Read
more about us
--More about
the Grafs
--How the Larabeck
got its name
--land-locked
friends
Sailing to
the South Pacific is a big adventure and we spent years planning for
it.
Read an in-depth
interview of Michael and Sharon about how our dream became a
reality.
We
left Florida in early May, 2010, sailing to the Panama Canal, the
Galapagos
Islands, and our longest trek--3000 miles--to the Marquesas Islands! We
have meandered through French Polynesia, Niue, the Cook Islands, Tonga,
and the eastern shore of the north island New Zealand. We toured NZ's
south
island by car with friends, then stayed in Auckland where Sharon
researched
south pacific music and culture at the University of Auckland. In
late April, we returned to Tonga, spending the summer exploring it and
the islands of Fiji.
Sharon returned to Springfield
in August to resume
teaching. Michael
sailed with a crew member from Fiji to Vanuatu.
From there, he and two crew sailed to Ile
Huon and Chesterfield
Reef in northern New
Caledonia. They arrived in Bundaberg,
Australia
in mid-November where Michael prepared
the boat for sale--an Australian buyer now sails it. Michael
flew from Bundaberg to Chicago, arriving in Springfield December 16.
This has been the adventure of a lifetime!
2020 has arrived and S/VLarabeck
sailed smoothly into the new decade. We’re talking about our 1985 Passport 47
center-cockpit, cutter-rigged sloop, which took the place of the Bavaria 42 we
sold in Australia after completing our 2010-11 Cross-Pacific journey. Alas, we
could not stay “boat-less” for long, so in August 2012 we purchased the
“Aquamanda” and rechristened it “Larabeck.” This boat had
been dry-docked for several years in
Deltaville, Virginia, and was just waiting for someone to come to its rescue.
So we took it home and brought it back
to life.