Many of you have asked about our boat. One thing we always get when we bring people aboard is comments about how spacious it is, for a 35′ boat. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, we’ve put together a video and photo tour to give you a better idea of our very simple, very minimal living space. We love the freedom, the simplicity, the experiences and the amazing views that she brings us every single day. Hope you enjoy!
As we approach our one-year anniversary of moving aboard, I sit here in the cockpit, the Jet content by my side, head on my thigh. I’m amazed at how swiftly it passed.
So my last post was poking fun at the sometimes overly-serious people on the forums. We were so enjoying everyone chiming in good and bad. That joy ended swiftly when Tuesday morning around 7:30 am Mel and I heard, from our v-berth, a loud explosion. We looked at each other completely confused. Confused until we heard a woman’s blood-curdling screams.
The Internet is a fascinating thing yes? I mean how spoiled are we that now we no longer have to go to the library and look through that small “filing” cabinet of index cards to find a book! Yes a book. Encyclopedia’s are a thing of the past. The mighty Internet has liberated us from all that toil and trouble. We now only need to “Google” something to find one-hundred and seventeen thousand, three-hundred and twenty-one websites containing the words “blah, blah and blah Kardashian”. And, as a sailboater with very little storage for said Encyclopedias, we treasure our internet service as our life-line to everything from weather to the best local pub or market.
You know, when it comes to new blog posts, sometimes I can get caught up in the, “All we’ve been doing is sitting on the dock and working on the boat, what is there to write about” frame of mind. I over-analyze topics and question the entertainment value that such posts will hold. Do I really want to write about rebuilding the steering pedestal? NO! I don’t… I want to write about the huge iguana we saw on our dock. I wanna write about the screaming wild parrots that fly over the boat every night. The huge angel fish we see feeding on the algae cover pilings. Sometimes I don’t care if its a “sponsor-worthy” post. I don’t care that it has some passages that are awkward and not punctuated correctly. Frankly, I’m not punctuated correctly so why should my paragraphs be?
When sailing, in the event that one person becomes incapacitated, are you where you need to be? When it comes to driving the boat, docking the boat, dropping the main, furling the jib and getting your vessel back to shore safely, are you ready?
One of the “bigger” changes we’ve made to the boat is our anchor. Until now we’ve been using a 35 lb. CQR on about 40 ft. of 3/8 chain and 250 ft. of rope rode. We never had a problem with this set-up but we weren’t anchoring in anything crazy either. That is until we entered Charleston Harbor and had to anchor in a strong current with a short rode, with tons of boats, all which swung in different directions. No fun and no sleep!
Just as soon as it began, it’s time to think about the end. We’ve settled in so easily here in Ft. Lauderdale and it’s now time to begin preparations for leaving. Amazing how quickly time has passed here and in that short amount of time how many friends we’ve made here.
Now (pause), this is one of those posts that probably needed to happen some time ago but when it comes to writing about a relationship and the good, the bad and the ugly, one must tread lightly. I’ve never been one to shy away from the difficult topics and maybe I should have more often but as this experiment continues, “warts and all” – it’s time…
Boat projects. Just like home improvement projects. We all have them. And in true fashion, you never know what you have behind that drywall until you look. Then… it’s too late.
