Week #90 - "North!"
05/29/2026
Chris – “New Stories”
As of today (Friday, May 29th), we are offshore, heading North. We left Ft Pierce, FL on Thursday morning, and pointed our bow North, with a 10-12kt breeze on our stern. Thursday was the best full day of sailing that we have had on this boat. Last week, I tasked my three oldest with figuring out how to use our whisker pole, and we deployed it for the first time on Thursday. The whisker pole is a 4” diameter pole that we can deploy from our main mast. It holds our headsail out, so we can head directly away from the wind without the wind catching the back edge of our sail, and folding it up on itself. We set up the whisker pole and headsail off to our port side, and we set up our main sail and mizzen sail off on the starboard side. The waves were gently pushing us in the same direction as the wind, so we spent a very comfortable day sailing downwind at 5-6 knots with little-to-no adjustments needed. The wind gave out as the sun was going down, so we furled all the sails, and fired up the engine. We were traveling past Cape Canaveral, and there was a rocket launch scheduled for Friday morning; this means that we were not allowed to be in the ocean within a specific “restricted zone” as of 5:30am on Friday… no time to go slow through the night. We needed to get above the restricted zone, so we motored on through the night. My crew is getting really good at taking night watches, and we did 2-hour shifts with 2 people on watch at all times. Our autopilot is still not working, so we have to hand steer our boat at all times; people on watch are not just for show, they are fully “on-duty.” The fun new twist that Agnes chose to throw at us this passage is that the chart plotter (the digital map that we use to navigate) at our helm decided to not work anymore… so not only is my crew steering by hand for our 200+ mile passage, but they are also steering to visual/ compass bearings mostly. During the night, we used a phone as a chart plotter, because it was too dark to see the compass, and it was too overcast to steer by the stars. I don’t think my kids know how cool they are that they navigate this 30-ton chunk of steel through the Atlantic Ocean using mostly technology from a previous century.
Friday, so far, has brought zero sailing wind, so we are continuing to motor north, as we slip slowly up the East Coast of Florida. We are planning on spending one more night out on the Atlantic, before we tuck into the Saint Johns River, and anchor at Jacksonville, FL for a short stop-over. So today we are just catching naps, wrapping up this Blog, and listening to music… oh yeah, and hand-steering the boat. Thankfully, aside from the chart-plotter, the boat systems are working well, and I have had much less time spent “putting out fires” on this passage. Lord willing, the blessing continues, and this will go down in the books as my favorite passage to-date.
Coming back from our time in the Bahamas, which felt like a vacation, I have been praying about what is next. We have been planning on spending some time working, and refilling the cruising-fund, on the practical side of things, but specifically, I have been asking God about the “why” of our lifestyle… meaning, aside from just living the best life we can on a boat, what does God want us to be doing to make the world around us a better place. And we have been feeling like it is time for us to find a community of people to invest in; to develop relationships and be real, available friends to the people that God brings our way. It is easy to get disconnected out here; to be self-contained, and satisfied with our little world, but God asks us to be “salt and light” in the world. Spouting words in a weekly blog, and posting pictures and videos online, are not enough. God says it is time to reach outside of our bubble. It feels like being present for a job will be a part of being physically present with a community of people, but beyond that, I am still looking for ways to answer this call. I look forward to seeing where God leads us, and what happens in this next season of our story.
What new story are you beginning, this Summer?
~Chris
Crystal - “42”
42 little bitty years. Time. What is time? And who are we to think we can assign a measure to it? Time is ever-increasingly fluid. Some minutes last beyond what we think we can endure and some years slip by without recognition. Night watch minutes are much longer than the months of 2025. Anyway, I turn 42 tomorrow. I haven’t spent much time in the presence of mirrors lately.
Side note- I realized this week that the younger three kids have been in a building once in the last 3 months. That’s crazy! I have been in 3. Does that make us feral?
Anyway, back to mirrors and 40 something. I don’t know if it’s the lack of reflections, or the unavailability of routine and products, or maturity, but I have come to a place where I welcome the marks of life on my skin. The scars of honest mistakes, trial and error, and survival. I welcome the sun to etch measures of time and emotion on my face. I hope to continue to grow, and really live, until I no longer own this body. I want to improve, and learn, and act on new knowledge, and build from here. I want to spend my time trying to light up whatever places, whatever communities, whoever I can. My 41st year put some wear on this body, lots of new lines, a few dings, an overspray of new freckles (pronounced “age spots”). It has been incredible.
I looked back over my journal from the week because I wasn’t sure what to write about- we were just at anchor since we got to Ft Pierce last week. But actually a lot happened. God did a lot in our quiet times and He’s moving us. Today, we’re on passage making our way north. Guess what?! The plan is indefinite, and the vision is vague at best (surprise!), but we’re stoked to be here.
Standout things from the week-
-lots of BIG turtles hanging in the river around us
- big sting rays- swam under Jasper at the back of the boat, and jumped at least 6ft in the air near another boat
- an unmanned derelict trimaran quietly floated by us in the night- in the space of 75 yards between us and the mangroves and grounded just downriver- grateful we didn’t catch it.
- we saw the tallest single masted ship on the planet roll in like a boss up the river. Mirabella- M5. WOW!! The mast is 290ft tall and her beam is only 7 feet shorter than our length. Massive, and really beautiful.
- we saw a movie proportioned explosion. The Blue Origin put on a devastating display while we were rounding Cape Canaveral. We were a few miles offshore but nothing was between us and the blow. It shook us. Reports say no one was hurt- praise the Lord. There were coast guard announcements this morning about reporting but “not touching” shrapnel in the surrounding waters.
- we are all starting to get a little better at being on the way…or maybe God’s just been really making things favorable on this passage. Maybe both.
- after being isolated in paradise, it was a little abrasive coming back to a crowded anchorage. We kind of like the un-people-y places. I told the kids we should probably change that attitude- after all, they are the image of God and He loves all of us. I meant it. It only took a few hours to remember why it can be hard to live that way. Everyone, and their drunk uncle, goes boating for memorial day in Ft Pierce. I’m gonna keep working on it.
Have a great week, friends! Thanks for being here.
~Crystal
Ellis - “
It’s Friday morning the 29th as I write this, and we’re currently on our second day of our passage from Fort Pierce to Jacksonville, FL. So far, it’s been pretty good. Yesterday we were able to sail at around 5kts for most of the day but the wind died down in the evening and we have been motoring since then at about three and a half knots. No fish yet. Nothing really that notable at all has happened except for last night at around 8:50, as we were passing Cape Canaveral, the family all saw a huge mushroom explosion come from the launch center. I somehow slept through it (I had gone to bed early because I had a shift later that night), but they told me it first sparked up a bit, then exploded and lit up the sky, and then a second later they said that they heard and actually felt the blast like a huge gunshot and a puff of warm air even though we were around 10 miles out! I can’t believe I didn’t wake up. At first Oli said he thought we were getting bombed, but we found out later that it was a malfunctioned Blue Origin rocket. They weren’t even trying to launch it, just one major oopsie. That’s all we know so far though. But, the station must not be too damaged, or they have another one, because they were able to successfully launch a Star Link rocket just this morning at around nine. Crazy stuff. Other than that, life on passage isn’t much to write about. We’re on a rotating two person, two hour shift schedule around the clock so each person is usually on shift for about 6-8hrs a day broken up into 3 or 4 shifts. In between shifts, we usually just sleep, eat, read, or whatever but we’re always on call to adjust the sails, or help out in any way. Today’s a four shift day for me with two night shifts so I’m going to try and take a good nap and maybe, if the swell keeps down, I’ll get out the guitar and play some music. If things keep going well, we are hoping to arrive at Jacksonville before lunch tomorrow—which, is Mom’s Birthday! We love our mamma and are excited to celebrate her tomorrow! If you think about it, shoot her a text!
~Ellis
Conrad - “Graduation”
It’s a pretty unique experience to graduate from high school while living on a sailboat. I technically finished school sometime in the first week of the Bahamas, but it didn’t really feel official until we took Graduation pictures during the last week. Even then, I’m sure it didn’t feel like it does for most people when they graduate. For one thing I don’t really have any plans for leaving the boat any time soon. For a lot of kids graduation is one of the last steps before moving away from their parents. I’m glad that that is not the case for me. There are people that are excited to move out from their parents house, and who can’t wait to get away from their families, but for me, my family is really amazing, and everyone gets along really well. Ellis has been graduated for two years now and he’s still living happily with us. I figure I will follow suit for a while. Even if we weren’t living on a boat I would still want to stay as long as I could find a good excuse. I’m glad my graduation is far from normal, but also I wonder how many of my friends from Colorado, my peers, I will never get to see again. I wasn’t the most outgoing kid, but I did still have a few good friends, and I’m sure we will stay friends. Happy graduation to all of my peers who may be reading this and to all of my friends back in Colorado. All of the ones who are graduating anyway.
Thank you for reading!
~Conrad
Oliver - “Day & Night”
It feels weird here in quiet Fort Peirce after a whole month of adventuring every day in the Bahamas. As soon as we got back, we had to fight to not slip into a long routine in which we stay here for a long time. Fort Pierce is a nice anchorage, but it likes to stop people and hold them tight. We’ve met multiple people who came here for a short stay and ended up living in Fort Pierce. Lucky for us, we have a plan. I wrote this on Wednesday, and we left on Thursday so I ended up typing it on Friday while I wasn’t on my shift steering the boat. Leaving Fort Pierce, we were all a little nervous, since last time we were off this coast we ended up getting towed back in through a thunderstorm with low-to-none drinking water, a torn headsail, and a “broken” engine, after three nights and four days at sea. Despite the length, this has been one of my favorite passages so far. A stark contrast from our passage going from St. Augustine to Fort Pierce. On this journey we sailed almost a full 12 hours with an average speed of 5 knots, we used our whisker pole to sail wing on wing for a while (with a sail let out to either side) and then switched to motoring during the night at an average speed of almost 4 knots. We have tried and failed to catch a fish. As we were passing Cape Canaveral a Blue Origins spacecraft malfunctioned or something, and literally blew up the entire launch station. Me and Jasper were on watch, and I was using the space station as a landmark to keep our course when the sky lit up with the fire and the largest explosion I’ve ever seen made a large mushroom cloud with sparkles like the most expensive firework ever had just been set off.15 or 20 seconds later, a slightly warm blast of air and a heart-stopping POW! hit us. As far as we know, no-one got hurt, but we aren’t sure. Later in the morning, a different station launched a rocket into space successfully, but we weren’t looking until it broke the atmosphere, so it wasn’t that exciting. We still had 80+ miles to go when I finished typing this, so who knows what else is gonna happen! Have a great week! Mom’s 42nd birthday is on Saturday so give her a text!
~Oliver
Jasper - “Legendary Extraordinary Great Outstanding(LEGO)”
This past week, since we no longer are in the Bahamas and we can’t just swim any time we want to, we have been making a lot of new Lego builds. But, since we didn’t bring any of our 6-18 gallon totes full of Lego, our options are a lot more limited than we are used to. The Lego we brought with us all fit into a 1½ gallon tub, but since then, we have gotten more Lego throughout this trip. We picked the Lego pieces we brought by making things that we thought we would build often, like cars and planes and even a tank. As it turns out we picked out our prices extremely well!! We are building incredible new things, and I feel like my personal Lego building skills are improving quite a bit.
On the other hand, on the boat, we are on another passage. This one is two nights long. We are headed away from swimmable waters of Fort Pierce, up north to Jacksonville. We are currently about 5 miles off of land and the buildings along the coast look extremely tiny. But we can see them. We are arriving hopefully at some point tomorrow, on Mom’s Birthday.
Well that is all that I have got for this week.
~Jasper
Posy - “The biggest single-masted sailing vessel in the world!”
This week, while we were still in Fort Pierce, we saw the biggest one masted sailing vessel in the world. (At least that is what the internet said.) We did some research and we found out a lot. It’s Ballast (which is a large weight in the keel of the boat) weighed 60 tons! For reference, our whole boat weighs 30 tons when it is fully loaded. The boat’s mast is 290 feet tall, And ours is only 67-ish. Weird fact, the counters inside of the boat are completely made of Jasper, (the rock, not my brother.) It has six spreaders on it’s very tall mast. The biggest boat lift in the US (which is in Fort Pierce) could not lift it. It’s draft is 11.4 meters. Ours is 7 feet. Another fact is that it’s beam (width) is 45.4 ft. The guy who owns it is 72 and also is a plane pilot with 22 historic planes; there is actually a float plane ON the sailboat! All of this is according to the internet. Really, that’s all I have to say about that huge boat.
So since that was a pretty short blog, I’ll tell you about my experience of the rocket explosion. Thursday night we were on a passage up to Jacksonville, from Fort Pierce, and we were passing Cape Canaveral, and there was a big fire next to a rocket that we could see (we don’t know why there was a fire), and we were all just watching; Ellis and Conrad had already gone to bed. Then, all the sudden, there was a big mushroom cloud. The bang was so delayed that we thought we might have missed it. Then the loudest KAPOW that I’d ever heard made my heart jump. Nobody got hurt, but the fire kept going for at least two hours. I was a little shaky for a while, but eventually I calmed down.
~Posy
Wow, what a week you all have had! Sounds like a pretty good passage, and I am sure Kathie and Bob will be happy to see you all tomorrow! Happy Birthday, Crystal, my jaw did drop a little when I realized you aren't even 3 years older than me! LoL! I didn't know about the Blue Origin explosion, but Bobby did, sounds like a very intense experience. And, I am sorry you think you can't swim in the St. John's River! Bobby and I swim in it all the time, but it might just be getting warm enough to not wear wet suits, and we don't wear wetsuits! Safe travels!