About Us

November 8, 2023

Andy & HeeJung Wescoat reporting from 29N/65W…Greetings!  Our excitement for joining the World ARC Rally grows with every mile/minute as we head southwest from the Chesapeake Bay to the Caribbean.  We plan to spend time in Antigua celebrating our re-launch after a summer of boat and life prep and, of course, doing more boat prep…then sail onward to Rodney Bay to celebrate the New Year. We look forward to meeting everyone.  After lots of planning and preparing, our dream feels…real!

We met in college in 1984 and a common interest was to sail around the world.  While we have sailed together ever since…the path to fulfilling that dream wasn’t clear.  Until now, we spent most of our sailing time racing.  In the last ten years, we enjoyed ocean racing on our J/109 “Harm’s Way” along all three US coasts.

Idle hands surfing the Internet during COVID led us to the World ARC website and we swallowed the hook immediately.  We found our Farr 50 Pilothouse in May 2021, and named her “Kaja,” casual Korean for “Let’s Go”.  To gain some good offshore experience on Kaja, we did lots of boat prep and competed in the Annapolis to Bermuda Race in June 2022 with a crew of six. 

Andy retired after 35 years with ExxonMobil in January 2023 and we set-off for a proper double-handed shakedown by sailing a four-month loop from the Chesapeake Bay to Florida then eastward along the thorny path as far as Guadeloupe turning north to Bermuda from Antigua and then with crew back to the Chesapeake.  A great experience getting a taste of Caribbean cruising – learning what we liked, what we didn’t like, breaking and fixing a few things and bonding through thick and thin – and mostly enjoying ourselves immensely.  We look forward to the camaraderie ahead. 

Although we moved from Texas to Florida in July (life prep), our “sailing home” has been Annapolis, Maryland, for several years.  We have been fortunate to live (ex-pats in UK/Singapore) and travel overseas extensively and the many new destinations on the ARC Rally path also adds to our anticipation.

While we will mostly double-hand, we have friends joining us for various legs and hope that our two “boys” and other family members will meet us along the way. 

Wishing you safe passage and fair winds!