WHAT CAME NEXT

The tranquility of the family’s Caribbean anchorage at Bequia was shattered with the eruption of the La Soufrière volcano on the neighboring island of St. Vincent on April 9. “The next morning, it was obvious we had to move [because] the air was thick with ash.

So we sailed as far as we could to get clear air,” Koropp says. They joined a convoy of about a dozen boats that sheltered in the Tobago Cays. After three days, the wind shifted, the air cleared, and the cruisers emerged to toast with sundowners on the beach.