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Meet Sabática

She’s our new home for the next unforeseeable future. She is a 2019 Bali 4.1 catamaran, and we love her already. She’s beautiful and very comfortable with four bedrooms (berths) and two full bathrooms (heads). She’s not going to be winning any races, but Conor had me and my requirements in mind when figuring out […]

The Suitcase Shuffle – part 1

Sadly, it’s been a minute. Where have the last three months gone? Great question. After our jaunt to Melilla, we made it back to southern Spain and hauled out Sabática in Motril. She needed some routine hull maintenance like cleaning, antifouling paint, and new zincs on the propellers to prevent corrosion. (We cannot say enough […]

Mission Gibraltar

After a stationary winter, the earliest we’ve started sailing again has been in late April. However this year, we left our winter berth in Cartagena early. We were on a mission to reach Gibraltar before March 26th so Sabática wouldn’t be in the EU for over eighteen months. That’s the time limit before VAT (sales […]

Road Trips from Cartagena

During the months we were settled in Cartagena, we rented a car a few times and took various small road trips. For posterity, here are the places we explored… Murcia Cartagena is located in the southeastern region of Murcia, so it only made sense for our first outing to be to the capital city of […]

Winter Home – Cartagena

For the past two winters, we docked in Licata, Sicily. This winter, we chose Cartagena, Spain. We arrived in September with Dad and Jeff, and over the past five months we have had a few visitors and some intermittent land travels. The longer we’ve been here, the more we’ve come to love it. Here’s why… […]

Sitting with Uncertainty

I’m a planner. An implementer. Give me a project or a destination, and I kick into high gear. But ask me to dream up a grand vision or hand me a blank tile in Scrabble, and I freeze up. Stupid, but that’s the way it is. Conor is much stronger at the latter, which is likely […]

Christmas in Spain

Family, food, and fun. What more does one need for a great holiday? 🙂 We loved having Laura and Rory with us for two weeks each during their winter school break. Their requirements included: sunshine, warm weather (compared to the US Midwest), the ocean, interesting cities, good food, and down time. We’d like to think […]

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

For our third November in a row, we left Sabática in her winter berth (this year it’s in Cartagena, Spain) and set off to visit as many family members and friends as possible within six weeks. Each year we’ve been getting a bit more efficient, and this time we were down to only six flights, […]

What did you do today?

One of the things we absolutely love most about having Sabática is that we have been able to share the lifestyle, adventures, and amazing places with so many family and friends. It’s incredibly special when the majority of our guests would never normally experience anything like it. This can absolutely be said of my dad, […]

Spain – Plan B

As usual, we had many guests arriving and grand plans. Also per usual, the weather dictated something different. We were greatly looking forward to exploring the Balearic Islands, as were two groups of our guests. Unfortunately, with the timing and inclement weather, we ended up sticking to the coast of mainland Spain instead, not that […]

Perspective

My dad has always told me that in life you have to keep things in perspective. Cruising along on a boat on a vast sea is a great way to see that one is but a mere drop on this earth. When you can see majestic mountains, ancient towns, beach vacationers, huge variety of ships, […]