SV Loka

Pinky & Charles sail the ocean blue on SV Loka, a 2006 Caliber 47 LRC SE sailboat.⛵️

01/01/2025

2024 held a ton of adventures and growth for us. We started the year as newbie cruisers heading south down the east coast USA and then hopping to the Bahamas. We sailed (a lot) around the Bahamas for 3 months and then headed north back to the Chesapeake for boat projects. As our timeline updated, we decided to fly to Europe and wander around for 3 months. We finished the year by putting the boat on the hard for more projects (standing rigging and other items on the list), hanging out with family in Northern VA, and enjoying a month-long stay in Annapolis.

Cheers to what 2025 has in store!

11/30/2024

We've been back home (currently, Maryland) for a little over a week, and we're missing a few things we loved in Europe, namely cafes. 😆 Here's a quick recap of our route!

We're neck deep in preparations for a big boat project that we've been planning for a while. That means we're not going south just yet. In the meantime, we're spending time with friends and family.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are finding some peace this holiday season. More to come on our plans as they develop. We're continuing with the "no long term plans" approach and taking things one week/month at a time.

11/20/2024

We're back in Maryland and back on the boat! Seems like we just left and it's nice to be in our home and back on the water. Looking forward to holidays with family and boat projects!

Photo credit: our friend, Gina, who gave us a ride from the train station!💕💕💕

11/18/2024

Icymi we're back in the States, and have been tooling around Manhattan NYC for the last 5 days. We're finally getting adjusted back Eastern timezone (6hrs is quite a difference) and feeling grateful for diners, hot dogs, and NY pizza.😍

We're currently having a shawarma lunch in Herald Square (love eating outside!) in front of Macy's where the Thanksgiving day parade will be held soon! Love NYC at this time of year. 💕

More to come as we'll debrief on the grand European tour, and share next steps. We'll head home (to the boat in Maryland) to work on boat projects and get some family time in.

11/11/2024

At the train station again! We're in our last few days in Europe, and I had to try the coffee from the train station vending machine. It's not "good coffee" but it is drinkable! Works in a pinch though I wouldn't say it's a good value at €1. 😆

We are leaving Padua, Italy, and heading to Venice. 🇮🇹 We'll fly back to the States o Wednesday. Enjoying each day and staying in the present moment. 💕

10/30/2024

Oh Split how we enjoyed your beautiful weather and scenery. We spent 2 relaxing weeks in Split, enjoying food (found the best burek, phyllo stuffed with cheese and meat), coffee (I found v60 filter coffee!!), the water, the views, architecture (roman+medieval+austrian+venetian+renaissance), and amazing weather.

We skipped a few spots in Slovenia and Croatia when we saw how good the weather was going to be in Split, and we’re glad we did. Such an amazing town with so much to see. We went to our first opera and then the following week attended a contemporary composers concert (very modern). We saw lots of art (old and new) and wandered all over Diocletian’s palace.

And I learned enough Croatian to get myself in trouble lol. What a beautiful country and incredible people. We will be back!

We’re currently in Florence, soaking in all the art and eating all the pasta.😍

10/11/2024

P**a, HR (Croatia) was incredible. We really didn't know what to expect when we picked P**a as our first Croatian city to visit. In fact, we picked it only a few days before heading out.

The Istrian peninsula, where P**a sits, is full of history from the Romans, the Venetians, the Astro-Hungarians, and more. They've been through growth, wars, and all kinds of changes in the 2000+ years of documented history.

We enjoyed visiting Roman ruins, checking out the aquarium in an old fort, hanging out on our patio overlooking the marina, and eating/drinking all the Istrian food (including an olive oil tasting🤯🤯🤯).

Highly recommend a visit to this cool little corner of the world. Hvala ti pruno to all the wonderful Croats we've met as well😍🤗

**a **acroatia **acroatia🇭🇷

09/16/2024

Another new country added to the list! Neither of us had been to Switzerland before, and it quickly made it onto the list as we discussed where to go from Belgium (which took us through Paris).

Interlaken is a picturesque Swiss town in a valley between 2 huge lakes. It's gorgeous. Unfortunately, we got mostly rainy and cloudy weather, so we didn't get to do the epic train rides (they were running, but we weren't going to spend the $$ to look at clouds lol) but we got a great few days of relaxation in cool, clean Alpine air.

We're now in Innsbruck, Austria until Thursday when we'll head to Munich.

🇨🇭

09/10/2024

Tried and somewhat failed to get a cute selfie in front of under construction. It's been 22 years since we were last here. Boy, have things changed for us and the city.

Our week in Paris has come to an end, and we're traveling to Switzerland today. I haven't posted much because I got a cold (all this travel with people!) and I just want to soak in the present moment. More pics soon and a blog post probably🤗

09/07/2024

We've met a lot of people in our travels, especially lately. But sometimes, you meet a person who really stands out from the crowd. Mark at is that person in Brussels. From the moment he greeted us at the reception desk, we were bantering back and forth, having a grand time. Within 20min, we already had an inside joke about and we were hooked on Mark. He gave us great recommendations and is a beautiful human being who loves his girls (2 adorable Yorkies).

We spent 2 days in Brussels and it was not enough. Since we were passing through, we did touristy s**t and of course checked out some art. We ate more chocolate, more waffles, and enjoyed the . We also walked a bunch and saw the incredible city from a rooftop bar.

More to come in a proper blog post. I'm soaking in every moment on this journey.

09/01/2024

Ghent, Belgium , was amazing! We spent 2 weeks in this incredible city, soaking in all its goodness (and chocolate and food and coffee). These are a few highlights, which I will blog about later, once I’ve had some time to process it all. We did touristy stuff but we also went to local markets, cooked dinner at home, and partied with plenty of locals at dokfeesten and an electronic/dance show at on our last day.

I’m enamored with the city, and sad to leave. But a rolling stone gathers no moss, and the Loka crew doesn’t intend to gather moss just yet. Today, we left Ghent for a quick stop in Brussels where we’ve already hit a museum and seen some sights.

08/30/2024

New blog post (link below)! We've flown the coup for the summer! Well, we've flown to Europe anyway. If you haven't noticed (particularly on IG), we have flown to Europe for a 2-3 month visit/landcruising style adventure.

We love living on and adventuring with the boat, and we also want to wander around the world "the easy way" (e.g. planes, trains, and automobiles). And we were ready to escape the heat of the east coast summer.

We arrived in the UK a few weeks ago, and have finally gotten a blog post together with the first week of our photodump. We're currently in Ghent, Belgium prepping for our next hop (to be revealed soon), but enjoy our UK leg for now!

https://www.svloka.com/summer-2024-the-crew-goes-to-europe/

🇬🇧

08/12/2024

We're in the UK! We've been quiet about this journey for a bit because we weren't sure all the pieces would fall into place. Well, there's no denying it's real now!

The next chapter of our adventure is spending a couple of months in Europe, starting in the British countryside.

Yesterday, after landing in London, we opted to stop in Windsor for brunch and swing through (as best as one can after a red eye flight).

We'll spend a few days in the English countryside then a few days in London. From there, we head to Ghent, Belgium to explore Bruges and Brussels as well.

Beyond that? We'll see what we find. Not being in a hurry or having a strict agenda gives us some opportunities to explore in some different ways that cruising has taught us.

And don't worry... The boat is in good hands with some cruiser friends sailinghalekai in Deale, MD.

07/13/2024

New blog post alert: https://www.svloka.com/one-month-in-annapolis/

It’s been a while since we posted much (though Pinky has been posting her bits of creativity on Instagram), and it’s because we’ve come to a complete stop for a few weeks to get some boat projects done in Annapolis.

We’re enjoying living in Annapolis for the time being, and getting some quality family time. It’s nice being in such close proximity to our youngest nephews. So check it out if you want the full rundown of our most recent adventures.

05/30/2024

It's been a while since we posted because we have been on the move almost every day for the last 2 weeks.

While in Beaufort, NC, we took on our first crew member who made the journey up the ICW with us to Hampton, VA. We enjoyed a day in Hampton checking out the Virgina Air & Space Science Museum (highly recommend).

Today, we attempted to head up the Chesapeake Bay on the next leg of our journey north for the summer, but the weather had other plans.

We sailed out far enough to start taking waves over the bow and decided to turn back. We're now anchored near Phoebus, VA and will be here until the northern winds let up.

The photo shows calmer waters before entering the Chesapeake with a shipping container cargo ship in the background.

05/21/2024

This is our courtesy flag, which we fly when visiting to show we've cleared customs and immigration. Not sure how much use came from the previous owner, but this is after 90days of constant flying. I think it could go another season!

🇧🇸

05/17/2024

We've been underway since 7pm EDT Thur, and are back in US waters. Seeing how far north we can get by Saturday mid-day. Track us on our predictwind tracker!

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/loka/ (link in bio on IG)

05/03/2024

New blog post (link below)! Excited to share with you the next, more detailed part of our Bahamas adventures. You've seen a lot of the highlights on social media, but in this post, we expand a bit on what it takes to get from one place to another.

In this post, we leave the Berry Islands and head towards the archipelago to Spanish Wells where we explore the area, and prepare to go through , a notorious cut for having a lot of current (surprise!) which can severely impede one's journey if you don't plan correctly.

We also share some of the challenges in the first month in our adjustment to cruising in a foreign country for the first time. I'm happy to share that we're getting into a good rhythm of travel, work, and relaxation. And of course, we're getting into a rhythm just in time for us to make a bigger move as we plan to head back north to the USA in a couple of weeks. More on that later though.

https://www.svloka.com/our-great-bahamas-adventure-part-1/

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We've been back home (currently, Maryland) for a little over a week, and we're missing a few things we loved in Europe, namely cafes. 😆 Here's a quick recap of our route! We're neck deep in preparations for a big boat project that we've been planning for a while. That means we're not going south just yet. In the meantime, we're spending time with friends and family. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are finding some peace this holiday season. More to come on our plans as they develop. We're continuing with the "no long term plans" approach and taking things one week/month at a time.

A bit of a photo dump/summary of the amazing art we've been seeing. This is just the tip of tbe iceburg covering the first couple of legs. More to come! #europeantravel #traveltheworld #nomads #nomadlife #nomadLife #europe_pics #travel #paris #france #belgium #england #unitedkingdom #art #museums #museumart #europeanart

Morning zen

Bled, Slovenia is gorgeous even when it’s raining. We’ve been in #Bled since Monday, and are enjoying the sloooooow pace that a week in this chill area affords us. The rainy weather means we’re not missing out on any outdoor activities, and the pause in activity is welcome after 1-2 weeks of travel and festivals. Highly recommend Lake Bled! #europe_pics #nomadLife #travel #europeantravel #nomads #nomadlife #traveltheworld #Slovenia #lakebled #glaciallake #easterneurope #balkans

Our last day in #ghent has us hanging out with the locals at #dokfeesten, a collaborative festival in the Old Dock neighborhood of Ghent. It's a massive flea market, games and attractions for kids, lives music, food & beverages, and of course amazing people. In addition, there's a boat building competition as well as other events...Something called "free running the beast" which I'm sure is a mistranslation of the brochure😆It's super fun and full of the local vibe.😍#livelikealocal #nomads #nomadlife #belgium #summerinbelgium #summerinhghent #europeantravel

Sailing to a more protected spot for tonight's front passage. It's a really interesting route to sail/motor around. Lots of practice with different angles and #sailtrim #sailinglife #sailboat #cruisinglife #sail #sailing #sailboats #saillife #abacobahamas #abaco #abacosislands #bahamas #broadreach #downwind

After a non-eventful yet breezy night, we're hanging out on the boat, mostly resting and cleaning a bit. Tonight will be a more raucous ride as the cold front rolls through around 2am (because why would it happen during the day), so we'll check lines again and make sure everything is secured. #cruising #cruisinglife #bahamas #bahamas🇧🇸 #turqoisewater #sailinglife #georgetownbahamas #sailboat #georgetown #weather #stormclouds

The view from #georgetown #bahamas out over part of the harbour with Monument Hill in the background. George Town is the busiest spot we've stopped since leaving the USA. Yet there are still tranquil spots nearby. It's definitely a unique place in the Bahamas. We're hunkering down for some crazy weather Fri night through Sun morning along with a couple of hundred other boats. #cruising #cruisinglife #turqoisewater #sailinglife #georgetownbahamas #sailing #sailboat #calmbeforethestorm #blueskies #monumenthill

And we're finally off to the next anchorage... Starting our southbound journey with a day sail to Solomons. Track us on predict wind: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Loka/