My wife and I bought Béluga with compelling future plans in mind. In fact, we hope someday to be fortunate enough to see much of the world – at least that which can be seen by sea voyage. Truthfully, I thought that SoulMate, our first sailboat, was the one that we would take far and wide. And we did see much of the California coastline that way. But the realty of living on a monohull soon became apparent and we began our search for a gently used catamaran that we could manage ourselves.
In February 2019, we attended the Miami International Boat Show to shop brands of catamarans and select a type of vessel to begin our search. Unexpectedly, we left the show as owners of a brand new Nautitech Open 40, which has become the object of our individual and joint devotion and the basis for our adventure-filled retirement.
But alas, reality has once again overtaken us, at least for the near term – that being our need to stay close to elderly loved ones and our desire to continue working and earning for a couple more years. So having bought Béluga on the East Coast and having most of our current sailing experience on the West Coast, we decided to spend a year or three East of the Mississippi.
Our approach to voyages is easy to articulate but harder in practice. Safety is our first and foremost concern at all times which makes weather "a close second" focus of our attention. For example we spent considerable time (after Béluga's delivery) planning a voyage North from the Bahamas which would take us out of harm's way from summer's Hurricane Season. The plan was to meet a group of cruisers in the Bahamas and travel with them to various marinas North of the Chesapeake. But we left in a narrow weather window (end of May) and soon discovered that our newly purchased dingy was not properly tethered to the stern. So after a couple of hours of watching and worrying, we returned back to Dania Beach. Lesson learned? Weather and flexibility are both paramount to keeping safety properly prioritized at the top of every plan.
With that in mind we share below our Béluga voyages as they unfold. They are organized by year and by the destination of each trip with the most recent on top.
2021
Washington, District of Columbia - June
2020
2019
Fort Lauderdale, Florida - October
Edgewater, Maryland - September