one down ____ to go

December 8, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: boat baby, Kids, New England, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Sailing

1021 hours underway, that’s just over 42 days

Averaged 6.7 knots

6872 nautical miles

So we have been living aboard and cruising for just over a year now and loving it. When we started we weren’t really sure if this was going to be the life for us. But like with everything we sold all our possessions and jumped in head first. The first month was challenging for us. The girls took their time to adjust while we did projects on the boat readying her to sail to the Bahamas from North Carolina.

Once we got going there was no turning back. It was tough sailing at the beginning, after all I was 6 months pregnant and we had a 2 and 3 year old running around. But boy did we make the best of it and packed a lot into our first year.

We bought a boat, readied her to sail, sailed to the Bahamas, had our 3rd baby, sailed up to Massachusetts to visit family for a breather. From there we sailed further north to Nova Scotia and circumnavigated Newfoundland. We found icebergs, we ate icebergs. Back down to Maine. We found lobster pots, we snagged lobster pots, we cursed those F*#KEN AS!HOLE lobster pots. Had another breather in Massachusetts. Set sail for the Caribbean and that’s where we are now. Wow it was a lot to cram into a year.

Here are some other fun highlights:

Did my first crash jibe and bent our boom
Experienced a natural birth in the Bahamas – drugs next time please, not that there will be a next time!
Saw our first killer whales in Newfoundland
Found out that whip lash is possible when hitting rocks at 5 knots – gotta love a steel boat
After countless swim lessons and bribery Pri finally learnt how to swim from an 8 year old in 30 minutes at a pool
Keeping a container of hermit crabs onboard with no lid is never a good idea
Don’t leave garbage on deck in the States, raccoons will board you
Never sail when pregnant, severe seasickness is inevitable.
Sailing with kids is 100 times harder than without

We are still waiting on the evening that we can actually sit in the cockpit, cocktail in hand and watch the sunset. Every day seems like a marathon with kids onboard, but every month that goes by it gets easier.

So have we learnt anything? Yeah probably a bit. Carl is definitely a better sailor than me and I’m better at teaching the girls. It has been tough on our relationship but I believe we are stronger for it. So how long are we going to do this for? I really don’t know, put it this way we’ve been travelling for a year and feel like we’ve barely scratched the surface.

Plans for next year…

Things are pretty up in the air at the moment. We’ve been trying to stick close to the States due to some unfortunate family illness’s. But we are bold enough to want to plan on doing the Northwest Passage this summer? Maybe.

So has cruising changed our marriage? In a way yes, Carl now forces me to read every sailing book ever written and happy hour now begins at 5pm, maybe a smidge before. We spend 24/7 with each other and the kids. What does this mean? This means going to the bathroom while still in conversation, waking up to kids in the bed and not realizing how they got there. Lots of beer, lots of rum and mostly good times.

2013

October – Wilmington, North Carolina
November – Wilmington, North Carolina
December – Wilmington, North Carolina

2014

January – Bahamas
February – Nassau, Bahamas
March – Nassau Bahamas (Crew’s Birthday)
April – Bahamas (Easter)
May – Massachusetts
June – Massachusetts
July – Nova Scotia
July – Newfoundland

August – Newfoundland
September – Nova Scotia, Maine, Massachusetts
October – Massachusetts
November – BVI’s, Caribbean

updating just to update

September 30, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: boat baby, Kids, projects, provisioning

I’ve heard people are starting to get a little worried about me. So I haven’t posted in 12 days, this doesn’t mean I’ve jumped ship and joined some hippy commune.

We have been busy with family and prepping the boat getting ready for the Caribbean season. Carl’s family lives here and we hang out with them pretty much every other day. The girls are getting completely spoilt and are enjoying the extra hugs and ice cream. Carl has been busy welding lips on all the lower hatches, hinging the engine room floor hatch, changing oil, building stools for the table and lots of other odd jobs. I’ve been taking stock of all the food we have on board and making sure we have all the necessities for some hot winter fun: swimsuits, sunscreen, Christmas gifts etc.

We’ve finally perfected, well nothings perfect, our daily schedule. Wake up, eat breakfast, clean up shower, 9-11am school time for the girls while Carl works on projects, lunch, family and/or errands. It’s been working out pretty good and I think the girls are enjoying more of a predictable schedule but I think they’d toss that in a blink of an eye for boogy boards and beach time.

One of the major projects (from my point of view) when we got here was the installation of a new washing machine! Wooo-hoo! We opted for a compact washer instead of the marine combos that most boats go for. We have no need for a dryer so why spend the extra money for one. Our washer is 23.5” wide so we could get it into the aft master cabin. She is wonderful! and my husband is WONDERFUL for installing it for me. You have no idea how much laundry with go through with 3 kids. Our life had suddenly started revolving around our next Laundromat visit. Plus the expense was crazy! We were washing in a bucket in the Bahamas before the baby came which was working out but with all the extra laundry it was becoming a miserable chore. We are hooked up to shore power and water at the moment so I do laundry anytime – weather permitting. When we leave here in a few weeks its another story. I’ll have to time my laundry with either charging the batteries or water making because it’ll need the generator to run. The washer actually uses less water than what we would use doing it in a 5 gallon bucket so no worries there.

Above is one load of laundry. I love my washer.

What else?

We are thinking of joining NARC (North American Rally to the Caribbean) and making the trip to the Caribbean via Bermuda with everyone. We were thinking of the Caribbean 1500 but didn’t pay money and feel pressured to sail with everyone even if we felt the weather wasn’t favorable. This way we can have the companionship of other sailors and maybe find some crew members to help us along. They will be leaving Newport RI the start of November and hopefully we can keep up with the Swans.

We have also been (seriously) dabbling in the idea to do the Northwest Passage next summer. Are we crazy? The kids and I would fly to Alaska part way through the journey so they wouldn’t have to endure the cold offshore stint of it. We love the thought of doing the passage but it’s pretty much a means for us to get to Alaska. We would love to spend a year in Alaska, yes that does mean the unforgiving winter, and put the girls in school. From there we would head south and make the Pacific crossing.

BAM! That’s us for the next 3 years, who would have ever thought I could plan 3 years out. We are always looking for extra crew so keep your calendar open.

Pri helping dad out, sorting and putting away spare hoses.

Before and after of the table legs with stools. We are planning on wrapping the aluminum legs with rope to give it a softer feel.

On the bubba front. Our little man is sitting up by himself for long periods of time and we have 2 teeth. Yep I’ve had limited sleep due to 2 teeth coming in at the same time. The teeth also came along with an ear infection and then a cold and probably another ear infection due to the cold. I NEED TO SLEEP PEOPLE!

Yes the boat ALWAYS looks like this. Spot the baby!

Newfoundland Epilogue

September 6, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: boat baby, Kids, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, provisioning, wildlife

All I can say is what a trip! We left Massachusetts around the middle of June and headed north to Nova Scotia. We discovered the brilliant Bras d’Or Lakes and circumnavigated Newfoundland in 2.5 months and with 3 kids under 5. Suffering from some form of dementia? Probably so.

So what was it like cruising with our now family of 5? I won’t lie it was tough. I thought we had it bad being on a boat with two kids but you toss in a baby and your life just went down the head. Our little man is a fantastic baby as far as babies go but you must remember that he’s still a baby. He always wants to be entertained and would prefer to be attached to my breast 24/7. I tried getting back into a little bit of homeschooling with the girls, they’re still quite young so it consists of reading books, worksheets and practicing letters, but eventually decided to take the summer off because every time I got set up to do an activity of course the baby needed my attention. He’s getting more into a routine now so I’m hoping to pick back up on the school work in a couple of weeks.

Other issues we found were that the kids didn’t really understand colder climates, they still wanted to run around with their panties on and refused to wear jackets. So for majority of the trip the girls didn’t want to be out on deck so were cabin bound until we went to shore. But when we went to shore oh boy did we have fun. Newfoundland has so many beautiful hiking trails that are so well kept that I swear they have little machete fairies lurking about. Oh and the whole island smells like Christmas. Everyday I would inhale and feel like I’m home – the smell of Christmas trees always makes you reminisce of your childhood Christmas’. Now I’m just rambling.

Even with all the beautiful hiking trails we noticed a lot of the locals in the smaller villages were quite unhealthy, fresh produce up there is not so much on the fresh side and the meat is quite expensive. Leaving NL I was happy to eat my last slice of stale bread in a while. I know I could just make my own bread but with 3 kids under 5 my mornings are a little full. If you’re planning on heading up to NL make sure you provision your boat with dry goods and clothes, things are pretty scarce on “the rock”

We didn’t stop much on the west coast, we were tracking icebergs and wanted to get all the way to the tip in order to catch them before it got too late. Sailing up the west coast was great, a little gusty but good. Everyday the weather report called for 15-20 knot winds and we got 25-30 everyday, but that’s ok our tank needs some wind to get her going. Up the west coast is where I decided that we needed a new boom, I bent that baby up real good. What can I say I’m a shitty sailor.

Icebergs! ICEBERGS! They were magnificent!!! Made the rush north all worth while. And it wasn’t all that cold up near them. We definitely do need to get better protection in our cockpit. We don’t have the typical sunken in cockpit, our deck is all one level so when those icy winds come howling there is no escaping them. We spent majority of our watch time sitting on a 2” ledge of our companion way. We put up our mosquito screen to try and help block some of the wind. It did pretty good but it was still bloody cold at times. I have now replaced the netting with clear plastic we picked up at a hardware store.

After the excitement of the bergs we didn’t really have a plan. Do we beat into the wind and retrace our steps back down the west coast or do we continue around and circumnavigate NL? the guide book mentioned that only real adventurous sailors circumnavigate and we thought that’s definitely not us but screw it we could catch the Labrador current down the east coast and make good time. Maybe we should have done our homework better. We motored majority of the way due to poor wind, from all that money we saved in free dockage we made it up in diesel. We wouldn’t change a thing, from the west to the north to the east to the south coast, Newfoundland has so much diversity. The west coast had the small towns that rarely saw visitors, the north had the icebergs, the east had the larger towns and beautiful buildings and the south had the outposts and waterfalls. Whales on the west, puffins on the east, caribou and moose in between.

So what have we learnt from the trip??

* I want a washing machine, and we WILL be getting one in Massachusetts

* You can never wear too many layers

* It is possible to mistake a high of 60 degrees for a heat wave of 95

* Always ALWAYS put a preventer on when sailing downwind

* Not all rocks are charted

* When it takes longer to pump out your poop then it takes to actually poop it’s time to rebuild the head

* Breastfeeding while trying not to puke on your baby is never fun

* Babies and kids may slow you down but they make you life more the richer

We didn’t find many blogs with information about cruising in Newfoundland so I hope if there are any cruisers looking for info on NL or NS that my blog helps out.

For now we are planning on coming north again next summer and maybe even further north. But plans are just plans, they could change once, twice, 10 zillion times – like our kids changing outfits in a day.

ey-by

August 3, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: boat baby, Kids, Newfoundland, Sailing

“ey-by, wareyat?”

“Dis-issit”

English translation:

“Hey there, what have you been up to”

“Pretty much what you see here”

I understand, really I do….. I understand that you DON’T understand because it’s TOTALLY NOT English. Probably closer to Irish but I think the Irish would have a hard time understanding these bys (boys).

We met Sharon and Craig off SV View Finder that have been teaching us and the girls a bit of Newfie lingo. I think as long as you say a word as fast as you can and miss every second vowel you’ll be good to go. Oh yeah and call everyone a boy (by). I would love to tape some of the conversations we have with the locals, especially the fisherman. We just nod, agree and hope not to offend anybody. We might as well be in China with this language barrier. It’s not really that bad.

We will be in St. Johns for a day or so and hopefully I’ll get to meet up with a friend I made in Japan. It’s a big world but really it’s only as big as you make it.

The kids are growing up in leaps and bounds. Pri is learning to help out more by helping with lines and washing dishes. Wags seems to be getting shyer with strangers but is giving her imagination a good work out these days. Our little man is rolling over, yes it is possible with all that fat. He’s such a happy baby, all smiles and rarely cries even when the girls stick their fingers in his eyes – what are sisters for.

Above: Catalina, NL

Who doesn’t love a good princess puzzle?

Nightline visits Salty

July 13, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: bahamas, boat baby, Kids

We were contacted quite a while ago by ABC’s Nightline to see if they could fly in and do a piece on our family. I was very hesitant at the start and of course Carl talked me into it. I was so scared that they would be very critical of us, our boat and how we raise our kids. But the more we spoke with them the more I realized that they were after a story that was more about the positive aspects of raising kids on a boat, so that was ok with me. We were still a little nervous trusting them when editing the footage and knowing it would air without us seeing the final product. There were many times that we didn’t even realize they were filming us.

Ben and Reena were onboard for 2 days, including a sleepover – brave, brave people! Big thanks to them for producing this small snip it on our life that we can keep forever.

ABC News | ABC Sports News

I hope the Kaufmans and the rest of the live aboard community sees that we did this in support of them not to be TV superstars. It’s a chance in a lifetime to have the experience of a news crew onboard and to be able to keep this footage to share with all our family and friends. It was a fun and exciting time.

Nova Scotia Baby!

June 21, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: boat baby, Kids, Nova Scotia, Sailing, sails

What a great trip. We went up the Cape Cod Canal over to Ptown (Province Town), hung out for the night and met the crazy man at the fuel dock the next day. That evening we started our run north to Nova Scotia. All I can say is that Carl is a trooper, he knew how worried I was about turning into a sleepless crazed bitch so he took the night time watches all by himself and I gave him the mornings to snooze. We had great weather, I think the most perfect weather we’ve ever had. Smooth sailing, even got up to 11 knots. We saw bunches of whales, dolphins and a gigantic fin that could only belong to some mutant shark.

There was no puking over the side, injuries from being on a 15 degrees angle no 24/7 baby grazing. That’s right he slept 11 hours each night and spent the day in the cockpit sleeping for 4 hours!! He rocks!

I bought some underway wall stickers for the girls. They were a huge hit but what do you do with them the other 23 hours of the day?

We gained a knot with our new code zero sail

One hand always for the boat!

The weather turned quite bad the last 4-5 hours of cruising. We successfully found a mooring in Shelborne and waited it out before we went into the yacht club to check in with customs.

Shelborne is a darling little town and everyone knew who we were before we step foot on the street. Word travels fast. We can see why many people return to this small fishing town to live.

We went into town today to find the Frenchys – the only clothing store in town. Used closed imported from the US. I had brought my camera to take some great pictures of town but in true Carly fashion I whipped out the camera and the battery was dead.

FYI never try and see a doctor in Canada if you’re not Canadian you’ll go broke, just like the US. Little wags had a rash for over a week and it was slowly taking over her tiny little body. we finally thought we better get some professional advice and thought it would be simple enough to find the local doc in a small town. Not so. The town is so small that it doesn’t have any small doctors offices. We had to go to the county hospital and enter into the ER outpatient area. We waited for about 6 hours and spent $720 to be told to take her home and give her Benadryl. I thought that if it was an allergic reaction it would go away once the source was gone but I guess not. She’s on her second dose of Benadryl today and we’ll have to make sure it doesn’t flare again, if it does we’ll have to start eliminating products. None of us has had an allergic reaction before, this is new to us all. We’ve heard if you’re foreign you should seek out a pharmacist first and they can prescribe medicines. Wish we had none that before $720 and 6 hours at the ER. Also don’t tell medical providers you’re from the States. We are now unofficially all Australians and Carl’s not allowed to speak!

kids, shopping and making holes in the boat

June 13, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: boat baby, kids on board, projects

Time seems to fly by but also stand still at the same time. For all the days that take forever to end you look back and think what happened to the first half of the week?
Carl has been working on welding over the ports. They leaked a lot and we thought lets just kill them, never to leak again. All the cabins have overhead hatches for light and other than being at a dock the portholes really do nothing (other than leak).

The kids are getting along really well lately and even the bub likes to hang with the girls. Yes that is a barn door on his hand. It is tough having three miniatures but to watch them interact is priceless.

Little Crew better learn to sit up soon or else he’s not going to be able to fit in the tub anymore, he’s a chunk at over 15lbs 3 months old.

Yes that is a crows nest in the above picture. We are officially pirates. I don’t know why but Carl just had to have one, he better use it. You may find me up there some days when I need to some time out from the family.

We now have grab rails in the salon. We have such a large “living room” that its are bit dangerous to navigate through, now the girls have monkey bars to swing from and mumma has a clothes line!

Yesterday was my big provisioning day. We used up all our supplies down in the Bahamas and it was time to restock. Maybe I went a bit overboard! All the food will be used and now we don’t have to worry about hauling everything back to the boat in our dingy. If we do make it up to Newfoundland I’ve heard that towns are very few and far between, we will not be going hungry.

We are thrilled we are now able to easily mount our dingy on deck. We haul it out over the life lines using our electric winch and BAM she’s safe and sound on deck.

So the week has been a blur and I feel like nothing has been done but in reality we’ve accomplished a lot, especially with 3 kids screaming for attention. We were hoping to leave tomorrow for Maine but we have a doctors appointment for the baby (ear infection), I want to take all the bedding to a laundromat while we still have a car and need to do a last minute shop for fresh produce. We should leave out first thing Saturday and head to P-Town (Providence Town) on the tip of Cape Cod. It will be an all day motor through the Cape Cod Canal and instead of sailing straight for Maine we’ll get a good nights sleep under our belts first – my idea, why do I have the husband that likes to leave at the crack of ass and go go go until we get there? Can’t we do it slowly, take breaks and enjoy the sail without being grumpy tired the whole time – that’s me.

We got ourselves a Pactor Modem in the mail the other day so now we have the headache of setting it all up. I hope to write a blog underway north, if we can get our heads around it. Fingers crossed and praying for some pixie dust.