mechanical) would need to be ordered soon. We're working our list down slowly..........to-dos as obscure as "change batteries/pads in defibrillator", and "reacti...

What job ? Kirstin and I enjoyed a wonderful dinner last month to commemorate her retirement. You can see her mixed emotions as she contemplates her future life of cruising the high seas. Today she started the continuing education part of her retirement........"Canvas State". She is spending a week in Sarasota learning how to sew yacht canvas. It might sound like a trivial and obscure past-time, but anyone who lives on a boat understands how important and in-demand this skill is............especially in the Caribbean. While her plan is to work to keep LORIENT's canvas and interior looking snappy, it's crossed our minds that for extremely close friends we might now have something we can trade for Chardonnay.

Wow- it's almost August. Kirstin's last day of work is August 8; then she becomes a student at Kanvas State (she's taking canvas sewing lessons). Our bimini, cushions, and other Sunbrella flourishes are looking their age so this is not a moment too soon. Yesterday we did a complete inventory of every spare part on L'ORIENT, which if you know us is a major undertaking. We have almost enough parts to build another Amel (it seems). Our route back to the Caribbean has been a point of contention- with our insurance company. Apparently the "no Haiti" rule is quite firm. We had planned on going through the Windward Passage (between Cuba and Hait), stopping on Haiti's relatively safe West Coast......then heading east in a convenient wind shadow that resides under the Dominican Republic. Our insurance agent has nixed this idea, so we have to go to Plan-B. Anway, it's all very exciting............getting the boat ready, buying new gadgets, making sure ol...

OK, not really............not yet :( But we have some big news !!! We are sailing on Nov 1 back to the Caribbean. Tom is entering semi-retirement. Kirstin will be fully retired (how did that work, anyway ?). In any case, negotiations with my boss were successfully concluded, and we will be 8 months in the Caribbean and 4 months in the US every year until we (me) fully retire. Kirstin is preparing for Kanvas State...........her course in sewing canvas. Could be a new business opportunity, but at a minimum it will save us big money on canvas work going forward. Next week, L'ORIENT returns to the high seas, albeit only to Ft. Lauderdale to get a bottom job. Tom and Kirstin will be doing the Amel "out of the water" maintenance thing........bow thruster, prop bushings, through-hulls, etc. I'm counting on my Italian plastic surgeon friend Alessandro to help as well. Should be fun.............as fun as 5 days in the Hampton Inn can be. Anyway, we are eager to test al...

As we've blogged about before, aside from your boat- the most important possession a cruiser has is his/her dinghy. Crabby, our loyal (and cheap) West Marine dinghy served us well. Purchased in 2010, Crabby survived the entire 2012 trip...........at the end, leaky, unsteady, but still technically floating. Alas, we've retired old Crabby. This weekend at the Miami Boat Show, we banded together with our Italian besties (Alessandro and Lucetta of Grand Cru) and we each purchased new dinghies at a discount. For sailors, this is like getting a car, so excuse my gushing. Crabby II (our new ride) is an AB Marine (Italian, of course) 9.5 ft. super-dinghy............aluminum bottom, super thick tubes..............in short, a bad-ass king of the seas tender fit for an Amel (which, of course, we have). We're taking delivery of Crabby II in October of this year. Why then ? Well, you never know......maybe there's a cruise in our not so distant future.

It's been a while since our last post. As our loyal followers in Latvia and Eastern Europe would demand nothing less, it's time for an update........... First off, we still live on L'ORIENT. We have not bought a house, condo nor an apartment. We're a long way from being ready to give up our boat life. We've actually made some friends here in South Beach (we're usually not that social). B-Dock in the Miami Beach Marina is a little piece of Italy.........specifically, Bologna. Some Italian live-aboards have become our "besties". Allesandro (Italian plastic surgeon), Lucetta (gourmet cook wife), and Blu (adorable 4-year old daughter) are frequent guests and co-conspirators. They have exactly the same boat we do........an Amel Super Maramu 2000, so Allesandro and I share boat projects and ideas. A superbowl party, ski trip, and sailing are all planned. We continue to work on L'ORIENT to improve her, and the tempo is accelerating. Spare parts arri...

OK, so we're liking South Beach a lot. A stupid Tom moment...........I kept seeing "SOBE" on stores and shirts but thought it was referencing a Japanese restaurant chain (it means South Beach). Duh. We've spent zillions on the boat and are slowly making progress. Autopilot repairs underway, most of the lightning strike damage is repaired. The spare parts I was longing for in Bonaire are all now ordered. The boat is clean. All is good. Since we hadn't bought clothes for about a year and a half, we've been shopping. I can now go to sales presentations and look like an overweight businessman (hey, I was aiming realistically low). Kirstin has had a slower go of it on the shopping front.......she's found a dress to go to the ABC holiday party.........and 4 other "hottie" dresses. The typical couple doing dinner here consists of a guy in jeans and a tee shirt (usually saying something in English in a crazy font............"Interstate Transp...