They call it Pea Soup

Aes Dana - Alignments by Blossom331

We ventured off earlier this week after the fog lifted only to be greeted back by it like a warm unwanted hug. They call it pea soup in the world of boaters. It's thick and you can't see through it. We were already past the Portland Head Light so Nick used his navigational skills to map out the buoys and the time it would take us to get to them. Eventually we would near the buoy and hear the bell or the gong as if it were celebrating our arrival. We turned our heading towards Jewell Island and cautiously proceeded along, continuing to monitor the GPS, VHF and signaling our bell every 2 minutes. Suddenly, emerging from the nothingness, we saw cliffs. There she was, Jewell Island was in our sight.

The Undertaking of Anti-Fouling Paint

Ahh, finally! The rain cleared out and has left us with a few beautiful Maine days that I've grown to cherish. This weather window also means another thing on Neto Nomad.....it's time to get our Anti-fouling game faces on!

To those of you not familiar with this particular boat paint, it is applied on the lower half of the hull (bottom of the boat) that is submerged when in the water. The idea is to keep barnacles and other sea life from growing on the bottom of your boat which would inhibit smooth sailing.

Book review: Sailing Alone Around the World

What I came away with from reading this was an odd feeling of, wow how much things have changed but at the same time, wow things haven’t changed all that much. Without giving anything away, this book is about a motivated individual who builds a sailboat and sails around the world alone, which was the first recorded solo trip on record. This was a major feat for a little under a hundred years ago to be the first to do such a trip (especially considering he meets people who still believe the world is flat). I really enjoyed his easy way of telling the story without being too technical or boasting too much about himself which he is rightly entitled to do. The entire book hardly ever mentions how great his accomplishments are and just sticks to small antidotes about how the journey progressed some being funny and others quite interesting. 

Times your Square and Super your Bowl

No place better to kick-off the 2012 Super Bowl than New York City...especially when a New York team is on the field, and boy did Big Blue not let us down! Although I didn't make any bets to strip to a bikini if the Giants lost (you rocked those Giants colors Maria Menounos), I did promise a fellow New Yorker we would hit Times Square when (and lets be honest, we knew it would happen) the Giants won.

Normally we avoid Times Square but as my friend said "I want to feel the energy when New York wins", the energy was there as were the swelling crowds who exploded with 'Giants' chants joined by another group with the celebratory Olé (you know this fútbol fan felt right at home).

Go ahead, sing along...then let me know what you did for Super Bowl Sunday??

It's a Carry'on Mon

After a hectic Wednesday of running through airports to catch connecting flights after take off delays, my brother, <name retracted>, and I successfully arrived on the island of Grand Bahama. Whew. It was touch and go all morning with battling slight hangovers (ok...we may have started vacation early) -- delayed take-off in NY -- landing just in time in Charlotte, NC to make our flight (we took off 15 min after getting on the plane) -- only to arrive in The Grand Bahamas realizing we haven't eaten since the prior night (or gone to the loo since 6:30 AM).   Estimated total time in all airports = 25 minutes..gotta be a record.   Did I mention my carry-on suitcase?