Altared Course

19/02/2026

If you don't know Mark and Juno, you should! Mark W Altman does crazy things! Like, seriously crazy stuff and that's why we love him💗. Him and his lovely wife sold everything and moved onboard their 40ft Caliber sailboat after the pandemic. Mark and his son biked across Europe 🚴🚴‍♂️ years ago and now it's time for him and and his trusty sidekick Juno 🐕‍🦺 to hit the road and pound some pavement.

Head over to their page and follow along 👈. I know it will be anything but boring!

07/02/2026

19/01/2026

Marina/Boatyard update: Jubilee is on the dock in Washington North Carolina , just a day sail ⛵up the Pamlico River from the outer banks🏝️ . Heather and I decided to skip the typical sailing season this year which usually runs from November to June/July for us. We have a number of projects 🔨 on the boat and we are using this time to explore 👀 what the next couple of years could look like.

Whenever we have really dug into Jubilee to get some considerable work done, we have found it difficult to live aboard. It's alot like living in a house during a remodel, except this one is only 38 ft long and 13 ft at the widest. So we stumbled upon this 27ft Winnebago sitting in a barn 🛖 in Pineville NC. McCotters Marina and Boatyard allowed us to take up some space in one of their parking lots, and here we are. Easy access to Jubilee, a nice clean living space to come back to after boat work, and beautiful sunrises and sunsets🌅 . I can't imagine this season working out any better!

Henry has a new best friend in Jack 🐶 and they spend most days following us around or enticing any hooman to toss a ball ⚽ their way. We have become entranced by the slow moving charming town of Washington and it's surrounding communities. I truly feel like I'm missing something 🤔. Eastern North Carolina is sparsely populated, has a relatively inexpensive cost of living, but boasts stunning vistas of sleepy fishing towns and islands. Foggy marshes dot the landscape and time slows down to a crawl here. What a perfect place to rejuvenate Jubilee and catch our breath 😤before the next adventure.

18/12/2025

Happy birthday to this beautiful woman! ❤️❤️ I can't imagine what life would be like without you Heather Lowe. Definitely more boring 😁

06/12/2025

One of the first couples we met when we bought Jubilee was Kenny and TJ. They were onboard Blue Pearl, a 43' ft Bene in the slip across from us in Watson Bayou Panama City. The paper plant was smelly, the tidal current was considerable, but the people were grand. Marinas are more than a collection of boats. They are a crossroads of lives and stories.

Kenny Higgens was a 70 something year old marine whose eyes, ears, and lungs saw unimaginable things in Vietnam. He was loud, hard of hearing, and easy to p**s off. But he was also generous, full of great stories, and a great cook. Kenny was always down for an adventure, and he always wanted to cruise the Caribbean in his own boat. I'll never forget the time he jumped onto his davitz while we were installing solar panels, his legs dangling over the side of the dock as he seemed poised to do a pull up at the ripe age of 76. Or the time we rammed the dock in Blue Pearl doing 6 knots when the throttle cable jammed. Kenny and TJ would entertain for Italian night every week, and we would get to hear about their plans to visit parts of the Caribbean. He would talk fondly of his savior Jesus and the grace that he desperately needed.

Kenny never made it to Cartagena but I still remember Blue Pearl catching up to us off the coast of Cape San Blas under full sail as the sun dipped below the horizon. I think I'll remember him best that way.

17/10/2025

Looking out for sorrow,
slowing down for happiness,
making all the right turns
right down to the thumping barriers to the sea,
the swirling waves,
the narrow streets, the houses,
the past, the future,
the doorway that belongs
to you and me.

Going Home by Mary Oliver.

03/09/2025

Living on a boat = AWESOME
Living on a boat in a boatyard = SUCKS
Living in an RV while working on the boat = PERFECT

15/08/2025

Like every Jack Russell, Henry loves his routine. Follow along on a walk of beautiful Man-o-war Cay in the Abacos Islands of the Bahamas.

10/08/2025

This season was VERY different then the last few seasons we have had aboard Jubilee. Don't get me wrong! We waited for boat parts, fixed broken things🔧 , constantly altered our plans and had a blast the whole time. That stuff never changes. While there are some things we aren't ready to talk about, other things are just part of the life.

Our original plan for this season was to hop over to Spanish Wells, float down the coast of Eleuthera ⛵ , spend a few weeks in the Exumas and exit the Bahamas to the Southwest. The next stop was going to be Grand Cayman and then on towards Guatemala for the hurricane🌪️ season. That's the problem with plans like these... the Courses ...... they be Altaring 😋.

The crossing was perfectly uneventful. We did hook into a few fish🎣 , caught a Barracuda, and lost a Marlin.... Randall was shattered😭! Not long after making our way through current cut, we noticed our mast making a strange squeaky sound inside the boat. We had heard this sound the previous season on our way back to North Carolina, while beating upwind into a solid sea🌊 . We decided to make a detour into Hatchet Bay. We really could have done a whole video just about this beautiful unique anchorage, but we had some issues to fix. Entering the bay was a bit of a butt puckering moment😲 . The pics don't do it justice! The entrance features towering rocks over 40ft high and a narrow passage through the middle. They stand over you like the Gates of Argonath of Gondor 🧙🏼‍♂️. We've tried to enter this harbor before, in crazy weather but aborted at the last minute. This time we were going to POWER through! And, I'm glad we did. We found a peaceful anchorage with very few boats and friendly locals! If you pass through, go see Emmit at Farrington's Boat Haven, order a cheeseburger 🍔, and enjoy a tune 🎵or two.

After finding the squeaky mast culprit and tuning the rigging, we set sail ⛵but still needed parts. Plus, we had family flying✈️ into North Eleuthera the next week. So back up to Spanish Wells it is!