sailing in the Virgin Islands to Puerto rico
The year was 2019, right at the end before the world turned upside down. For work I was predominantly filming weddings so this was the perfect time to take a break and travel. Back in 2017 I met a lifelong friend when I was traveling Hawaii and planned to meet her and her family in Florida during New Years. before meeting some more friends on their sailboat in the US Virgin Islands.
I’ll never forget the THE message that changed my life path for the better.
Sometime in February 2020 I happened to be visiting some friends (Ryan and Weatherly) on their catamaran in the USVI’s. I had plans to start back my wedding video company in full force starting the following month where I was booked in Charleston every weekend and sometimes twice a weekend through July. Little did I know, life didn’t have that in store for me because the next couple of months turned my life upside down.
I looked down at my phone after a beautiful morning going for a swim and having a coffee, looking out over the crystal clear water to the lush green coastline. My friend Harry sent me a message, “I have a friend looking for a couple to charter their catamaran with plans to sail in the Caribbean and possibly the Mediterranean, are you interested?”.
Holy s*#$….Well of course my first thought was, “Well that sounds great but WHAT?!, thats crazy, I can’t just leave my growing career, leave my family and all of my belongings to run away on a sailboat BUT of course that sounds amazing”. Over the next few days I could barely sleep, if you know me you know I’m horrible at decision making. I assumed I’m crazy either way, if I take this job, sell most of my possessions, and take off with the captain whom I didn’t know for long. I also thought I would be insane for not taking this chance, a once in a lifetime opportunity laid out right in front of my face for the taking… At the end of the day I decided I couldn’t live with “what if…” SO HERE WE GO!
We ended up sailing to Puerto Rico then exploring the town of Old San Juan before flying back to Charleston. At this point it was the beginning of March and there may have been 1 official case of Covid in the States. Over the next few weeks 90% of my wedding bookings were cancelled and some were rescheduled. We had plans to fly to La Rochelle France in July to pick up the brand new catamaran at the manufacturer but it ended up getting pushed back until October due to Covid. Thankfully I lived 3 blocks from the beach so I wasn’t complaining too much. I spent my free time as crew on a 26’ catamaran doing day charters, cruising up the creeks, scouting for dolphins, and anchoring on our own private sandbars at low tide with the guests. Seriously, if you’re ever in Charleston around Folly Beach book with day charter or sunset charter with Sail Folly, Capt Johnny is the BEST!!! *And you’ll more than likely see tons of dolphins ;)