About Duet

Duet is a 1987 50 ft. Gulfstar/CSY sloop that my wife, Kryss, and I purchased in the fall of 2012. We are her third owners. Her second owner, now our good friend, John Strater, cruised her in the Bahamas and along the East Coast. She underwent an extensive refit and equipment upgrade in East Boothbay, Maine during the winter, spring and early summer of 2013 under the expert hand of master mariner and shipwright, Paul Parks. We began sailing her south on July 23, 2013 and arrived at her then hailing port in Boca Raton on December 11, 2013. Since then we have cruised her in local Florida waters as far as the Dry Tortugas, in a good portion of the Bahamas, from home (now Punta Gorda, Florida) to the Virgin Islands, the Leeward and Windward Caribbean Islands, and then to Curacao, Bonaire and Panama, back to Punta Gorda, and then to Isla Mujeres and Belize. These posts run from our most recent passages to our earliest and we will continue to post excerpts from our daily log and pictures to this website as we sail. We welcome e-mails from our friends and those who just happen to stumble upon our website and may want to become our friends.

The Wedding

Posted by Andy on Friday, September 6, 2013 - 07:45

Sept. 1 - get an early start from Duck Island for Port Jefferson. Prediction is for South winds 5 to 10 knots, but they are West Southwest all the way to Port Jeff (on our nose more or less) until just before we enter Port Jeff and then they pick up and move South a bit. Did 34 nm in about 6.5 hrs. with main and iron jenny. Not bad, not good, but at least the seas were down so that helped. Took a mooring and Kryss and Sam went into town to shop, do chores (laundry) etc. Wayne and Gail (… Read the Full Log Entry

Tag(s):
Down the East River to Great Kills, Staten Island

Next installment

Posted by Andy on Saturday, August 31, 2013 - 14:20

Aug. 27 - Hung out in Block Island. Rained all morning, but sun came out in the afternoon. Bought distilled water and topped off Trogan 6V batteries and had lunch at Deadeye Dick’s. Nice lunch and reasonable. Found we could drain dinghy by letting aft section down and having gravity do it’s thing.

Aug. 28 - Left Block early for Montauk expecting lots of fog based on the weather reports but was pleasantly surprised. Visibility was at least 1 mile the whole way and the fog lifted when… Read the Full Log Entry

Tag(s):
Block Island, RI, Three Mile Hbr., NY, Duck Island

First post-launch post

Posted by Andy on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - 12:01

Aug. 23 - Well, we’re finally on our way (Andy, Kryss, and Paul Parks, our friend who did our refit). Left Ocean Point Marina in East Boothbay, Maine at 10:00 a.m. after fueling. Light winds out of the North and sunshine. Motored to mouth of Damariscotta River and put up main for first time. Winds continue to be light and we motor sail on our way to the Cape Cod Canal. Shortly after starting out we are overrun by flies, hundreds and hundreds of them, everywhere inside and outside the boat.… Read the Full Log Entry

Tag(s):
East Booth Bay Maine to Block Island Rhode Island

New Launch Date

Posted by Andy on Friday, July 12, 2013 - 12:11
Duet transom

Well, I guess it was to be expected.  With a wet cold winter, Duet's refit has taken longer than projected.  We are now scheduled to launch on or about July 22  and commence cruising after final work and a shakedown around August 1.  That means of course that we may not be able to visit with as many of our friends as we had hoped to on the way from Maine to Long Island, but c'est la vie.  We will be in Port Jefferson, New York on August 29 to pick up our older daughter Susan, her husband Rob… Read the Full Log Entry

Tag(s):
New Launch Date, Summer Schedule