Who: Larry and April
Where: Great Loop, États-Unis
Multihull: Aquila 44
Facebook: The One Eye Dog
They left everything to live aboard their Aquila 44, a decision April is thankful for every day! “Larry and I sail together, not to mention our one-eyed mascot, Abby, a five-pound Maltese. We both retired and started sailing in 2016 on a 52’ Hatteras, doing the Great Loop. We saw the Aquila for the first time in May 2017 in Charleston, South Carolina, and literally fell in love with the boat. As our Great Loop was coming to an end, we decided to put the ranch we owned in a small Californian gold rush town up for sale to become fulltime sailors on the Aquila. We then ordered our boat and went to China to test it at sea. After selling our ranch as well as 90% of our belongings, we moved aboard full time within six months. Since June 29, 2018, we have logged over 20,000 nautical miles on our Aquila. We are the first Aquila 44 to have completed the Great Loop. For us it was the second time, so we became the 96th Platinum Loopers! We have also sailed in the Bahamas and on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. We’ve just finished our second year of cruising on the Chesapeake. Aquila has been teasing us, because we have clocked almost 2,000 engine hours, which is twice as much as the average. One Eye Dog has been modified so that the starboard cabin is now a storage room and not a cabin. We wanted storage, not guests. We also completely changed the interior and exterior designs and added a lovely awning on the aft deck that we call the pup’s hut, and also installed beautiful custom teak tables. We love life on board and our nomadic lifestyle and have made some amazing friends from all over the world. We’re now residents of Florida and spend winter break at our daughter’s house in Palm Harbor, FL. This gives us time to upgrade the boat and make doctor, dentist and veterinarian appointments before we leave again in mid-January. This year we will be returning to the Keys, the Bahamas and then it is a big question mark due to Covid. We have cruise plans from A to F and we can’t guess which one will happen. Maybe to Canada and around Nova Scotia, maybe just to Maine, or back to the inland rivers...”
