Leaving the UK & Leaving the Dock
You might think that with each subsequent move, it gets easier. Not in our case. We spent the last two years living in London, England and the two to three weeks prior to our flight to the U.S. was quite possibly the most stressful in a very long time. Selling, donating, packing, shipping, coordinating…and closing on the purchase of our next boat. Amidst all of the logistics of leaving the UK, buying a boat and working full-time, it was hard to leave our friends behind. I fit in as many coffee dates, dog walks, dinners, bottles of wine, and workouts with my friends until we meet again.
Due to delays in our closing, we delayed our flights not once, but twice. Finally, on November 15, 2024, we flew from London to New York. We chose a direct flight to NY because we were traveling with our puppy, Jackson and we didn’t want to add to his stress (and ours). Once we arrived in NY, we rented a car and started our drive to Yorktown, Virginia. We arrived at York River Yacht Haven the following day to see our boat for the very first time.
Stepping aboard, it was so very surreal and amazing that we were moving onto our new home on the water. Mark has been talking about his dream to live on a sailboat and travel the world long before we met. The conversations accelerated in the last five years as our kids were preparing to move away to college, we sold our house and our company, completed ASA sailing courses, and volunteered on catamaran deliveries around Ft. Lauderdale, FL, the Bahamas, and Norfolk, VA.
The first thing that surprised me about our new home was how natural it felt to move onto a sailboat. We spent the following two weeks at the dock preparing for our departure to the Bahamas. Numerous provisioning hauls at Trader Joe’s and Costco, more Amazon orders and trips to West Marine than I care to admit, and figuring out where to put everything. We even managed a day sail up the York River.
We developed a good rhythm of remote work (6am-1pm) and boat jobs (from 1pm until we couldn’t keep our eyes open). I’ve never been so sore from NOT exercising. We met a few neighbors at the dock and enjoyed some walks together. As each day grew colder and colder, we were all itching to head South.
After our last Amazon order arrived (promptly followed by the next last order) we were ready to chart out our course to the Bahamas. We had days that felt like we’d never get off the dock and we quickly learned that it’s late in the season to be heading South. Systems of low pressure form off the U.S. and it can be challenging to sail from Virginia around Cape Hatteras. After listening to several weather forecasts, running models in Predict Wind, and speaking to local captains and other sailors, we knew time to depart was now or suffer through progressively colder temps.
On Sunday, December 1, 2024, at 730am, we untied from the dock and set sail for the Bahamas. Our first planned stop will be in Charleston, SC which will take approximately 2.5 days of sailing all day and night. We were fortunate to find two crew members to join us, which means each person is on watch for three hours (my shift is 5am-8am & 5pm-8pm) providing the opportunity for each person to get eight to nine hours of rest. What a luxury!
We are uncertain how long we will be in Charleston before departing for the Bahamas. The primary reason for stopping is to pick up our life raft at West Marine. As soon as we have a weather to cross the Gulf Stream, we will be leaving for the Bahamas for the Winter season.
Here is a list of foods I have ready for passage that require little to no prep:
Lentil vegetable soup
Vegetarian chili
Amy’s frozen burritos
Boiled potatoes
Bananas, oranges, plums and apples
Roasted Japanese sweet potatoes
Veggie or turkey sandwiches
Yogurt, Granola, Oatmeal
Cliff bars, GoMacro bars
Nuts, chips, crackers
Coffee, tea, Luminate, electrolytes
We are now 30 hours into a 2.5 day passage. Once we exited the York River, we turned our engines off and have been able to sail throughout the day and night. We have the mainsail up with one reef and the jib is out. Our average speed has been 7 knots with true windspeed between 18-24. It’s a bit rolly and quite cold, but the sun is shining and there is very little boat traffic. We rounded Cape Hatteras this morning and we are heading South towards Cape Lookout.
We are looking forward to warmer weather when we (hopefully) reach the Bahamas this coming weekend!
You can follow our journey on No Foreign Land: s/v Spicy Nugget
Get updates on IG at instagram.com/horlerfamilyadventures
We bought a boat
It’s hard to believe that 25 years Mark told me he was going to sail around the world and he really, really, really wanted to do it with me. I totally dismissed his crazy idea and told him I hoped he had a great time.
Fast forward a few years and we were married with two children, two dogs…and a sailboat. We spent weekends and summers over the next ten years sailing the West coast of Florida, the Florida Keys, and the Bahamas on our tiny sailboat.
It was rough. No air conditioning. Poor ventilation. Lots of mosquitoes. Broken screens. The head (toilet) kept breaking. We showered on deck using a ”sun shower” bag that we filled with fresh water heated up by the sun. The galley (kitchen) was too hot to cook in. And, I get seasick. Every single time. Ginger chews, ginger tea, ginger root, scopolamine patches, acupressure wrist bands…I’ve tried it all.
Through all the challenges, I found the joy in our time off-grid as a family. Watching the sunrise and sunset, the magic of dolphins swimming off our bow and the stars lighting up the night sky. I fell in love with the eco-friendly, minimalist lifestyle that comes with sailing, where every resource is closely managed and you learn to be self-sufficient and self-reliant out of necessity.
It’s taken me a few years to get excited about the idea of living full-time on a sailboat. Part of the journey was finding a boat that Mark and I were both excited about—and that was not a linear process.
I still have some anxiety about moving onto a sailboat. I’m hoping by sharing our journey with you it will provide me with an outlet to process my emotions while also sharing a little piece of our adventure with you.
I am excited for the opportunity to travel in a different way, experience new countries and cultures and ports. I’m excited to learn new ways of meal prep and food storage, develop new skills and meet new people. I’m excited to learn and grow and develop and experience this new adventure with Mark.
it’s getting cold over here
As the British summer weather begins to fade and the chill sets in, we are ready for our next move. You may be wondering what we’ve been up to since we left Sarasota, Florida on August 14, so here’s a short recap.
From August 14 through 27, we took a slow road trip through Tallahassee, FL, Alpharetta, GA, Asheville, NC, Philadelphia, PA, and finally to Boston, MA. We had the opportunity to visit some family and friends, get both of our kids settled into their college housing, and complete all the necessary paperwork to travel to the U.K. with our puppy, Jackson. We also used this time to reduce what we were carrying in our bags. We soon realized we needed to eliminate more, if we were going to carry all of our necessities (plus Jackson’s) on our backs.
Once arriving in the U.K. we stayed at the Premier Inn Woking Towne Center for eight nights. It was a great location (and price). We also know the area well because Woking is where Mark grew up and we were able to visit his father in West Byfleet regularly. Unfortunately, there were no room fridges to store our gluten-free or vegan foods, but the nearby Marks & Spencers grocery received daily visits from us.
On September 5, we traveled by train (Jackson did great minding the gap) to Guildford, where we did our first house sit with Trusted Housesitters. We had the pleasure of daily walks and off-leash adventures with Magnus, a 10-month old yellow lab. Jackson and Magnus got along great and burnt off their puppy energy only to be ready for more time running at the park after a short nap.
After our two week house sit was complete, we took the train to Winchester to stay with Mark’s cousin, Anna, and her boys for a few nights before our next house sit. This time, we cared for two cockapoos and enjoyed long walks in the beautiful green hills and into the towne centre. After returning to cousin Anna’s home for a few more nights, we had another vet appointment for Jackson to enter the E.U. The following morning we flew to Corfu, where we then boarded a high-speed ferry to Sarande, Albania where we’re staying for the month of October.
Stay tuned for more on our adventures in Albania and check our Instagram page for real-time updates.
T-minus 10 days to departure
Over the last few weeks we have been focused on selling both of our cars, donating extra clothes and household items, and getting in for a variety of doctor’s appointments that we’ve put off far too long.
On August 14, we leave our rental apartment in Sarasota, Florida and start to make our way North. Last Summer, we sold our four-bedroom home and purged many of our belongings. Moving from a 2800-square foot home with a two-car garage (full of stuff, not cars) to a 1200-square foot apartment (with virtually no storage space) provided an opportunity to eliminate what we had accumulated over the years while raising two children. Somehow, we still managed to hold on to too much stuff.
We have spent the last three weeks eliminating more stuff and organizing the “essentials” into several heavy duty storage bins. We have listed the contents of every single bin on a google sheet so we know what we already have, and what we need to purchase in the next 12 to 18 months.
As we make our journey North, our first stop will be Tallahassee, Florida, where we will move our daughter Madison into her apartment before she begins her junior year at Florida State University. We will store our heavy duty bins in a nearby storage unit for one year. What happens after the year is up? Our plan is to do a secondary purge of our bins and arrange to have our remaining possessions shipped on a slow boat to Vietnam, where our next boat is being built and where we plan to take delivery in Spring 2024.
We will depart Tallahassee, Florida and make our way to Cambridge, Massachusetts where we will get our son Tyler settled into his freshman dorm at Harvard College. Mark and I depart from Boston to London at the end of August with only one checked bag and one carry-on bag for each of us. We will spend the month of September in England visiting family, and the month of October in Albania. Why Albania??? Trust me, Albania wasn’t even on my radar until I started following some YouTubers who retired early to travel the world. I learned about slow travel, how to carefully evaluate Airbnb rentals before booking, how to work remotely, and so much more.
Since we have 18 months until our boat is ready, we have decided to focus on slow travel and exploring the world by planes, trains, and automobiles. So…where are we headed after spending over 10 weeks in Europe? We haven’t decided yet, so leave a comment or drop us a message with your suggestions!
Blog migration
Prior to launching this website on Square Space, we documented our travels on Blogger. Check out our prior land-based and sailing adventures here horlerfamily.blogspot.com