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Arriving in st. Vincent

7/31/2016

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After nearly 40 hours of delay from my original departure time, I left my house again and took an Uber to Logan. I had packed a carry on, a 45 liter backpacking camera bag I own that has room for some equipment, a laptop, tripod, and leaves plenty of space for other gear. I wanted to keep my electronics close to me. A small checked suitcase then took my clothes, the American Sailing Association textbooks, and the small amount of toiletries. After standing in a long line to drop the bag off, I breezed through security and grabbed some breakfast from Dunkin Donuts before swinging by a customer service desk to ask about a seat assignment on my second flight leg.

From that moment on, the rest of my day was a whirlwind. The customer service agent informed me my JFK flight from Boston was delayed (again) and I likely wouldn't make it out, or make my connection. She put me on a flight that was leaving immediately, and told me to flat out 'run' to the other side of the terminal to board, and that they likely wouldn't be able to get my checked bag in the short amount of time. In the moment, my thought was that new clothes were easier to find than yet another way down to Barbados. In New York I could not find a single CS rep to help me track my bag, so I gave up on the idea and boarded the Bridgetown, Barbados flight with a sinking feeling in my stomach. I wasn't sure how simple it would be to replace all my clothes before getting on the boat the following morning.

The 5 hour flight to BGI went quickly and smoothly, and upon disembarking the plane via stairs forward and aft, I made my way to a small Customs desk by the check in counter of the regional Grenadine airline that I'd take to St. Vincent itself. I sat in a small gate area with a half dozen other people before we were called to walk across the airport Tarmac to a comparatively tiny twin-prop plane that would make stops at three different islands before dropping me off at my intended destination. It wasn't until this point in my day that I was informed my suitcase had in fact made it to Barbados. The plane was thankfully drafty enough (I could see the sky through the seals of the emergency door/boarding stairs) to combat the 90 degree heat and humidity, and as the props started spinning we taxied to the end of the runway. Having no forward security door, it was interesting to watch the pilots command the cockpit as we took off, not something I usually get to do. Flying time was about 90 minutes between BGI and St. Vincent, and was my favorite part of the day. Our altitude never crossed 6,000 feet, and as we flew over incredibly hued waters, I watched islands reminiscent of Jurassic Park come jutting out of the ocean, covered in lush greeneries and boasting small communities and windy roads built over the mountainous terrain. The cabin noise of the plane measured in at a whopping 91 decibels, and I was thankful to have earplugs with me for the duration. As we flew into St. Vincent, the pilots aimed straight for a mountaintop, cutting right at the last second and diving to get us on the runway; it was quite the experience.

A short pre-arranged taxi ride was taken to the sailing campus with a woman named Phyllis. As we spoke she informed me she was the first female taxi driver on the island, and has been at it for 38 years. After fifteen minutes winding through curvy roads over steep hillsides adorned with brightly colored houses and innumerable people walking outside, Phyllis got me to the Barefoot home base, a small hotel, restaurant, sailing equipment store, and marina tucked into the southwest side of this volcanic island in a quiet harbor called the Blue Lagoon. I brought my bags up and checked out the balcony/porch where I met the three people I'm sailing with this week, Christina, Rory, who I assume is her husband, and Jose. I smiled, as some of you may also remember that on day 1 of my Appalachian Trail hike I walked alongside a guy named Rory; life can be funny like that. He and Christina went off for dinner, and I asked Jose if he would like to get a bite together.

We walked down to an oceanfront bar and talked for two hours over cold beers and cheeseburgers. He's a diplomat, ambassador to a notable European country, who is stationed at an embassy in Trinidad and also oversees the majority of local caribbean islands. He's sailed before but wanted to do something fun on his week's vacation. We talked for hours about work and travel and adventure, and I somewhat hesitantly told him my goals in sailing, which he took well. I'm not really interested in sounding like an idiot proclaiming my desire to cross the Atlantic. As the sun set over the lagoon we paid our tab, converted at a favorably fixed rate of $2.65 to $1 US (Burger, 3 beers, and a tip was $15.50 USD) and made our way back to the hotel. With our first written exam to be taken in the morning, Jose and I quizzed each other with questions from the ASA101 course sailing book for a while. Before heading to bed I pointed out to him the Milky Way which was dim but visible to the naked eye over our tiny island; I'm not sure he'd ever seen it with his own eyes before.

The room is small & comfortable, and I'll get a good amount of sleep tonight before we head out on the boat tomorrow. I'm very interested to see how much people know, what has driven them to be here, and whether they treat it strictly as a vacation or not. It was an interesting first day, but by the scenery and company I've already discovered, I think I can look forward to a great week ahead.
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Flying over Canouan Island
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Sunset view at dinner
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Starry skies over Blue Lagoon
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Travel Delays... Go Figure

7/29/2016

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I usually allow for 10% of my flights in any given year to have substantial delays, cancellations, etc. Out of 100,000+ miles of air travel annually, that gives me 8-10 flights to have severe issues with. Why it is that a two day cancellation had to surface during a personal trip, my first in who knows how many years, is something I'll never understand.

I spent Wednesday and Thursday packing, picking up a few things at West Marine, and studying for the American Sailing Association written exams that I'll be taking once I reach St. Vincent. After getting everything set yesterday, visiting the bank for cash and triple checking that I had packed all that was needed, I walked to my front door to await the arrival of a friend who would take me to Boston's Logan Airport. It was while I was standing at the door that JetBlue called to inform me that my BOS to JFK flight was cancelled due to weather, and that they had automatically rebooked me on a flight for Saturday, nearly 40 hours later. This did not sit well with me. 

Scrambling to find alternatives, seeing that my JFK flight to Barbados was still on time, I repacked my checked bag and carry on into one large carry on bag and headed out the door. As my friend drove to the airport I used my Delta iPhone app to book another flight, finalizing the purchase with air miles as we pulled up to the departures door. TSA PreCheck was closed, a huge surprise as I've never seen it closed at Logan before, so I begged and pleaded my way through the normal security line with 10 minutes to go before the boarding doors for my new flight to New York closed. Making it through security quickly thanks to the kind hearted other travelers who let me through, I rushed to the gate itself only to find out that that flight, too, was delayed due to weather. It took me only 43 minutes from flight cancellation phone call to walking back out of Logan after the valiant effort to get on another plane to New York. I never made the Barbados connection, which ironically didn't take off until well after midnight. Had I stayed at Logan and waited out the delayed Delta flight I would have made it to Barbados a few hours late, but would have missed my puddle jumper connection flight to St. Vincent.

After a few long phone calls to JetBlue this morning in an attempt to find other ways to Barbados, I'm taking a 0730 flight tomorrow which will get me to the island around 1500hrs. It cost $237 to book a one-way ticket on a different regional airline to get to St. Vincent, as the only flight remaining had one seat open, and leaves at 1600hrs tomorrow. I'll get to the marina where I had reserved a little oceanfront hotel room by dinner time, and in the end will hypothetically make it to where I need to be on time.

I'm frustrated over losing out on a few hundred dollars of non-refundable travel costs, but am most disappointed to have lost the two days of "me" time on an island I've never seen in a hemisphere and region of the world I've never been to before. Not that I'm a cocktail on the beach kind of guy but I had hoped for some relaxing sunset photo shoots with lazy palm trees and white sand, and especially some exploring on a lush green volcanic island. We'll see, maybe I'll find time to make it work.

That's all from me for now... I'll keep you updated once I actually reach my destination :)

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A ticket purchased, checked in, taken through TSA, canceled, and refunded in 21 minutes flat.
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Beginning The Next Adventure

7/26/2016

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My friends - 

It's been 15 months since I last posted, and exactly (to the day!) two years since I hiked the final miles of the Appalachian Trail. My time since hasn't been as exciting, and my biggest adventure since leaving the Trail has been purchasing my first house and finishing a complete remodel of it over the last few months. Hopefully the lack of stories and adventure is about to change in the next few weeks and months. 

As you may recall, I spent quite a bit of my A.T. hike thinking about what kind of challenge to undertake next,  what adventure would be a worthy followup to a 2,200 mile walk up the Eastern seaboard. I've got another long hike coming up this winter with my good friend Santa which you'll hear about, but beforehand will tackle something completely different. Late this week I'll be getting on an airplane and flying to Barbados to begin the first bit of hands-on research for my next planned long distance undertaking. It may seem crazy to have the desire to sail a boat across the Atlantic Ocean, and may seem even crazier to do it alone, but it's an idea that my dad brought up to me 3 years ago that hasn't left my mind. While I'm not sure of an exact timeline, with my main focus is aimed towards the safety of myself and the boat, rest assured that I'll be making sure that all the ducks are inline before leaving the literal and metaphorical harbor to undertake this kind of trip. The thought of such a journey sends chills down my spine in a way that I know I won't be able to look away from, and I think it's a phenomenal large scale follow-up to a cross country bicycling ride and Appalachian Trail thru-hike. 

From Barbados I'll be flying on a twin prop plane to the island of St. Vincent, in the Grenadine Islands off the northeast coast of South America. I've signed up for a week-long offshore sailing course with a company called Barefoot Offshore Sailing School, where I'll spend 6 days on a 50-ft sailboat traveling around the island chain. The course, combined with the textbooks I've been reading, will prepare me to take the American Sailing Association written and on-the-water exams for certifications in Basic Keelboat Sailing, Coastal Cruising, and Bareboat Cruising with 35-45' boats for multi-day sailing trips in moderate weather conditions.  This course is the first big step for me to figure out whether or not my heart is genuinely invested in an adventure like this, and will also yield me the proper documentation to continue to more advance sailing training.

As you may recall, I had toyed with the idea of creating a new blog and developing a new brand and format for my writing. Thinking more about it, I came to the realization that this website, this portal I have to the world, was still yielding a large amount of visitors - 30,000 unique visitors from around the globe in the last year, even without my writing anything new - meaning there's no good reason to abandon a web presence that has such a phenomenal audience to speak to. My intention, should you be interested in following along with another of my undertakings, will be to post about my day-to-day activities on the boat, as well as upload as many gorgeous photos of the Grenadine Islands as I can. This goal of mine to sail won't be as quick paced as the Appalachian Trail, and certainly won't have as many concurrent blog posts, but I hope will still be entertaining and something that will intrigue an audience to follow along. I spent the majority of last week revamping the site as a whole in an attempt to consolidate the information, clean it up, add details from my 2007 cross-country cycling adventure, and do my best to keep all the pertinent Appalachian Trail information readily accessible for those that access the site to research their own future trips. 

I hope you've all been doing well. I finished the book about my A.T. hike in  February, and at some point will be making the effort to find the right way to get it edited and published. As I've said before, the support that the group of family, friends, and relative strangers who  followed this blog gave me throughout my Appalachian adventure was one of the most driving forces behind my hiking, writing, and photography while on the Trail. I hope that we can continue that as I turn my sights towards bigger seas.

Onward & upward,

​Ryan McKee

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The first textbooks I've read since college thankfully have great pictures.
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    Hey there! I'm Ryan McKee, a free spirited adventurer, photographer, and digital media creator who calls North Carolina home. I travel incessantly, carry a camera with me everywhere, and am always dreaming of my next big trip.

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