A Family Sailing Adventure
Hello all,
As many of you know I am a Girl Scout, Venture Scout, and enjoy all things nature. I am currently working towards my Ranger Award and one of the requirements is sharing my knowledge of Leave No Trace. With some help from the family I put together this video. Hope y’all enjoy!
Aaaah I completely forgot to post this. But hey better late than never..? Hahah sorry bout the delay.
As I’ve been growing older but not up, I’ve always wondered where the wild things are. After reading the classic children’s book by Maurice Sendak, I’m fairly certain I’m not the only one who’s wondered where these creatures live. Well, I think it’s safe to say that I’ve found them in Key West. Oh have we seen some people. I’m not gonna go into much detail for everyone’s sake but if you’ve ever been to Key West I’ll leave it at your typical Key Wester. As we mentioned in our family blog we saw some hilarious situations. My favorite being a cruise ship passenger tasting some soap and the reactions that followed. I also love all of the diversity of everything here. All of the artwork, animals, people, and food have their own special differences that make this place so interesting. Oh oh oh! Being a parrothead, it’s only right to visit the original Margaritaville and Captain Tony’s. Fins up!
If we go way back to getting here from Naples hahaha. That morning was full of lots of circles with only one engine working. Now, if we go waaaaaaay back to when I was three, four, five, six, and maaaaybe even seven Sesame Street was the best thing. And we all know that Grover is the coolest character on the show (Cookie Monster is a close second, don’t worry). One song that will stick with me forever and ever is Grover’s around, around, around, around, over, and under, and throoooooough. Okay so back to the circling around a boat hook. Teheheheeee my inner Sesame Street came out. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XKu3NE7Omkw
Wowie. So much has happened since October 9th. However, I feel that this trip is just beginning. This is it folks, haha this is where the story of the islands really begins. And the United States novel is coming to a close. I think it’s pretty safe to say that we end on a happily ever after. ✨
Cya friendos,
Heidi
Hey friends!
Wow..another whole year. Another crazy year. So much has changed in these last few months but let’s start at the very beginning…it’s a very good place to start.
In January, mom and dad were thinking about possibly looking at boats, then possibly sailing for a couple of years, and then possibly homeschooling. And come February, we were looking at catamarans in freezing snow and ice. And by March, we had a boat. A beautiful 37 foot catamaran. All of April and most of May were a blur of cleaning and selling most everything along with tackling school, swim, and cello. And on May 20, 2017, we became boaters. Moved out of the house and headed up to Sheboygan to start our new life on the boat. But here’s the thing. That was May 20, school ended June 6. So for a couple of weeks we drove an hour and a half to get to school and an hour and a half back. How fun. But hey come June 6, I graduated eighth grade -yay!
Now, this is when the craziest, most fun filled summer of my life began. It all started with a trip up to Quetico to paddle the Boundary Waters with Venture Crew. I loved every minute of that trek and got to spend so much time with so many amazing people. Two days after I got home we started the drive to the Poconos to spend a week with cousins. Always love seeing those goofs so as you can imagine, I had a blast. After that week came to an end we headed to the east coast to visit old Girl Scout troops and my happy place, Grammie’s beach. Had an action packed few weeks there seeing some of my closest friends, cousins again, and family. Phew haha that was a lot but oh man the adventure hasn’t even begun.
We headed back up to Racine, Wisconsin, -where our boat spent the summer- and had about a week at home….for the first time in forever. We had a nice time to relax for a lil bit and Sally, dad, and I got to see the one and only Jimmy Buffett at Wrigley so woohoo! Aaaand then, another week in the Boundary Waters spent with family.
After quite a bit of traveling, we settled down back in Racine and took daily sailing lessons to prepare for the upcoming years. We had lots of fun meeting many characters we will remember forever and sailing is almost always fun. It’s always exciting when it involves the police coming after us and multiple turtles or capsized 420’s right? Haha oh boy I could go on forever but fast forward to October. October 9 we left. Let the adventure begin! As most of you probably know we successfully made it down all of the rivers with only a couple tows and engine break downs…
We spent Thanksgiving in Florida with grandparents, cousins, and lots of Florida sunshine. We all have so much to be thankful for! Dad and I also attended the Hurricane Benefit Concert starring Jimmy Buffett, Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney, Jake Owen, and Caroline Jones. Super fun night filled with amazing music. One to remember forever.
We are happily spending the holiday season in Florida with grandparents. What a way to end the year. I hope that y’all have had amazing years filled with love, joy, and happiness. Wish for nothing but the best for the new year. May your days be filled with love and luck. Fair winds and following seas friends. 🍀❤️
Happy New Year!
Heidi 🎉
Happy Turkey Day! Tehehehe. I have so much to be thankful for. This year has been quite a highlight of my 14 years of existence. Spending prime time with the people I love, meeting many new people that I have the privilege to call friends, and explored many new places, some of which have the coolest names I have ever heard. I am so lucky and thankful for all of my friends that have helped me through this transition and all of the family that is encouraging me daily. I am thankful for family, cousins, friends, grandparents, sisters, parents, and all of the amazing people who have made this trip so incredible. And of course, good health, water, food, shelter, and Mother Nature and all of her wonders. Oh oh oh! I am also extremely lucky and thankful to have made it to the hurricane benefit concert starring Jimmy Buffett, Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith, Jake Owens, and Caroline Jones. It was an incredibly awesome concert and I loved getting to spend that fun filled night with my dad. Parrot heads for evaaaaa. Hahaha. Fins up! “I wish you lovely weather, more luck than you’ll need.” Jimmy Buffett, I Wave Bye Bye
Gobble gobble,
Heidi 🍂🦃🍁
Hello again,
Now that we are almost all the way down the rivers and on our way to the ocean I thought it would be nice to do a lil overview on my experiences so far. First of all, it has been an incredible journey and I wouldn’t trade this for anything. However, it’s been challenging. Personally leaving is always the worst. And like most trips this one was not too fun. I met some amazing people this summer and saying goodbye to them was definitely hard. We spent 3 years in our past house and some people we met I know I will stay in touch with forever and ever. Another big change was the house. With a few weeks of school left, the one and a half hour commute was not too fun. All of my teachers were very supportive and I am so lucky to have had them. This past summer was spent with lots of family and friends. Couldn’t have asked for anything better. To all of my friends who are reading this, I am so lucky to have met you and I can’t wait to see you at high school or whenever our paths may cross again. I’m only me because of you guys. Can’t thank you enough. To all of my famILY, I love you guys so so so much and without the constant reassurance, laughter, and love I don’t know where I would be right now.
Now onto the rivers. Oh man so much has happened. However, I think we have done a relatively nice job at keeping this blog updated. We have met so many incredibly nice people and I’ve been to so many different and new places. All of this being spent with some of my favorite people ever. I have had so much fun and have learned so much about locks, Asian carp, stray cats, mashing of rice and lentils, and YMCA showers. I am looking forward to the deep blue sea and all of the adventures that follow. Can’t wait to update you from salted water.
“Our lives changed like the weather but a legend never dies.” -Jimmy Buffett, Last Mango in Paris
Cya when I see ya,
Heidi
Hey friendos! I recently realized how much time has passed since I last wrote. I’m not gonna make this too long because everyone else has been doing a fantastic job explaining our adventures so far. In addition to flying off swings, getting extremely scared by fish, and school work, we have had a blast. It’s hard to believe that it’s only been two weeks with these crazy people. There was one night in Ottawa where after a nice day of rain and exploring the town we went grocery shopping and I realized how crazy we really are. To most this is a pretty simple task, get in the car, drive to store, buy good food, put food in car, drive home. Right? Well, when you don’t have a car it gets a lil more exciting. We walked to the store, with our rain gear on. And rain gear is not only a rain jacket. Oh no haha we are covered head to toe in rain gear. So the family in the rain pants and coats makes it to the store. We find and purchase food like normal and then we start walking home. With all of our groceries in hand. It’s a relatively short walk but with all of our food it seems a little longer. As we began crossing the park nearest to the boat, mom had the wonderful idea of a lil arm workout. 1, 2, 3, LIFT! 10 more secondssss. Hold! Urgggggg. You got this! So here we are, a family of five walking through a park, lifting grocery bags above our head. Quite the sight. We are that family now, and we love it.
“If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane.” -Jimmy Buffett
Till next time,
Heidi
Hello friends! Woah, lots has happened in the past few months. My sisters and I are currently actively participating in daily sailing lessons and we have now started our school work. We have met quite the characters with our sailing classes and truly had tons of fun. Only a few unexpected swims and collisions so everything is good.
Life in the boat is quite something. We are happily living all together in our marina. Life at the marina is quite interesting. We are all finally getting settled and back into some daily routines. We have been all over this summer so it’s nice to finally be back.
School. School is quite different when you are sitting on a couch with your sisters gently rocking back and forth. It’s hard to explain, it’s nice to have your own pace and freedoms and all but then again, wheres the teacher to teach, or the classmates to study with? But I’m sure it will all work out. With Sally’s constant singing and Lucy working hard with post-it’s and me clicking a pen we are having nothing but a blast. We are happy and having loads of fun.
Anyways I just wanted to update y’all on our current state of being and hope that all your days are filled with love and luck.
“With little love and luck we will get by
With a little love and luck we’ll take the sky”
~Jimmy Buffett, Love & Luck (if y’all didn’t know, our boat is named Love & Luck, it’s a great song by the best artist)
Cya later,
Heidi
Hey guys! This is Heidi, the oldest kid on the boat. I am in 8th grade and enjoy many outdoorsy activities including hiking, backpacking, camping, swimming, snorkeling, yoga, and of course, sailing. One of the most frequently asked question I get is, are you excited? And yes, I am super excited to begin our adventure. I can’t wait to explore new cultures, see lots of marine life, and most of all, get to spend time with some of my favorite people 24/7.
For the update part of this post, I wanted to inform y’all that we have found a boat! After looking at a few other catamarans, we settled on a beautiful 37 foot cat. We are all super excited to get ready to move onto our 3 cabin home. The boat has 2 heads(bathrooms), 3 cabins(bedrooms) and a nice kitchen area and a small table inside and another table outside. The boat also has a small trampoline at the front of the boat that I’m sure my sisters and I will enjoy.
Anyway, I just wanted to say hello and introduce myself to this blog site. I hope that you are having a spectacular day and I will hopefully be back soon with some more good news!
“Mother Mother Ocean, I have heard your call.”
― Jimmy Buffett
That’s all for now,
Heidi