Some background -
In 2006, Post Katrina everyone we knew was looking for a way to have a place to go the next time we were ordered to "evacuate and not come home" We had a small hotel and restaurant in Jean Lafitte, a bayou town South of New Orleans, and friends who had lived all their life on the water were buying property in landlocked central MS. We had been weekend sailers and boaters for a long time but had given up boats to raise a family and grow a business. We figured out a way to re-mortgage some rental property and bought "our hurricane escape", a Hunter Legend 40. Yep, a sailboat as a hurricane hole! We were all self-medicating back then.
Roy had always sailed. From his boyhood in Belize, where he grew up, to racing his 29ft Dragon on Lake Ponchartrain. Once I was on board the idea of cruising grew to an unstoppable itch. When 3 years after Katrina/Rita hit, Gustave/Ike once again flooded our bayou ("10 ft of water in the streets of Jean Lafitte"* )We traded our Legend for a Hunter CC Passage 42 that we named Wahoo. Sadly leaving our bayou life for a New Orleans home "in the sliver by the river" (42 Mardi Gras parades go pass my corner!) we started cruising. The proceeds from renting our home finance our cruising life.
Roy had always sailed. From his boyhood in Belize, where he grew up, to racing his 29ft Dragon on Lake Ponchartrain. Once I was on board the idea of cruising grew to an unstoppable itch. When 3 years after Katrina/Rita hit, Gustave/Ike once again flooded our bayou ("10 ft of water in the streets of Jean Lafitte"* )We traded our Legend for a Hunter CC Passage 42 that we named Wahoo. Sadly leaving our bayou life for a New Orleans home "in the sliver by the river" (42 Mardi Gras parades go pass my corner!) we started cruising. The proceeds from renting our home finance our cruising life.
* the line is actually "6' of water in the streets of Evangeline" from Louisiana, 1927 a song about the 1927 Mississippi River flooding of the delta. Also adapted by New Orleans Jazz singer John Boutte to be "10ft of water in the streets of the lower 9", referring to the lower 9th Ward in the federal flood that followed Katrina.
Today -
Now it's 2022 and we've been following the dream for over 10 years. From cruising coastal waters to crossing he Gulf Stream to the Bahamas then to Cuba, Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. In 2014 we sailed East for the Eastern Caribbean then in 2016 started to sail back West. Ending in Belize in 2017. 3 years almost to the day that we had left. 5 years later the itch to move further has returned and in our 70s we will do the first long passage of our cruising career. Four days to the Cayman Islands leaving from the Bay Islands of Honduras. As Buffett says "Better to die while you're living than live like you're dead."
