Blog 5:
Text by Julie & John Applegate, owners of an Xp 55 2018 Edition

Cruising life – Finally!!!

Last blog Julie and I talked about the successful voyage from the Chesapeake Bay to the BVIs (approx 1500 miles offshore) where we put Serenity to the test. About 90% of that passage was upwind…and as we all know Gentlemen do not go upwind….well sometimes Gentlemen have no choice…..Serenity handled the high winds and high seas like a champ and it was through that process that we have an even higher level of confidence around her stability and ability to take on way more then we can.

It is now the first of March and since we arrived in the BVIs we have totally switched modes…..from offshore passage to pure cruising mode. Please remember that we are part time sailers and full time workers….so we leave Serenity and fly back to the US to work for several weeks then fly back to her for a long weekend or sometimes more….My job dictates international travel so it is easier for us to fly back to the Caribbean then someone who works from a single spot.

We left Serenity in the BVIs at the end of November and went back to work for several weeks till the Christmas and New Year holiday period….so we quickly changed from a mindset of offshore emergency preparedness to Caribbean sailing mindset (proper bikinis, dive tanks, right mix of rum and juices, …..).

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