April 2002
Te family has now settled in to their new home town of Durham, New Hampshire. Ben spends the 6 months of winter on Mother of Perl in the Caribbean and 6 months (the summer) with the family in New Hampshire and working at the University of New Hampshire on a research vessel. Meanwhile, Mother of Perl is tied down against hurricanes in the dry storage (land) of Puerto Del Rey Marina, Puerto Rico.

This last sailing season, Ben single-hand Mother of Perl from St. Lucia up the islands to the British Virgin Islands and then over to Puerto Rico. (more ...)

September 2001
We have spent the summer in Durham, New Hampshire, USA. S/V Mother of Perl spent the time up on land in a secure boatyard in St. Lucia. (The summer is the storm/hurricane season in the Carribean.) (more ...)

March 2001
Gretchen, Thomas, and Kristen return to the United States with the plan replanting their roots in terra firma. Ben remains on Mother of Perl in Admiralty Bay, Bequia, West Indies with the intention of putting a crew together and sailing up to New England, USA. (more ...)

February 2001
S/V Mother of Perl is relaunched with new engine mounts, engine thrust plate and beautiful new paint on her hull. (more ...)

December 2000
Ben with a crew composed of Jerki, Hans, and Jerimy, arrive in St. Lucia after crossing the Atlantic in 22 days. The engine transmission is not working, and paint is missing from large patches of the hull, so Mother of Perl is hauled out for repairs. Gretchen, Thomas, and Kristen arrive from Tenerife, and we move into an apartment for Christmas and then onto the boat while she is still in the boatyard. (more ...)

November 2000
Gretchen, Thomas, and Kristen waved goodbye to Ben and his international crew goodbye from Las Palmas, Gran Canaria as S/V Mother of Perl heads across the Atlantic in the company of about 250 other boats in the ARC 2000. (more ...)

October 2000
Ben, with Jerki, Jerimy, and Tommi, leave from Falmouth, Wales, on S/V Mother of Perlheaded for the Canary Islands. Some broken rigging necessitates a detour to Portugal for one day of repairs. (more ...)

September 2000
Ben with Jerki, Thomas, Kristen, and Gretchen travel from Amsterdam, Netherlands to England by way of the canals. (more ...)

August 2000
Ben King joins Kristen, Thomas, Gretchen, and Ben Smith as they sail from Bornholm (a Danish Island in the Baltic), through Denmark, through the Kiel Canal, and up the Elb to Hamburg, Germany. (more ...)

July 2000
With Jerki as navigator, the family sails from Helsinki, Finland, through the Finish Archepelago, and to Sweden. Mother of Perl is joined by Alexandra and __________ as she sail along the coast of Sweden. (more ...)

June 2000
S/V Mother of Perl interior work is now completed. Most of the peeling paint has been sanded out and repainted. She is seaworthy and makes a few trips to Helsinki and back (from Tallinn). (more ...)

May 2000
Ben returns to Tallinn. The family remain in Tenerife until the end of the school year. (more ...)

November 1999
Ben takes two Estonian mariners as crew and motors Mother of Perl to Sweeden to get her rigged and sails her back to Tallinn for her first sail. (more ...)

August 1999
The family settles on Tenerife, Islas Canarias for the winter. Thomas and Kristen go to a British School (Trinity) in Los Realejos. Gretchen and Ben make friends with Canarian neighbor families. (more ...)

July 1999
Gretchen, Thomas, and Kristen join Ben in Tallinn, Estonia. We settle in to an apartment in the former Soviet housing project, Lasneme. We wait and watch while work progresses on the interior of Mother of Perl. We take a week to sail through Estonia on S/V Johanna Hendrika (Netherlands) and spend a week on the beautiful rustic island Saarema. (more ...)

May 1999
Both the hull of Mother of Perl and Ben arrive in Tallin, Estonia. (more ...)

January 1999
Gretchen and Ben visit Riga, Latvia to see the progress on Mother of Perl. We travel to Tallinn by bus to meet with the company we want to do the finish work. (more ...)

May 1998
Work begins on the construction of the hull in Riga, Latvia. (more ...)