family sailing adventure blog with vlog
It’s a little crazy around here, our little Maine house is lacking floor space. We have 4 sleeps until we fly to Saint Martin on Monday.
We don’t have mountains of clothes, they all fit in one case but it’s the power tools, toys, homeschool books and foul weather gear that has taken up all our space. [Read more…]
Change of plan, fancy that. Originally, Carl was to fly down to the Caribbean and bring our new Abeona north to Florida where we would all move aboard and make her home but once in St. Maartin Carl didn’t see why we were going to sail her so many miles in the wrong direction, I concurred. Sadly Sean, our friend who flew down to help Carl deliver our boat, only found this out once he arrived in the steamy Caribbean. Sorry Sean.
Sean and Carl for the last few weeks have been working on the boat getting her ready for our arrival. The head has been replaced, the pilot house made into the master cabin and a really expensive dinghy was purchased – man does it look fine!
Carl came home today after 3 weeks of being apart, giddy like a school boy about the projects he has completed. We are going to try and book flights tomorrow and spend our final days or weeks in Maine packing up the house, winterizing it and tying up loose ends.
We are all excited for the next chapter of our voyaging lives to commence. This time around we are going to be smarter. [Read more…]
Carl is leaving us (again) on Saturday to get our new boat and the kids and I will start the process of packing up the house. We’ve only been in Maine for about 6 months but I’ve fallen in love with the area. Having four seasons makes each and every moment special and different. For now we’re going to keep our little cabin in the woods, how could we ever shut the door on this backyard. If ever again we feel the need to have a bit more space and long hot showers we’ll always have the option to come back to soak up Maine’s pine scent.
Here are some pictures of the Maine fall we are experiencing, it’s everything that everybody said it would be, and so much more. If only my pictures were scratch and sniff.
All pictures were taken in Morrill, our small town with a population of around 1000
Other than the dramatic downsize the first thing you’ll notice about our new lady is that she’s aluminum – gasp! A lot of people get freaked out by aluminium and to be honest I’m not really sure why. Electrolysis is an issue but we plan to move, move, move and stay out of marinas.
Aluminum is low maintenance compared to steel, we don’t like to paint, especially hard to reach bilge areas. Our new to us boat has a painted hull and we plan on blasting it off. Metal boats are not better than fiberglass, they are just better suited for icy waters. They are also typically dry boats with no deck penetrations like on fiberglass such as stanchions, winches, sail tracks, cleats, chain plates – these are all bolted through the deck (on fiberglass boats) and allow water find it’s way in where as aluminum or steel boats are mostly welded. [Read more…]
Capri asked me today why people don’t live forever. I answered with a question: if you lived forever would you enjoy everyday knowing that there are unlimited days to follow? Of course she looked confused and said that everyone should still live forever.
Life needs to be cherished, I always hear “live each day to its fullest” but that’s pretty hard to do, some days all you want to do is stay in bed all day and each chocolate. To spend a day in bed every blue moon is fine but make sure you’re not coaxing through life in a daydream. [Read more…]
I feel the need to surface for some air. The last 4+ months have been pretty hectic. Carl has been working in the Bahamas and Greenland/Iceland to try and keep our family afloat, literally. Moving to Maine has absolutely drained our bank account, who would have thought it would cost so much to return to a land life. I have been playing solo mum for over 4 months now. Dealing with broken down cars, dried up water well (twice) and mice, lots of f*#ken mice all the while battling homeschooling our kids.
Not sure what the future held, we were broke and thought we best make a go of the rat race again. We’ve been in Maine for about 6 months now and the place is absolutely lovely, everything I (maybe not Carl) would have ever wished for in a community but BUT why don’t we feel content?
I haven’t put the kids in school, I haven’t put myself out there to build friendships – actually I did I’m just socially dysfunctional. I haven’t even planted bulbs for next spring, I hear that’s what you do on in the Fall. How do you return to a “normal” life after living on a boat? The answer, you DON’T.
With a bit of good fortune on our side we sold a property that got passed down to us. It had helped us out over the years with a rental income and now it has sold. It was a sign! The mature thing to do would be to invest the money into real estate or a business and make the money work for us but life is short and a life without regrets is in my mind a fine one.
We’re going to buy a boat!
For the last couple of months we have been scouring the online world of yacht sales, hitting all the major websites:
Out of all the thousands of sailboats listed we have worked it down to 3, all aluminum and under 51 feet. Our offer got rejected on one already so we are down to 2 possible candidates, both aluminum and 48 feet. We have a pretty tight budget which is dictating what we can look at. Farewell Garcia, Alubat and Koopmans and hello no-names.
Carl will be flying to check out one of these boats this weekend and fingers crossed she is the one. We have made our offer and even though we don’t have a contract we have a verbal acceptance contingent upon inspection and sea trial, to be done this weekend. The scary thought is that while I sit at home with our 3 kids and God knows how many mice Carl is off making a life changing decision that effects us all. Ultimately we will purchase a sailboat that I haven’t laid eyes on. Carl cares about sea-worthiness, the price, engine stuff and how sexy the hull looks, it’s going to be a man cave with sails.
Hopefully my next post will be of a boat (with a sexy hull) officially under contract.
