Our Evolution…
Stacey and Dave alongside Stinkpot
Stacey and Dave are adventurers and nomads who live aboard their DeFever 44 Offshore Cruiser, m/y Stinkpot, cruising the waters of the eastern United States and Canada. They started their boating journey together as summer boaters on Sebago Lake in Maine in 2016, logging some 4,000 miles on the lake over three summers on a 1985 Carver 32 they called Appoggiatura. In November 2018, they purchased the first Stinkpot, a 38-foot Bayliner motor yacht, which they cruised on the ICW during the winter of 2018–2019, and ultimately took a year in 2019–2020 to navigate America’s Great Loop, completing it right after a second-place showing (in January) as finalists on the March 31, 2019 (airdate), Season 29: Episode 17, of America's Funniest Home Videos (really!) just as COVID-19 began to close the world down. They cruised the boat home to Maine, explored the rugged coast there that summer, and put her “on the hard” for the winter.
At some point early in 2021, during that difficult winter with everyone closed up in their houses trying to stem the tide of a virus that just didn’t want to quit, they made the decision to sell their home in Portland, Maine, move aboard the boat full-time, and cruise wherever the waterways would take them—which they did. In September 2021, with the ink still drying on the closing papers for the house, they cast off lines and headed south down the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and up the St. Johns River to Sanford, Florida, for their first winter as nomadic mariners. After that winter of 2021–22, they dropped lines and headed north, stopping for an extended stay in Hopewell, Virginia, which is when and where the very first post to this blog was made (and where they coincidentally would sell the Bayliner some three years later).
In June 2025, after about a year of searching and a lot of false starts, Dave and Stacey took delivery of a classic 1982 DeFever 44 Offshore Cruiser. Over the course of two June days, they signed the papers and wired the money for the DeFever, signed the papers and received the money from selling the Bayliner, packed a U-Haul with all their earthly possessions, and drove to Holland, Michigan, to ready the DeFever for the water. The old girl had been on the hard for two years and needed a lot of work just to be made ready for the water, but she splashed on August 5, 2025, and within a month was transporting Dave and Stacey south down the western rivers, signaling a new chapter in the Stinkpot saga.
Watch this space…
At some point early in 2021, during that difficult winter with everyone closed up in their houses trying to stem the tide of a virus that just didn’t want to quit, they made the decision to sell their home in Portland, Maine, move aboard the boat full-time, and cruise wherever the waterways would take them—which they did. In September 2021, with the ink still drying on the closing papers for the house, they cast off lines and headed south down the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and up the St. Johns River to Sanford, Florida, for their first winter as nomadic mariners. After that winter of 2021–22, they dropped lines and headed north, stopping for an extended stay in Hopewell, Virginia, which is when and where the very first post to this blog was made (and where they coincidentally would sell the Bayliner some three years later).
In June 2025, after about a year of searching and a lot of false starts, Dave and Stacey took delivery of a classic 1982 DeFever 44 Offshore Cruiser. Over the course of two June days, they signed the papers and wired the money for the DeFever, signed the papers and received the money from selling the Bayliner, packed a U-Haul with all their earthly possessions, and drove to Holland, Michigan, to ready the DeFever for the water. The old girl had been on the hard for two years and needed a lot of work just to be made ready for the water, but she splashed on August 5, 2025, and within a month was transporting Dave and Stacey south down the western rivers, signaling a new chapter in the Stinkpot saga.
Watch this space…
The Stinkpot Philosophy, from the "we couldn't have said it better ourselves" file…
“To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise you are dimmed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea... “cruising” it is called. Voyaging belongs to the seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.
'I’ve always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can’t afford it.' What these men can’t afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of 'security.' And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone.
What does a man really need - really need? A few pounds of food every day, heat, shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That’s all - in the material sense, and we know it.
But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade.
The years thunder by, the dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.
Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?”
-Sterling Hayden, Wanderer
'I’ve always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can’t afford it.' What these men can’t afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of 'security.' And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone.
What does a man really need - really need? A few pounds of food every day, heat, shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That’s all - in the material sense, and we know it.
But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade.
The years thunder by, the dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.
Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?”
-Sterling Hayden, Wanderer