Sail Cutthroat

Cutthroat Adventure – 2009

We’re Back – well almost!!!!! Yes, after a rather long hiatus from our beloved Cutthroat and our seagoing cruiser lifestyle, it’s getting close to our return to Seattle and another exciting season of cruising to new (and some old) destinations, with the summer’s end game being a return to San Diego – where we began this adventure almost 3 years ago! Hard to believe we’ve been away so long. But before I get into the specifics (so you can determine if you want to keep reading these emails…) let me catch you up on our months on dry land. I’ll be brief.

After returning to Florida in October and re-acquainting ourselves with our house, family and neighbors we packed up to take Mom on our annual cruise (yes, cruise ship variety). This year we did another Mediterranean cruise starting in Athens, Greece and finishing up in Fort Lauderdale, FL. It was a fabulous 25 days with stops at Kusadasi, Turkey; Olympia (Katakolon) and Santorini Greece, Gibraltar, Casablanca, Funchal, Portugal. All in all very historical!

We disembarked in time for Thanksgiving and actually remained at home through New Years. Our newest granddaughter arrived on December 3d, so in early January we flew to Austin, Texas for two weeks to help David and Mirjan with Davi (5), Ryan (3), and new baby Emma. If you think the kids may have worn us out – you’re absolutely correct. To rest up we spent a few days in San Antonio with Michael, Molly and the “older” grandkids, Riley (17) and Megan (13).

February was busy helping our very good friends Pat and Carol Moneymaker move into their new home right here in our community of Boca Royale in Englewood, FL. Since they were down visiting with us just about every weekend anyway…this move really made sense for them and has been lots of fun for us. We are all golfing together and Carol even got Elise to start sewing and quilting. I know most of you have a hard time believing that one…

March took us to Park City, Utah for a ski trip with son Rob and wife Kaki. This was our first ski trip in 4 years (since we took off on the boat). Good thing skiing is like riding a bicycle…we also tied this in to a brief visit through San Diego.

We just returned from 5 days to meet David and Mirjan and the kids in Orlando for a Disney visit. In between our time is becoming busier and busier meeting new friends and exploring new activities in our neighborhood.

Boca Royale is like living the cruising lifestyle only on dry land. What does that mean? Well, it’s a very close knit community with a high propensity to gather at the drop of a hat and party. Rather than do the “dinghy happy hours”, we use our golf carts. The end result is basically the same…I think you all get it. Our house is situated with ponds (the locals call them lakes – that’s a stretch) surrounding us and nature abounds. Roger has no shortage of camera opportunities and he has gotten some awesome shots of alligators, turtles, eagles, sand hill cranes, blue heron, otters, bobcats, snakes…the list goes on and on.

On the boat we joke that it’s big enough for cocktails for 12, dinner for 8, and it sleeps 2. At the house however, we can do cocktails for 80, dinner for 25; but it still sleeps 2! Well, 3 with Mom. Anyway, not much has changed in our lives except the location.

So, on to the summer plans…

We’ll spend the rest of May checking the boat out and ensuring all systems are in good working order. In addition to general and very specific maintenance, we’ll complete the provisioning for the summer. This will include several runs to Costco, and a fair amount of cooking…although not to the extent of preparing for a long voyage like the last two years. We also would like to spend a few days traveling the south Puget Sound area – a good sea trial. At the end of May, we return to Florida for nephew Rob’s high school graduation. This will be a short weekend trip. We’ll be joined back in Seattle by nephew Charlie and niece Kathryne. Charlie will stay with us for about three weeks while Kathryne is with us for the duration. Right now, she still thinks it’s a vacation. Rog and I are taking bets on when she will declare it a hostage situation. It will be a great adventure for her and I know she will have a wonderful time. She shouldn’t worry at all about her title as “Galley Slave.”

Once the kids are aboard, we’ll head for the San Juan Islands in Washington, Gulf Islands of British Columbia, and we’ll see where else we end up. There is no plan. We’ll make a daily decision about the next port/anchorage. It will be a blast!

So, that’s the latest news from the Cutthroat. As in past years, I’ll provide updates as we go along. We’ll have internet and cell phone capability most of the time so communications will be easy – at least until we go offshore, but that won’t be for awhile. It should be an exciting journey with beautiful scenery and great destinations. We hope you will join us vicariously through these updates.

We wish you all a great summer and look forward to hearing from our friends and family!

Elise and Roger

s/v Cutthroat