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After a week in South Dakota it was time to start heading toward home. We didn't use the bus at all last summer, and after all the work we did to get it cleaned and ready to go we've all been talking about some more (maybe
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Custer State Park is an oldie, but a goodie. We can't come to South Dakota without spending at least a day here. Unfortunately it was an 1.5 hour drive from our campground, which made for a very long day. It has been a long time since Emma
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We've been to South Dakota several times. We usually stay in Rapid City where there is tons to do, but this time our campground is in Sturgis, SD. There really isn't much here except some downtown biker shops and Emma's Ice Cream. Since we&
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I feel like in all our travels we've been pretty lucky with flights. But sometimes luck runs out. Our 1 PM direct flight from Puerto Rico to Florida kept getting delayed - 2 PM, 3 PM, 4 PM. Finally we were on our way at 5 PM after getting
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We always feel like we're on vacation when we visit the BVI. We ate. We drank. We danced. We had a blast with some of our closest boat friends. But summer is coming and there are a lot of boat preparations that have to be done before we
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After almost a month in the USVI we were ready for a little change of scenery. Our sailing season is coming to an end, and we've had a lot of plans up in the air these last couple months - but we knew for sure we wanted to at
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It's no secret that the US Virgin Islands is one of our favorite places. There is so much to do, so much to see and so many friends here to share it all with. Over the last month we've bounced back and forth between St. Thomas
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We were in St. Thomas for Carnival two years ago. It is a wild time - colorful costumes, loud music and a lot of fun. We started on Thursday night with an evening of rides. Friday we spent the day at the kids parade, and followed it up Saturday with the
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We planned to head from Boqueron, Puerto Rico straight to St. Thomas, USVI in one day. Of course a lot of times travel plans on the water don't stick. We ended up splitting our trip into three days with two quick overnight stops in Puerto Rico. Finally - St.
You know you want to...
We've been to a bunch of places in Puerto Rico, but this was our first stop on the western coast. We rented a car for a couple days to get some much needed shopping done. While we were in Turks & Caicos the wind blew two shoes off
We celebrated Easter in the Dominican Republic with egg painting, an egg hunt, some great food and a visit from the Easter bunny. The marina in Samana definitely lives up to all the hype we've heard over the years. We had a great couple weeks enjoying happy hours,
Once we got back from the Airbnb in the mountains we all decided we could use a bit more time off the boat. We found an Airbnb overlooking the marina and decided to spend a couple days there. We played games, swam in the pool and rescued a baby gecko.
We met a kid boat in the marina in Turks and Caicos that was also in the same marina in Dominican Republic. We only talked with them briefly a couple times, but they invited us to an Airbnb they rented up in the mountains for a couple days. We weren&
We're hanging out in the Dominican Republic for the week. The marina where we are is right next to the adventure park. We went there last time we were here, and I wasn't sure we would go again this time. With the large crowds and the
Our starboard transmission had been slipping for a while. It wouldn't engage forward gear until the engine was fully warmed up — never a great sign. The ZF 15MA uses internal clutch packs and seals that wear over time, and ours had clearly reached the end of the line.
Our boat Yoto has two battery banks — a 48V LiFePO4 bank that gets charged by solar, and a 12V AGM bank connected to the alternator. The problem is getting energy between them. When the sun's out, the 48V bank fills up but the 12V needs topping off. When
This season has been the most difficult one so far. We've had lots of things break on the boat since November - at least 17 things (yes, I've been keeping count). The weather has been making it very difficult to travel, especially south (the direction we want
Where imagination meets the canvas. We are so excited to share this corner of our family site with you. What started as simple doodles has grown into a vibrant collection of colors, textures, and big ideas. Whether she’s working with watercolors, acrylics, or a simple sketchbook and pencil, Emma’
Well... half of us are. Braden and Emma took this long stretch of sitting and waiting to take a trip to Florida for a couple days. We had some much needed packages and mail to pick up, and now seemed like a good time since the boat isn't
When we were the in the Bahamas we were moving around a lot. We usually like to spend days or weeks in one spot, but between the weather and trying to get south it felt like we were moving just about every day. At one point Braden said he just
We (mainly Braden) spent a lot of hours looking at weather. We went back and forth for days and days and days on whether we should go, or stay. The trip to either the Turks and Caicos or the Dominican Republic would take us multiple days out on the open
