From time to time, on our trip to the Bahamas and up the ICW, we have crossed paths with a few sailors that have, shall we say, global iteneriarys.  It was always so fascinating to talk with these pelagic sailors that I wanted to update you on their progress.

Mike and Jennifer are now in Tahiti.

While getting our boat ready to go in Florida, we met Mike and Jennifer on board Mahili.  They left Florida just before we did and have since transited the Panama Canal and sailed on to Tahiti.

We used to see them frequently making runs to McDonalds hardware in Ft. Lauderdale.  Mike was easy to spot wearing his signature blue terry cloth hat.  The skeleton that they gave the boys for haloween hung over our nav table for the duration of our trip.

They blog as they go and you can see their story on Facebook. MikeJenniferGough  mahili_au@yahoo.com

At the start of our journey, the first cruiser we met when we realized we weren’t in Kansas, or should I say Idaho anymore, remains at large in the Bahamas.  David on s/v Mist never ran short of stories to tell and our boys will always remember him as the ultimate sailor.  Unfortunately, you won’t find him on facebook.  You’ll have to discover him yourself but the best way to describe him would be a combination of Joshua Slocum and Tristan Jones!

David showing the boys what they used to do with pirates.

Whenever I look back on the time he helped me change our exhaust hose, I tend to get that sinking feeling when I think what our trip would have been like without his help.

I have to admit, I never made this post until now because we were lucky not to have this hose blow out on us in the Bahamas and I didn’t want to tempt fate.  I understand now why sailors became so superstitious.

The exhaust hose was ready to go at any time.

Finally, there was the meeting of Tom and Susi on s/v Troll.  They had put to sea from Germany

The mighty “Troll”.

After cruising as far south as Uraguay, they began looking for another vessel more suitable for sailing in the colder North Atlantic.  They sold Their catamaran and bought “Troll”, a steel schooner in St. Martin.  We met them in Beaufort, NC on their way to Annapolis.  They had a few projects to work on before heading up to Newfoundland, Greenland, Iceland and back to Germany.

I asked Tom if there were facilities for doing boat work in Greenland and Iceland, he appeared unconcerned and said, “They have welders which is really all we need because Troll is more like a fishing boat than a yacht.

Mark