FLORENCE: Couple set sail down the coast

Township natives are sailing down the eastern seaboard in their floating home.

by Jen Samuel, Special Writer
FLORENCE — Township natives are sailing down the eastern seaboard in their floating home.
   The nautical couple, Lou Gallagher Jr. and Astra Gallagher, has lived on Evelyn, a Tahiti Ketch named Evelyn, for a little over two years.
   Of the journey, he said, “We didn’t do this to do publicity . . . We’re in our late twenties, it’s a bit of a risk to sort of drop out (of our careers) and do something like this.”
   Yet, Mr. Gallagher said, the process has been rewarding, noting “I’ve been sending uber amounts of time with my life.”
   He continued that all the financial risks of taking this journey to sail down the East Coast have been really worth it.
   ”Sometimes what doesn’t make sense in terms our your career makes the most sense for a high quality of life,” Mr. Gallagher said, adding he enjoyed experiencing self-sufficiency.
   ”Our boat is our home and a form of transportation,” he said. The ship has no TV so the couple reads a lot.
   They do have smart phones and a computer, but the refreshing aspect of journey focuses on ore important things, the simpler aspects of life, he said.
   Mr. Gallagher captains a sailboat in Maine during the summer, where the husband and wife pair, both 28, has resided for the past four-and-a-half years.
   They began their journey down the eastern seaboard from Maine on Sept. 29 en route to a barrier island of Georgia.
   ”We just crossed into Georgia,” said Lou Gallagher Jr. on Dec. 19. “We’re on the boat now making our way down the coast.”
   Mr. Gallagher said it was straight shot on their ship to Plymouth from Gloucester, Massachusetts, for one the first legs of the trip. The couple later came to port at Martha’s Vineyard and Mystic Seaport for several days prior.
   They went on to sail through the Long Island Sound to get to New York City in October.
   By the end of October, Mr. Gallagher and his wife, 2003 graduates of Holy Cross and Florence Township Memorial High School respectively, cast anchor in New Jersey.
   On Oct. 27 they touched down at port in Edge Water Park at the Red Dragon Canoe Club, one of the oldest boat clubs in America.
   The park is where the couple first met and fell in love while high school seniors working as counselors at the now closed Delaware River Sailing School.
   During this time Doane Academy fourth graders and seniors from Burlington City visited the 43-feet ship for educational tours.
   ”It was really a neat experience,” Mr. Gallagher said, noting that Headmaster John McGee “is a really amazing fellow” who was interested in having his students meet the couple and see a different ways to live life.
   ”We showed them all about the boat and the lifestyle. It was really a great experience both ways,” he said.
   The pair also spoke at a rotary club in Burlington City.
   ”We love Florence, it is where all of our family is from,” Mr. Gallagher said. “It’s where we learned how to sail,” noting the town’s Delaware riverfront property.
   The couple spent five days in Florence.
   After sailing out Edge Water Park on Nov. 2 the nautical couple traveled down the Delaware River to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal to reach the Chesapeake Bay.
   The couple continues to stop along explore towns as the pair sails down the East Coast.
   ”We might end up going to the Keys,” Mr. Gallagher said. “We don’t’ really have an agenda, we are just taking it as it comes.”
   Mr. Gallagher’s father, Lou Gallagher Sr., who served in the Navy from 1979 to 1990, is a lifelong Florence resident. His wife Karen Gallagher sailed with her son and daughter-in-law for a couple of days in November to experience what it was like to live on the Evelyn.
   Like her husband’s family, Ms. Gallagher’s parents, Bill and Suze Haldeman, are longtime Florence residents. Additionally, Mr. Haldenman, joined the couple for a few days of sailing last month.
   ”Astra comes from a big sailing family,” said Lou Gallagher Sr.
   ”Now she helps him sail,” the senior Gallagher added. “They bought their own sailboat, which they live in.” He said his son’s wife is managing the social media end of the trip.
   She captures moments along the sailing adventure and shares them on Facebook and Instagram under The Ship’s Blog.
   Her Instagram blog’s motto is: “Home Is Where the Boat Is.”
   Mr. Gallagher is a graduate Rutgers University. Ms. Gallagher studied at Washington College, Chestertown, Maryland.
   ”We went up the Chester River,” Mr. Gallagher recalled, noting his wife was able to meet with former professors and friends. The stop occurred during the annual Sultana Projects’ Downrigging Weekend, which is one of the largest annual Tall Ship and wooden boat festivals on the East Coast.
   The Evelyn is composed of different woods, with its haul composed of cedar planking, its frames composed of oak, and boasts a cabin made of mahogany. Its spars, including the ship’s mass, are composed of spruce.
   Its sails are made out of a synthetic material called Dacron, and are gaff ridge, meaning the ship has a four-side main sail, used in traditional maritime adventures along the East Coast.
   The Gallagher pair is now sailing to Cumberland Island soon, where they will visit the site where the late John F. Kennedy Jr. married Carolyn Jeanne Bessette in 1996.
   Mr. Gallagher noted that Cumberland Island features national park service land and is a great place to explore.
   Today they continue on their journey, having traveled mostly inter-coastal between Norfolk, Virginia, and Georgia, he said.
   ”We do see a lot of animals,” Mr. Gallagher added, including numerous bottlenose dolphins. “They are very curious.”
   In New England the pair saw Minke whales.
   Their journey will cover easily 1,000 miles, Mr. Gallagher said, when it is all said and done.
   As the New Year approaches the adventure continues for these two Florence lovebirds sailing southbound along the eastern seaboard.
   To follow the Gallagher sailing journey, visit www.facebook.com/theshipsblog as well as http://instagram.com/theshipsblog and www.homeiswheretheboatis.com