Mental Meanderings
Where the mind dares to wander, the soul must explore.
Join our adventures on Orion’s Light, sailing the world in search of new Adventures, People, Places & Memor
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106 Miles to Lisbon
Tuesday June 10, 1300 (1:00pm) Bobby and I are in the cockpit of Orion’s Light. We were talking about things sailors talk about while at see in a small boat that has traveled a journey some 3,400 nm. At some point both of us said we are kind of sad, the end is in sight. Sad only because it has been a wonderful trip, maybe a trip of a life time, and soon it will be over. The…
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Whales
We awoke this morning to what has now become a familiar call of whales. To starboard this time. We have been seeing whales or whale spouts for a couple of days. This morning brother Bob was finishing his 0600 to 0900 watch and I was coming on deck for my watch. We have been motor sailing all night in light NE winds of 8 kts. The sky was cloudy with slate gray clouds on the horizon creating clear…
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Farewell Azores, destination Lisbon
This is going to be jump ahead post. I will find a way and time to post about our time in Horta Faial, and our visit to Pico one of the islands close by Faial. I understand is confusing, inconsistent with the idea of blogging and a habit I need to break. But not today. We departed Horta on the Island of Faial this morning. We left the seawall behind to starboard almost exactly at 0930 after topping…
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A catch up and more
It has been seven days sense my last post. This is an attempt to to catch up so forgive me if I jump around. That being said this has been a wonderful trip. There were a lot of curve balls thrown our way before leaving Marathon. An inoperable bow thruster, a broken radar, balky electronic navigation system, an autopilot still prone to throwing a crazy Ivan to keep things exciting to name a few. In the end we…
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Azores Ahead
We started to shake off our ties to Bermuda this morning. We awoke at 0600 and fired up the coffee percolator that will mark the beginning of a string of 0600 am coffees to come. We departed the Hamilton Princess dock at 0700. The wind was blowing us onto the dock and not having a working bow thruster I used a trick taught to me by George Boston in my younger years. George was skipper of my dad’s…
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I could feel the wind calling
It is 0027 Saturday May 10. I was sleeping in the cockpit while Wade was keeping watch. We set up the watch schedule so Wade, Kevin and Andy have 2 hour watches each. I float between watches so I can help and fill in where needed. It is the same schedule I used with most of our racing over the years. It works well. If the weather is good I sleep in the cockpit where I can feel…
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Crosby Stills Nash & Young
That’s what is playing the stereo. Southern Cross to be specific. It is 2315 Thursday May 8. I am sitting the cockpit of Orion’s light writing this post under the stars. Enjoying an almost perfect night. Almost perfect because we are still under power and sail. We don’t have enough wind to sail without the Volvo turning 2100 it’s revs. Perfect because Keven is at the helm on his watch, while Andy and Wade are below catch some…
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Steady as she goes
May 7 2025 1745 hrs We are now in the late afternoon of our second day. We have been averaging around 170nm days. I was hoping for 180 nm days but we stumbled in on a foul current flowing west, slowing us down. When sailing west to east from the US a boat enters the Gulf Stream flowing north and in some places northeast. We entered the Stream about 40nm offshore from St Augustine. We were lucky because…
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Good Morning Day Two
As Isla, Mira, Haven, Haley and Brittany say every day “Good morning Mr. Sun”
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Bermuda bound
Today we leave on our second leg of the four legs of our journey. it’s 860 nm to Bermuda which should take around 5 days if the weather is favorable. We have been working on Orion’s Light pretty much sense we arrived at St Augustine April 30. We have been chasing three big problems, more or less since Marathon. The bow thruster had a leak and seeing as our plan was to cross the Atlantic it seemed prudent…