Celebrating 4 years of cruising aboard S/V BeBe

Recently someone asked us how many countries we have visited and how many miles we have sailed so far. Neither Bill nor I knew for certain. He guessed around 18,000 and I guessed just over 20,000 NM. We each guessed that we had visited a couple dozen countries. Turns out that neither of us was quite correct on either subject.

On 1 May 2010 we celebrated our 4th anniversary of living aboard S/V BeBe and cruising full-time. We are both still enjoying this somewhat different and quirky life and are not ready to contemplate becoming landlubbers again just yet. Being fortunate enough to make a month trip home to Houston each year to visit has helped with the usual cruiser dilemma of missing family and friends. And having family and friends visit us on the boat in exotic locations is always a treat for us. Having both the older grandchildren visit us this summer in SE Asia will be extra special. They are old enough to remember whatever we do on this trip and this will provide them with lifelong memories.

Today I added up the miles logged in our Yacht Log book. I keep a manual record of each time we move the boat, whether it is just around a point to a new anchorage or an ocean crossing. Logs are recorded by date, indicating place, latitude and longitude, sea and wind conditions, weather and temperature, whether used sails or engine or both, and remarks about the location/trip, along with total miles traveled each day.

In the past 4 years we have visited 35 countries, some more than once.
Miles sailed:

2006 --- 1848.65 (8 months) Eastern Caribbean; USVI to Trinidad to Bonaire & return USVI
2007 --- 2447.74 Eastern Caribbean; ABCs; Cartagena; San Blas; Panama
2008 --- 8593.60 Panama; Galapagos; South Pacific to Tonga to New Zealand
2009 --- 6282.61 New Zealand; Vanuatu; New Caledonia; Australia; Indonesia; Singapore;
Malaysia.

Total sailed to date: 19,172.9 nautical miles

And we are only just past half-way around!