Weekly
Blog Posts

Days 5 to 13 April 25 to May 3 Pen-Mar, MD to Duncannon, PA Miles Hiked total:  123 Biggest day for the week:  14.8 miles    Day 5- Thursday   We arrived at Zero-Day hostel in Pen-Mar Maryland. We went to Walmart and a restaurant with our hiking mates. Great comfortable hostel and host.   Farmland outside of Boiling Springs PA Days 6 & 7- Friday and Saturday   On Friday morning, we entered into Pennsylvania and crossed the Mason Dixon line.  We stayed at Tumbling Run shelte

The first week of our thru hike attempt, starting from Harpers Ferry

April 7- April 19, 2024 Tallahassee, Diamondhead, Montgomery, Prattville, Gadsden, Charlotte, and Washington DC Jimmy and I have just finished our 2,000 mile road trip and are now in Harpers Ferry waiting to begin our 2,000 mile backpacking trip.  It was an interesting road trip that started out in Brunswick Georgia and took us to Kissimmee and Tallahassee, Florida, which is where our post two weeks ago ended.    Road Trip Weeks 2&3   From Tallahassee, we headed to Mississipp

Last year a friend asked is to write a post about cruising with our cat, Baxter.  He is a 6-year-old Maine Coon cat that came into our household when he was about three months old.  Introduction to boating Right away, we introduced Baxter to boating.  Starting out, we would simply put him on our boat, a Sabre 32 at the time, and let him get familiar with it at dock.  Then he would ride along on day sails and eventually we began to take him on overnight trips, with his longest

March 31 - April 6: Brunswick, Kissimmee, Tallahassee   The transition period between our sailing and hiking phases is three weeks long.  This period has a fairly packed schedule, and I’ve discovered that we could not cram in as much as I’d like, especially while in Tallahassee.  Here is a quick recap of our first week which wrapped up in Tallahassee.  Leaving Utopia for Seven Months We returned to Utopia  Monday morning after the boatyard’s three day closure.  It took about

March 23 - March 30, 2024 Brunswick, Georgia Utopia  is now on the hard in a boatyard and we have been residents of Red Roof Inn for a nearly a week.  Pre Haulout Although our haulout was scheduled for Monday, we moved Utopia over to the haulout well two days early due to concerns of winds building through the weekend and through Monday.  Once there, we continued to prepare the boat for long term storage.  The prior owner gave us a copy of his decommissioning list when we pu

March 15-March 23 - Brunswick Landing Marina, Georgia No cruising this week, just working to get ready for haul out. We have spent the last week in Brunswick, Georgia at Brunswick Landing Marina. This marina is one of the most cruiser friendly marinas Sondra and I have visited. From the free laundry, courtesy bicycles, to free beer and wine three nights a week, these guys know how to treat a sailor. Having said this, we haven’t spent much time getting to know our surroundings

Fernandina Beach, Florida to Brunswick, Georgia March 10 to 16, 2024   The end of our first season of cruising has arrived and now the de-commissioning work begins. We just pulled into Brunswick Landing Marina on Friday, March 15th after a memorable last week of cruising. Final Days in Florida After four years, Utopia  has finally left Florida. The prior owners brought her to Florida in May 2020 after a five-day passage from Honduras. She sat in a yard for 18 months before we

March 2 – March 9 St. Augustine Most of this past week was spent in St. Augustine, with an arrival on Saturday (3/2) and departure on Friday (3/8).  Our days during this stop alternated between work and play days.  “Work” mainly consisted of taking long walks to get errands done, like returning an item to West Marine, visiting an Amazon Hub to pick up some hiking related items, and provisioning.  On our last provisioning walk we visited a place called Sailors Exchange, and oh

2/25/24 Titusville (MM 778) to 3/2/24 St. Augustine (MM 878)   Three main parts to this week's blog post: Cruising Observations Highlights from the Week Hiking Preparation Cruising Observations This week Utopia  covered lot of miles (and engine hours) as we slogged our way from Titusville to St. Augustine. The ICW mile markers indicate that we covered an even 100 miles.  The pace is faster than either of us like, but we plan to take things slower next autumn. As we wind down

Feb. 18 to Feb. 24: Vero Beach (ICW Mile 952) to Titusville (ICW Mile 879)   It’s been quite some time since I did my last system series post since once we started cruising we mostly focused on travel updates.  However, I did want to finish the series at some point, so we are going to do a duel post this week. We will start out with the system series and end with what we did this week .   Utopia's Electrical System During the refit process last year, updating our electrical s

(ICW MM 1013 to ICW MM 952) February 11 - 17, 2024 So, I have mentioned in prior blog posts that there is a great book and podcast called How Not to Sail .  Well, there are times when I feel like Jimmy and I are creating the blog post format of How Not to Sail.  This week we have a few good examples. Close encounters with bascule bridges Shortly after our cargo ship incident, we set up anchor for a couple of nights before beginning the long trip up the Intracoastal Waterway (

February 4 to 10: Miami area, Palm Beach area & side trip to Howey-in-the-Hills I really, really wanted this week’s post to be rather mundane and until Friday, it was on track to be this way. Today’s post covers some of the issues we experienced this week , as well as an overview of our upcoming plans , so it is a little longer than I would normally like a post to be. This Week's Summary Since our last post, Jimmy messed about on the boat until I returned to Miami, then we ex

Boca Chita Key to Miami (January 28th -February 3rd) Well, here I sit in Dinner Key Marina in Miami for the next few days while Sondra travels to Orlando for some remnant work life commitments. I have plenty to do on the boat, but it is a little odd with just Baxter and myself.  I just realized I have not spent one night off the boat since the beginning of November.  Without further ado here is what we did this past week.   Last Sunday (Boca Chita Key)- party boats slowly dis

January 21 - 27, 2024 At the moment, Utopia is sitting in the cool little Boca Chita Harbor, located at the northern tip of the Florida Keys, in the southern part of Biscayne Bay. Our cellar service here is pretty darned weak, so I am quickly typing up a summary on my phone. Sunday - Steamboat Creek anchorage in Barnes Sound .  Took a trip up Steamboat Creek. Concerns over how loud our water pump is getting. Met some southbound cruisers. Saturday & Sunday (01-20 & 01-21): A

Buttonwood Sound to Barnes Sound (January 14-20) We had a fun week in the developed portion of Key Largo at Buttonwood Sound and are now anchored in the far northeast corner of Barnes Sound in a very secluded spot but still off of Key Largo (see Garmin tracker for exact spot).  We had a full week of swimming, snorkeling, boat chores and getting to know all the cruisers in our anchorage (shoutout to Sorella , Charisma, Greenlights, Willy Dawes, and Le Repos ). So, first swi

January 7 - 13, 2024 This week we took the inside route to the Channel 5 Bridge to Buttonwood Sound in Key Largo!  Jimmy has wanted to try the inside passage but was unsure if Utopia  could make it due to the very shallow depths along this ICW route.  While in Burnt Store we met some very experienced sailors (Two Can Sail) who indicated that a boat with a 6’ draft could make it in the right conditions.  They were quite encouraging, so we started to consider going that way, an

Key West to Marathon, Florida   “Deferred Maintenance” is a word that I have heard a lot over the past several months uttered from other sailors and myself. We are presently floating in Safe Harbor Marathon Marina at this time due to the fact we haven’t been in a marina in a month and Utopia  needed a little TLC that’s better accomplished at a dock.     Entrance to Boot Key Anchorage But I get ahead of myself. So this past Monday (New Years Day) we slipped from our mooring ba

Happy New Year! Today Jimmy and I reflected on the fact that it was a year ago today that we departed on Utopia from the Apalachee Bay Yacht Club towards St. Petersburg ( see the blog about the passage) . That was a big milestone for us since moving the boat from “home” down to St. Petersburg was another step towards beginning our full-time cruising journey. It is exciting to think that we managed to pull it off and are spending this New Year's in Key West.   So, speaking of

There have been a few changes to our plans this past week, mainly due to weather conditions.   Looks like we will be spending Christmas in Key West this year! A sleepy but happy Jimmy & Sondra A review of weather conditions and some local knowledge picked up at the Marco Island West Marine resulted in changes to our cruising plans early last week. If we made a chart of the decisions made last week, it would look like the track of the ball in a pinball machine.   In the end, w