Here we are almost at the end of August ….. and this is my first post since we brought Timing back to Worton Creek and we headed off to Oregon. Well, it has been a full summer for us but with hardly any sailing. Some decisions have been made that hopefully will enable us to continue sailing to interesting places for several more years to come, though on the surface of it, some may think we have lost our marbles….

Upon our return from touring the Pacific Northwest (and celebrating both Scott and Kendal’s fantastic accomplishments; they are now Drs. Ratcliffe), we set about completing a few little repair jobs, cleaning, polishing and bottom-painting Timing so she was positively shining and in the best shape she has been in since we first took ownership of her; even the propeller and the bilges were gleaming! Much as we had enjoyed the ease of sailing her and the speed with which she took us to many interesting places, we had decided to put her on the market to let the next owner enjoy those as well as her many other qualities. So it was with some sadness that we departed Worton Creek on July 25th, a beautiful sunny day with little to no wind, and motored down to Annapolis where she was hauled and is now listed with Rogue Wave Bluewater Yacht brokerage. Spread the word …. she’s a great boat!

We had decided that our next goal was to sail across the Atlantic and for that, we have chosen a Hylas 46. Now named Mazu after the Chinese sea goddess who is a protector of fishermen and sailors, we hope she will look after us, just as we plan to look after her. We truly believe she is a good fit for us; she is built with offshore sailing in mind so has a well-protected center cockpit, sturdy lifelines, a plethora of hand-holds throughout the boat, lee cloths and has many features such as in-boom furling, roller furling genoa and staysail, some electric winches, a windvane as well as an autopilot, that should enable the two of us to handle the rig with relative ease and has some built-in redundancy. We took full ownership of her on August 9th, sailed or rather motored (because yet again there was no wind) back to Worton Creek on the 10th and have been getting to know her since then. Progress has been somewhat delayed as a result of Howard hurting his back while bending into the aft lazarette to pick up the very heavy 50A shorepower cable the day after we arrived at the dock. A visit to the doc, a course of Prednisone and one session with the Physiotherapist has significantly helped but he still has a ways to go….

As if we hadn’t already bitten off enough to chew, we have also had an offer accepted on a house in Delaware and should take ownership around September 12th! We were tiring of paying the fees for storing our “stuff” so have taken advantage of the very low property taxes in DE and hope to be able to rent out the house when we head offshore again.

So, the current plan is to remain in the US this winter in order prepare ourselves and the boat for an Atlantic crossing in May/June of 2018. We have already signed up for joining the ARC Europe Rally that departs from Portsmouth, VA around May 5th and has stops in Bermuda and the Azores en route to Lagos, Portugal (arriving sometime around June 14th or 15th). It’s exciting but we will have our work cut out to be confident that all systems are functioning the way they need to be for such a crossing.

We also need to do a bit of work on the house, mostly painting, yard work and some minor repairs. It will no doubt be tough adjusting to a cold winter again, something we haven’t experienced for 2 or 3 years, but at the same time, we are quite looking forward to some additional creature comforts of living in a house for a while.