About: UPDATED JANUARY 2016

Below in bold is what we wrote when we first bought our Nordhavn. We had not even moved aboard when this was written! Our original plans have been updated below.

“Sweet T” is a 2000 Nordhavn 40, hull # 15. She’s 40 feet long and 14’6″ wide with a saloon/galley, separate pilothouse, two staterooms and one head. She has a single diesel engine, a Lugger 668 105 hp, and a Yanmar wing engine. Her cruising speed is 7 knots with a max speed of 8.5 knots.

Russell and I retired the summer of 2014, sold our home, our 35′ express cruiser, most of our vehicles and the majority of our belongings. What we kept is in a 150 square foot storage unit.

We will live/cruise on Sweet T, along with our 3 dogs, full-time. Since she’s in Seattle, Seattle is where we start our journey. We’ll winter in Seattle, and nearby ports around the San Juan Islands, until spring weather permits us to head through the Inside Passage to Alaska. In the fall of 2015 we’ll head south toward Panama and bring her around to the East Coast.

Obviously the first paragraph hasn’t changed since we started cruising Sweet T, the first of May, 2015. Nor has the second paragraph, and we still live aboard with our three dogs and cruise full-time. What has changed are our original plans, strikethrough in italics.

Why? We had no idea the Pacific Northwest (PNW) would be so beautiful and that there would be so much that we wanted to see. After talking to a LOT of people who have cruised the PNW extensively we realized while we could certainly stick to our original plans, if we did we would be cheating ourselves of many, many beautiful ports and anchorages.

There is so much to see here it is impossible to see it all in one cruising season, or many cruising seasons for that matter, or ever. The unpredictable and often…..errrr, unpleasant winter weather makes cruising here in the winter, while not impossible, difficult, challenging, and well, unpleasant, therefore, the cruising season is short’ish!

Some of the best cruising in the world is right here in the PNW. Before we leave the PNW it makes sense to see all that we want to see because the reality is if we were to take Sweet T to Mexico then the East Coast it is highly unlikely we would bring her back to PNW.

So…….we decided when we left Seattle to modify our plans, because that’s how we roll! Our new plan was in 2015 to cruise the San Juan Islands, Princess Louisa Inlet, Desolation Sound, The Broughtons, East Coast of Vancouver Island, and the Gulf Islands. No, we did not see everything there is to see in these locations but made decent dent!  

The first part of this winter will be in Anacortes, Washington. A lovely, boater friendly town. The second part of the winter will be in Victoria and/or Sidney, East Coast Vancouver Island. While there we will have routine maintenance work done on Sweet T which will require a haul out.

Come the end of March/first of April, when weather permits, we will start heading up the east coast of Vancouver Island. Our destination is Alaska where we will spend the summer months cruising. We have also made the decision to winter over in Alaska and yes, we will be living aboard. The destination is still undetermined but we are leaning heavily towards Sitka, Alaska. People automatically think Alaska equals frigid cold and snow. While the winter certainly won’t be “balmy” it should be relatively mild. We will then spend another cruising season (2017) in Alaska. Beyond that our plans our undetermined and as always subject to change!

It is simply amazing here, incredibly beautiful, and we do not for a second regret the change in our original plans and look forward to lingering here for another cruising season in the Pacific Northwest.