This year was an exciting Christmas as my family and I celebrated a little differently that usual --- instead of preparing a huge feast of traditional food with my Dad's side of the family - my twin brother flew to California to be with his girlfriend for a few weeks, and my parents drove to my place in DC.
I showed them all of the fun places I've been exploring the past few months including local parks, restaurants, a ride on the metro, and of course the famous DC national monuments.
We also made a ton of food, played board games, watched Christmas movies, and enjoyed spending a weekend relaxing together.
A ride on the metro, sunny afternoon, and great finds from a street side market......Click on the photo above to see photos from a day spent with friends as we explored all of the major attractions of DC.
My long lost best friend, Gwynne, came to visit me in DC back in October.... We met over 5 years ago when we first started working at a National High Adventure Boy Scout Camp in the middle of the Florida Keys. We taught kids how to sail, kayak, and paddleboard and became instant friends our first summer together.
She traveled from Wyoming and spent just shy of two weeks with me before heading off on her even bigger adventure to explore Costa Rica. We explored everything from city side parks, aviation museums, and of course the DC monuments.
In addition to exploring my local city, we also did a lot of relaxing - coloring, pumpkin carving, and just hanging out catching up with eachother. She also began the first steps of creating her own blog to include her unique travels, yoga, and food... which I will update the link here once it is complete!
...Click on the photo above to see a photo story of some of our adventures...
Although I truly love being an interior designer again, I really miss being out on the water. Last month I went on a search to find an affordable but convenient dock for my little 26' sailboat, Bandit in the DC area.
I started my research online and ended up visiting every marina in the Solomon's Island area. It needed to (of course be affordable but also) have deep enough water (4+ feet), electricity, free parking, a club house (with shower facility), water hookup, and access to open water for easy weekend sailing. After exploring all of the marinas, I think I will be going with the last one we visited and (ironically) the place I originally bought Bandit from, Town Creek Point Marina. I'm still figuring out all of the logistics but she will hopefully be in her new home this April! It will be amazing being able to sail for fun again going wherever the wind takes you! aka around the point to visit all the crab shacks, tiki bars, and beautiful scenery.
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| Walking a few of the docks on Solomon's Island |
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| Town Point Creek Marina |
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| Town Point Creek Marina |
This will be the first year that I will be hosting family at my place for a holiday function. I'm used to catering for the holidays - usually on a sailboat hosting a family or couple onboard looking to mix a fun vacation with learning how to sail. This year will be a lot of firsts for me - including my very own Christmas tree!I bought my tree this past August at an estate auction in Morgantown, WV (along with 4 others) for a total of $2.00. They were strewn all throughout a basement in many pieces and needed a lot of TLC. They were loaded up and reassembled in my parents driveway and hosed down with a water and soap. I chose my favorite looking tree and donated the rest to Goodwill, a local charity/thrift shop.
All of my decorations are shatter resistant - mixing traditional bulbs with craft ribbon and even handmade German paper stars. (Everything at my place needs to be cat-resistant). The tree is also a very unique "cat-resistant" design in that all of the branches hang from the 'top' of the tree. It leaves a bare metal pole at its center which is hard for my cats to try and climb.
All of my decorations are shatter resistant - mixing traditional bulbs with craft ribbon and even handmade German paper stars. (Everything at my place needs to be cat-resistant). The tree is also a very unique "cat-resistant" design in that all of the branches hang from the 'top' of the tree. It leaves a bare metal pole at its center which is hard for my cats to try and climb.
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| Stockings I made from left over material and clearance ornaments from JoAnn Fabrics |
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| Gold spray painted pine-cones make for great Christmas themed fillers and tree decorations! |
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This blog will be documenting a new chapter in my life, one with me on land and doing the normal '9-5' thing as a kitchen and bath interior designer in the DC area. Some of you may know me from when I sailed full time as a captain teaching others how to sail and kept the Liveaboard's Logbook. Since I am no longer living aboard, I am no longer blogging on it, at least not for the time being. My new blog, Stephanie's Adventures, will hopefully express a little more of me other than 'strictly sailing' - one that incorporates a little bit of everything from the outdoors, finding new adventures, sailing, quilts, new travels, my cats, bike riding, crafts, designs, architecture, recipes, family, friends, holidays, and much much more.
To catch everyone up, this summer I changed direction in my life and decided to jump back into the interior design career world. There were a ton of factors helping to make my decision including wanting more stability in my personal life and the fact that sailing was becoming more of a "job" - it was no longer fun. I knew something needed to change. I could not let my love of sailing and travel become a chore. To change this, I chucked the guy of 4 years who was no longer trustworthy or supportive and decided to look for a design job anywhere in the US that would allow me to be me. A place where I could pursue the other things in my life that make me happy, that I was unable to do in the past - bicycling, camping, family, friends, hiking and sailing small boats.
I soon accepted a job in the DC area where I work with a close team of designers designing high end kitchens, bathrooms, and closets for the elite professionals of the DC area.
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| Allie, Bridget, and Cooper exploring my new balcony |
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| S/V Bandit, a Tanzer 26 |
Its time for a change!
Derrek and I have put our "retirement" on hold as we leave the sailing/chartering industry and pursue 'land' jobs in fields we studied in college. We have had a ton of fun, sailed to a lot of cool places and met some amazing people along the way.
Thanks for watching our channel, following us on instagram/facebook, and thank you to those who have sailed with us in the past! We have had some of the best experiences while exploring this unique lifestyle and couldn't have asked for a better support system in our sailing mentors along the way!
We hope to stay in touch and know we have made some lifelong friendships throughout the last five or so years. Until next time!!
-Stephanie
ARTICLE HERE: http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/681542/Cat-feline-loves-sailing
This video highlights a lot of our favorite moments as we sailed in Miami and the Florida Keys this past winter season. Hope you enjoy!
Goodbye Florida! Until next time.
We start our long trip up the ICW from Miami, Fl to Oriental, NC next week. A lot has been going into the planning and preparation of our trip north.
During the course of our transit, we will break in down into three different legs going from Miami to St. Augustine, St Augustine to Wrightsville Beach, NC and Wrightsville Beach, NC to Oriental, NC all with different customers teaching ASA courses along the way. We are treating these trips as true cruising / live-aboard experiences where we anchor in a new place each night, explore local towns, and navigate both the ICW and ocean-side using cruising guides and all available local knowledge we can find.
In addition to all of the dry goods and laundry that we need on board for our 1.5 month / 3 charter adventure, we also had our engine serviced, bought new spares for our engine, generator, and dinghy motors, in addition to topping of our propane tanks. With new charts, cruising guides, and other materials, we are just about all set to take off!
Join us this next month as we keep you updated with photos and videos of our journey north. Youtube Videos to hopefully follow after each leg of our trip!
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| Doing enough laundry to last for 1.5 months of cruising / 3 charters |
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| Going through all of the food provisioning and making a list of what we have and need on board |
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| Cooper helping to find a spot for everything onboard |
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| Fresh produce and last minute extras before the start of our first leg of the ICW trip |
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| At the laundry mat getting ready to take over a ton of machines! |
As our season in Florida comes to an end, we have been switching things up and teaching advanced classes on Fat Cat, a 35' Fortuna island Spirit Catamaran, inbetween our family and couples cruising classes on Barefoot. We had the pleasure of sailing for a week with a couple from northern Florida who want to buy a catamaran and retire to the Caribbean on it sailing and scuba diving the reefs.
