Short Term Sabbatical Cruisers: Stormsvale of Denmark
Their plan was to cruise down the west coast of Europe to the Canary Islands, cross the Atlantic to St. Lucia with the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) in November and then cruise the Caribbean during the winter months before crossing back home in time for school to start in August. As so often happens in this lifestyle, plans change--both voluntarily or involuntarily. Two days into the ARC, the boat's batteries began to fail and they were forced to turn around. They made it back to the Canaries and decided to lick their wounds and ‘chill out’ there for awhile. Late January they crossed over to Martinique without incident. Given the delay and a growing desire to somehow continue cruising beyond their sabbatical year, they decided not to cross back to Europe this summer as planned. With the promise of a berth in Norfolk, Virginia from a friend, the current plan is to leave the boat there during the hurricane season, fly back to Denmark this summer and figure things out from there.
Long-term Winter cruisers: Receta of Toronto
We often wondered what had become of them until one morning two years ago, when we were still cruiser ‘wannabes’ back in Trinidad, Amazon recommended a book to me called "The Spice Necklace." It's a book on Caribbean island culture and cooking by none other than this same Ann. That’s how we found out not only that they were back in the Caribbean, but that the boat was in Trinidad!
Steve is a photographer, art director and editor in publishing. Ann is, of course, a writer of several travel books and many magazine articles on travel and food. It's not always easy and can actually get very complicated at times, but somehow they managed to work from both places. Their success has inspired us to believe we might be able to do the same.
Once I realized that they were in Trinidad two years ago, I was able to track them down and invite them to dinner. They accepted our invitation and that evening we discovered that we were kindred spirits in many ways. Ann is originally from New Jersey, not far from where I was born and her husband, Steve is cut from the same out-going gregarious mold as Patrice. Moreover, we all share a love of good conversation and good food and thus a friendship was born.
Since we left Trinidad we have stayed in touch and they have been a great support to us this past year enthusiastically following our aventures. After much anticipation and with much rejoicing, Taka Trois and Receta finally met in Jolly Harbor, Antiuga. Oh happy day!
A Cruiser on a Mission: Rionnag of the Isle of Skye

During the few days we spent on that pontoon, we learned that his father built that boat himself and had sailed it across from Scotland single-handedly. His father has since passed away and Jaime had flown over to first fulfill his father’s wish to have his ashes scattered in Dominica and then to sail Rionnag back home to the U.K.,
We ran into Jaimie unexpectedly again in Antigua where he was in the throes of preparing for the trip home with two crew members. Since then, we know that he has made it safely to the Azores and is now on his way to the U.K. It should take him two weeks or so. We wish him ‘fair winds and following seas” as we follow his progress with not even a hint of envy....!
