Calico Skies Sailing

28/06/2024

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When you cross the equator by ⛵️ and you get your first sips of bubbly 🍾🥳.
This episode is live on the tube now! 📺

27/06/2024

Happy birthday to Bill 💕🍾🥳.
To the life of the party and lucky for me the sweetest husband anyone could ask for. I love you hunny! 😘

27/06/2024

23/06/2024

Bringing back photos beginning with golden hour.
Peachy beaches and vivid sky stripes. Puffy clouds floating by. Sunset blooming.

29/05/2024

🗿🇵🇫🌴🌊

28/05/2024

. More of Hiva Oa (mostly, last two are Fatu Hiva) 🏝️.
Pictures do not do this place justice! It’s kinda like how waves look soooo much smaller on film 😉. Will pop a few more up in stories 💕

27/05/2024

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Couple snaps from our road trip on Hiva Oa last week! Epic day spent with Michael and Chloe of sv Promise Kept 💕

23/05/2024

.mooood lighting at this 200 ft waterfall in Fatu Hiva 🇵🇫

21/05/2024

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The highest peak on Fatu Hiva is around 1,100 m and we love hiking but after a long passage and weeks of the flu I was very glad to get a ride to the top of this one (added bonus feeling fresh for a photo opp 💁🏼‍♀️).
There are so many ascends and descends as we climbed to the top. I used the warp feature on the go pro with my arm out the window and it is such a cool perspective. Really looking forward to editing and sharing the video for this one!

20/05/2024

Few more Fatu Hiva snaps 📸

20/05/2024

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What a truly epic place to make landfall after 21 days at sea!
We are super grateful to our dear friends (you know who you are 💕) for strongly recommending we plan to arrive into Fatu Hiva; we will never forget our time on this mind blowing island.
From dropping the hook to our first steps on shore every moment in this stunning spot reeked of epic-ness. I’m still not over it!
This place has inspired me to spend more time playing with still photography. I’ve been sharing pictures and blog posts on Patreon and have really been enjoying sharing more of the details and day to day things of life in this paradise.
I have a few more pics to share of Fatu Hiva (I could upload a thousand 😂) and will do that over the coming week.
Thanks everyone for your messages of support and congratulations they mean so much to us 💕.

19/05/2024

Few snaps from passage 🌊

13/05/2024

Turns out the Pacific is pretty chill for such an enormous body of water … At least for us (for the most part, there were some exciting exceptions) on our almost 3,000 nm voyage to the Marquesas. More to come soon!! 🌊

28/04/2024

Edited and brought to you from the middle of nowhere (or 924 nm from the Marquesas to be exact) our last couple weeks before our Pacific departure! An incredibly special (and productive 😁) time we will remember and carry with us for all time. It can be so, so challenging to capture the essence of what makes a particular place or experience so special and this video while not fully doing La Cruz justice at least reflects some of its amazing-ness. Ruth and Garrett we are so deeply grateful to for you help on this project and for your friendship. Oh and you nailed this one! Real time we are out here absolutely loving our beautiful new stack pack!!!

26/04/2024

More than halfway to Hiva Oa in the Marquesas, 1528nm Down, 1288nm Miles To Go! The last few day we have been firmly in the grasp of the ITCZ (Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone). This is where the NE trades meet the SE trades and is characterized by unsettled, squally weather (as evidenced by the radar image LOL). As we get a bit further south we will hit the doldrums where there is no wind. We had some excitement a few day ago when we caught a 56.5 inch Wahoo, by far the biggest fish we have caught on Calico to date! Lets just say we've been eating. a lot of fish the last few days haha.

Calico is doing well, we've been battling some chafe/hardware issues as a result of all the miles. We popped our spinnaker tack line, our jib furling line went due to a mislead fairlead and the scariest was a failed shackle for the spinnaker halyard. We got lucky on the shackle, we had an alarm set at 14kt true wind speed and that alarm sounded at 01:00. Out of caution we took the kite down and were surprised to see the block and shackle at the bottom of the mast as we dropped the sail. It appears the seizing wire failed and allowed the shackle pin to back itself out. If the shackle truly failed the threads on the pin would be destroyed. If we had left the sail up it likely would have eventually dropped into the water potentially causing damage. We aren't flying the kite again until we verify that the shackle and seizing wire on our spare halyard is in good shape.

We left with three other buddy boats and we have been in frequent contact with each other via whatsapp. Having Starlink onboard is such a change from our previous ocean crossings. We were all pretty closer together in the beginning but now are separated by a few hundred miles. The closest boat to us in Breaking Waves, about 60 miles away.

If you want to follow our progress at home, google "where is Calico Skies" and our tracking page will pop up. We've also been releasing daily updates and short videos for our patrons @ www.patreon.com/calicoskiessailing. Finally click, like, subscribe 🙃 so you don't miss when the videos are released of this epic passage!

21/03/2024

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Such a super fun day with new friends Ruth & Garrett of Salt & Tar 💗💕 and old friends Ben Alie Brady & Blue. We also got to hang with cruisers Shannon & Michael on this strangely low wind day 😂
We climbed the rig, sang a jig and even spotted a humpback Whale 🐋 Captain Paw paw er Garrett confidently steered the 30,000 pound wood vessel Rediviva by his toes while we enjoyed the afternoon - sharing laughs, making memories and hatching plans 🏴‍☠️🥰.
New video is live on Patreon and Creators Wheelhouse now! What do you think? Do we make good pirates?!!

05/01/2024

Gorgeous snap of Calico courtesy of 🥰. We’ve put a lot of miles behind us already this winter but we’ll be sailing many, many more in 2024 ☺️.

29/10/2023

Vancouver!!! Such an epic trip. Made memories to last a lifetime and such an incredibly beautiful place 💗 Check out our new episode - There were so many surprises on this trip 🤩. And to the people who made it all happen you know who you are - we are so so deeply grateful 💕😘

28/09/2023

We are a little late to the party but Grace has been nominated for "Inspirational Cruiser of the Year" hosted by the YCA at the Annapolis Boat Show. It's been a roller coaster of a year after her breast cancer diagnosis and we are SO thankful that we were able to get through the mastectomy surgery, treatments and get back to Calico Skies and the life we love!

In under two days we have over a 100 votes but we are in good company!!

Vote here!

https://zealous.co/youngcruisersassociation/opportunity/Most-Inspirational-Cruiser-23/submissions/calicoskies/Grace---Calico-Skies-Sailing-/?f_work=upbvG56hn2Jm5FZxPexs&white_view=true

p.s. Make sure to confirm your vote in your email or it won't count! 🙏

25/09/2023

It’s that time of year again as Bill and I are gearing up to attend the Annapolis Boat Show ⛵️, Oct 12th - 15th. We thought it’d be a fun idea to run a giveaway! Anyone who is sporting Calico Skies gear and finds us at the Boat Show will get a free sticker! Hope to see many of you there 🥰

Get your gear at; https://sailing-calico-skies.myshopify.com

p.s if you haven’t gotten your tickets yet use the code 23CALICOABS for $5 off per ticket!

31/08/2023

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Last years Boat Show was a blast and this year we’re expecting no less!!
The Annapolis Boat Show 2023 takes place from Oct 12th to the 15th and Calico Skies will be there 😁. We hope you can join us - We would love to see you!!
To get a discount on your tickets use the code 23CALICOABS for $5 dollars off each adult ticket. Link to purchase is —> https://secure.interactiveticketing.com/1.39/a0c9f1/ #/select

18/06/2023

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Our Dads and Granddads have had an enormous impact on where we are today.
Bills Grandfather, a member of the Coast Guard, is responsible for planting the sailing seeds in Bill as a child, teaching him how to sail on the south shore of Long Island. Soon after Bills Dad bought a Hunter 27 and the family sailed summers on Long Island together.
My Grandfather was in the navy and when we got married he gifted us a compass which we keep on our nav table today. He always had boats and was fixing boats and I remember going out for motor boat rides when I was young.
My father didn’t contribute to directly to our life at sea but he has always supported me behind the scenes and is a big part of the reason I am where I am today.
A painter, among other things, he recently gave me an oil painting he made and it’s now hanging next to our tv on Calico Skies. We also travel with our little sailor dude that used to belong to Bills Grandfather, occasionally displaying him on our table. The last pic is the compass my Grandfather gifted us.
Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there! ❤️🤗💗

28/04/2023

While we’ve been working to get Grace healthy, has been hard at work on our new sails. Can’t wait until we can splash and see these sails catching the wind 🌊💨⛵️

09/04/2023

Hi Guys - no video on YT this week. Grace had bilateral mastectomy surgery last week and is recovering in Scottsdale AZ. Recovery has been up and down but she is doing ok. To promote healing she is spending time in a hyperbaric chamber (2 hours /day M-F). This helps to promote tissue and blood vessel growth.

If you can't wait for the next video we have just posted the latest one to Patreon :)

https://www.patreon.com/posts/whats-one-they-81280658

Bill & Grace

15/02/2023

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Always my Valentine ❤️.
Memory lane feels appropriate today. Such a beautiful journey together hunny 😍.
To many more ahead! 🥂

25/12/2022

Merry Christmas Everyone 🎄🎄!!! We are in a frigid Charlotte, North Carolina 🥶 celebrating with Bill’s family. We will be making stops in Colorado & Phoenix before returning to Calico in early Jan to get her ready for another season of cruising.

The videos haven’t caught up yet but we are the midst of a a pretty large refit on Calico Skies, lots of exciting projects coming up!

Hope you all have a great day! 🎄🙌🎅🏻

19/11/2022

What the heck are we doing?! We are hosting a a live stream tomorrow at 12pm EST providing a real time update and also an update on our future plans. Check it out on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/real-time-update-74754881

02/11/2022

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It’s been awhile since we’ve posted a sunset pic 🌅.
❤️anchorlife

19/10/2022

We tried REALLY hard at this years’ Boat Show to make taking pictures a high priority because last year we ended up with only a few. We’ve taken a step back from social media lately and have chosen instead to spend that time on our Patreon family, but it’s important that we take just a few minutes to celebrate the incredible wonderful craziness that is the Annapolis Boat Show.
To all of you who stopped by our booth or who stopped us at the show or even on the street - Thanks for doing so. Connecting with our viewers is incredibly important to us because it really motivates and inspires us, so thank you for chatting with us and thank you, again, for watching & supporting us. We’ve left this years’ show with full hearts, stuffed to the brim with gratitude, and also with the feeling that there really ARE a lot of good people in the world, which makes us feel hopeful and light as we head back to Calico Skies again.
Besides our incredible viewers, we also spent time this year connecting with our fellow YouTubers (and their family!) which besides being super fun is also very enlightening. These guys are such an incredible resource and support network and to everyone who offered advice, thank you 🙂 (We’ll remember it because we definitely WON’T remember much at the hairy Armadillo 🤣).
Though we did came away with many more pics this year there’s still some that we missed sadly and we’ll just have to do even better next year (you guys know who you are). Right now, I’m writing this from Charlotte NC and after our quick visit with Bill’s parents we’ll return to Calico in Penasco Mexico and begin boat work - always a crowd pleaser- So stay tuned 😉.
We ended up spending a total of only about 1 month on anchor in the Sea of Cortez (in the hottest season, August) since the majority of our time was spent traveling from Costa Rica and up the coast of Mexico crushing over 2,000 nautical miles in the process. We’re rolling out our first episode for our Sea of Cortez cruising series in less than 2 weeks now so we’ll be much closer to real time and therefore closer to the boat work that will be happening real time in Penasco 🥳.

10/10/2022

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Back on land and it feels so . . . Weird lol. But good!!!
AND we are going LIVE🎙tomorrow to talk allll about it 📣 (plus what we’ve been up to, what are plans are ect).
It’s going down tomorrow at 4pm EST so don’t miss it! We’ll be live here from Annapolis where we’ll be attending the boat show this week ☺️⛵️so we’ll give you a peak at what’s happening behind the scenes!
Looking forward to chatting with you 😁