Category: living aboard

Day to day activities, challenges and new things learned living aboard a boat

January 24, 2014

Shakedown Shivers

We left the marina yesterday for another shakedown cruise out in Pelican Bay/Cayo Costa. Our first stop was the Burnt Store Marina fuel dock on the way out for our very first fill up. It was a little strange being on that side of the dock as we have been walking past there for the last three months. We filled up both tanks and our jerry cans too. The dogs got their daily treat from the marina staff as we handed over the credit card. Ouch! It was almost five times the cost of filling up an SUV! As the old saying goes, BOAT stands for bust out another thousand!

We had a nice sail out across the harbor with all three sails up. Toward the end we motorsailed a bit and dropped the sails before following our tracks into the narrow entrance to Pelican Bay.

Peter and Josh raised the dinghy over the lifelines with the main halyard and prepared for the trip to shore. The outboard was acting up and not getting fuel correctly. Peter and I chanced it to take the dogs to shore but Josh and Leah hung back just incase it stopped working all together. We made it to shore and I took the pups for a quick dinnertime walk to do their business. We got back to the dinghy dock only to learn that the outboard wouldn’t start again so Peter and I had to row back. Luckily the current was heading towards our boat this time. We forgot to grab the seat for the dinghy.

We made it back and started prepping for dinner. Leah and I had everything ready to go and I went to turn on the stove to boil some rice. AND there’s no propane! I checked the safety button on the wall, checked the breaker, everything seemed right but there was just no gas in the lines. The guys checked the tanks and discovered the needle in the gauge for the house tank was broken off. Weird! The BBQ worked fine off the small tank so they switched it to hook up the small tank to the main lines. Still no propane getting to the galley. We checked the breaker and wires but it all tested fine. It was getting late and dark and VERY chilly! We were all looking forward to a hot meal. Looks like this will need to wait until we get back to calmer waters back at the dock.

Even though we had a change of plans, we still put the steaks on the BBQ and cooked a bunch of veggies in the microwave. Our FourWinds wind generator was cookin all night long so we had enough juice to run the inverter for the microwave for awhile.

After dinner we tried for hot showers again like we did last time at anchor. For some reason the hot water heater just wasn’t getting as hot as it normally does. Peter tried a shower anyway and it was not a pleasant experience with the weather so cold outside. We’re going to test out our solar shower next time. So weird though… first the outboard, then the propane, now the hot water heater? We sure are shaking out some kinks while shivering on this shakedown :( Better to find out now than after we leave the dock for good!

It howled at 25-30 knots all night long. Josh and Leah were kept awake by the loud crashing of the waves against the bow while Peter and I had to listen to the wind generator prepare for lift off. It’s crazy how loud that thing gets when it’s really cranking. Peter and I were also paranoid about dragging anchor with the high winds so we didn’t get much sleep. Maybe an hour or two all night. The anchor alarm went off a couple times and scared us half to death. Turns out we were just swinging all the way around from where the anchor was dug in. After the sun came up we were convinced we were still holding good.

Gunner wouldn’t go potty before bed but Betsy did. It was too cold and windy out and Gunner wanted no part of that! They both went on deck in the morning though, thank goodness! No #2s but we’re off to a good start. At least we know they’ll go if they really have to.

We got the dingy back in place on the bow and began stowing everything down below. Josh drove while Peter tended to the windlass and pulled the anchor up. This time he wore gloves :) The wind was still blowing 15-18 but we got out of Pelican relatively easily. Our boat does circles around the anchor no matter how you drive her when there is wind and strong currents. The keel hit sand a couple times on the way out with 5.6 on the depth gauge. We made it out only to hit 15 knots on our nose all the way back to the marina. Peter opted to motor back to get to the dock before sunset.

We’ve got the tunes going in the cockpit as I write this and we’re all relaxing in the sun for a rolly ride back to Burnt Store :)

January 21, 2014

Bath time!

It’s bath time once a month for our pups. I’m sure this will be happening much more frequently once they are swimming everyday in the salt water :) It just takes a little patience and a little love.

Both dogs got a good brushing from their daddy and Gunner gets a treat so he’ll be good for the deshedding process. Its amazing how much they shed and this is not good when you’re a liveaboard. If you’re not careful, the dog hair will fall into the bilge and could clog up the pump. Although oblivious to it, we don’t want the boat to start smelling like ‘DOG’ :)

We try to pick a sunny and warm day so they dry quicker after bath time. As long as Gunner has a treat or toy to chew on he entertains himself while Betsy gets groomed.

Every once in a while Gunner looks back to make sure the hose isn’t coming his way again…

Then back to the bone :)

Betsy is pretty tolerant of the whole process. She knows that when she’s all clean she gets to snuggle under the covers with her daddy! Spoiled girl.

Both puppies get their nails trimmed and ears cleaned after their bath and Betsy gets real excited when we tell her she has “pretty nails” :)

Next bath time will be on the aft deck at anchor, place warm where the coconuts grow…

January 15, 2014

First night at anchor

Last weekend we had a perfect opportunity to take the boat out and try anchoring overnight for the first time. The weather was nice, tides were favorable and we finally had the confidence to take the boat out by ourselves with no extra crew! We’ve been out on S/V Mary Christine maybe 10 times already but every time so far we’ve had someone else with us, either friends or family. Our first time out just the two of us was amazing! Its starting to sink in a little more, we’re really doing this :)

We sailed across Charlotte Harbor over to Cayo Costa where our friends Jan and David had arrived an hour or two ahead of us. Its real tricky to get in and out of Pelican Bay where everyone anchors up. There is a very narrow channel with 1-3 feet depths on either side. Since we didn’t have previous tracks in and out, Jan and David met us in their dinghy to lead us in.

I backed the boat down as Peter dropped the anchor. We don’t have our chain marked yet for length but Peter did a rough estimate of how much chain he was letting out. It was pretty rusty and made an awful mess on the bow. We pulled the anchor snubber out of the depths of the line locker and got that all set up too. The current made it a challenge to keep the boat into the wind and to reverse in the right direction at the same time. We did pretty good for the first time though!! I suppose it’s just like docking… practice makes perfect. Pretty soon we’ll be doing this in our sleep, literally ;)

The next item on the agenda was to drop the dinghy into the water. We hooked it up to the mail halyard and lowered our dink down. Suddenly, we realized something was missing…

Our gas tank was safe and sound inside a crate… back on the dock at Burnt Store Marina!! No need to take the outboard off anymore! We will be rowing this time. Good thing I like to row!

We grabbed a spare line to tie the dinghy up at shore and got the dogs ready. Betsy is only 45 lbs so Peter could pretty much just pick her up off the deck and set her down. She was a little unsure of it all but that dog has no fear!

I didn’t get any pics of lowering Gunner down because it was a two-person job. I’ll try for some next time so you all can see how we get this big guy around. Thanks to our AWESOME ‘Help’EmUp‘ harnesses, we were able to get a 75 lb dog off the boat into the dinghy relatively easily! Peter grabbed the forward handle and I held the rear hip lift handle and we lowered him down. Gunner had one thing on his mind… Get To Shore!! He gets really excited to go anywhere so this was totally fun for him. They both did really well once they were inside. We have an aluminum floor so we didn’t worry too much about their nails.

The current was moving with us and we got to shore pretty quick. The dogs got to stretch their legs and we checked out a few of the trails.

We wen’t back to the boat right away and started on dinner. BBQ pork loin and Caribbean rice was on the menu. Our LED cockpit lights were on and the evening was just perfect as we enjoyed our first meal at anchor. Next was time for showers. Since our generator isn’t quite fixed yet, we ran the main engine to be able to use the hot water heater. Hot water showers at anchor? Yes Please!! It was sooo refreshing. We snuggled up and enjoyed being rocked to sleep as the small waves lapped up against the hull.

All was quiet until 4am. Gunner has been recovering from a bladder infection and in the wee hours of the morning he HAD to go potty. The way he was whining and talking to us let me know that he really had to go. Peter was sound asleep, but I got Gunner up into the cockpit and took him back to the aft deck where our chunk of Astroturf lay waiting for the first potty away from the dock. It didn’t take long and Gunner copped a squat. HOORAY!!!! This was such a relief to know he’ll actually go if he needs to.

The dogs have been in training for a few weeks now. We would sneak the fake grass underneath them as they peed to get a little scent on it. If we held them in place long enough they would go as long as it sat over top of the real grass on shore. Betsy finally got the hang of it and she doesn’t have any trouble going on the boat if we tell her to.

Gunner must have been nervous because he had to go again at 6am and 8am. He was whining all night long and would NOT go to sleep. When 6am rolled around I decided to just stay in the cockpit with him incase he was trying to hold back a #2. It was cold, breezy and very dewy. Even though I didn’t get more than a couple of hours of sleep I did my best to enjoy the stillness of the bay around us. The sun began to come up and the gratitude slowly grew. A sliver of serenity? Youbetcha!

We had anchored in the deep hole in the center of Pelican Bay. When the sun came up I heard splashing all around and realized the dolphins were herding fish and feeding. They kept popping up in different places as they went around in circles swimming by all the boats.

In the morning we went to shore again and walked across the island to the gulf.

There were shells EVERYWHERE! The tiny pieces littered the white sand beaches as far as I could see.

There were a few horseshoe crab shells along the shore as well. Check out Jan’s post if you want to learn a little more about these strange-looking creatures of the sea :)

When it was time to row back to Mary Christine the wind was NOT our friend. It was blowing 15-20 knots and we had to row up wind. There were a few times we got a little scared we would be swept out to the gulf. We were barely making any progress and I all could do was cheer Peter on. He powered through it getting us and the 12′ dinghy back safely. Scary.

We wanted to get back to the marina before sunset so we pulled up the anchor and followed our tracks back out to the harbor. It was a little tricky keeping the boat into the wind again while Peter pulled up the anchor but we managed.

We sailed back and the puppies were happy to be going somewhere again.

We ended this awesome adventure by catching our very first fish while underway!! Spanish Mackerel… mmm!

Back at the marina we docked for the first time alone, and of course it went way easier than I expected :) We had a lot of firsts and a lot of fun!

Until next time!!

January 14, 2014

Holiday Baking on a boat!

Before we get too far away from the holidays I wanted to post a few pics of how my holiday baking turned out. It’s tradition for us to have fresh-baked Christmas cookies and pie every year so this year was no exception. The only part that was a challenge was the lack of counter space. Having a tiny oven just meant I had to bake smaller batches and only one cookie sheet at a time. We didn’t mind having the oven going all day since it was so chilly during the holidays and the oven heat kept us toasty inside the boat.

Yummy vanilla buttercream frosting hit the spot for my wicked sweet tooth. I made some extras for neighbors and friends, and some for Santa of course!

I ran out of bowls for mixing the pie crust so I used the pie plate instead.

We brought pumpkin pie over to Carl and Cynthia’s boat for Christmas Dinner before our new friends set sail for the Keys and Bahamas. Since I don’t have a cooling rack anymore, an upsidedown cupcake pan worked perfect :)

After rolling out cookies the cloth can get pretty messy. I used the edge of one of the cookie cutters to scrape off the majority of the dough before retiring the cloth to the laundry.

There were a few more people that we wanted to bring cookies to so the next few batches were of sea turtles, starfish and palm trees as I was dreaming of what our New Year will bring!

January 9, 2014

How to hang pictures on a boat

When we packed up our little house to drive across the country, I made sure to bring a few decorations to make the boat feel a little more like home. On a boat, you can’t just set something down and expect it to stay there. Everything must be either secured or stowed so that when the boat is under way we don’t end up with surprise missiles flying through the cabin. In July the previous owner showed me how they used hang pictures along with a few other tips and tricks for stowage they used to use while living on this boat. She had several watercolor paintings she had done throughout their travels and hung the frames with velcro instead of hammering nails into the beautiful teak.

I had to remove the adhesive from where their pictures were hung and tried using velcro to put our decorations up in their place. It worked for about a week but the so-called heavy-duty indoor/outdoor velcro I bought was no match for the heat and humidity. Pretty soon I had frames and wood decorations crashing down off the walls. The inside of the velcro strips held up no problem but the adhesive side just peeled off.

I was already making a mess of our doors and walls by taking off varnish with each attempt to hang something up so there was no turning back. Those pictures were getting installed no matter what! We tried some 3M double-sided adhesive foam tape next but that warmed up too and peeled right off just like the velcro.

The next idea was to use DUCK brand adhesive foam tape. I tried it first on the slippery finish over the fiberglass to hang a wood sign. Unfortunately it took me a few times to realize how uneven the surface was, but eventually I found the areas that needed an extra layer of foam to make the contacts flush. It may not look pretty underneath but this stuff really did the trick. My sign isn’t going anywhere now!

My mom had given me this sign a few years back for my birthday and I always found a special place for it wherever I lived. When we first saw the boat I knew right where I was going to put it. The space above the fridge was perfect and it looked like it was just waiting to be decorated :) We’ve got special decorations and sentimental items all throughout the boat and its these things from our loved ones that remind us “Home Is Where The Heart Is.”

The sign reads:

“Sunshine On My Shoulders Makes Me Happy”

It’s a song recorded and co-written by John Denver. This little sign represents exactly what I was talking about in our last post. Our priorities are changing and its the little things in life that we appreciate the most. Sunshine On My Shoulders really DOES make me happy!!

About to set sail on an adventure of a lifetime, we are forever in search of surf, sun, sand and serenity :)