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sondrawinter
Oct 22, 20235 min read
23-42 First Post Made at Anchor
We are at anchor! At the moment it is a nice peaceful cool morning. In a few hours, our anchorage will be much busier, as we saw...
sondrawinter
Oct 15, 20234 min read
23-41 Retired!
This week, a note from each of us… Sondra’s Thoughts Friday the thirteenth was the last day of work for Jimmy and me. With that, I...
sondrawinter
Oct 8, 20233 min read
23-40 Quarterly Project Update (July - September)
Our nine months in St. Petersburg is coming to a close and it is time for a recap of projects we encountered during the last three months...
Jimmy Lee
Oct 1, 20235 min read
23-39 Utopia’s System Series #5: Navigation and Weather Routing
For cruisers it is pretty much ubiquitous that that paper charts are “mostly” taking a back seat to the myriad number of electronic...
sondrawinter
Sep 24, 20232 min read
23-38 Chores from Alabama to Florida
Just a quick update to say that not much has changed in our plans, and we now have only three weeks left in the office and in our...
sondrawinter
Sep 17, 20233 min read
23-37 Four Weeks to Go
There are four weeks left in our apartment lease. The apartment is becoming sparse as today Jimmy has disassembled the television and...
Jimmy Lee
Sep 10, 20234 min read
23-36 Utopia’s System Series #4: Communication
So, while on the boat we will want to communicate with friends, family and other boats and vessels within the vicinity. This means we...
sondrawinter
Sep 3, 20236 min read
23-35 Hurricane Idalia
First let me say, all is well with Utopia and the Tallahassee area. However, we had a few nerve-racking moments throughout the storm....
sondrawinter
Aug 27, 20236 min read
23-34 Selling About Time
The selling of About Time was an interesting process for Jimmy and me. Not only did we figure out the process of selling a boat by...
sondrawinter
Aug 20, 20234 min read
23-33 A Mini Vacation in Atlanta
Jimmy and I just returned from a quick trip to Atlanta, Georgia. The weekend’s focus was to attend a concert, then we filled in the...
Jimmy Lee
Aug 13, 20235 min read
23-32 Utopia's System Series #3: Internet
Over the past year I have had a few people ask how we get our internet while cruising. It’s definitely an evolving topic with the...
sondrawinter
Aug 6, 20236 min read
23-31 Downsizing Round Two -with 10 weeks to go
We are 10 weeks away from the end of our apartment lease and have started to downsize, again. This is where things are getting real; real...
sondrawinter
Jul 30, 20235 min read
23-30 Dinghy Day
I am all for sharing mistakes Jimmy and I make as we venture into the cruising world. Some of these may seem obvious but reflecting on...
Jimmy Lee
Jul 23, 20235 min read
23-29 Utopia's System Series #2: Black Water
Never knowing what to call it…black water, sewage? I think black water gets the point across. Not as complicated as the water supply...
sondrawinter
Jul 16, 20234 min read
23-28 Quarterly Project Update (April - June)
In April we posted a list of projects we had done during our first three months in St. Petersburg and now it is time to capture projects...
sondrawinter
Jul 9, 20238 min read
23-27 Milestones, Decision Points and Fear
Throughout our 5-year plan schedule to transition from full time work to full time cruising we have had many opportunities to “bailout”. ...
Jimmy Lee
Jun 30, 20235 min read
23-26 Utopia's System Series #1: Fresh Water
To kick this series off I want to go over all the pieces and parts of Utopia's potable water system. From tankage, water procurement,...
sondrawinter
Jun 25, 20234 min read
23-25 Drinking Water at Sea
This was an article I wrote for the Florida Water Resources Journal (February 2023) and thought it would be fun to share it here. People...
Jimmy Lee
Jun 18, 20233 min read
23-24 Boat System Overview
Over the next several weeks I am going to be doing a detailed overview of each of our boat systems. A lot of these systems are something...
sondrawinter
Jun 11, 20237 min read
23-23 The "Five"-Year Plan
As mentioned in Small Plans Become Big Plans , it was in 2019 that Jimmy and I had decided we want to move forward with full time...
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