kateandjohnsail.boats

One week back on Quintessa, and we’re still at the dock. That is not necessarily a bad thing; last time we boarded we took off like a rocket and it didn’t end well. This time we have had long days for fixing things, flushing things, rigging things, cleaning things, installing things, lubricating dry things, drying…

    Oh, my. So much drama when last we heard from Quintessa. In some quarters, “The Tale of Captain Kate and the Rescue of John’s Thumb” has reached mythic proportions: John’s arm had to be reattached, didn’t it? Well, I heard Kate navigated through 30-foot seas!  Just kidding. Let’s just say there was enough trauma…

Okay, this is when it gets real. We had anchored for two nights in a little bay right next to the Sardinian port town of Palau, near the Maddelena Archepelago, a natural reserve where we intended to spend a week sailing and exploring inlets and rocky shores. After we pulled up the anchor, I was…

It is time for a shout out to a couple of people without whom our odyssey would not be possible. They are Sara and Bob Knapp, former owners of the boat. When they bought the Hylas 49, then called Quintessential in 2012, it was a great yacht that was outfitted for casual use, but not…

  You may know that there are a number of “blue zones” scattered across the globe; they are places where the people tend to live healthy lives into extraordinary old age, often over 100 years. Scientists and health professionals have rigorously studied these communities in an attempt to isolate the factors that lead to long…

Fortified–that’s a characteristic of a good Mediterranean sea town, from Gibralter to Turkey. It turns out that defending oneself has been a pretty important life hack for cities and islands since time immemorial. You may be able to detect from the photo that today was not a sailing day, because once again high winds were…

In yet another first, we made our first overnight crossing unassisted. I won’t lie to you–not everything went swimmingly in those 28 hours, but we worked out each challenge as it came. We were aided by calm seas and favorable winds: a good backdrop for us to figure out the many, many things that will…

You wouldn’t know it from this photo, but the sea out there was wild with whitecaps. A big blow went whistling through the rigging as our floating home sat safe in Mahon harbor. We took advantage of a day on land to go biking on the east end of the island, checking out quaint fishing…

“Not on your life!” That is what either of us would have said if, a year ago, anyone had said to John or me, “The first time you ever set sail on your new boat, you will do a 130-mile overnight crossing, on a schedule” But that is indeed how it happened. A number of…