In the beginning…

January 13, 2016 by s/v sionna 2 Comments

… There was a dream.

That dream’s first expression was detailed in my previous blog, (see A Yacht Reborn for that story of the boat we began to restore and then abandoned).  It was – and is – to spend a large chunk of time cruising on our own boat, spending winters someplace warmer than Maine, and living life as though it was something finite and precious.

That dream hasn’t really changed much since the days of Renaissance,  the boat we intended to restore and take cruising, but it has certainly accelerated.  In the last year, Nicki and I have sold all real estate, begun the agonizing task of sorting through and distributing or discarding anything we can’t fit on the boat and don’t want to pay to store, bought a 35′ RV as our summer home, closed our small home maintenance business, and just generally been really weird and antisocial. It’s kinda fun.

And of course we bought Sionna, our 32′ floating  cruising home, sailed her for a season (including our first overnight passages and fog-bound adventures), and are now hard at work upgrading, updating, polishing and priming for the adventures that await.  Check out our pages here on the blog, on describes the boat, and the other the journey we have “planned” to begin in August of 2016.

“Planned”, because the first rule of safe, enjoyable cruising is to be flexible.  We’d like to make it to Sarasota Florida by Christmas next year, but you know, the weather and tides always trump plans, so if we’re late, or don’t make it until February, that’s ok.  We intend to enjoy the journey.

If that concept – enjoying the journey, whatever it is – appeals to you, I hope you’ll follow us and tag along. We won’t be posting every day – heck we may only manage a couple times a month, since sitting in front of the computer is a lousy way to enjoy the sunset.  But we will, hopefully, be sharing some of the ups, downs, trials and elations of our trip to the sun.

Oh, and the name of the blog? That’s not original, of course, and many folks have used the concept.  Nicki and I joke aboard – and sometimes here in our winter-bound rental house – that “The butter’s not melting!”, meaning that the ambient temperature is too cool for comfortable human habitation. We keep the butter in the bilge aboard Sionna, which is below the waterline and therefor the same temperature as the water. When we head south this summer, we’re going to be watching the butter very carefully, because there’s a bottle of champagne waiting until it forms a yellow pool in the dish.  When that happens, we’ll know we’ve gone South “’til the butter melts”.

Come on aboard!

The boat – s/v Sionna

The crew – Nicki & Keith