Come Along on Our Wild Sailing Odyssey
⛵︎ Logbook 6/6/25: T-minus 9 days before setting sail on Chérie, another spicy sailboat project, and the most inspirational & radical sailing couple (not us)
Ahoy, my dear readers,
I’ve received some questions about whether I’ll keep publishing once I head out to sea on June 15. My answer: YES, ABSOLUTELY. But the era of endlessly fantasizing about moving into 100 square feet of living space on the water will be over. I’ll be living it full-time! I’ll continue telling stories about living a life of constant adventure, self-empowerment, deeply researched topics about inspiring nouns (people, places, & things), and complex analyses on life, culture, and more. And I’m taking Radical Paths to the next level.
Enter: The Logbook. I know many of you subscribed to this newsletter specifically for the upcoming tales about my floating family on our 31-foot sailboat Chérie as we sail around the world. So, starting today, I’m launching a weekly update right here on Radical Paths. The Logbook will be my weekly invitation to you all to join in on all the latest happenings during our wild odyssey at sea.
The Logbook will
include a mix of 2-3 items that I’m focused on that week. Some weeks, it’ll be about where we’ve been, where we’re heading, and what we’ve learned, and other weeks it’ll be filled with some new perspective or memory from sea, how we're conquering the latest challenges and setbacks, new or ongoing sailboat projects, an amazing galley recipe whilst living without a fridge, a forgotten film or song rediscovered on the water, and more. And, of course, lots of pictures, videos, and doodles.
Here’s how the Logbook will work:
Paying subscribers: In addition to ALL my regular articles, you’ll see a new Logbook each week.
Free subscribers: You’ll see occasional regular articles and a new Logbook every other week.
If you’re a Radical Paths subscriber of any type, I want to thank you dearly. You’re giving me the fuel to keep writing & sharing. Paying subscribers: I’m excited to give you way more details than I normally share, and let you in on ALL of the elements of this wild journey — good, bad, & indifferent. Your subscription will help my floating family reach our dreams, sustain our adventure, and keep sharing with you all for years to come.
Also, please note that I may receive a small commission if you buy books with the links in this newsletter.
NOW:
Here is this week’s Logbook:
Where we’re heading next: North!
Project of the week: outfitting Chérie’s galley so we want for nothing (at least food-wise)
Radical inspiration: thanks to the most famous cruising couple of all time, specifically for the galley tips
1. Where we’re heading next
I have a confession to make: I've never slept on a boat before. Not even a cruise ship. Kinda wild, huh?
There will be lots of first aboard Chérie.
In many ways, I don’t REALLY know what I’m getting myself into. I’ve never done a million things related to calling a sailboat my home. But that’s exactly why I’m doing it.
A new perspective on life, my fellow humans, and this glorious planet.
Getting to see & do things I never knew were even possible.
The spiritual, superhuman feeling of riding across large bodies of water powered by the wind.
I’m so intrigued by the prospect of being surprised with everything that happens next, good or bad.
T-minus 9 days until launch!
On June 15, unless Poseidon sends a tropical storm our way, or we need just 1 MORE DAY to get everything together and feel like we’re not scaling an impossible mountain, we’re heading out of New Bern and never coming back.
That means my first night sleeping aboard Chérie at anchor will be on Father’s Day, which will be extra nice snuggling up against our cat, Pineapple.
So, where’re we headed?
In the big picture, we’re heading north to the Chesapeake Bay Area, which is the huge body of salty water between the eastern coastline of Virginia and Maryland and the western coastline of Maryland’s dangly peninsula (see below).
At one point, we were planning to head straight to the Caribbean, but those dreams faded 2-dozen-unexpected-boat-projects ago. It’ll have been 10.5 months from the time we first bought Chérie sitting on stilts in the New Bern boatyard to when we’ll finally be waving good-bye to this small southern town forever. We thought we’d maybe leave here in November 2024, but then we had innumerable setbacks. And now we’re coming up on the 2025 hurricane season. So, the tropical islands must wait.
But no biggie! In this new era, we go with wherever Mother Nature tells us. We’re on no deadlines from bosses on high. We’re taking the pressure off ourselves to be somewhere based on an arbitrarily-selected timeline. Also, sailing in the Chesapeake Bay has its upsides. It’s supposed to be incredible sailing with all sorts of cool places to explore. There’s also a shop called Anchors & Oars that has used boat parts, and we already have a short list of items we’ll be scrounging for. Plus, it’ll be a great chance to “shake down” Chérie near civilization.* We’ll see which systems work and whether we’re indeed crazy for going without certain amenities — such as a fridge.
*The only downside, however, is we’ll need to carry expensive-yet-crappy health insurance while we’re sailing in the U.S. so we don’t go bankrupt on account of a broken arm, but the health insurance situation for vagabond sailors like us is a story for another day.
It’ll probably take a couple weeks to get up north — at least, the way we’re approaching it. The first step is to get the boat away from the docks in New Bern and start getting our sea legs in the local, brackish waters in the Neuse River, which is about 35 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. Here, we’ll start to explore some options. We’re still not sure about 100 things, including which way to get to the Chesapeake (there is also a non-ocean route via canals). The plan is to figure it out as we go along, take it one day at a time, and embrace the slowness and the unknowns.
Now that we almost have the sailboat ready to sail, we’re ready to savor this life. I never want to be in a hurry ever again.
2. Project of the week
Considering we’re less than 2 weeks away from moving aboard Chérie, the to-do list is still more like a scroll. But thankfully the big, complex, head-scratching, indefinite projects are all DONE. This week, my husband replaced the old deck-fill and hose that connects to the freshwater tanks because they were corroded and moldy — just like everything else on this boat, not too long ago. But one step at a time, we’ve almost made ourselves a cozy lil home on Chérie.
If you don’t already know, my husband, who is also named Corey (but with an e), is the captain of this ship.
However, I (Cory) am the galley guy.
So, my big project this week was outfitting the galley (AKA boat kitchen) in a way that will help me cook A+ meals as much as possible and never make us feel like we’re going without.
As I’ve mentioned previously, we will not have a working fridge on Chérie, at least to start. People have mixed views on marine fridges, but basically everyone agrees they’re a big pain. They’re constantly breaking, and they require enormous amounts of electricity. But we won’t have an ice box, either. Having an icebox isn’t as easy as it sounds, because it requires hauling ice from shore to the boat via dinghy. But, believe it or not, there are countless folks who love their cruising lives without either. And we’re going to try to be one of them!
The way we’re thinking about this next chapter, is that we’ll only build complexity if we need it.
So, this week, I figured out how this might all work. I bought a nice new pot (for lots of small one-pot recipes), plastic air-tight containers to store foods, and stackable bins to make use of the enormous unrefrigerated-fridge space.
I’m putting together a provisions spreadsheet that I’ll share in future newsletters, which is filled with recipes and tips for working with non-perishables as well as perishables with strikingly long shelf lives. There are quite good resources online from sailors who were in a “similar boat” as us, where they had a fridge but it broke down and they had to make do. Thankfully, other sailors have passed down their knowledge to the rising generations of cruisers so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. I’ve studied some legit resources, like The Boat Galley Cookbook and, my favorite, The Care and Feeding of the Sailing Crew. And I’ve started to do my own experimentation.
We’re all familiar with the extended shelf life of canned goods — including canned meat (tuna & chicken), beans, fruits, and veggies — but here are some other examples you may not be familiar with that supposedly* keep well at room temp:
Fresh apples, citrus fruits, watermelons, cabbage, squash, potatoes, and onions can last a month or more.
Fresh bell peppers, mangoes, carrots, tomatoes, zucchini, Brussel sprouts, leeks, turnips, and cantaloupes can last about 2 weeks (sometimes with extra-special care).
Eggs — even previously refrigerated ones — can be stored for 30 days or longer if flipped 3-times per week (I’ve already started testing this and so far my previously-refrigerated eggs have lasted 21 days)
Rice, pasta, oats, flour, yeast packages for bread-making, dried fruits and nuts can last as long as they take to eat (also, sometimes requiring special care to keep our moisture and prevent weevils).
*I’m still in the beginning stages of having fun testing all this. Actual mileage seems to vary depending on who is offering the advice, so I’ll need to figure it out in my own hands. Good thing I’ve got a PhD in experimental science research! I may be uniquely ready for the challenge! So, like a good scientist, I’ll be doing the research, taking thorough notes, and will report back to you all.
In short, I’m not concerned about the lack of cold-generating power on our boat at the moment. In fact, I’m freaking excited. This is merely another example of being new at something. I’m getting to see & do things I never knew were even possible! If we need to pivot later, of course we will. We won’t be miserable in the pursuit of any dogma. But right now, I’m thrilled by the prospect of being surprised with what happens next, good or bad.
But, for me, the spicier the better!
3. Radical inspiration
Last up: I want to give a shoutout to the two people who have inspired Corey and I perhaps the most on our cruising journey so far: Lin and Larry Pardey.
Lin and Larry started cruising together in the late 1960s and completed two circumnavigations over 40 years on sailboats smaller than Chérie — with no engine. Lin is still sailing, but unfortunately Larry passed away at 80 after suffering a stroke and Parkinson’s.
Everyone who is cruising on sailboats like us knows about Lin and Larry. Not only were they an incredible team, and a cool example of what two people can do together, but they have done an enormous public service by publishing their wisdom in multiple books and countless interviews. They’ve told aspiring cruisers, “Go simple, go small, go now.” Also, when Lin and Larry needed more money, they found whatever work they could to keep funding their adventures for years and years. We’ve read most of their books and taken lots of notes.
The book I already mentioned above, The Care and Feeding of the Sailing Crew, is my fave because it gave me the confidence as the galley guy that we could thrive happily on Chérie — even with no fridge. I’ll leave you with an example from the book about their sort of relationship and attitude toward life, including what some people might consider “setbacks.” This is from Lin about finding weevils in their flour:
“If you do get weevils, a flour sifter will get rid of most of the ones you can see. If you miss one or two, they will die when you bake your bread. At this point, I can hear Larry joking, “Who cares about a few weevils? They just add a bit of protein to your diet!”
-The Care and Feeding of the Sailing Crew by Lin and Larry Pardey
Until next time,
—Cory Vinny
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Cory, I don’t recall seeing where you talk about the builder of your boat, and it’s vital statistics. Would you tell us about it, or refer us to a post where you do?
Safe travels! BTW, where/how do you go to the bathroom on a small boat like that? And I’d pack a fishing pole in case you run out of food in the middle of the ocean