Sunday Summary #111 - 2023 Recap

Sunday Summary #111 - 2023 Recap

December 31, 2023

Sunday Summary #111

2023 Year End Recap

Hi there,

Welcome to Scho & Jo’s 111th Sunday Summary. This edition of the Sunday Summary was written from Jen’s parent’s house in northeast Florida.

Last Week.

Our last Sunday Summary was written just before our final trip of the year where we flew to Denver to see Elliot’s sister. It was our first time seeing her since moving there. Our trip overlapped with Elliot’s dads’s trip to Denver, so it was a family centered few days. We spent a week hiking, exploring Downtown Denver, and seeing her new apartment. It was such a nice treat to spend quality time with them.

Following our Denver trip, we headed to LA for a two-part trip. Part one was spent with fellow YouTube content creators who have all become friends over this past year. Last December, we started routine monthly calls with Nate and Alicia from The Passport Couple, Adam and Kathryn from Adventures of A+k, and Chad and Claire from Chad and Claire.

We would talk about everything from mental health to entrepreneurship and YouTube. It made what is typically a very lonely space in content creation entrepreneurship, feel not as lonely. We collectively called our time together our YouTube Mastermind Retreat and it really was just that… a retreat. Our time was spent doing very little work, eating delicious food, completing puzzles, playing games while enjoying a fire, having horseshoe tournaments, going for runs, walks, and meandering through the neighborhood drinking hot chocolate and admiring the holiday lights. We left that trip with some of the deepest friendships, feeling so grateful to have such quality time with everyone.

The second part to our LA trip was visiting Jen’s sister and family. We were able to meet our one year old nephew for the first time and spend time with our three year old niece. We enjoyed going for walks around the neighborhood, decorating their Christmas tree, lighting their menorah, playing with cars, visiting a local farm, and laying in the grass to watch the clouds in the sky. It was so fun to see their daily lives and to be the fun Aunt and Uncle.

The last part of December was spent with family in Florida enjoying the holidays from singing Christmas carols while Jen’s grandmother played the piano, to doing holiday puzzels, playing games, and eating delicious food.

❝

To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.

Bill Bryson

 This Week. 

We’ve been enjoying time with more family who are visiting from New York before resuming work for the new year. We’re going to celebrate the new year being fun Aunt Jen and Uncle Elliot. Once the new year begins, we’ll be finalizing two new products (a course and another e-book) and revamping our video release schedule to 3 videos a week!

 Videos. 

In case you missed it, here are all the vlogs we’ve released since our last Sunday Summary:

 Blogs. 

There are many different types of boats that go around the Great Loop and various considerations that make a good Great Loop boat. We compiled our personal experience with what we saw during our time on the great loop in this blog post:

Everything you need to know about Great Loop boats | Scho & Jo

Boats are a series of compromises, and Great Loop boats are no exception. Read below to learn everything you need to know about Great Loop boats, including the minimum requirements, the top current boats, how to determine the best one for you and more!

schoandjo.com/great-loop-boats

 2023 Recap and Stats. 

2023 has been a year to remember. Here are some of the highlights:

  • January - we rang in the new year with two buddy boats on the Florida Panhandle, completed our Gulf Crossing doing the Big Bend Route, and had a truly memorable experience, which made it one of our favorite parts of our Great Loop. We enjoyed having Elliot’s mom, Connie, aboard for Elliot’s birthday weekend. Lastly, we gave a presentation on Anchoring and Loving It at the AGLCA Winter Rendezvous. 

  • February - we crossed our wake and completed our Great Loop in Stuart, Florida. Following that, we celebrated with our friends from Adventures of A+K in the Florida Keys for a week full of fun boat life, including swimming with sea turtles, snorkeling, paddle boarding, and enjoying their company.

  • March - Doing the loop and documenting it with daily vlogs was exhausting, and we were feeling burnt out. March began our great loop decompression. This started with routines of heads-down computer work and exercise, which were carried out throughout the rest of the year. We also had Jen’s best friend Molly and Elliot’s dad visit us during the month, which was so nice to share with them a piece of our daily life on the water in the Keys.

  • April - The habits and routines from March carried into April as we enjoyed our simple life in the Keys. We had Jen’s sister Katie and Jen’s good friend Jeff visit us, which was a nice reprieve from work.

  • May - After spending 2.5 months in Islamorada, we made our way north on our final voyage aboard Pivot to the St. John’s River, where we first bought her in January 2021. During the trip we made stops to see family. Our final voyage concluded with Blue Springs State Park, which abruptly ended due to some family emergencies. Elliot captained PIVOT back to a boatyard in a full solo cruise. Looking back, it’s wild to think about how far we’ve grown and learned in two and a half years on a boat.

  • June - We moved in with Jen’s parents so we could begin a few months of grueling boat work in the hot summer Florida heat. Elliot also ran his first marathon!

  • July - Together with our friends, Adam and Kathryn, we biked 500 miles across the state of Iowa in an event called RAGBRAI and had easily one of the most memorable weeks of the year. Although We enjoyed the physical challenge (some days more than others), our time with friends, and our time with Elliot’s mom as our SAG (support and gear) who encouraged and supported us the entire distance.

  • August - One of our first friendships during boat life was with Gwen and Andy aboard SV Acadia. We met them in South Carolina when we ran aground and then dragged anchor. Our boating mishaps turned into a natural friendship. After unsuccessfully trying to meet up with them in the Bahamas, we took them up on their offer to visit during their time in Maine. We had an absolute blast spending a week aboard their boat, sailing through Penobscot Bay and Island, hoping in some of the most picturesque landscapes in coastal Maine.

  • September - We sold PIVOT! It was very bittersweet, but we’re excited for Pivot to be in the hands of some adventurous new owners and for them to enjoy great memories with her. We also spent several days with Elliot’s brother, sister-in-law, and nephew, who were visiting from Israel. It was great to meet our new nephew and enjoy time with family.

  • October - We flew to Albania to visit our friends Nate and Alicia for two weeks of fun, including running in a half marathon, visiting the Adriatic Sea on the coast of Montenegro, exploring old towns, hiking in one of Albania’s most beautiful national parks, and visiting a lake town in North Macedonia. It was the perfect fall road trip with some of our closest friends.

  • November - Our last trip of the year was spent visiting more family. We flew to Denver to visit Elliot’s sister for a week of hiking and seeing her new home. It was a blast hiking in the snow for the first time, seeing some incredible landscapes, and enjoying our time with family.

  • December - Meeting six internet friends (Chad and Claire, Adam and Kathryn, Nate and Alicia) in person. Although we had met everyone in person before, no one else from our group had. It was the most memorable week of the year. Getting to spend quality time relaxing and enjoying each other’s company was the best. Following our week in Big Bear, we spent a week with Jen’s sister and family and were able to meet our niece and nephew (for the first time). It was some much overdue quality family time.

As 2023 has come to a close, here are some exciting stats:

 Looking ahead to 2024. 

We have some very exciting things planned for the new year, including:

  • Anchoring 101 Course

  • Great Loop Anchorages E-Book listing all of the places we anchored along our Great Loop

  • More Great Loop and boating content on our website!

  • Releasing videos from all of our 2023 adventures

  • Starting our next adventure 🫣

🎉 We’re finally announcing our exciting plans for 2024! ✨ The long-awaited news of our next pivot will be announced in our newsletter next Sunday, January 7th.

 From the Eyes of Ollie. 

What's better than one grandma? Two grandma's or a great grandma as my mom tells me. They both feed so many great treats over the holidays. I love it. I make sure to follow them around the house like a shadow so I don't miss any of their yummy treats!

 Gratitudes. 

2023 has been a year full of memories, and we couldn’t be more grateful. We had the opportunity to share our experiences with friends and family, which made it so much sweeter! The year was full of challenges and some things that didn’t go according to plan, but as we look back on 2023, we want to say thank you for following our journey, reading our blogs, watching our videos, reading our emails, and being the reason we’re doing what we’re doing today. Thank you, and we wish you the happiest of holidays and a joyful new year. 

Peace and love,Jenn + Elliot

 P.S. 

If you are new to our Sunday Summary, you can take a look at the previous issues here.While this is our "Sunday Summary," we are only sending updates when relevant until we kick off the next adventure full-time, and there may be weeks in between updates. We appreciate everyone reading!