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Moving on to New Adventures
O
ur return to the Chesapeake Bay last month couldn’t have been more perfect. We rode the falling tide out of the Intracoastal Waterway on an unseasonably warm December day. The swift current carried us past ICW “Mile 0” and the Navy shipyards in Norfolk to Hampton a day earlier than planned. We were relieved to find a warm welcome and a berth at the Hampton YC (HYC), arriving just before sunset on the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. The weather window we had enjoyed for our trip north from Oriental, NC, was about to close, making the secure floating docks at HYC a good find in the Southern Bay. We decided not to push our luck just days before Christmas, and with the help of club members and staff, we arranged a slip for Gyatso until we could return in the New Year. We did return on January 2, but with a winter storm advisory and plummeting temperatures in the forecast, we decided to winterize the boat for the first time since owning it (the SpinSheet winterizing checklist came in handy), rather than continuing north to Annapolis on the final leg of a long journey home. Given the po-
62 March 2014 SpinSheet
By Lisa Borre
lar vortex and otherwise cold and wintery weather, we’re glad we stopped when we did. This is Gyatso’s second visit to Hampton. On our last visit, we were preparing to sail offshore with the Caribbean 1500 rally, in 2006. It seems fitting that this historic port was where we ended up on the Bay more than seven years later.
course toward home again. We shipped Gyatso from Spain to Florida last fall. As explained in my previous article, we continued north via the ICW. We are so happy to be back on the Chesapeake Bay once again. A shorter commute to our boat, now less than four hours away, is a welcome break from the long commutes to Turkey and Europe these past few years. I admire David for being the kind of person who uses his ##The author and her husband David dreams as a stimulus along the Black Sea. for taking action. He often cheers on wouldbe cruisers by saying, “If we can do it, anyone can!” It takes a certain leap of faith to set off on an extended cruise. While aboard Gyatso, we have learned that the risks are worth the rewards. When we first set out, our cruising dreams were actually quite modest. Sailing around the world was far too goal-oriented We’ve covered a lot of sea miles since for us; we simply wanted to enjoy the then, sailing as far south as Grenada in the cruising life for a few years. We managed Caribbean before crossing the Atlantic in to stretch that into five years of full-time 2007 to Portugal. We spent the next two cruising and another three years of partyears working our way east, visiting Spain, time cruising. Italy, Malta, Tunisia, and Greece en route To some who have not experienced it to Turkey. In 2010, we sailed to Istanbul for themselves, the cruising life may seem and around the Black Sea, before setting a dreamy. And for those of us who love
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