Happy Holidays!

We've been land based now for over a month and have traveled all the way from Florida to Washington State to spend the holidays with family.

Snow!!

Skiing!

Snow ball fights!

As we get ready to become entrenched in land life again we look back on fond memories of our last few holidays on the boat.

BVIs to USVIs January 2016

First Family Photo 2016

Jost Van Dyke, Soggy Dollar Beach near Foxy's Old Years Celebration 2015-2016

Our plan is simple...

Keep life simple.

If it becomes hard then we need to re-evaluate.


Part of simple is going with a small community in SW Colorado as our new homestead.  There we plan to buy some property and look into alternative living along with fixing up our new boat HornPipe.

Stay tuned for new blogs to come.

Halloween in Beaufort, SC to Florida

We joined friends at Lady's Island Marina for Halloween and had a blast!!

The kids had other kids to trick or treat with and loaded up with treats.  The adults caught up with old friends and met new ones.

Overall it was a good time had by all.

Nicholas fell in love with the game RISK while we were visiting Lady's Island Marina.  

Nicholas was a bandit and Samantha was Cleopatra

One of the beautiful southern homes we trick or treated at

Next stop Cumberland Island with the wild horses...

and ruins (watch out for the horse poop land mines)

Now we have arrived in Florida and already purchased our new to us 4x4 truck getting ready for our return to Colorado.

Hard At Work As The Delivery Crew

Now that Shambala is sold we have become the delivery crew.  Our final destination is currently Green Cove Springs, FL but could be subject to change.  Our plans are always written in the sand.

We have left the Chesapeake behind, it was getting cold.

Samantha is staying warm in the cockpit as we travel south. 

Nicholas is helping the captain keep watch. 

We got to play tourist at Colonial Williamsburg.

Next up is Halloween.  Not sure where we are going to spend it yet but I will post pictures of the costumes soon.  

Shambala for Sale!

Shambala has been sold!

I've been waiting to post until it became official. 

As of September 21,2016 Suky Cannon is the new owner of Shambala.

It is a bitter-sweet feeling we have. 

We will miss our life aboard Shambala.

Excitement for our new adventure on land awaits us.

We have become friends with the new owner and know Shambala will continue to have awesome and amazing adventures!

Now we are completing boat projects for the new owner and have become the delivery crew.

We get to stay aboard and deliver the boat to Florida.

In the meantime we have purchased a new project boat.  Hornpipe and a sailing dinghy Blue Chip. Both thanks to an auction at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, MD.
Hornpipe will be on the hard for now until we find a place to bring her to start refitting.

We will keep you updated on our progress possibly in a new blog.

For now we will be figuring out if and when to head down the coast.   With Hurricane Matthew heading this way we aren't going anywhere yet.

Yikes!

Chesapeake Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, MD

Hornpipe the Allied Seawind 30 Ketch

Hornpipe rafted up next to Shambala

Blue Chip Sailing Dinghy

The crew of Hornpipe

The Eastern Chesapeake

After almost 2 months of Washington D.C. We all decided we were just about museumed out.  Over saturated with our knowledge of early America and so much more we had one last thing to do. The Nationals baseball game.

We stayed until the bottom of the 8th inning when the Clevland Indians started to pull ahead.

Exhausted, but happy we sailed down the Potomac toward the eastern Chesapeake.

Now we have discovered the art of crabbing for the infamous blue crabs.

The kids love pulling up the hand lines to see what they have caught.  We have had a crab dinner 3 nights and one breakfast now.  The kids are still excited to catch more.

We are currently anchored off Oxford, MD where we had our first taste of heavenly ice cream from the Scottish Highland Creamery.  What a treat!

Taking Our Time in Washington D.C.

We have been here a couple of weeks and have been to maybe half of what we want to see.  There is still so much to see and do, to list it all would be overwhelming.

Here are some of the highlights so far.

WW II Memorial at night

Lincoln Memorial at night

3-D Movie about D- Day - Normandy

Everything is within walking distance.

American National History Museum

3-D movie about Dinosaurs 

4th of July Parade

Museum of Natural History

Washington Monument

Korean War Vetrans Memorial

Giant Type writer Eraser in the Sculpture Garden, National Gallery of Art

Vietnam Vetrans Memorial

WW II Memorial

Back to the States

After spending a few more days enjoying the Bahamas a weather window presented itself so we decided to ride it back to the States.

Excited to be back, we arrived at the St. Augustine inlet in the dark.  We decided to heave to until first light. Our decision saved us from running aground.  The buoys off the coast were not lit.

The spending spree began.  Not only boat parts but clothes and shoes for growing kids and replacement items for things that were broken or close to it. 

We visited with friends Charlie and Judy that we met from the very beginning of our trip in 2012 and met up with S/V MadSam.

The kids love this park in St Augustine!

We worked our way up the coast along the intra-coastal and along the Atlantic where we visited some of our favorite spots along the way.

Kingsley Plantation 

Carolina Beach with Britt's Donuts🍩

Cape Lookout

Oriental, NC where we met up with S/V What Next?

Norfolk, VA

Currently we have worked out way up the Potomac and anchored in the heart of Washington D.C.!

Everything to see and do is so close.  We met up with friends from S/V Quartet now land based here in Arlington so have instant tour guides when needed. 

It is a bit overwhelming but it is nice we can take our time. 

So far we made it through 1/4 of the National Air and Space Museum and most of the National Museum of the American Indian.

Samantha and Nicholas are buried under their faux igloo they built.  

We have lots more to see.