Captain Stan
Admiral Sarah
S/V Valhalla Chief of Security – Valkyrie
The Plan
The plan began over 20 years ago when Stan and I first met. We both dreamed of sailing around the world, seeing exotic places and having the adventure of a lifetime; leaving nothing left on our bucket lists. A few years later Stan and I got married Dec. 31, 1999.
Our first boat was an 18 foot, Aquadyne Sailbird trimaran, which we sailed up and down the ICW in our hometown area. She was a great little boat, the only problem she has was she didn’t have a head, ‘bathroom’. So I said, “Why don’t we sell her and get another boat we could actually stay on?” So we did.
“Actually Sarah said, ‘I’m not getting back on that damn boat unless it has a toilet on it,” Stan.
It was about two years after we sold our sailbird trimaran when we found ‘ Free Enterprise, a F27 Corsair. Which is a funny story…
Also Featuring Special Guest Captain S. Seagul
Buying the F27 Corsair
After researching larger trimarans and almost buying a Condor Ostar racing trimaran, Stan came across an email about a F27 Corsair for sale in our budget. And it ends up that the boat was being sold by the same multihull fanatic who bought our Sailbird from us two years before!
So we struck a deal and the Corsair was ours! We thought it was the perfect boat in that it was fast, fun to sail and had a small galley and head so you could actually cruise on it.
But more importantly it was still trailerable and helped us expand our cruising grounds within our busy work schedules. We cruised locally in Daytona Beach, then St. Augustine and finally trailered it down to the Florida Keys to island hop and prepare for the Bahamas!
And then it happened..
We decided one year to sail up to St. Augustine for the annual cruisers Thanksgiving Potluck. The weather was awful, ‘ and when I say awful it was freezing and the winds where blowing up to 45 gusts in the ICW it was bad!!!!’ but we went anyway and suffered through the cold rain and high winds. And I, Admiral Sarah was NOT happy. And protested then entire 8 hour sail up, “This wasn’t was cruising was supposed to be like!”
Later that weekend, we walked to The Catamaran Company St. Augustine base, to look at boats with a little more protection from the weather. We didn’t find any we liked or could afford, but we did find Peter Gulick, who helped us for the next two years search for the perfect catamaran to take us on the next leg of our adventure.
Have you ever heard the saying, that the best two days of your life are the day you buy a boat, and the day you sell it?
We did both in the same week selling Free Enterprise and purchasing Valhalla, a Voyage 430 Norseman Catamaran. In our two year search we really decided we preferred South African Cats and even completed a 7 day live aboard ASA sailing course on a 38 ft Island Spirit. Valhalla was everything we ever wanted and more!
Buy us a beer 🙂
As pirates we love our drink and if you feel obliged to buy us glass or two we would be forever appreciate and in your debt 🙂