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20 MONTHS AT SEA

A family recounts their transatlantic journey

Stratham library to host presentation April 21

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The LaDue family aboard S.V. Midwatch

»  Social News

By Brian Ward
newsletter@seacoastonline.com

Posted Apr. 16, 2015 at 2:00 PM

STRATHAM — A husband and wife, two small children, a 35-foot boat and 20 months at sea. The LaDue family took the adventure of a lifetime in 2012, travelling around the Atlantic to North Carolina, the Bahamas, Norway, Scotland, Ireland, France, Portugal, Spain and the Canary Islands. And now Kim Scamman LaDue, a Stratham native, will share her family's experience aboard the S.V. Midwatch at 6 p.m. on April 21 at the Wiggin Memorial Library.

Kim LaDue had been sailing with her husband, Bob, for 15 years before they set out on their world tour. They had previously considered an RV trip, hiking or a volunteer program before deciding they want to have a sailing trip.

“Since we got together as a couple we’d talked about having some sort of adventure,” said LaDue. "We’d kept a notebook of cool places we wanted to go; there were a lot of things that came together at the time that let us go.”

The moment came when the LaDues had to decide between selling their home in Maine or remaining in New York. They decided to move their family back to Maine and realized the transitional time before their kids settled down in a new environment was the chance they needed. Sixteen months later they had planned their trip, bought a boat and were heading out on the high seas.

“It was pretty significant,” said LaDue. “We had a sum of money and we had to make our trip work within what we had. We knew if we had a smaller boat we could go farther. We also had an ultimate goal of where we wanted to go and a bunch of a smaller goals: let’s get the boat in the water, let’s get out of town, let’s get to Florida, let’s go to Bahamas. Each time we sat down and discussed what we wanted to do next.”

LaDue said the decision to make the first transatlantic crossing was one of the most difficult steps. Once they left they were committing to a long and expensive return trip home. LaDue said that living on the Midwatch encouraged the family to go out and explore while traveling. While sometimes it felt cramped aboard the boat, LaDue said she and her family found they enjoyed being together more.

“One of (the best moments) for us, we went swimming in 18,000 feet of water in the middle of the Atlantic, halfway between the Canary Islands and Martinique in the Caribbean,” said LaDue, “It’s a scary thing, but also a very exciting thing. The water was so amazingly clear and blue it was just fantastic. I think also it influenced the kids so much when they realized what they’d done.”

LaDue said that while the family did face some scary moments during the trip, nothing they faced was really unexpected. LaDue remembers a tussle the boat had with a tidal current and a dock sign in Ireland that held them up for a few months in the town Crosshaven. Off the coast of Portugal the Midwatch was hit by a huge wave and the boat tipped to the point where the mast was nearly parallel with the ocean and had to go to shore for a landing. But the LaDue family took advantage of problems, using their ship’s repairs to explore whatever port they found themselves in.

“We were living in this small town in Ireland for a few months; the kids were being invited to birthday parties,” said LaDue, “We’d never talked about going to Portugal but we ended up enjoying it there.”

LaDue said that if she got the chance she would definitely go on another trip like this. She noted that it takes a huge amount of organization and financial planning, but the trip itself was worth it.

“It takes a tremendous effort,” said LaDue, “and you need to be flexible enough to allow change in plans, but making it’s been one of the best things we’ve ever done as a family.”

The Wiggin Memorial Library is located at 10 Bunker Hill Ave.

A Few Last Photos

I finally had the nerve to check the camera to see if there was any chance I could find the last few pictures that didn't download before it died. Success! We are thrilled.

We have had a very busy summer so far trying to get everything moved into our Maine house, Midwatch on the market and trying to integrate ourselves back into 'life' on land. We had a big chuckle this morning. We took Anna to sailing school and her response when asked if she had ever been sailing..."I sailed a Sunfish this summer!"  I guess living aboard is a whole other category.

Anna working on a bandana order in the ICW

Finn's many photos include some of his own artwork!

Finn at the Virginia Air and Space Museum, we also saw 'Malificent' there !

The kids hoisted all our courtesy flags!

This route looks familiar! (At Historic Jamestown with Uncle Don Swain)

The last photo of Midwatch...

A moment after... the last photo of Midwatch

Arrival at the Farm in New Hampshire

I am trying to write one more blog but things are a bit busy now! Hopefully soon. - Kim

Back In NH

We have now been back in NH for almost a week...well three of us. Bob was here for two days and then headed to Amsterdam. We all thought  he could use some international travel experience.  I downloaded photos this morning that date back to our time in Morehead City, NC and the camera crapped out after half were downloaded so apparently our photo record ends in NC. I have a post half written on the NC stay and I am really hoping I can somehow recover the photos of the kids saying goodbye to Midwatch.

Finn in the Bosun's Chair

Finn under the companionway ladder.

This is a game...Find the sleeping kid
 

Midwatch getting spruced up for sale in Morehead

Anna's Androsian dress

Into the Chesapeake

We reached Mile 0 of the ICW today, that means between last year and this we have travelled the length of the ICW from Norfolk to Fort Lauderdale or 1,066 miles. Wholly Smokes!  We have had three excellent days, only plowing bottom twice ;)  and greatly enjoyed being on the water for Memorial Day Weekend. The weather was stunning.  We are glad to be done with the ICW and I was very tempted to toss the book in the water at Mile Marker 0 but I'm too cheap. What's the chance I will ever use it again? We are now anchored adjacent the US Navy Headquarters and feel that we are in the right place to reflect on our nation's service men and women. We will head up the James River tomorrow for a little side trip and visit with my Aunt and Uncle that live near Jamestown, We are really looking forward to it.

After staring at the water for hours on our way south, we finally saw what we had been looking for in the Alligator River, a big alligator!! We knew we were reaching the northern limits of the range but were looking, thinking we might see a little nose poke up. All of us were surprised to see a 10 to 12 footer, it's full length fully visible, on the surface. We saw lots of other wildlife too, deer, turtles and a few dolphins but the alligator was definitely the high light.

A Visit to Andros and the Fabric Factory

Anna's reflection in the flat calm

After our departure from Green Cay we headed up the Tongue of the Ocean to Fresh Creek in Andros. The sail was beautiful. The Tongue of the Ocean is an eroded limestone trench bordered by the Bahamian banks on three sides making a very unique spot. It was not only unique but absolutely flat calm, calm enough to witness a whale and her calf nursing, sea turtles and to take advantage of some of the best fishing in the world with another prize mahi mahi! Anna was able to catch some great photos and of course Finn took the video for his movie, posted a few days ago.

The marina in Fresh Creek, Andros

We arrived in Andros late afternoon. A quick glance in the direction of our planned anchorage and we were on the radio hailing the one marina on Andros about the possibility of getting a spot.  After several tries we were contacted by another boat, what we presume was a US navy person, with some great advice about how to get into the harbor and letting us know that there would not be anyone at the marina, there would be one boat and to just pick a spot.  We did, right on the largest face dock. We found reception at the local hotel. The receptionist was very nice but couldn’t find the credit card machine so she told us to come back the next day. We went for a nice long walk and found a surprisingly well-stocked grocery store, picking up some milk, eggs, bread, apples and a small package of cookies. The cookies were gone before we reached Midwatch.

The entrance to the factory

We had a nice evening on the dock and the next morning headed over to the Androsian Batik Factory. As some of you may know, Anna has been making these cute bandanas since she was six and to date has sold well over 600. We bought some locally-made Androsian fabric last winter and once we managed the time to get them assembled, they started selling like hotcakes. We have also been experimenting with other items and decided a visit to the factory, not only made educational sense, but would likely make economic sense as well if we could pick up a load of fabric at factory prices. Unfortunately the factory was essentially sold out. Only after calling the manager on her cell

Anna presenting questions at the factory

phone did we get permission to select fabric from the cutting room, where employees cut fabric for their clothing assembly business. Apparently they are not only a bit behind on the manufacturing process but a boat load of German ladies came and bought them out a few days earlier. This was very disappointing to us but we did manage to meet the manager, Casey, the next morning and get her onboard with Anna’s plans. Anna has set up an account and has all the information for ordering yardage, bolts and even specialty prints. Anna and Casey discussed setting up a Facebook account and linking it with the Androsian factory’s page. We have lots of planning going on here including business cards, labels and a Facebook page. Expect some news this summer on this front.  

The Dye Room

The Assembly Room

Finn got a new shirt at the factory!

We made one more trip to the market before heading out and chuckled when a lady stopped to offer a ride as we drudged up the road in the hot sun.  We finally headed out late afternoon for the Berry Islands for one more little adventure in the Bahamas before departure for ‘home’.

Anna sporting her new Androsian wear

 

Felix Felicis

We spent only two and a half weeks in the Bahamas but what an amazing time it was!  Upon our departure we reflected that the period of time reminded us of Harry Potter’s experience with Felix Felicis or ‘Liquid Luck’, a potion that makes everything go your way. Like Harry, our journey just seemed to roll with little effort from one adventure to another, each topping the previous.

We left Long Island, heading for Warderick Wells, the Exuma National Land and Sea Park to rendezvous with Cariad and crew for Easter and even better than that, for a joint expedition to the wild, and seldom visited, Green Cay on the Tongue of the Ocean. We were thrilled they had agreed to join us on the expedition. Warderick Wells was an adventure in itself and we timed our arrival perfectly for a slack tide entrance into the cut and a rendezvous with Cariad within five minutes of our planned arrival time at the Warderick Wells mooring field. We considered ourselves lucky but Cariad was impressed, I guess ‘luck comes to the prepared mind’.  (I’ve heard that a few times in my life, thanks Dad.)

Despite our 24-hour passage we were excited to get moving and explore. We hiked, snorkeled and explored the island. We had a great couple of days eating my big bull mahi mahi in the form of kebabs, fish cakes and fried fish and Anna and Alice (10) were a matched pair with their snorkeling.  They spent hours at it and never flinched including chasing down sharks and sting rays. I can’t imagine two girls better at snorkeling than that pair.

The evening of our arrival at Warderick Wells, Anna spent some time cleaning the stern and swim

platform of all the fish blood. Cariad arrived a few minutes later for dinner to discover a horde of sharks and jacks, sniffing their way towards Midwatch. A few tidbits out of the ‘compost’ bucket (yes, we still call it a compost bucket despite the fact that we have not had a compost pile for more than two years) and we had ourselves a show that would have rivalled a SeaWorld shark tank.  We settled into a nice dinner of fried fish and catch up on the adventures of the past weeks since our St. Maarten meeting.

Cavara's driftwood plaque on Boo Boo Hill,
memorial bench in background

The island setting was beautiful and we managed to get in a little hike, discovering the drift wood signs on Boo Boo Hill. You may remember last year, while passing Warderick Wells, we were audio witnesses to an evacuation of a woman, we had met just a few days earlier at Black Point, after she fell on a hike. They evacuated her with a helicopter from the actor Will Smith’s nearby private island to Nassau. It did not sound too positive on the radio and we finally learned on this recent visit that the outcome was not positive, she died there that day and we witnessed it on the radio. There was a lovely Memorial Bench on the top of Boo Boo Hill that, after a few minutes, I put two and two together and realized what it was. It was a sobering moment but we realized that a fall such as this could have happened anywhere to anyone and once again it only reinforced our decision to take this journey.

Crossing last year's track, closing our Atlantic loop!

After two days and a final check of the ever-improving weather, we all departed Warderick Wells, a day earlier than planned, and headed to Green Cay across the seldom-used Decca Channel. It was at this point that we crossed paths with last year’s track, officially closing our Atlantic loop. Cariad, in the longer boat, was a bit ahead of us and had found a nice anchor spot when we arrived just at dusk. The next two days passed in a whirl wind as we went from one activity to the next, exploring, snorkeling, eating and playing. We had a wonderful campfire on the beach. The girls, Anna, Alice and Hattie (7), were thrilled to be sent over to the beach early to gather fire wood and set up a tent, sans adults. Short of the no-see-ums, that were relentless, it was a picture perfect evening which ended with a long swim off the back of the boat in the glossy, smooth (and very warm) water. Tired, sated and relieved of the insect pests and gobs of repellant on our bodies, we slept like babies.

Our Green Cay camp fire

This was the third time in our voyage that we had the great fortune to meet up with Cariad and we were once again amazed at how easily our two families got along. It was lovely to have them join on our wacky adventures without hesitation and to share in the escapades with smiles.   We are really looking forward to seeing them once again whether in Maine, Cornwall or some other more exotic location.  Thanks Cariad Crew!

We found a sea turtle carcass on the beach, amazing!

Tired kids and hero Daddies.

Cariad in the amazing calm weather at Green Cay

The Cariad crew was departing Green Cay to head to New Providence and a flight to Orlando to visit Harry Potter World. It sounds like their Liquid Luck persisted as well and they made it through the culture shock of Florida with little trouble. We were headed to Andros to visit the Androsia Batik Factory, only about 15 miles from Cariad’s docking destination. We departed together before dawn and despite the similar destinations we quickly pulled away from each other but not before witnessing Cariad under full sail.  Mother Nature gave us ample opportunity for some great photos of Cariad including some with their Mule sail flying in the early dawn light.

 

Before the mule but still amazing