Azores Arrival! Docking Drama, Painted Traditions & Marriage Tension | GTFOplan Ep 120

IN THIS VIDEO: We finally made it to Horta in the Azores! 🌋⛵️ Captain Ann checks into a new country solo—and nerves are high thanks to her questionable sense of direction. 😅 Docking against a cement wall? Cue the ominous music. But thanks to teamwork (and Karl’s epic leap onto another boat—👏👏), we dock without damage. Even Schatzi is belly-up relaxed to finally be on a still boat! We raise the Portuguese and Azores flags after taking down the yellow Q, then head straight to the FAB (First Available Bar), aka the legendary Peter’s Café Sport. Dennis explains the tradition, we find Rob’s SV Ventana sticker, and proudly place our GoTFO⛵️ one nearby. Robin adds another for good measure! Big shoutout to Karl for discovering the coolest volcanic beach—we all explore, laugh, and Ann even knocks on a random door… only to be greeted by Karl like a local landlord. 😂 We find Rob’s painting, add our sticker, and paint our own (with Schatzi’s paw print, of course 🐾🤞). Karl hilariously uses a paint roller on his shirt to hide a stain—unfortunately, not even close to the same shade of white. 🤣 We spot a cigarette vending machine that blows Dennis’s mind, and we’re thrilled to find Kimmy and Phil’s painting for SV Cielo. Miss you guys❣️ We hit the town market, line shelves, try to fix leaks, and Karl and Robin pack sandbags to thwart orca attacks (just in case). But leaving the dock? Not so smooth. A missing cleat on our Balance catamaran means our fender slips out—not once but twice—bumping hard against the cement wall. 😬 Poor communication between Dennis and Ann strikes again. Sailing the world together… can their marriage stay afloat? CURRENT LOCATION: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SV-GTFO/ CREDITS: Hitman by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Echoes of Time v2 by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ @petercafesport #petercafesport ABOUT OUR CATAMARAN: We love our new Balance 482 - it's a perfect size for a cruising couple to handle and is a great "balance" of performance and comfort. One of our favorite features is the excellent ventilation since we mostly live as "hookers" (aka at anchor) where the boat automatically turns into the wind so we stay cool and we don't need to battle mold. We also have starlink for easy off-grid life. Our 2400 watt solar panel array also means we rarely need to run an engine to charge our batteries. ABOUT US: We saved for a our future boat, sold everything that we owned, and shipped the rest in a container to Cape Town, South Africa. We then flew there and explored South Africa by way of a safari and touring Cape Town before moving aboard our boat. We then sailed to Saint Helena, Ascension Island, Fernando de Naronha (Brazil), Martinique, Sint Maarten (Dutch and French side), the US Virgin Islands (Saint Croix, Saint John, and Saint Thomas), the British Virgin Islands (Anegada, Norman Island, Jost van Dyke, and Anegada), The Bahamas (Inagua, Crooked Island, Long Island, George Town, Staniel Cay, the Exumas, and Eleuthera). We then sailed back to the United States, making landfall in Cape Canaveral, Florida. From there our destinations are endless! Both Dennis and Ann grew up military brats with Army fathers. Dennis (the Colonel) served 30 years in the US Army and his retirement pension helped us retire in our 50s. Ann (the ship's Captain) wrote Test Automation in Python and Java. Dennis and Ann met on Match.com where Ann had in her profile "Do you want to sail the world with me?" Ann easily brought Dennis into sailing, and he loved the GTFOplan of retiring early and sailing the world. After many years of saving, living on one income but earning two, and cutting back on everything possible, they saved enough to buy a Balance 482. Follow them as they get real about boat life and all the hassles of buying a new boat because we all know N.E.W. means Not Everything Works. Kisses, Ann & Dennis Twitter: @GTFOplan Facebook: https://facebook.com/anndennis.snellikin.3 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gtfoplan/ YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/gtfoplan Email: gtfoplan@gmail.com