In my last post, I wrote “What is in store for Truansea next?  I can’t wait to share that with you, but that is another blog post.  Stay tuned.”  Thank you for staying tuned and now, the reason we ended the boating part of our trip… we sold Truansea.  We passed her on to the new owners and stepped off her for the last time Saturday morning to continue the rest of our trip by land.

Join us in congratulating the new owners, John and Marty!  We are so excited for them to follow their dream and begin their adventure.

So how did they find us?  Marty says she is not a computer wizard but somehow stumbled across our boat on Craigslist.  She called her husband John and in her southern accent said, “Honey, I found our dream boat!”

There have been many, what I call gifts, sent to us along the way on our yearlong adventure and John and Marty are two of them.

The first time we met John and Marty was in Beaufort, North Carolina where they came down to see the boat, spending a couple of days sailing and getting to know her.  Marty was bearing gifts of Virginia t-shirts for the boys, Virginia wine for us, and a gallon of Virginia peanuts (the best peanuts I have ever had).  John brought harmonicas for the boys, and CDs and a fly swatter for the family.  We had so much fun sailing with them, sharing meals and enjoying John’s jam sessions.  Marty and John had read our blog and were full of questions for the boys about cruising, life on a boat, fishing, etc. They already knew a great deal about the boat from the blog.  We had not realized what an important tool the blog was until we were well into our trip.  It was not only great for communicating with friends, family and cruisers but served as a maintenance and trip record for the boat.

John is a talented musician, is incredibly organized with a great sense of humor and is full of nothing but positive comments.  Marty is indescribably generous, and her enthusiasm is absolutely infectious.  She is the kind of person you want to hug when you meet her.

Following are two videos of John playing on our boat.  He plays a mean harmonica, accordion like you have never heard it and flute.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time with them.  As a parting gift from Beaufort, Marty came bearing packs of the boys favorite candy, Skittles and some candy bars.  It was a real treat, which they savored for days.  We worked out the contract details and would sail Truansea the rest of the way up the ICW and into the Chesapeake to Yankee Point Marina in Virginia for the survey and haul out.

The next time we saw John and Marty was at Yankee Point Marina.  Marty came bearing gifts of Lego’s for the boys and yes, more skittles.

John and Marty at the haul out.

The last time we saw them was on the day of the closing to go through the boat one more time and pass over the sails, so to speak.  John brought us a copy of his first CD and, you guessed it, Marty had more Lego’s and Skittles.  They have made such an impression on the boys not only in the gifts they bring, but in the friendship we have formed with them.

We feel so fortunate to have met them and all feel good about them sailing Truansea.  We all became quite attached to our boat and having her go to some person we did not feel a connection with would have been hard.

Logan taking Marty for a dinghy ride.

One of the questions we had is, “Are they going to change the name of the boat?”  The name Truansea fit  for our adventure, but the name Scuffletime fits their adventure.  I mentioned that John is a talented musician and he is part of a band named Scuttletown.  The CDs he brought the first time we met them was Another Sundown by Scuffletown and Roads by Scuffletown.   Check them out at http://scuffletown.net.  If you are reading this blog, you are the type of person that will love their music. The fly swatter he brought us on the first trip is a genuine Scufflehead fly swatter which was probably the most appropriate gift of all as it whapped a few hundred deer flies going through the Dismal Swamp area.  We played John’s CD’s and whapped flies for hours on end.  We are now die-hard Scuffleheads!

Marty was a kindergarten teacher who touched many people’s lives.  She is the kind of person you would instantly feel good about leaving your kids with.  More recently she has touched many people’s lives with her cancer foundation which she started based on her battle with ovarian cancer.  http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/a-retired-teacher-battling-for-a-cause-larger-than-herself/article_1ff9e5f3-fabb-5924-a222-6f0cf507e2b0.html

https://www.facebook.com/MartyWhitlowOvarianCancerResearchFund/info

John has touched many people’s lives through his music and seminars.http://www.feiaa.org/event_bio.php?event_ID=125&ID=120&speaker=

We feel fortunate to have been brought into their circle.

Fair winds ~ Christine