St. Pete Gam

Join SSCA for the 4th Annual St. Pete Gam on Saturday, March 9th with a pre-gam meet and greet cookout on Friday, March 8th, both at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club.  Visit the St. Pete Gam page for more details.

SSCA Founding Member Passes Away

SSCA extends its condolences to the family of Association founding member Dee Carstarphen.  Dee passed away of cardiac arrest on January 3rd, a few days shy of her 93rd birthday.

She had been the wife of two SSCA founding members and at her death was the wife of Lifetime Commodore Stuart Hopkins.  During her sailing life, Dee cruised and voyaged on a variety of vessels.  She lived and voyaged aboard three for many years at a time:  Jack Slasor's 36-foot wooden ketch Southern Cross, Jack Carstarphen's 76-foot wooden Brixham trawler Maverick, and Stuart's 30-foot fiberglass ketch Sea Wind.

Between these periods, she cooked on charter vessels in the Caribbean, and for several summers, she was head cook aboard the Grand Banks fishing schooner Adventure, the 125-foot queen of the Main Coast dude schooners.

After 40 years afloat, she retired from the sea to a home she designed and helped build with Stuart on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay.  But, she kept her hand in making cruises up and down the Bay aboard the couple's 23-foot cat yawl Muskrat.

A self-taught artist, Dee wrote, illustrated and self-published four nautical books:  Maverick Sea Fare, Windjammer Cooking, The Conch Book and Narrow Waters.  All these titles went through multiple printings.

Dee will be missed greatly but her legacy will certainly live on through every SSCA member.

Island Gams:  St. Croix and Dominica

If you are going to be in the Caribbean in late February or early March, make sure you plan to attend the St. Croix Gam (February 24) and/or the Dominica Gam (February 25-March 3).  Visit the Island Gams page for more details.

My SSCA Story:  Cecilia & George Dahl

We have spent the last two years restoring our "new-to-us" 1986 Hans Christian 41T, Ring of Kerry.  It's an ongoing project (as they all are) but we were finally ready to make the big move aboard this past fall (September 2018).  While we have been preparing "The ROK" (as we affectionately refer to her) for our new lifestyle and adventure, we have kept our eyes and ears peeled for resources, contacts and any source of knowledge available to help us along the way.  We had the great fortune of bumping into an SSCA member in Portsmouth, NH this past summer.  He was on his way up to the Penobscot Bay Gam and we were on our way south to Boston.  (Sadly, we can't remember his name or the name of his beautiful catamaran).  We had never heard of SSCA but with his strong recommendation, we decided to join. 

At first, we weren't sure how it was going to work out.  We didn't have much time to research SSCA benefits or figure out how we would stay connected to the community.  When we started planning our trip down the ICW, one of our Facebook community contacts suggested we attend an SSCA Gam to learn more about it.  This was the second person who had suggested the gams to us, so we bit the bullet and decided to attend the Annapolis Gam in October 2018. 

Looking back on the Gam, we consider this one of the most valuable investments we have made in our new lifestyle.  We gained an immeasurable amount of knowledge and met some wonderful people.  The workshops were right on point for our needs.  Surprisingly, the experience went well beyond the workshops; it seemed as if every conversation resulted in an important take-away--a tip, a warning, an idea, insight, affirmation or encouragement--often regarding topics we would never have considered asking about ourselves.  The people of SSCA are welcoming and encouraging.  My husband described the group as "just the nicest people on earth" and that's truly how we felt.
 

Our SSCA story is just beginning.  We're finally headed south (slowly but surely) and enjoy staying connected with the folks we met in person, reading the updates in the forums and checking our new SSCA app to see who is nearby.  We are looking forward to next year's gam season and meeting more members.

If you are a member of SSCA, we would love to hear your story.  To share your own story of what SSCA has meant to you, send it to editor@ssca.org.  If you are not a member of SSCA, won't you consider joining us.

Trans-Atlantic Cruisers' Net Begins for Season

SSCA's Trans-Atlantic Cruisers' Net which began last spring resumed operation on Wednesday, October 24th and is continuing through the traditional crossing seasons for winter and spring. Learn More

New Website Demo Still Available On-Demand

SSCA launched a new website in August 2018 and shortly after the launch Home Base presented a webinar demo which is available on-demand.  Check it out to learn more about the site. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact Home Base.