June 2016 - Boat Life Larks

Before we left, I thought we would and wouldn't miss wifi, a car, and our routine. One month in, and I was right!

Wifi

Wifi: Not having wifi is the worst, but when we get wifi at a restaurant or marina office, I’m a little stumped as to what I wanted to do so badly. After I’ve checked email, downloaded books and audiobooks, and updated the blog, what is there to do?

A car

Not having a car in the US is a logistical challenge. We had mechanical problems with both our inboard diesel and our outboard gas engines. We had to pick up a part for the inboard, and would have needed a car and an additional week to drop off the outboard for service in Miami. Luckily, the marina we stayed at during the storm was able to fix the outboard for us in 2 days (during which time the part got delivered to the wrong marina - it’s never dull!)

When we left, we stocked up for 6 weeks. It took us 1 month to run low on produce and snacks. We’ve still got enough dry and canned goods, beer and wine to last 10 years, but a few of our liquors are running low. In fact, we are all out of whiskey! We only have spiced rum, dark rum, tequila and gin left! Oh no, I’ve just been informed of sad news regarding the tequila!

Routine

I’ve been busier, worked harder, and been more exhausted than I ever thought possible! My boss never had me work a 12AM-3AM shift, and I never scrubbed and cleaned from 9AM till midnight before!

Our current routine is: dinghying the dog to shore, making meals and cleaning up, doing preventive maintenance, fixing things, reading guide books for the next destination, checking weather, sightseeing and taking photos. Non-stop!

Best and worst

Least fun: Rowing to shore in currents and wind while people cheered from the dock as if we were Ernest Shackleton.

Most fun: Dolphins on the bow in the Atlantic, sunset over salt marshes, wild horses on the beach, exploring new places, having guests.

Most unexpected: How slow the clock moves on night watches, Lucy actually using the galley to produce food and not just rum and cokes, how busy we’ve felt and how tiring mini-retirement is. And don’t forget how we sailed ourselves right into a tropical storm when we are trying to get north to avoid them! Matt says he has no stamina for this real life stuff after sitting in an office in the A/C for so long 😃. I also thought we’d be meeting other cruising couples and finding Best Friends Forever, but we haven’t met a soul.

Final thoughts

So far, so good. I thought I would be bored with the lifestyle, stressed by figuring out new places, and sick of 24/7 family time. But it has been great, really, really great. Our comfort zone has certainly expanded, we don’t want a divorce and the boat is neither sunk or for sale. What larks!

Exploring Fernandina Beach with the fam

Exploring Dungeness Ruins, Cumberland Island, GA

Sunset over Fernandina Harbor Marina. Independence is in the mooring field - you can see her anchor light in the center of the photo.

What do you worry about most - finding internet, procuring food, facing boredom, or too much together time with the family?

Thursday, June 2

Hastings makes an attempt for freedom

Departed the Dinner Key Mooring Field at 10AM. Went to a marina for diesel. I was handing the attendant a dock line when he said “Doug ran off”. "Oh, OK", I say. Maybe Doug usually does lines but he got distracted? “He’s gone to another yacht”. “OK", I say again as I finish tying up the boat. Not sure why Fred is so obsessed with Doug. “You don’t seem terribly interested, but maybe someone should go and look for the dog”. THE DOG!!! After 18 months of waiting to be lifted off the boat, Hastings decided today was the day to leap off the boat before it was even docked and make a run for it. I found him running towards me, his ears flapping, clearly pleased with his reconnoissance mission.

Next stop: No Name Harbor to pump out the nasty. Hastings' reward for his bravery was being locked in the salon during docking. He let us know his strong disapproval. We finally departed for reals at 12:30, and made between 3 and 8.5 knots.

Keeping an eye on Matt through Hastings' indoor / outdoor patio

Thursday, June 2nd

Night watches

Winds variable, constantly threatening to accidentally jibe us. Matt took the 9PM-Midnight shift. I woke up to see flashing lights. Is Matt practicing Morse Code? Then why is he also talking? Hastings and I staggered to the cockpit, still hazy about life. Didn’t think to put trousers on. The Coast Guard had decided to intercept us and ask a list of questions. Random.

I had a number of boats and ships on my watch and was pretty annoyed that the shifting winds took away from my planned star gazing as I was on alert to prevent an accidental jibe.

At 4AM, we took in the sails and started the engines. We were barely making any headway at 2.5 knots.

Friday, June 3rd

Light winds most of the day, but we motor sailed and were able to kill the engines at 2PM, making around 5 knots. The sea has been so flat, it’s like a pond. We had turtles and dolphins visit and saw wahoo jumping. We ate the last of the brownies, but I spied two packages of Hob Nobs (yummy Brit cookies), so survival is possible. We’ve both been under a laziness attack. We can manage watches, listening to audiobooks, staring - but any type of cleaning, cooking or projects is simply too much to ask.

The Ocean - Big and Blue

Still Morning

Sunset

Saturday, June 4th

Night Watches

12:01AM. I had hoped today would be arrival day, but due to our painful speed or my original excessive optimism, today is just another day on the ocean.

4:37:01AM. Good. Matt’s shift starts in 23 minutes. I might make make it 23 minutes. He’s obviously been having the same slow clock issues Ive been having - he added a second hand to our GPS. It’s dark. There are a lot of stars, and I’ve painstakingly mapped out all the constellations I can identify: The Big Dipper. 14 miles offshore from Cape Canaveral. No ships. The wind died to 1 knot - we are motor boating.

4:37AM. How is it still 4:37AM? I did a 360 sweep and a constellation identification. It has to have been more than a minute. Is that a light on the horizon? No. Our wake sure is interesting. Frothy. Ohh, what’s the ship on AIS 20 miles away? Sleeping Beauty. Same name that it had 1 minute ago. Sleeping Beauty, that’s what I’d like to be. 23 more minutes. Maybe I’ll wake him at 4:58. Now it’s only 21 minutes. I can do that.

Brownie check. Hmm. No brownies. We ate them. They were good. From scratch. Did you know you don’t need a box to make brownies? I didn’t. The box is just mixed flour, sugar, and cocoa. Why didn’t I come up with that idea and scam generations of Americans into believing you need a box mix to make brownies?

Is this why crack cocaine was invented? For night watches? Maybe that’s why the Coast Guard stopped by last night? Are most cruising sailboats laden down with cocaine, just to make it through the night? “Fred, we can wave off. These losers aren’t doing cocaine. If they were, they’d be able to put trousers on. Poor bastards”.

Ahh, 4:37:59. Finally, 4:38! Wait. 3:38. No. It’s wrong. This can’t be happening. I thought running out of brownies was the worst thing that could happen. I was wrong.
Clocks don’t go backwards, that’s just a saying, right! I’ll stop watching it and go for a constellation identification trip. Maybe see if Sleeping Beauty has changed it’s name.

We’d agreed to 3 hour watches, but Matt woke me at 2:21AM, 2 hours and 21 minutes into his watch. So me giving him 2.5 hours is generous, right? Or 2 hours and 28 minutes. Too bad the Hobbit audiobook is over. I’ve got nothing left to keep me awake. Oh, look, the Big Dipper. Maybe I should get a book on stars. I bet there’s a Little Dipper too. Maybe a medium one? Now, is medium actually large now? Because there’s Super Size? Or is it Vente? Is there a Vente Dipper?

3:41AM. I’m sick of this clock. Yes, sick! Sea-sick! Maybe Matt will feel sorry for me if I’m sick and take over early? Wait, when does this short changing watches end? 30 second watches? 2 minutes? 2 minutes would be good. Maybe an hour. I guess someone has to be a man and stick it out.

3:58AM. Your watch, Matt. “What time is it?” “5AM”. “You let me sleep extra, that’s nice.” “Sure. I’m a humanitarian. Just ignore the GPS clock, it shifted off DST when we crossed the demarcation line. And there’s no brownies left" The open sea dosen't bother with saving time, just parceling it out, one impossibly slow second after another.

Saturday, June 4th

Same old, same old. We’re in a Right Whale habitat, and there’s streaks of plankton, and guess who’s nowhere to be found? That’s right, not a whale to be found. No whale of a time here.

Plankton. No whales.

Napping in the cockpit of our Lagoon 380 on passage

Napping. It's what we do best.

Sunday, June 5th

Night Watches

We hove to (stopped all forward progress) to reef the main and take in the jib. 20 knots of wind and the seas are up. We woke each other several times to jibe back and forth and arrived at St Mary’s inlet at 5AM to hang out till dawn, wondering what all these fishing boats are doing. (Probably cocaine) Good times.

Sunday, June 5th

Moored at Last!

We arrived in Fernandina Beach, FL at 7:20AM and picked up a mooring ball. It took 70 hours, 326 nm, at an average of 4.67 knots.

There’s an 8 ft tidal range here! And marshes! And a fort! And a crazy current! We napped, showered, ran the water maker and are headed into town to look for food that Someone Else cooks. Someone Else is going to do the dishes too! If only Someone Else was available for the 3AM shift, I would fall in love with them.

St Mary's Inlet: Florida to the left, Georgia to the right

Coming Up

Fernandina Harbor won’t allow us to dock or moor during the storm (what’s up with all these storms, so soon? I thought we had time. I was wrong) Amelia Island Yacht Basin will take us, so we are headed there for Monday and Tuesday night. Assuming survival, we’ll be exploring Fernandina Beach, St. Mary’s and Cumberland Island for the next week, and then make a jump to Charleston.

Hastings the Boat Dog rows home through Dinner Key Mooring Field

Rowing Home

"Come on Hastings, time to go” the Long Haired Interloper says. I sneak into the salon and lay on the couch. “No adventures today, thank you. Try Lulu’s dog, maybe she’ll go with you.” “Silly Hastings, we all travel as a pack!” the LHI says, picking me up off the couch and putting me on the swim step. I run past Dearest Darling Daddy and get back on the couch. “I don’t mind traveling as a pack, as long as the pack just travels to the couch today”.

Why am I so against today’s adventure? I know what it entails. Being a row master is tough work, and there’s no corresponding increase in rations. All they do is keep offering me water to drink. It’s outrageous, egregious, preposterous.

Back in the good old days, the engine would take us places. You should see the wind blowing through my ears! Divine! The only way to live! We’d get to where we were going right away. No time to get hot or bored. No careful monitoring needed.

But the good old days are gone and the bad new days are here.

DDD is rowing. The LHI is giving directions. “Go to port”. The boat changes direction to port. “More to port”. We row more to port and promptly crash into an empty mooring buoy. DDD wants to know why LHI has led us astray. “I kept telling you to row to port, and you kept moving to starboard. I don’t know why you’re maliciously ignoring clear directives.” The confused leading the backwards, how do they survive?

I stand up on my tipi-toes on the tube one which side they need to turn. I point out obstacles. It seems a perfectly clear system. The humans have yet to decipher this simple communication. They seem to think I’m trying to go swimming. Seriously?

I keep asking to be dropped off to another boat. Any of the 750 boats we pass seem better off. All have dinghy engines that work. Some have AC. I bet a few have more cheese than we do! Sometimes neighbors with working engines come over and offer to tow us. Yes! I bark. Please! I say. "No, we’re good", the humans say. “Good!?, How about insane?" You may be wondering why we have to row past so many boats. Well, these humans I’m with asked for the furthest mooring buoy. They like the view out there, the breeze, the privacy. They’re not concerned with how challenging they’re making my life. Nope, not in the slightest.

I hope they get their act together soon.

Still searching for the cheese farm....

Coconut Grove

Miami Sunset from our sailboat, moored off Dinner Key Marina

Sunset view from our Mooring at Dinner Key Marina

We rowed to shore Sunday night to take in the sights. Hastings hadn’t been off the boat for a little while and we were all looking forward to some exercise.

I had to row across a channel filled with returning holiday boaters, then be amongst them as they lined up to fight at the boat ramp. Hastings leapt to shore with great alacrity and we admired the fights and horn honking taking place. “Ive just had a great day on the water, now I am filled with rage against fellow mankind and confused as to why other people want to be in the same spot. Plus I have TV to watch. No, I don’t know why we got married! Is there a divorce lawyer around?!”

We left this happy scene of domestic bliss and marched to Coconut Grove, a lovely, charming place lined with outdoor cafes, live music, twinkling lights. Apparently I have become a hermit as all I could focus on were the throngs of people pressing on me and the can’t stop, won’t stop traffic.

The din from talking and music was so loud and all encompassing I couldn’t even hear myself think, let alone contemplate having the planned dinner conversation about holding tank sludge. What’s a person to do!

Laundry Day!

Monday, Memorial Day, a very exciting thing happened. I did laundry! On land, I would complain about walking 5 feet to machine and then having to transfer clothes to the dryer and then - oh the humanity - have to fold them. Now, we rowed for a mile, walked 10 minutes, carried the laundry up a flight of stairs, and couldn’t have been more thrilled to get the laundry done! There is nothing like clean sheets and clean towels.

We then marched through Coconut Grove to get cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory and rowed off the calories.

Engine Update

Tuesday we rented a car and drove to get our starter for Starboard Stan. Imagine our joy when the mechanic said. “Some dude just came and purchased the starter I had set aside for you. I thought it was you! I think I have another one though, standby." He had another starter. Disaster averted. Drumroll please….. it works! Now the only actor in non-compliance is the Yamaha dinghy engine. It’s giving off such a resentful vibe, none of the mechanics in Miami that we’ve called want to look at it in exchange for money. This can’t go on forever. The Cheesecake Factory only has 58 varieties of cheesecake to row off, and there’s no rower’s fuel back up plan.

Whats Next

Hastings is going to fill you in on his sufferings on Friday. Maybe by then we’ll be on our way to our next stop - Fernandina Beach, FL and St. Mary’s / Cumberland Island, GA (330 miles and approx 2.5 nonstop days depending on winds, currents, waves, divorce lawyer availability, etc)

Wifi

A car

Routine

Best and worst

Final thoughts

Monday, June 6th, 3PM.

Coming up

Thursday, June 2

Hastings makes an attempt for freedom

Thursday, June 2nd

Night watches

Friday, June 3rd

Saturday, June 4th

Night Watches

Saturday, June 4th

Sunday, June 5th

Night Watches

Sunday, June 5th

Moored at Last!

Coming Up

Coconut Grove

Laundry Day!

Engine Update

Whats Next

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