Thanks for reading the story of how we came to own Callista, our catamaran. I had a lot of fun putting the tale together, making sure I remembered things properly, going through old notes and emails. But after all of that, it’s good to talk about how things are today.

First, we just love it. Let there be no doubt: all of the effort and time was worth what we have now. We’ve taken ten trips (I think) since Callista arrived in Antigua, and we’ve seen a fair bit of the Eastern Caribbean. We’ve had family trips, girls’ trips, guys’ trips, and one trip with just Bill and me. We even had a trip where we had more passengers than beds! That was the last trip to the BVI for New Year’s, where all of our kids brought along a friend. The kids ended up sleeping all over the boat, and it was fun week.

And we are still lucky enough to have our crew, and even luckier to call them dear friends now. The four of us have a non-boat vacation to South Africa planned for this fall if the quarantine lifts. I’m looking forward to a vacation where Vanessa doesn’t do all the cooking (although I LOVE everything she makes).

We added a third crew member shortly after the boat arrived in the Caribbean. He was a terrific find and spent a year and a half sailing on our boat. You might see Hugh’s picture if you ever take a look at Callista’s Instagram. He’s gone back to South Africa for school, and we miss him very much. Hopefully we will fill that position again shortly after the quarantine conditions ease.

The best part of owning Callista has been the ability to vacation in the “same place” while not ever actually being in the same place. I’ve never had an RV but maybe it’s a little like that? It’s like coming home every time we arrive, even though every island is different.

It would be very easy to write pages and pages about what we’ve learned, but it’s probably more fun to read our top surprises from owning Callista. So here they in, in no particular order:

I really, really like to sail.

We bought our boat after one trip in the British Virgin Islands. While they are a well-known destination for a sailing trip, they aren’t great for long sails on big water. It’s true island-hopping. We sailed a bit in Mallorca, but when we met the boat in the Canaries we got some true long sails on deep Atlantic water. It was thrilling.

Since then, some of my favorite days have been tacking out into the Atlantic off of Antigua to take on the big swells, making the four-hour jaunt from Antigua to Guadeloupe, and leaving Union Island to sail south to Grenada. I’m plotting how we can make a Bahamas-to-Fort Lauderdale trip right now.

By sailing, by the way, I only mean riding up on the flybridge or down on the dolphin seat and enjoying every second. Roland neither needs nor wants my help with the sails! Some day, if we end up on a monohull, actual sailing might be in my future. For now I’m completely at home as a passenger.

We thought the Caribbean was the Caribbean, but every island is unique. Some are more awesome than others.

Back before we bought Callista, we quizzed Roland and Vanessa about other places we could see. We honestly thought we would spend some time up and down the Caribbean (because we have to end the year below the hurricane belt, down in Grenada), snorkeling on better or worse reefs, taking a few hikes on various islands, dining on island some evenings, stopping at an occasional beach bar. But blue water and white sand…it’s all the same, right?

Wrong. Wow, so wrong. We’ve had a Whitman’s sampler’s worth of trips, and one thing that has amazed us is how unique each island is. Since we are on a boat and not in a resort, we can take our time exploring a place and then move on when we are ready. We definitely have our favorites and our less-than-favorites now, but it has been an utter delight discovering the special things about each island. And it’s made us excited to explore even more in the Eastern Caribbean.

Bill and I were honestly a little leery of traveling so much in one small area. We thought it might get monotonous. Instead we’ve found a treasure trove of beautiful destinations. Much like Bill’s study of fractal math, the closer you get to a place, the more interesting and unique and detailed it becomes.

The view from the boat radically changed my view of the Caribbean. I’m eager to see other places from the water, too.

The more we sail, the more we WANT to sail. If it weren’t for pirates (yes, actual pirates), we would have sailed to Venezuela by now. We are hoping to sail parts of Central America, possibly even the Panama Canal, some day. While we visited parts of Croatia by land last summer, we saved Dubrovnik for a future sailing trip.

My dream trip, though, is the East Coast of the United States! I want to see as much of it as possible from the same point of view as the first settlers here. There’s something about the very human scale of seeing a coastline from ten feet off the water, at 15 knots (tops), that makes you feel the sheer scale of the world. It’s a good reminder of the smallness of man, and the huge size of God. “Who is man, O Lord, that you are mindful of him?” is profoundly real.

The Mediterranean, the Aegean, and even parts of Asia…anything seems like a possibility. All we need is the time to get there.

And finally…

Did you ever read one of those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books when you were a kid? You make one decision and have one story, and another time you make a different decision and the story turns out completely differently. I really feel like that’s what happened with us when we decided to pursue buying Callista. This adventure has unfolded before us. I didn’t expect to love our first trip so much. Then we thought this would be something fun for a few trips, an interesting business to be a part of for a while. But the more steps we take on this path, the more interesting it becomes.

I think that brings up a question for you, too. You’ve been kind enough to read all these words! Now, what is that thing that you’ve discovered an interest in? Something that catches you by surprise but says, “Hey, you, over here? Come check ME out.” What’s the first thing you could do to try out that path? Or, has this happened to you with something, maybe a hobby that turned into something bigger, or a mention of something in a book that led you into a whole world you didn’t even know about? I’d love it if you would share it below!

I’ve got my fingers crossed for a special treat sometime in the next week or so. Stay tuned!