by ERIK ORTON

We were sailing with two other boats, Discovery and Day Dreamer.  We’d gotten an early start that morning and the wind was good so we were leading the group.  We were all making for the same point on the west edge of St. Martin after which we would turn northeast into Marigot Bay and anchor near each other.  I was using autopilot to navigate us toward the point. We were making steady progress and the other boats were catching up.  Their boats were longer and therefore faster.  I looked at St. Martin in the distance and it didn’t look right. It looked like we were going to cut the turn too close. 

by ERIK ORTON

Emily and I did a couple interviews yesterday about our book and I found myself saying something I don’t usually say.  They were asking, how did you come to live on a sailboat with your family in the Caribbean? I said something like, “There were no big sudden risky moves.  Everything was deliberate, well-considered and incremental.”  I don’t usually say that, but it’s true.  Yes, I quit my job.  Yes, we bought our boat sight-unseen.  And yes, we flew down and moved aboard as a whole family.  But nothing was hasty.  If anything, I would say we were very pedestrian about it.  If you want to revisit the story from the beginning, click here or read the book when it comes out in a few weeks.