Are you still living vicariously through us?

Beach day at Grand Anse Beach, Grenada

Sailing to Belize was not on our list of places to go, but Bonaire and Curacao were and we planned to sail to both islands during November and December. But the sea washed away the sand plan and we sailed to Belize! And Tortola! And Jamaica!



Our route: A beat from Marsh Harbour to Tortola, but then a lovely run to Belize.  The trip to Jamaica was like a washing machine in the passage between Haiti and Jamaica, but the trip from Jamaica to Belize was beautiful - sunny days and starry nights.

I said I would never do a boat delivery trip - but when Chris got the call for a delivery skipper and crew from Marsh Harbour, Abaco to Tortola BVI, it sounded pretty good especially because we would be sailing on a new Leopard Catamaran. Flying to Marsh Harbour from Grenada included a stop in Miami so we took the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with Lindy and Rich, and cousin Rose and Steve (because they just bought a house 20 minutes from  Lindy in West Palm Beach, FL.). While there Chris got a call to also deliver a new Moorings 38 from Tortola to Belize, so I agreed to be his crew again. (Better it be me than a manly man!) (On the trip to Belize we stopped for a night in Jamaica.) And that is why we didn't go to Bonaire and Curacao!

Link to Google Photo Album from our Delivery to Belize

Touring the Mayan ruins in Belize.

Music and mahi, and lovely sunsets all the way to Belize. We arrived on Christmas Day and picked up a mooring in Hatchet Caye. (Yogi lavender tea helped calm my nerves during the early passage making!)

When we returned to Grenada, we still wanted to go sailing on our boat. After all she had a clean bottom from her time in the boat yard and clean bottoms are good for sailing! See our previous blog.

We slipped the mooring lines, loaded up on food, water and fuel and enjoyed sailing and vacationing in Bequia, Union Island and Carriacou.

Sugar Reef, Bequia

Captain and Linda

Scene from a walk in Bequia

Troubadour is at anchor in beautiful Bequia

Northwest side of Union Island

Roti and cold fresh (FRESH!) coconut water lunch.

Chatham Bay, Union Island



Troubadour is at anchor in Chatham Bay (one of our favorite anchorages in the Grenadines).

Sandy Island, Carriacou in the foreground; Union Island in shadow in the background. (Photo from 2013)

We are back on our mooring in Mt. Hartman Bay, Grenada. Chris is beginning his charter work and I am teaching yoga and will begin sewing projects. Of course, beach days are in my future, too. In April, we are looking forward to my sister Mary and sister-in-law, Louan coming for a visit. 

Allamanda Beach Resort on Grand Anse Beach.

Hey, I also want to give a plug to my nephew, Cody Moore. He's an aspiring hip-hop musician in Wheaton, Illinois. Here's a link to his most recent song FADEAWAY.

We're still here!

Agreed! We have been remiss on keeping up our blog.

What's been happening since the last post?

On the social scene: Chris has been teaching sailing classes and playing in the music jams at the West Indies Brewery on Tuesday nights; Linda has been teaching yoga classes and enjoying beach days with cruisers.

Vacations with visitors: Linda's sister Mary visited us in November and then again in January with friend, Julie. In December, Chris's sister Lindy and hubby Rich vacationed in Grenada, and in February Linda's cousin Rose and hubby, Steve vacationed at an airbnb in Grenada.

Gone Sailing: In April, Linda joined Chris on a boat delivery to St. Maarten and was glad to be sailing again, and Chris was glad to have her as crew.

Back in the U.S.: Late April, Linda returned to the states, spending time in Florida with Lindy. Chris joined her in June and we rented a car and visited friends and family on a three week road-trip to Wisconsin.

In July, we both joined the Moore family for a long weekend at the annual reunion at Ft. McCoy in Wisconsin.

Chris returned to Grenada to begin teaching sailing, while Linda went to a yoga teacher training in Vancouver, B.C.

The past year has been full of the things we enjoy - spending time with our families, hanging out with friends, enjoying the cruising lifestyle!

Now we're back on Troubadour in Mt. Hartman Bay (Secret Harbour) Grenada!



Enjoying time with friends in Pewaukee, Wisconsin.



"Beach Day" with cruiser friends at Magazine Beach.

Troubadour at sunset, Mt. Hartman Bay, Grenada.

Beautiful Magazine Beach, Grenada.

Linda's sister, Mary, gets to have a lobster dinner!

Chris entertaining some Moore's at the family reunion at Pine View Campground, Ft. McCoy, Wis.

 

Lookout Point at Mt. Ararat Allegheny Mountains, Pennsylvania.

Scene from a walk on the shore path in Lake Geneva, Wis. where Linda's family lives.



Linda & Chris at West Indies Brewery for cruiser's jam on Tuesday nights.



Linda & Lindy visit NASA.

Our road-trip always had a brewery stop.

View from Semperviva Sea Studio, where Linda took her Yin Yoga Teacher Training in July.

 

Sandy Island, Carriacou.



Happy to be home!

Love, Loss & Rebuilding: Adventures in Discovering My New Normal ~ a guest blog post by Kathy Reager

John and Kathy Reager

 A year ago John Reager, friend to many of us in the cruising community, lost his fight with cancer.  His wife Kathy, while managing a new life without him by her side, has chosen to honor one of his life goals. In her own words read on to learn how she’s doing it.

In February 2016 I will embark on an adventure that will be a little bit of travel, a little bit of building and a little bit of soul searching. I will be traveling to Pokhara, Nepal with Habitat for Humanity to help build houses. Pokhara is the second largest city of Nepal after Kathmandu.

Nearly 90 percent of Nepal’s population who live in the country’s plains and mountain regions work primarily as subsistence farmers. One of the families we will work with lives in a small, one-room house made with a mud floor and a thatched-grass roof. The roof leaks often during Nepal’s rainy season, and the house is not strong enough to withstand heavy wind.

Habitat Nepal’s goal is to help more families create safe, healthy homes. And it’s doing so through an initiative called Save & Build. Families can join together to pool their savings and resources. Then, thanks to volunteers and donors, Habitat Nepal can match what each Save & Build group raises. This hastens construction, because families can build in stages as funds are raised. Habitat works with these partner families to ensure cost-effective, eco-friendly construction. In eastern Nepal, for instance, Habitat has trained partner families in bamboo cultivation and how to use bamboo technology in house building. Partner families dedicate at least 400 sweat-equity hours building their own houses — and houses for other families in their savings group!  It is truly an honor to be able to help this family and their future.

 

“If you put it out there to the Universe, with the faith that it will give you what you want, it will come to pass.”  ~ John Reager

I’m sure a lot of you think why not here in the United States? Why go half way around the world?  Well for the last five years my husband, John and I have been living on our sailboat, Oceana, in the Caribbean and living in a global community. That is how we met Linda and Chris; my husband and I were living our dream and Linda and I connected through our love of yoga, spirituality and adventure. But then our dream turned in to a nightmare. August of last year while in Grenada, John thought he had pulled a sciatic nerve. The pain continued for several weeks without improvement. John and I went to the hospital and a CAT scan revealed it was bone cancer. Two days later we were on a plane to the States and to our disbelief, the actual diagnosis was renal cell carcinoma that had metastasized to the bones. We were in a medical nightmare and he was in a fight for his life. Unfortunately he lost that fight just two months later.

"I told her that my husband was a builder and developer before he became a sailor and that he had one more house in him to build for us."

 

Over the last year I have lost so much: my husband, my best friend, my community and my home. I sold Oceana in July and I’m back on land trying to find my new normal, just as all counseling and books have said I need to do.  But I keep going back to what John and I once planned to do and that was to build one more house. I am a true believer in John’s premise that the universe conspires to fulfill your needs. He often said, “If you put it out there to the universe with the faith that it will give you what you want, it will come to pass.” And that is how this new adventure grew.  I connected with a woman (long story and details to be shared in my own blog). I told her that my husband was a builder and developer before he became a sailor and that he had one more house in him to build for us; but that didn’t happen and that is when she said you would be a great fit with Habitat for Humanity’s global village program. As soon as she said it I knew, that this was the Universe giving me what I have been looking and asking for.

So, on February the 18th I embark on a four week trip and because of the overwhelming response to my fundraising I will be building two houses in two different villages in Nepal.

If you would like to learn more about this project and my story or how you can donate you can click on this link:

  https://share.habitat.org/kathy-reager-gv16335

Just another day in paradise

Happy hour on deck!

Paradise is a state of mind, right? Or is it a place?

Upon our return from a long (me) and a short (Chris) visit to the states, we're back to living and liming in Grenada. Liming of course comes with the trade-offs of boat chores and maintenance ("nothing's ever easy"), as well as the mundane bits of living like cleaning and laundry. All of this is tempered with the joys we find in sharing our passions - Chris, his love of music, and me, learning and teaching yoga and reading tarot cards.

September is well into the heart of the rainy season (we don't like to use the word "hurricane"). It's also one of the hottest months here and we welcome the (sometimes stiff) Atlantic breezes and a daily dip in our "pool" to keep us relatively cool.  

We're cherishing our moments together and feel blessed to live with our toes in the water!

 "... I play my guitar
 I laugh at the bar with my friends
 I go home to my wife
 I pray every night
 I can do it all over again

 Wouldn't that be the life?"

 

~ Kenney Chesney, The Life

 

~~~_/)

 



Repairing the hatch covers after six years in the sun.

You guessed it! Boat maintenance in exotic places...like the lazarette?

Our teeny tiny laundry room!

Chris on the uke at Secret Harbour's Tuesday night cruiser's jam session.

Linda disappeared for five weeks in St. Augustine
 to become a certified yoga teacher.

With yoga buddy, Kara Joy Stewart, dancing around. Natarajasana.

Linda and friend, Linda Locke on Vero beach at sunrise.
Three Linda's (Moore, May & Locke) enjoyed a few days at Locke's timeshare.
 

Our "pool".

At Lindy May's for a few weeks of land time in Florida.

We're blessed to have each other and to build a life together on land or sea.
Paradise is a state of mind.



My Side of Life ...

Laundry dancing with the wind ... a simple pleasure
 

What follows is a Re-Blog Post from 5 years ago; I still feel the same way about our life, now, as I did, then ...

by Admiral Linda
03/16/2010, Lake Worth Inlet, FL

On one side of living the dream, there is something therapeutic about being self-sufficient and living quietly. Not as in living without noise, but as in living with a feeling of internal bliss - peacefulness cultivated from the freedom to purposefully create the moments in my day.

Taking care of our pretty little yacht, the laundry, maintenance, cleaning, arranging, Feng Shui-ing, becomes an act of appreciation, affection, more for the comforts Troubadour provides, than for the minor disappointments (like skylight leaks). Harmonizing our floating home has become a simple pleasure in which I can take all the time I want, or none. There's no reason to hurry, I have nowhere to rush off to.

Pampering a la manicures, pedicures, facials, and massages, were luxuries I drained my wallet for in my life's previous chapter due to living on a schedule - always on to the next thing to be crossed of the list. These have morphed into gifts of gentle touch and time. In this newest chapter, time and touch are the only gifts I can afford - to give myself, Chris or anyone.

Reading for hours - a previously lost passion, has sauntered back into our lives, teasing us with books we've desired to cozy up with, but didn't settle our minds or bodies enough to enjoy. We're reading a plethora of authors - Stephen King, Ruth Francisco, Deepak Chopra, Evans Cottman, Douglas Terman, Cathleen Rountree, Donna Eden, Khaled Hosseini. Author Azar Nafisi describes how to satisfy ... "A novel is not an allegory. It is the sensual experience of another world. If you don't enter that world, hold your breath with the characters, and become involved in their destiny, you won't be able to empathize, and empathy is at the heart of the novel. This is how you read a novel: you inhale the experience."

Playing Backgammon has evoked our competitive spirits. Seat two nice people on either side of the game board and you may ask "Who let the dogs out?" We play every evening before grilling. What could lift our spirits more than the setting sun, a cold bottle of beer and a cut-throat game of Backgammon? The answer: We have yet to find out.

Discovering a sought after treasure in the cruising life - Happy Hour, primarily when it's cheap ($20) and easy (dinghy right up to the bar). We continue to indulge ourselves once a week with live music, a bucket of beer, cheese fries and chicken nachos at the Tiki. Does life get any better?

The rhythm of life is changing. Time is slowing down for me, for us. Recently, a two-and-a-half mile walk to a bank for a notary, followed by a thirty minute shuffle in line at the post office for one stamp transported us to the future we haven't been to yet, giving us a nod that soon we will be on "island time" for real. (Although in our minds we are there now). No hurries, no worries.

Simple pleasures and living quietly, this is my cruising life!

To read more about how our cruising life began follow this link

 Life Aboard Troubadour - 2008 - 2011

Living and Liming in Grenada

 

Living and Liming at Hog Island enjoying the music of Sabrina and the Navigators!

 



Admittedly we've been living and liming and just haven't kept up our blog like we used to when we began our cruising life. I hope to share what's going on in our lives with recommitting to a monthly post (I hope Chris reads this!).


"Women who Sail" liming at Hog Island for the
Sabrina and the Navigators concert.

In December Chris and I were reunited after being apart for ten weeks while he worked on Sagitta and I traveled to the United States to be with family during the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Fall in Wisconsin

Fall in Grenada

Fall in Arkansas
 

While on my trip I enjoyed a two week cross-country road trip with Mom and Dad to surprise Mom's sister, Rosemary on her 80th birthday in Tucson, Arizona. It was very special to see my aunts and uncles and cousins all at one time in one place.

Tucson Botanical Gardens with Dad and Mom

We also visited Dad's sister, Donna and her family, in Arkansas, staying at her beautiful log cabin in Harrison. Dad and Mom also treated me to the Branson "experience". They take an annual trip to this tourist destination for music and theater lovers in the Ozark Mountains. We enjoyed shows by Daniel O'Donnell, Neal McCoy, the Red Neck Tenors, and more. The best part of this trip for me was seeing all the Christmas decorations and listening to the Christmas music during the concerts.

Chris's birthday hike with friends to Umbrella's beach bar
 includes a pit-stop for local brew.

Chris and I arrived in Grenada within minutes of each other on different airlines on December 13;  happy to be back in each others arms! We are happy that we have a dry boat and aside from a little mold here and there on Troubadour all was in working order.

The usual suspects at Monday afternoon poker games.

Our first boat project, though was to replace our fading 110v refrigeration system with 12v. The new system would use our solar panels for energy thus requiring less energy from the generator (which we ran for about two hours a day to keep the fridge and freezer temps down).

New chill plates for fridge and freezer.
I have really cold beers and ice again!

Chris worked with Stuart from Palm Tree Marine and once the old system was removed, we were up and running and the system has worked flawlessly! I can now treat myself to frozen waffles, even ice cream if I dare! Chris is happy because the beers are staying super cold!

Yogi's - Kathy, Nicky, Angelica and me.

I am back to leading yoga classes for cruisers, alternating days with Angelica (S/V Alma Mia); and Chris has organized some music jam sessions. We even had an agreement that if I came to a poker game he would come to a yoga class! I won the big pot once already as I have continued to go every Monday. Chris joined one yoga class, but he knows he can join us anytime!

My favorite captain!

This month brought a new opportunity for us to work together. Chris was asked to captain a 46' Leopard Catamaran for a private wedding on Petite St. Vincent. I was offered the opportunity to join him and get to know the boat because we will be chartering as cook and captain in February and March for Horizon Yacht Charters in Grenada. We had so much fun on this charter that we are both looking forward to doing it again!

Here are some highlights from January:

What happens at Sweetly, stays at Sweetly.

 

What do yogi's eat after yoga practice?

Lovely Grenadian beach scene.



Shoreline, Petite St. Vincent.

New  Frigo-boat system ready for installation.

Troubadour's cockpit during the refrigeration refit.

Atlantic Ocean view from aboard the
 46' Leopard Catamaran that we crewed for Horizon Yacht Charters in Grenada.