A Tale of Two Chemists: Back on the boat … Are we crazy?

Back on the boat … Are we crazy? Tues 28 July 2020

It’s been two years since we got back to New England after our 2017-8 trip to the Caribbean and now we are about to set out on another year afloat. In January it seemed like a great idea … now we aren’t so sure!

When we returned form our previous trip we were delighted to have the chance to go back to work at Framingham State University and for the past two years we have been teaching chemistry and enjoying life on land. Our sailing was limited to Rhode Island waters, with small cruises to Block Island and around Narragansett Bay, all of which was lovely. Over time we started to contemplate what our next adventures would be and specifically the notion that we might take the boat to Europe. As these ideas evolved we realized that we needed more time and flexibility. In particular, we couldn’t imagine launching Cotinga in the spring, teaching to the end of May and then being ready to leave New England to cross the Atlantic just a few weeks later and so we decided that the time had come for us to retire. Our last semester at FSU did not go entirely as we expected because of covid-19. We never went back after spring break and taught the second half of the semester on line. It has to be said that teaching remotely is quite challenging and without the face-to-face interactions with the students and other staff members is nowhere near as much fun.

Our broad plan, as we envisaged it at the start of this year, was to spend the early summer travelling on land and then launch Cotinga at the end of July to spend the latter part of the summer cruising New England. In the fall we would head down the east coast of the USA and once hurricane season was over, cross over to the Bahamas and then off-shore to the Caribbean islands where we would spend the winter. In the following spring we would sail up to Bermuda and then across the Atlantic via the Azores to Europe. From there onwards, we might perhaps spend a couple of summers in northern Europe and then a couple of seasons in the Mediterranean, leaving the boat whilst we return to Massachusetts as our home base. Eventually we would sail back across the Atlantic and keep Cotinga in the Caribbean as a winter destination for the future. Of course no sailing plans should ever be taken too literally and in January we had no idea that the world would be turned upside down by a global pandemic. In May, despite great uncertainty as to what we would be possible, we took the decision to proceed with our plan. We made arrangements to rent out our house for a year starting August 1^st and in 3 days time we will hand over the keys and move aboard Cotinga.

We still plan to head up to Maine for a few weeks and down the east coast USA in the autumn, but beyond that everything is up in the air. However, we are fit and healthy and the impact of Coronavirus on our lives has been relatively minimal, so we count ourselves lucky and whilst we probably are crazy, we will try to make the most of this great opportunity.

Cotinga was launched on Wednesday 15^th July and is currently on a mooring in East Greenwich Bay. In the next blog, we will fill you in on some of the many projects that we have done to upgrade the boat over the past two years.

Mike and Gloria

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