Tomorrow we will point our bow towards Florida and sail away from the turquoise waters of the Bahamas. With any luck, 28 hours later we’ll pull into a slip in Fort Pierce where Kairos will rest, awaiting her next crew. Our sailing adventure is coming to an end and we are full of mixed emotions. Even though we knew our transition to the cruising lifestyle would be temporary, it’s still incredibly sad to see it come to an end. We’ve fallen in love with the resourceful sailing community, the incredible beaches, and the genuine island people. It almost seems impossible to walk away from it all. But at the same time, we are looking forward to some of the comforts associated with land life and we’re excited to see where our next adventure takes us.read more
We knew when we moved on board last January that our transition into a cruising lifestyle would be temporary. The cruising kitty we built up after selling our house in Denver would eventually run dry and we would need to find employment again. I think that knowing this adventure is finite has helped us overlook the negatives (there are a couple) and really appreciate every incredible moment of this journey. It hasn’t always been easy, but it’s always been an adventure and that is exactly what we set out to find when we left the dock last February.read more
We knew we needed something to keep ourselves busy this hurricane season. There’s only so much beach paddle ball we could play. So, in addition to knocking out some boat projects and chasing waterfalls, we started working towards our OUPV (Operator of Uninspected Passenger Vessel) licenses. Also known as the 6-pak license, the OUPV license allows the holder to captain uninspected vessels up to 100 gross tons with up to 6 paying passengers. We don’t have any grand plans for using the licenses, but it’s something that might come in handy in the future.read more
We had previously decided that Dominica (blog post to come soon) would be the farthest south we would venture this year. We’re planning to sail back to the States before hurricane season and we’re looking forward to spending some more time in the Bahamas with its plethora of white sandy beaches, mahi mahi, and lobster. However, we’ve already learned how quickly plans can change while cruising. It seems like mother nature and boat maintenance are constantly creating obstacles and we’re no longer surprised by delays. But we never would have predicted the events that occurred on the morning of Friday, January 13th that caused us to make an unexpected trip to Martinique.read more
We had heard that strong northerly winds in December wreak havoc on otherwise calm anchorages, but we had never experienced this first hand. Last season we didn’t leave our safe harbor until February and saw normal trade-winds most our way south. We saw that these ‘Christmas winds’ were in the forecast, so the first chance we got, we booked it from Nevis to Deshaies, Guadeloupe. We planned to ride out the strong winds in a well-protected anchorage while munching on baguettes and sipping espresso.read more
After 5 months at sea, our first season sailing is winding down. As we finish prepping Kairos for storage on the hard in Puerto Rico, we reflect on all of the gorgeous places we’ve visited. We’ve loved almost all of the 50 plus anchorages that we have visited over the last 150 days. We’ve seen pristine sandy beaches, inviting turquoise water, breathtaking mountains, and lush forests. We’ve met some crazy cruisers and some incredibly sweet locals. We’ve hiked, swam, fished, lobstered, and snorkeled our hearts out. We’ve experienced a lot, but for one reason or another these locations stand out as our top five favorite anchorages. They are listed below in chronological order.read more
When we first revealed our cruising plan to our friends and families, they were full of questions. Regardless of how we phrased it, explaining that we were quitting our jobs and selling our house so we could sail the Caribbean with our two dogs made us sound crazy. A cruising lifestyle can be strange and has its own challenges. For us, it’s all a part of the adventure. Below are the answers to our 10 most frequently asked questions.read more
We certainly got our money’s worth out of our Amazon Prime Membership back at the Regatta Pointe Marina in Florida. We spent two months there getting Kairos cruise-ready and we received packages daily for our journey. The UPS man knew my name and the marina ship store had my number on speed dial. Of all the things that we purchased, here are the top 14 items under $50 that make our lives better aboard.
We quickly realized that rigid contains are not easy to store on board. We have lots of storage space on the boat, but those spaces are small and odd shaped. Soft, flexible bags are the way to go. Since we couldn’t use a toolbox to organize our boat tools, we needed a new solution. The color coded tool bags we purchased from Amazon are perfect. We organize the tools by type into each bag. Orange-electrical, Blue-box wrenches and sockets, Black-screw drivers and plyers, Yellow-engine tools. The bags fit easily into our storage space and we can quickly access the right tool using our color coded scheme.
These inflatable solar lights are perfect for lighting up the cockpit in the evenings. We use them while we are eating dinner or when we invite other cruisers over for drinks. We’ve also used them as a stern light for our dinghy and even as a backup anchor light for our boat. You can never have too many solar lights on a boat and these are durable, weather proof, and fun.
Okay, so this one sneaked in a few dollars over $50, but this little camera is certainly worth it. In addition to this blog, we’ve been keeping a scrap book of the wonderful places we visit and the amazing people we meet using our mini instant camera. The pictures are a nice small size (2” x 3”) and the camera is easy to carry around. As much as I love filling up my scrap book with polaroids, I love giving these pictures away just as much. In a word filled with digital images, there is something so charming about an instant polaroid pictures. The camera is a huge hit everywhere we go.
The Buddy Bowl is our favorite boat dog item. Keeping the pups hydrated is a must, but as you can imagine a water dish can be pretty messy while underway or in a rolling anchorage. Not to mention how many times the water dish gets kicked with four of us living in such a small space. The Buddy Bowl is the perfect solution. No spills! It’s also very sturdy and has held up very well over the last 6 months at sea.
I can’t imagine route planning without the Garmin BlueChart mobile app with Active Captain. We have it installed on both our iPhone and iPad. It is easy to zoom in and out on the iPad and plot our course. Many cruisers use an iPad with Garmin BlueChart as their primary chart plotter. For us it’s a great back up. Active Captain information is overlaid on the charts, providing updated information for marinas, anchorages, and sites. Other captains can add reviews, making it the Yelp of the boating world. Having all this information at our fingertips has made route planning a breeze.
6. 1.5 Gallon Shop-Vac ($10-$35)
A vacuum is a must on our boat. Dog hair quickly accumulates in our small space, which means we vacuum frequently. We picked up our 1.5 gallon shop-vac used for $10. I ordered vacuum attachments and it sucks up dog hair like a champ. In addition to keeping our floors and cushions clean, we’ve used our shop-vac for cleaning the bilge and water tanks. We even used it to dry out the engine when it flooded with water. This vacuum is so versatile and I can’t imagine boat life without it.
In order to keep our fridge cold, we try to keep the door shut. Using lingerie bags to organize food helps reduce the amount of time we’re in the fridge. For example, we keep all of our sandwich food in one bag: mayo, mustards, deli meats, sliced cheese, etc. When it’s time to make sandwiches, we can quickly pull out all of these items by removing the lingerie bag instead of searching for the items individually. We also have bags for veggies, fruit, and cheeses/snacks.
We love capturing underwater sea life on our GoPro camera. The places we visit are gorgeous, but many times the most magical sites are found below the surface of the water. At first we were disappointed in our footage. The bright colors we saw while snorkeling were washed out and dull. We ordered a red filter and it made all the difference. Now our underwater footage captures the beauty we see below.
9.
The Gentleman’s Guide to Passages South: The Thornless Path to Windwardread more
We’ve been liveaboards for 100 days now. Wow, I can’t believe it’s been that long. Time is flying by and it seems like only yesterday we spent our first night on board. Over the last 100 days, we’ve learned a lot about Kairos, about the countries we’ve visited, and about each other. We are so grateful for this opportunity and despite the ups and downs, it’s been amazing. Looking back, however, there are a few things that we could have done better. For those of you considering setting out on a similar adventure, here are the 7 things we’d do differently if we could do it all over again.
1. Buy a Well Maintained Boat. We previously read that it would be difficult to get boat insurance if we purchased a boat over 30 years old. That became the cut off for us. Now we are convinced that the age of the boat doesn’t matter as much. What DOES matter is how well the boat has been maintained. New and old alike, boats have problems. There’s always going to be something to fix or improve. The marine environment is very harsh on equipment. But a well maintained boat will have a lot less headaches.
Kairos (formerly known as “Kansas Out of Oz” and formerly, formerly known as “Clever Skiff”) was in her prime about 15-20 years ago. She was all decked out in the latest systems and electronics. We aren’t taking her anywhere she hasn’t already been. She cruised these islands for many years while we were managing our awkward teenage years. It’s nice to think that our boat is the one taking us to new places and not the other way around. But now many of her systems are outdated and she was not well maintained the two years prior to our purchase. We’ve spent a lot of time repairing/replacing pumps, electrical systems, wiring, hoses, and teak brightwork. All boats require maintenance, but we started off this adventure fixing several years of deferred maintenance on top of the normal stuff. It turned out to be more than we expected.
2. Consider Buying a Boat in the Caribbean. It never crossed our minds to look for boats in Grenada or the BVIs. The boat hunting logistics seemed too difficult. However, we now think fellow cruisers Monday Never got it right when they purchased their boat in the BVIs.
The route from Florida to the BVIs is known as the Thorny Path to Windward. The trade winds blow from the East/Southeast, so we are constantly trying to sail into the wind and waves. It can be brutally uncomfortable and means we have to wait for good weather windows. It’s the most frustrating leg of our journey and here we are trying to tackle it with minimal experience. By purchasing a boat in the Caribbean, we could have skipped the Thorny Path all together and sailed comfortable up the island chains with the wind on our beam.
We had heard how limited and expensive groceries are in the Bahamas, so we provisioned before leaving the marina. We did some final provisioning in Marathon. Here’s our updated provisions list. The rumors turned out to be completely true. A local once told us that the Bahamian way is Kraft dinner and tuna salad with crackers. Fresh produce is difficult to come by. So how did we do? What did we wish we had more of? What meals did we eat on the boat?
Overall I’m very pleased with how much we provisioned. We were in the Bahamas for 6 weeks and we were never close to starving. We had enough provisions to last us about 8 weeks. Though expensive, both Nassau and Georgetown have large groceries stores where you can get almost anything you want. The other inhabited islands have very small stores with a very limited selection, but you can usually get cabbage, potatoes, carrots, onions, bread, eggs, and tomatoes for reasonable prices. These produce are great to have on a boat, because they tend to last awhile.
What We Did Right
Planned Meals. As much as I love the challenge of cooking a dinner with refrigerator and pantry left overs, for most efficient provisioning, plan meals in advance. I made a list of meals we like to eat and then developed my provisioning list assuming we’d eat each meal 3-4 times during our stay in the Bahamas. This ensured that we always had the correct ingredients to make our go-to meals and prevented over provisioning. We really didn’t pack anything that we won’t use.
Just Add Water. Freeze driedmeals are amazing after a long passage or after a day full of exploring. Sometimes we just didn’t feel like cooking and it’s not like we could order take out. Freeze dried meals are perfect for these times. We brought 15 Mountain House dinners on board. Although a little pricey, they came in very handy. We used to eat these all the time on backpacking trips in Colorado. Just add boiling water to the bag and let it sit for 9 minutes. I would often add onions, potatoes or carrots to spruce it up a bit.
Freshly Caught Fish. Some of the best fish I’ve ever had has been aboard Kairos. So far we’ve caught 5 dolphin fish, a lobster, conch, and a tuna. While you can’t always rely on catching fish, you should set yourself up for the opportunity. We don’t use a lot of fancy fishing gear, but we do have a few hand reels and a variety of lures. Our new cedar plug is a favorite. Before taking off cruising, do a little research and ensure you’re stocked up on the right fishing gear for the area.
Spare Parts. It’s impossible to prepare for every possible scenario. We would never have predicted that our braided fuel line on the engine would spring a leak. However, we left the marina stocked up on common spares, such as, rescue tape, pump impellers, fuel filters, oil filters, oil, an alternator, fuel pump, water pump, equipped ditch bag, belts, gaskets, and a mixing elbow. We did replace our filter system in Clarence Town. It was difficult to find fuel filters for our old system, so we swapped it over to a Racor system, which can be found at most marine stores.
I want to thank everyone for all the wonderful birthday wishes. It was great to hear from so many of you, especially since I spent the majority of the day in a Benadryl induced fog. I was COVERED in bug bites. You might think I’m exaggerating by saying that I had 2,000 bug bites, but I assure that it is an accurate estimation. I started counting and reached 542 by the time I hit my knee on the first leg.
How on Earth does someone manage to get 2,000 bug bites, you might be wondering. Why didn’t I flee the area if I was getting bit so much? What could possible bite me 2,000 times without me swatting and killing it?
Meet my assailant, the No-see-um. You might know them as biting midges, sand flies, or, if you are a bugologist, ceratopogonidae. If you are like me, then you have never heard of these things before.
On our last night in Marathon, Rob and I took the pups to the Dockside Bar and Grill for happy hour after a day of fishing (fishing, but not catching). As the sun was setting, we started to feel these tiny stings on our legs. We couldn’t see any bugs (hence the name no-see-ums), but we could certainly feel their bites. Unlike a mosquito bite, there was no obvious signs that we were being bit—no red marks, no swelling. It appeared to us that these small gnats were just a nuisance. For the lucky ones (Rob) that aren’t allergic this is exactly all that they are. For those poor souls (me) that are allergic, they will make your life Hell for the next two weeks.
I awoke the next morning to find my legs covered in small bites. Rob of course didn’t have a single bite. NOT ONE BITE! As the day progressed, the welts grew larger and the itch more intense. Benadryl, cortisone cream, aloe, and ice couldn’t suppress it. I knew that I shouldn’t scratch them and when I lost my willpower and did, it only amplified the itch. I spent the next several hours googling no-see-ums and how to treat bites. The following is what I have learned:
I’m unlucky. It’s not uncommon to have a reaction to the bites. But some people are luckily enough to not be allergic to them, which explains why Rob didn’t have any bites.
There is a delayed response. It can take up to 24 hours before your bites swell and itch.
Don’t scratch. This is easier said than done, but scratching only increases the itch, can cause scaring, and may lead to infection.
Be prepared. These little buggers come out at dawn and dusk and especially on calm nights. The windy nights seem to keep them away. DEET and Skin So Soft appear to be the best repellents. I now carry one of the two with me any time we leave the boat in the evenings. Even at Bahamian prices, we invested in some Skin So Soft. It smells and feels much better than bug spray.
Heat suppresses the itch. Discovering this fact was the turning point for me. I no longer was pleading with Rob to amputate my legs after I discovered that wrapping my legs in hot towels suppressed the itch for several hours. These hot water treatments helped me get through the week.
Expect a two week recovery. I nearly cried the first time I read this. TWO WEEKS!?!? As I write this entry I’m nine days into my recovery and it is A LOT better. The itch goes away after a week and then the bites start to fade. I still look like I’m on an episode of Naked and Afraid, but I’m optimistic that the bites will completely disappear in a few days.
Rob is at the helm and the pups are taking naps in the cockpit. I’m sunning myself on the bow of the boat when I hear a big splash. I peered over the edge and I see two dolphins playing and jumping right in front of us. They swim with us for a while and I’m smiling ear to ear with excitement. I think to myself, “we have found paradise”.
Rewind 24 hours and I look at Rob and say, “I don’t think I’m cut out to sail in the ocean.” He chuckles a little bit, but only a little bit because he knows I’m not kidding.
I’ve just returned to the cockpit from securing some flying objections down below. I’m worried about the dogs. Jaela is so terrified that she’s shivering and foaming at the mouth. Baxter is hyperventilating and I’m worried his little heart might explode. The 3 – 5 ft waves in the Gulf are hitting our starboard side, causing the boat to rock very uncomfortably. I pop a Dramamine and hope it’s not too late to avoid seasickness. And I wonder, how on earth I’m going to deal with this for the next year.
What a difference, 24 hours and about 20 mph in wind speed makes. We spent a total of three nights in Naples. One night anchored outside the $5 million mansions and two nights on a mooring ball at Naples City Dock. $10 a night was a good deal. We had easy access to the dinghy dock and to downtown Naples.
We had our Valentine’s Day dinner at Old Naples Pub (the Pickle Bar) and enjoyed some relaxing time off the boat. As always, we spent a few hours doing some boat maintenance, while we monitored the weather. After reviewing the weather forecasts, we decided we would trek down to Marathon on Tuesday and Wednesday (Feb 16th-17th). We planned to leave bright and early on Tuesday morning, but some unexpected thunderstorms made us scrap that plan.
We left our mooring ball at 8:30 on Tuesday morning. Now while the winds had calmed down, the seas were still stirred up from the thunderstorm. As we exited Gordon Pass, we had about 3.5 foot seas. The waves were very frequent, causing the boat to rock considerably. It was at this point that I started worry about the dogs and started feeling pretty discouraged about our choice in transportation for this adventure. But luckily, within an hour, the seas calmed down and we were able to bring the dogs up into the cockpit. Once in the cockpit, the pups calmed down and napped.
By the afternoon, it was smooth sailing. Because of our late start, we decided to anchor out at Indian Key in the Everglades. We read that there was a beach we could dinghy to and thought it would be great for the pups, since potty training on the boat isn’t going well. The anchorage was beautiful and besides from a few crab boats that passed by, we had it all to ourselves.
We took the dinghy to Indian Key where we planned to explore and kill a few hours before dinner. However, we were instantly swarmed by a thousand mosquitos. Needless to say, our stay was short lived. Back at the boat we enjoyed a mosquito-less dinner and a nice sunset. We called it an early night, because we knew we’d be leaving early the next morning for Marathon.
We took the pups to shore at 4:00am on Wednesday and prepared the boat for our first sail in the dark. It’s a pretty eerie feeling to sail in the pitch black and have little visibility. We used a spot light to find the channel markers and to look out for crab pots. We were happy to see the sunrise about an hour later and the pups were even happier, because that meant they could join us in the cockpit. The winds were light, so we had to motor sail. The waves were non-existent and you could tell it was going to be a beautiful, smooth sailing day.
I’m going to petition the Olympic committee to get crab pot dodging added as a sport. I know the perfect training course. A couple of trips between the Everglades and Marathon and you’ll be a pro. At first Rob and I were pretty militant about spotting crab pots. “Crab pot at 12:00.” “Crab pot at 11:40.” But a couple of hours and a few thousand crab pots later, we gave up calling them out. Instead we took turns at the helm avoiding the little buggers. Hitting one would mean that we risk getting the line wrapped up in our prop and we definitely didn’t want to deal with that mess.
It was while I was on a crab pot dodging break when I watched the dolphins swimming at our bow. I’m sure seasoned sailors are used to this sort of thing, but it was a pretty magical moment for me.
Things could not have been going any smoother. It was 4:30 and we were nearing the Seven Mile Bridge in Marathon. This meant that we would have plenty of daylight to find a decent anchorage and take the pups to shore. We had planned it perfectly. Then our engine died right after we crossed under the bridge. We had traveled over 200 miles and the engine just couldn’t make the last 5.
Rob quickly changed the fuel filters and bled the fuel line, but no luck. I opened a view port on our diesel tank and verified that we had fuel. With the sun setting and us stopped in our tracks in the middle of the channel just after the bridge, we had no choice but to call for a tow.
Luckily we had just purchased Boat US Towing insurance. What would have been a very expensive ordeal, didn’t cost us a dime. Jared from Boat US towed us into the Boot Key Harbor and helped us find a place to anchor. We then had to endure a very long dinghy ride in the dark in order to walk the pups. It was not how we had envisioned our first night in the Keys. But at least we made it safely.
It’s becoming very obvious that this adventure will be full of highs and lows. But one thing is sure, cruising is never boring.
All of the anchor lights in Boot Key Harbor at night
We have had some windy cold weather recently. Sleeping through the night has not been an issue for me, I could fall asleep standing up. Rob frequently gets up throughout the stormy nights to check on our dock lines or to try to tighten a halyard that is slapping against the mast. Working outside on the boat during these windstorms is nearly impossible. Towels, tools, and dog toys fly into the water. I’ve gotten pretty quick at fishing things out with the boat hook. So during Saturday’s storm, we decided to shop for provisions.
From what I have researched, food, toiletries, and alcohol are very expensive in The Bahamas. $7 for a box of crackers, $10 for a gallon of bleach, $60 for a case of beer, your left arm for a bottle of sunscreen —who can afford this?! Not us. Or at least not everyday. In order to take this time off, we have to keep our costs down and keep an eye on our budget. Therefore, we are stocking up on provisions before we leave for The Bahamas.
But like everything else on the boat, it’s a balancing act. I don’t want to spend the next year eating nothing but boxed mac and cheese and ramen. We love cooking with fresh vegetables, eating street food, and experiencing new cultures through food. So while we want to save money where we can, we also don’t want to restrict ourselves so much that we don’t fully enjoy our experiences. With that in mind, I tried to follow the guidelines below when determining our provisions list.
If we don’t eat it now, we probably won’t start eating it in the future. I don’t like spam now, so there’s no reason to think I will want to dive into a can of it in 5 weeks. So spam did not make the provisions list.
Buy ingredients with meals in mind. While I love the challenge of developing a new recipe with what’s in the cabinet, it is most efficient to develop your provisions list with meals in mind. Some of the meals we provisioned for include pasta with red sauce and artichoke hearts, fried rice, stir fry, red coconut curry, chili, quinoa salad, jambalaya, etc.
Bahamians eat and have grocery stores. While it’s great to stock up on staples (rice, oatmeal, quinoa, pasta, diced tomatoes), we will still be able to buy fresh food in the Bahamas. We wouldn’t want to miss out on shopping in local markets and cooking with new ingredients anyway.
Rob is going to become an expert fisherman. Who doesn’t love fresh fish!?! We are also stocking up on fishing gear and plan to catch some of our meals each week. Brown rice and black beans go very well with blackened fish and take up very little space in the boat.
Size matters. A 39 foot boat is a fairly large boat. But add a couple of newlyweds and 2 large dogs and the space starts to feel pretty small. We are happy to shove food and wine into any free storage space, but we don’t want to make our space feel any smaller. Therefore, we tried to stock up on things that don’t take up much space, like spices and ziplock bags, and recognize that we will need to replenish things, like paper towels, along the way.
We have been living aboard for 10 days now. I can’t believe it’s actually been that long. The time is flying by. We’ve learned a lot of things since moving on board. For example we just learned how to take apart and clean a carburetor. We also recently learned which way the valve handle should be pointed to ensure we are pumping the toilet to the holding tank instead of overboard (oops– fortunately we haven’t really used it yet). But in addition to learning about our boat’s systems, we have also learned (or relearned in many causes) some valuable life lessons. Here are our 10 lessons learned from 10 days of living aboard.
1) Get to Know Your Neighbors
This isn’t an entirely new concept to us. We were good friends with our neighbors back in Denver. However, in most of the places I’ve lived, I didn’t make an effort to know my neighbors…let alone everyone on the block.
I’ve been blown away by the kindness and helpfulness we’ve encountered since beginning this journey. From our beach apartment neighbor, Jon, who took us fishing, stocked our boat with every possible medical supply we might need, and invited us to many fish fries, to our dock neighbors, who are always there to throw us a line, help us disassemble a carburetor, and happily share useful tips–we have been truly blessed to meet such wonderful people.
Striking up conversations with strangers isn’t something that comes natural to me. Like most engineers, I can be a bit of an introvert. But the warmth of the sailing community makes it very easy to find instant friends. A large portion of our success so far has come from learning from others who have been there and done that.
So regardless if we will be neighbors for a night or for months, we will continue to make an effort to strike up conversations with anyone we meet along the way. And this is something I will continue to do after our sailing adventure is done. We’ve all had those “small world” experiences. Obviously you won’t become besties with every person you sit next to on a plane or make a business contact with each person you talk to at the dog park, but you never know if you don’t initiate a conversation.
2) Back to the Basics
Our new home is quite a bit smaller than our 2700 sq. ft. home in Denver. Needless to say, we’ve had to downsize a lot. We’ve are constantly asking the question, “is this a need or a want?” More often than not, the answer is “it’s a want.” It turns out that we don’t NEED much.
We’ve cooked dinner on board 9 out of the last 10 nights. We’ve made many of our favorite dishes with one pot, one frying pan, a wooden spoon, a knife, and a cutting board. I certainly do miss my fully stocked kitchen, but we’ve been able to make delicious meals without all of our kitchen gadgets.
We still, however, have several wants on board. Do I need throw pillows? No, but they are pretty and make me smile. Does Rob need a spear gun? No, but he’s pretty excited to try it out. Do the dogs need doggie beds? No, but it makes them comfortable.
Just like anything else, it’s a balancing act. We make sure our needs are covered (food, shelter, water, medical, safety) and wisely chose what wants we bring on board.
3) Patience is a Virtue
We were so used to “Go, go, go”…that it’s taking time for us to adjust to “Slow, slow, slow”.
Whether it’s with each other, with frustrating boat projects, or with the Bahamas who are taking FOREVER to issue our dog permits, our patience is constantly being tested. However, we purposely left the hustle and bustle of our Denver lives to enjoy the “relaxing” sailing lifestyle. We are learning to slow down and smell the roses ocean.
4) Organization is Key
Finally something I’m already good at! There is a place for everything and everything has its place on a boat. We are now living in a small space and organization is key. This is right up my alley. Because of my OCD characteristics, I find great satisfaction in organizing our boat and ensuring that everything is tucked safely away in its home at the end of the day. It’s important to have a system–otherwise you’ll end up tearing the place apart looking for a dinghy patch kit (which now lives inside the ditch bag).
5) Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
This is certainly something I need to work on. Rob and I get to spend a lot of time together now. Like every single moment. 24/7. Most of the time it’s great. But anytime you spend this much time with one person, you’re bound to get on each other’s nerves sometimes. Because of my type A personality, I may tend to over react occasionally. So when Rob misplaces the dinghy patch kit or the dogs get their dirty paws on my new cushions, my natural response is to implode. However, I’m learning to “shake it off” and remember what’s really important. And I’m finding life is a lot more fun and enjoyable for everyone.
6) Keep it Simple Stupid
Boat systems today look a lot different than they did in 1989 when our Pearson 39-2 was built. Therefore, most of our systems were added some time after the boat was manufactured. Thus, our Pearson users manual doesn’t do us much good when we are troubleshooting these upgrades. Moving parts and electrical systems fail. Without proper maintenance, they will fail frequently in a marine environment. So whenever possible, it’s best to keep it simple. Sure there are a lot of new boating gadgets out there to make life more comfortable aboard. But adding complexity, likely means adding more maintenance cost and time.
Having said that, we’re totally getting a watermaker. It will give us more flexibility during our adventure and come on…making drinkable water from the ocean sounds pretty cool. Maybe we can retrofit it to be a winemaker?
7) Measure Your Progress Over Time
We’ve had many days where it seems like for every step forward we take two steps back. We start each day with a list of things we want to accomplish. At the end of the day, we sometimes celebrate with beers because we were able to cross each item off. Other days we sulk over beers because our to do list grew instead of shrunk.
You win some, you lose some. But when we look back over the last month, we are so proud of everything we have accomplished:
Happy New Year everyone! We are officially liveaboards! We said goodbye to our very colorful beach apartment on Friday and moved all of our belongings on board Kairos. This was by far our most pleasant moving experience to date. It’s not such a dreadful and daunting task when everything you own fits in your car. Once on board we spent the remainder of the day organizing and developing storage solutions. We were both pleasantly surprised with how much we were able to bring on board. We still have some unused storage on the boat, which I plan to fill with new shoes and bathing suits (just kidding…kinda’).
With our things safely packed away, we had our first dinner on the boat. This was my first time cooking in a galley (yes, everything has a different name on a boat–it’s like learning a new language). I love cooking. It is one of my favorite things to do. When asked what people miss most from land life when they move aboard, most say their showers, bathtub, or garden. For me it will be my kitchen. Our galley is perfectly adequate to prepare meals, but I’m going to miss my enormous counter space for prep, garbage disposal for easy clean up, my large John Boos cutting block, and my natural gas stove with hood.
But even without the comforts of my old kitchen, I was determined to prepare a nice meal for our first night on board. I made Asian lettuce wraps. It’s a very easy recipe and it’s a healthy meal (gotta’ work on our beach bods) we both enjoy. The propane stove will take some getting used to, but I was just happy it turned on. It is very rare for something on our boat to work the first time we try it. Night 2 on the boat was just as successful (baked chicken, mashed potatoes, and kale salad). The oven also turned on the first try. We’re starting to think that we got rid of all the evil juju after we did the renaming ceremony.
Dinner and drinks in the cockpit were very relaxing and for the first time since we started this adventure, we got a taste of what we set out for. All this hard work is really starting to pay off.
One night aboard and I’ve already discovered how to get an amazing night’s sleep on a boat. Solution: drink a bottle of wine before bed. I slept like a rock. Unfortunately, drinking a bottle of wine every night is not good for my health, so I will need to find a long term solution. We’ve had a couple of cool nights here in Florida, so sleeping hasn’t been difficult. I am a little nervous for the hot and humid nights. Kairos does not have AC.
Before we said goodbye to 2015, we were able to take Kairos out for her maiden voyage. Rob’s parents were in town and with their help not only did Kairos take her first sail, but the dogs did too. They were both nervous and confused, but overall did really well. Baxter absolutely loves being on the boat. His excitement made him very thirsty, which caused him to drink a ton of water. Then he had to potty on the bow two hours into our sail. I’ve ordered a turf pad to place on the bow for them and we’ll probably start potty training next week. I was pretty nervous about the potty training, but Baxter proved when they have to go, they will.
We took Kairos out twice while Rob’s parents were here. Rob was able to back into the slip and avoid the concrete wall of death both times. We are getting more comfortable docking and sailing. We are starting lessons this week to better prepare ourselves for all situations.
Life aboard looks a little different. Sunday at 11:00 AM in Denver we’d be drinking bloody marys and watching football with friends. Right now Rob is troubleshooting an electrical issue on the mini-fridge, while I squeeze in some blog time before shocking our water tanks again. Boat work has become our full time jobs and right now we are working overtime every weekend. But sunny sailing days like Thursday, relaxing nights listening to music in the cockpit like Friday, and seeing Kairos transformed into a home, makes it all worth it.
However, some things never change. We will find a way to catch the Green Bay game tonight. Go Pack!
When we adopted Jaela last year we decided right away that we would rename her. “Jaela” wasn’t as bad as Baxter’s pound name, “Coco Puff”, but we could come up with something better. After two days of reviewing dog (and people) name lists, we decided to stick with Jaela after all. It was just easier.
If our boat still had its original name, “Clever Skiff”, we probably would have done the same. No sense in upsetting the sea and wind gods–and it would have just been easier. But about a year ago, our boat was renamed “Kansas Out of Oz”, with the “Kansas” on the stern and “Out of Oz” in very large lettering on the sides. Now I’m sure the previous owner had a very good reason for naming his boat “Kansas Out of Oz”, but it just didn’t fit us. It had to go.
There’s a lot to consider when choosing a name for your boat. We’re told that people we met while cruising will forget our names, but remember our boat’s name. Is the name short enough to spell phonetically over the VHF? Is the name long enough to look good on a boat decal? Does the name have a cool meaning? Is the name unique? Will people mispronounce it? Does it rhyme with anything undesirable? Will the other boats at the marina make fun of it? Ahhhh!
We spent weeks racking our brains trying to decide on a boat name. If it is this difficult to name a boat, I can’t imagine the stress and responsibility parents must feel when assigning a name to a HUMAN BEING. God bless all of you parents out there that have accepted this daunting task.
And without further ado (drumroll)…our boat’s new name is: KAIROS.
Umm…okay, cool. What does that mean?
Well, nice of you to ask…The ancient Greeks had two words for time. The first being chronos, which refers to chronological or sequential time. The second being kairos (pronunication), meaning the right or opportune moment (the supreme moment). This pretty much sums up this moment in time for us. We believe that this journey will be our kairos in more ways than one.
Turns out that changing a boat’s name is not something that should be done lightly. If done incorrectly, renaming a boat will bring nothing but bad luck and let’s face it–we need all the luck we can get. So we took the following steps to ensure we appeased the gods, who will provide safe passages for us during our journey.
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Out with the old! Before renaming our boat, we had to purge the vessel of any item containing the previous name. This meant removing the very large “Kansas” and “Out of Oz” decals from the boat. Rob did this very carefully using a heat gun (my blow dryer) and acetone, while sitting in the dinghy. We also had to remove key chains, registration papers, old receipts, and manuals–anything that contained the previous name. It became obvious that the previous owner did not conduct this purging step, because we found many “Clever Skiff” items. Of course we removed those items as well for good measure.
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Once any reference to the old name was removed from the boat, we conducted the purging ceremony. For this we needed a metal tag with the old name written on it so we could toss it into the sea. We used a part of the old stereo receiver as our metal tag. Rob had spent the previous 3 hours trying to remove it from the cabin wall. He would have tossed the entire thing into the ocean if I let him.
We then asked Poseidon to remove “Kansas Out of Oz” (and “Clever Skiff” for good measure) from his records and happily tossed the receiver tag off the bow of the boat. Finally, we offered some champagne to Mr. Poseidon, pouring it into the sea from east to west.
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Once our boat was officially sans name, it was time to add our boat decals. Again Rob got into the dinghy for this task. The decals were easy to put on using the applicator that BoatUS sent us. We did the hailing port first (Denver, CO) and then added the name on each side. We measured twice to make sure it was level. We love our new decals. They aren’t as large or flashy as our old ones, but we are happy with our simple new look.
Renaming Ceremony
The renaming ceremony required even more champagne to appease Poseidon and the four wind gods. We asked Poseidon to enter “Kairos” into his records and provide us with safe passage throughout our journeys within his realm. This time the champagne flowed from west to east. Next we asked Boreas (North Wind), Zephyrus (West Wind), Eurus (East Wind), and Notus (South Wind) to grant us permission to use their powers and spare us from disasters. This required champagne to be tossed in each direction. By this time, any fish near our boat were probably getting a bit tipsy. With all of the gods drunk and happy, we (mostly just me) enjoyed the remaining champagne and celebrated our new name.
It’s official. We bought a Pearson 39-2 sailboat. We plan to move onto this lovely lady in the Regatta Pointe Marina after the New Year. Until then, we will be dwindling down (and of course adding to) our to-do list. We are looking forward to taking her on some shakedown sails this weekend when Rob’s dad is in town to help.
After our first day of boat ownership, we are SO excited and SO exhausted. We spent the entire day cleaning, scrubbing, organizing, troubleshooting, and inspecting. Our boat is 26 years old and desperately needed a good cleaning. But our hard work paid off–she looks better already.
We are starting to envision how we can spend the next year of our lives here. We are starting to envision our new home. In fact, I’ve already started sewing new cushions for the salon. Because I haven’t used a sewing machine since 8th grade home-ec, I started with the throw pillows. Thanks to sailrite’s wonderful how-to videos, the pillows were a success and I will be moving onto the box cushions next (eek!).
Today, we also inspected many of the boat’s systems and organized all of the goodies the previous owner left behind (spare parts, tools, safety systems). We found ourselves asking the question, “What the heck do you think this thing is for?” more than once. When in doubt it ended up in our spare parts storage cabinet. We certainly made a mess of the place before organizing and stowing items away. It was a hot, messy, sweaty day for us.
Meanwhile back at the beach apartment, Baxter and Jaela took naps in the air conditioning (lucky dogs). They are adjusting to beach life. They love playing in the sand and water. We haven’t shown them the boat yet, but we plan to take them sometime next week. With Baxter’s fear of docks and Jaela’s fear of odd noises it should be interesting. Hopefully we won’t have to test out those man (dog) overboard drills.
Okay, so that blizzard I wrote about in the last post WAS a joke. We didn’t get the 12 inches that was predicted…heck…I don’t think we got more than an inch. But it’s the last snow the dogs will see for awhile, so we went to the park to play.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Florida (well…Palmetto to be exact)…Rob was enjoying 80F weather. He and his dad traveled there for the sea trial and survey of the Pearson 39-2 we have under contract.
The boys got lucky with 15-25 knot winds and sunny skies. They were able to get a feel for how she handles in good winds. They sailed from the Manatee River out into the Tampa Bay.
While we have a long to-do list to tackle before we start cruising, overall the boat surveyed well. After some negotiating, we are moving forward with the sailboat purchase. Hopefully this time next week we will be the proud owners of our first sailboat.
Turns out that buying a sailboat is a lot like buying a house. During the boat buying process, the buyer and seller often work with a broker (realtor). Once the buyer makes an offer and it is accepted, the boat is under contract. The buyer’s deposit (10%) goes into escrow. Because the contract is contingent on the sea trial and survey, the buyer can still back out of the purchase at this time without losing their deposit. After the sea trial (test drive) and survey (inspection/appraisal), the buyer gets a second bite at the apple. The buyer can negotiate a lower price or ask that deficiencies found during the survey be fixed prior to closing. Once this negotiation is complete, the buyer and seller sign a Conditional Acceptance of the Vessel agreement. At this time, the buyer can no longer back out of the contract without losing their deposit (assuming the seller completes their end of the deal). This is where we currently are in this process. Finally, the seller and buyer close the transaction and ownership is transferred. If you have ever bought a house, then this process should sound pretty familiar.
When Rob returned from the sea trail and survey, it was almost time to say goodbye to our Denver home. We moved the last of our things into storage and said our final goodbyes. We packed up the car and left our Denver home for the last time on Saturday morning (Nov 21st). It was freezing!
Despite only living in that home for 2.5 years, it was difficult to say goodbye. It was our first home together and we have many memories there. We got engaged while living there, we adopted Jaela while living there, we planned a wedding there, we spent our first days as newlyweds there, and we planned this adventure while living there…But home is wherever the four of us make it. Last week it was in Indiana, while we were visiting family. And now it is in St. Pete Beach, FL. We have rented a small apartment here for the next month so we can fix up the boat while not living on it. This will also give the dogs a transition period (and let’s face it-us too). All of our lives look very different than they did two weeks ago. It’s time for our adventure to begin.
Mother Nature has decided to send us off with a bang. A BLIZZARD! It seems fitting that we shouldn’t be able to escape to 80F, sunny days without one last snow storm.
