Top 10 for 2024! — Fit2Sail

We’ve not really jumped on the “top 10” bandwagon before, but maybe it’s time to join the fun. Not around music, or any standard categories, but just what leaped out as I used the idea as an excuse to browse back through photos of the year.

Best new hobby: Foiling for Jeremy!

*Jeremy, just about to get up on the foil!*

Best soul-feeding: Send off party from Deltaville

*Thank you to Karen Soule and Alison Lennarz for organizing this! <3*

Best unexpectedly wonderful cruising spot: George Town, Exumas - where we largely ignored the regatta insanity but reveled in daily sails through the harbor and hanging with other small-boat friends

*7 people for dinner down below? Bring it on!*

Best sail: tied - ghosting at 2 knots along Eleuthera (twice, once on each boat!), hot-dogging through George Town on Mischief, screaming 25 hour, 171 mile sail from Long Island to Great Inagua on Calypso

Best boat upgrade: cockpit enclosure on Calypso. This thing was essential when we were escaping the cold; it’s been amazing to use on more boisterous sails as it affords us a drier cockpit.

Best family gathering: (tied) Kids on board for Christmas. Eclipse in Vermont. Graduation in Utah. Family reunion at the lake. Plus, see BEST DAY!

*Fun on top of the McKoski van at sunset!*

Best cruising friend visit on land (tied): Nina and Steve from Red Baron (who we first met 30+ years ago) catching up with us at the West Palm farmers market, and Ann and Greg from Halekai coming to see us in Vermont.

Best “land friend “visited while cruising: seeing Carolyn (my podcast partner) and Dave in West Palm Beach. Honorable mention: All the people we saw in Annapolis and on the dock in Deltaville!

Best natural phenomenon experienced: Total eclipse of the sun! We worked hard to get Mischief back from the Bahamas in time for the total solar eclipse up at the lake. Completely worth it.

Best boat project completed while cruising: finishing stanchion replacement on Mischief in the Bahamas. We took materials with us and finished replacing every single stanchion.

Best day: wedding day! I mean, is there any other possible?

There are so many other amazing days and experiences. Catching up with friends from Charlottesville. Spending time working on both boats in the boatyard and escaping the brutal heat of the summer. Making it to Annapolis for the show on our own boat (finally!) without pushing the envelope (much) in terms of boat projects. Seeing amazing friends at the show (Behan and Jamie, Denise and Mark, Kelly and Chris - and many more too). Sailing around Cape Hatteras for the first time ever. Being able to assist Hope Fleet in taking a few boxes to the Bahamas. Being on the brink of sailing to Panama.

2024 treated us well. I hope you can say the same for you.