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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.