B
April 2019 55Teresa steers as Ben
checks the charts,
looking for shallow
sections and landmarks
and buoys to navigate
by in Huntington
Harbor, Long Island.ELOW DECK on the 44-foot sailing vessel
Rocinante, you look up and see only a shape
of sky. You could be anywhere in the world.
Ben Eriksen Carey, the co-owner and
co-captain, washes dishes in the galley’s
foot-pump sink and his wife, Teresa, orga-
nizes laminated charts (land is mapped;
water is charted) at a lap table. A small hammock of
apples sways with the rocking of the boat.
Then a loud knock from above, followed by a New
York yell. Teresa climbs the steep stairs—more like a
ladder—to the deck. The voice again:
“Are you Tuh-ree-suh?”
A pause.
“Yaw preg-nant.”
He’s not wrong. She’s due in a few weeks. Behind
Teresa, Ben chuckles.
The boat happens to be in Huntington Harbor,
on Long Island, this morning. But through cold win-
ters and rolling summer storms, the Rocinante has
been the couple’s traveling home since 2014. Every-
thing they need is stowed in its corners, cubbies, and
cabinets, each carefully labeled. “Spices.” “Dishes.”
“Creamy Stuff.” They’ve sailed to the Arctic, to Pan-
ama, to warm islands and the rainy bays in between,
to quiet moorings where Teresa wrote and Ben worked
as a tugboat captain. Everywhere they went, people
always asked them some variation of “How do you
sail this thing?”PHOTOGRAPHS BY BETH PERKINS