Before we launch into the 2026 sailing season, I figured it was time for a recap of our whirlwind off-season. Somehow nine months flew by, and while we weren’t sailing, we certainly weren’t sitting still.
After hauling out in the fall, we finally made it up to my parents’ house in Linneus, Maine. We spent a wonderful week hiking, exploring, visiting the nearby Amish settlement, cooking, and—best of all—getting to spend time with my family.
Later in October, I planned a birthday weekend for Chris: a fishing trip (which unfortunately got canceled for weather), a day exploring Gloucester, and to cap it all off, brunch, the Falcons–Patriots game, and a tour of the Patriots Hall of Fame. We had great seats, a great day, and even got to celebrate with a Patriots win.
I also got to see the aurora for only the second time in my life—and it was spectacular. Despite patchy clouds and the lights from our apartment complex, the sky put on an incredible show. I was sad that Chris was traveling for work and missed it.
In early December, we headed to Portland to see Rock Orchestra by Candlelight. It was miserably cold—we nearly turned around after fishtailing our way up the highway on-ramp—but I’m so glad we didn’t. It ended up being a fantastic show.
On another icy cold night, we got tickets to Gardens Aglow at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay. It was something like 18°, but it was worth enduring the cold, and since it was after the holidays, it was much less crowded. We warmed up with some hot chocolate before we left, and even though it was nothing special, at the time it seemed like the best hot chocolate I’d ever had.
In February, our friends on Endurance invited us to come visit them in the Bahamas, and it was SO good to get back! It was strange to arrive by plane, but from the moment we landed in Marsh Harbour until the plane took off, it felt like we were home. We rented a car and visited Nancy’s Seaside Restaurant in Sandy Point one day and Pete’s Pub another. Battery issues kept us from sailing, but spending a week with friends—and getting back to our favorite spots in Hope Town—was more than enough to remind me how much I miss cruising there.
We took a cross country skiing lesson at Gunstock Mountain since it’s been a LONG time since we last skied (we started to get into it when we lived in NY, just as winters stopped being snowy enough for most places to even open). I was pretty terrible, but I did manage to ski downhill without stopping to take off my skis like I usually do (granted, it was a little bitty baby hill) and we explored one of the beginner trails after our lesson. It was so pretty and peaceful! We enjoyed it so much that we bought our own skis and started exploring the Wolfeboro Cross Country Ski Association trails and the Urban Forestry Center. By the end of the season I was finally making it down hills without falling (most of the time). We’ve already bought season passes for next winter, and I’m looking forward to improving even more.
We’ve been studying French on Duolingo, so we planned a road trip to Quebec City for some late-season cross-country skiing. Unfortunately, winter had other plans—the trails were more slush and puddles than snow. Instead we visited some museums, drove out to Montmorency Falls, explored Île d’Orléans, sampled chocolate, maple syrup, and cassis, and enjoyed having an excuse to practice French. I was able to handle many basic conversations in French, and the people were kind and encouraging. Many times when I couldn’t figure out a word or when my French was just plain bad, people would either suggest the word, offer to switch to English, or switch to English briefly and then revert to French to allow me to continue to practice.
My parents and one of my brothers came up to join us for NH’s maple sugar weekend. I randomly picked Morningstar Farm in Plaistow, and it turned out to be a great choice. In addition to running the evaporator, they were doing a traditional kettle boil outside (which produces a darker, more robust syrup). They had a big tent set up with all kinds of maple products – we picked up some mini donuts, maple creemees, and of course some of the kettle-boiled syrup. I’m a total nerd, but I love stuff like that.
We’d been talking about checking out Jimmy’s Jazz & Blues Club in Portsmouth for years, so when we couldn’t decide on a date night, we finally went. We’d never heard of Magnolia Boulevard, an Appalachian soul band from Kentucky, but they were fantastic, and we got to enjoy a nice dinner before the show.
After years of asking our poor Mustang to perform pickup-truck duties—and proving over and over just how much you can fit into a sports car—we finally admitted it was time for an actual truck. Chris did a lot of research, and we ended up settling on a Ford Maverick. We got the AWD hybrid version with a tow package, and it’s been fantastic for us. We get around 45 miles/gallon around town and 38 highway, and I’m looking forward to having actual traction in the snow!
And the biggest news? We bought a house. What does that mean for our cruising? Nothing, really.
Chris’s current job doesn’t allow him to work outside of the US, and Florida isn’t a great winter option for us due to anchoring restrictions, limited all-weather harbors, and general crowding. So since we’re going to be spending winter on land for the next few years until retirement, we wanted to have a more permanent base. Our apartment has been great, but we’ve always had to share walls/floors/ceilings with other people and it gets old.
We started looking in late November and finally, in March, we found a house we loved that didn’t require offering above asking price and one of our kidneys. The only catch was that the sellers had to find a house first. We finally closed at the end of May, but because their sellers needed to rent back for a month, they needed to do the same with us. That meant we didn’t actually get the keys until July 1. We started moving in and we’ll hit pause long enough for our Fourth of July cruise, then finish the move before settling back into life on the water.
It was a fun, full off-season, but we’re more than ready to cast off the lines and settle back into the slower rhythm of life aboard Windara.