Elysium's Cruising Regions
North America ...Our first year we continued shaking the boat down and hung around the East Coast of the US. There were a couple of pushes to do so. Heading up the East Coast after the Bahamas would help to avoid hurricanes, we wanted a hard dodger made and the best was in the Chesapeake, and finally we wanted to attend a Westsail Rendezvous. We made all three happen and left in 2009 to the islands.
The Caribbean...Leaving the Chesapeake we shot offshore for the Virgin Islands to lollygag there a bit while enjoying some new to us cruising territory, the Windwards and Leewards. For the next cyclone season we completed boat jobs in Trinidad while thoroughly enjoying what that country has to offer. As the cyclone season ended we buddy boated with IB and Becca through the ABC's and settling in Cartagena for a few months.
South America...We continued with IB and Becca through the ABC's and settled in Cartagena for a few months. From Columbia we scooted downwind to the San Blas (Kuna Yala) Panama where we played a lot, worked a lot and used Shelter Bay as a hub for exploring farther afield. While Elysium slept on the hard in Shelter Bay we took the opportunity to visit Peru. Crossing the Panama Canal was one of our dreams. Dirk and Silvie (fellow circumnavigators) we met in the Bahamas 5 years earlier; and Jenny a fellow Westsailor we met at the Chesapeake rendezvous flew in to assist our transit.
The Pacific...was an eye opening experience. The Galapagos was all of documentary fame. From there we had a leisurely trek (19 days) to French Polynesia. Six months in the French Islands wasn't enough but cyclone season was just around the corner. We shot up to the Cook Island (Penhryn) and fell in love. The people and atoll is what legends are made from. Season over it was on down to American Samoa where we could buy anything US and have it sent to us at US Postal rates. We filled in our spares. Once we had our supplies we shot down to Tonga, then over to Fiji where again the people, water, and islands were made of dreams. Cyclone season in Fiji found the boat in a cyclone pit at Vuda Marina for a bit of family time back in the states.
South East Asia ...Post covid we traveled up and through Indonesia. This area of the world is some of the most challenging; not difficult just challenging we've had. Leaving Indo traveled the Western coast of Malaysia. And our most recent is a visa run, haul out, tourist stop in Thailand