Looking back on the milestones, adventures, and misadventures of 2016: what a year it was! Jamie’s a database guy: thanks to him we have some serious metrics and some silly ones. We closed out with 3,057 days as cruisers, one of our biggest mileage years yet, and a host of unforgettable experiences.
Logbook stats
14 – countries/territories visited in 2016: South Africa; Namibia; British Overseas Territories of St Helena, Ascension, Montserrat, and Bermuda; Barbados; Dominica; overseas departments of France: Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Saint Martin; territories of the Netherlands, Saint Eustatius and Sint Maartin; USA
11,027 – miles in 2016 (9,582 NM)… a daysail less than our 2010 miles sailed.
50,244 – miles total (43,661 NM), yeah, we passed 50k!
266 – miles of best 24-hour run (231 NM), Ascension Island to Barbados
3,570 – miles of longest passage (3,102 NM), Ascension Island to Barbados completed in 17 days
Somewhere in the Atlantic. March or April
Misadventures
1 – number of kayaks lost at sea, between Bermuda and USA – big waves + broken stanchion = sad day!
1 – number of medical events, when a barefoot Siobhan stepped on a cactus on Ile Au Cabrit, Guadeloupe. Spines removed and patient remains a staunch barefooter!
8 – bells tolled for Totem’s beloved first hamster, Jiaozi, who joined us in Thailand and ended her watch in Martinique
Ghost town of Kolmanskopp, Namibia. February
Crew adventures
90 – kilograms of propane (198 lbs) for cooking…and some cabin heat, late in the year
13 – presentations given from Cape Cod to the Chesapeake
66 – fieldtrips! – epic hikes, rich museums, fascinating people, incredible experiences: a mid-Atlantic BBC relay station, Napoleon’s (first) tomb, JFKs birth home, sea turtles laying eggs at dawn, the White House’s West Wing, science lessons from The Global Dude for starfish, ghost towns in the desert, etc. Lucky humans we are.
1 – number of boats we watched sink for an artificial reef in Barbados
What a kid! Guadeloupe. May
Fauna
11 – cuteness rating (1 to 10 scale) of baby goats on cactus-laden Ile Au Cabrit that certain barefoot girls liked to chase.
0 – number of elusive f@&#ing whale sharks seen in St Helena, at yet ANOTHER place “everyone” sees them (that’s four hotspots now)
500ish – number of visitors on Totem in 2016. Total speculation, and probably low, between a couple of open boat parties and a general bias for socializing with our fellow humans
Legal capacity? Noank, Connecticut. August
Local conditions
55 – degrees Fahrenheit (12.8 C) of the Benguela Current along the edge of the Namib Desert made for amazing animal life: sea birds, whales, dolphins, sea lions, PENGUINS, and jellyfish
3.9 – depth in feet (1.2 meters), the least we’ve been ever (by far!), is the marina we’re now in – dock master said we may touch at low tide with Totem’s draft of 6.0 feet – he was right…
3.6 – number of feet (1.1 meters) by which we did NOT fit under bridges Totem was required to pass under, engendering creativity to squeeze beneath.
Rooftop drinks with Mike & Kim before the White House. November
This is about the numbers… but the year was really about people. The new friends, like Mike & Kim (above) who gave us indelible memories along the way. It was about the many reunions with familiar faces, and thanks to the internet, all the “old friends” we could meet for the first time.
Manhattan. September
The data on 2015– 365 days, 7,988 miles, 2 oceans, 1 boat–is posted here for giggles and judgment.
South Carolina. December