Happy Salty New Year

January 2, 2016 by Carly Filed Under: Alaska, Arctic, Australia, bahamas, Beaver Road Trip, Caribbean, New England, Newfoundland, Northwest Passage, Nova Scotia

Of course it’s the 11th hour and I’m writing a post for the New Year. I’m late for everything, never on time, always in a flustered rush. But hey, if I was on time that wouldn’t be me.

New year resolution…. better time management.

Ha! Let me put that on the list of eat better and exercise, those New Year’s resolutions seem to roll over year after year.

We all know very well on the improvements we need to make on ourselves but what of those achievements we’ve reached previously in the year? Lets check those puppies out people! What did you pull off in 2015? [Read more…]

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

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.

Francois, Newfoundland to Lunenburg Nova Scotia

August 26, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Sailing, sails

No nausea, not even a little! It has taken us 2 nights and 3 full days to get from Fancois to Lunenburg. We had calm conditions which were good for my stomach but no so good for the sailing. We were downwind whole time and were only able to sail for 20% of the time but when we did we flew our code zero sail and were flying. 6 knots apparent wind and 7 knots SOG (speed over ground). The girls were bouncing off the walls the first day but got wore out and have been great ever since. We’ve been coloring, painting, playing with jigsaw puzzles and of course there’s always the classic Disney movies. We would love to say that are those parents that don’t let their kids watch tv while onboard but we need our sanity especially when we only get 6 hours sleep a night. When the baby takes a nap we put on a movie for the girls and this allows us to actually hang out in the cockpit and have an adult conversation. The girls also have a bunch of phonics and math apps on their ipads that they’re allowed to play with during “quiet time”.

So I’ve put it down to Fenurgreek causing my seasickness. I’ve gone off the supplements (it helps increase my milk supply for breastfeeding) for about a week now and nothing, not even a twinge of nausea. I even ate icecream on my night watches. Sweet! I could be cured!

We are approximately 6 hours out of Lunenburg as I write this, I can’t wait to get in and turn off our loud engine. The noise and vibration is wearing me down. I’m also sick of yelling at everyone, the motor is killing my soul.

We are running extremely low on food so we have been eating the basics. Pasta, jar alfredo sauce and frozen veges. We have no fresh produce and no bread left. We could still survive for a few weeks on canned vegetables, beans, pasta and homemade bread but we’ll definitely hit the grocery store in Nova Scotia.

I caught Pri giving Wags a haircut under a sheet yesterday. Thanks Pri now Wags looks like a punk rocker! I’ll have to email the professionals (Mum and sisters – all hairdressers) to see how to fix this one.

Goodbye Francois–we love you

August 21, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: Kids, Newfoundland, wildlife

We will be leaving Francois after dinner this evening and heading for Halifax Nova Scotia. This will be our last day in Newfoundland, sad but we’re ready to move on.

The longest run we’ve done with all 3 kids was about 36 hours. This will be our dry run for Bermuda, lets see if we can hack it. If we don’t make it all the way there will be plenty of places to stop into on the way.

Halifax is 350 miles and to Bermuda from the States will be roughly 600 miles. 58 hours to Halifax but hopefully faster if we get good wind. Wish us luck!

Francois NL– where everyone knows your name

August 19, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: Newfoundland, wildlife

Francois is an outpost, meaning that you can only get to and from here via water. There are no roads and no one owns a car. Their mode of transportation is four wheeler, walking and in the winter snowmobile/ skido. There is a ferry that comes in once a day bringing in mail, food and anyone wanting to go to the closest town. This community is so unique, Carl and I both got that giddy school girl feeling when coming in. The main roads, if you can call them that are narrow concrete, wide enough for a four wheeler other roads are for walking built out of lumber. There’s a waterfall that runs through the middle of town which gives them there water supply. The population is 90 people and every year it gets lower and lower. The town takes a vote every year on whether to accept money from the government to shut down the town and relocate, they need 90% vote and currently have only 50% to vacate. There are no for sale signs but we spoke with a husband and wife that recently moved here and they paid $10,000 for their place. The town has two stores for food, one will be closing down very soon.

We hiked up over the hill and picked wild blueberries, it’s amazing how the girls can go go go when they’re having fun. We almost made it up to the waterfall today but couldn’t find a trail and the terrain got too rugged for the girls.

This town is awesome and depressing at the same time. To think that in about 10 years that this place will only be a memory, just another abandoned outpost.

Carl taking out the garbage. Everything is burned here. We heard a few years back everyone got a little lazy and started dumping everything off to the side, they are back to burning everything again.

Little Pond, the towns water supply

Little mans first swing, what a perfect setting

Bridges and walkways join all the houses, the girls loved all the different levels

Waterfall running through town

Fjord I can’t remember the name of

August 18, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: Newfoundland, wildlife

This morning we awoke with waterfalls surroundings us – spectacular! We sailed up a 5 mile long fjord yesterday, tall cliffs on either side and waterfalls around every corner. This place is truly magical. We named every waterfall we saw, of course after ourselves.

It rained quite heavy all night and we woke up the next day to light winds and surrounded by waterfalls cascading down from all directions. There are no towns up here just a salmon farm and 2 lonely cabins. If you’re in the area, definitely a great place to spend the night.

Sorry that I can’t remember the name of the Fjord, it’s to the east of Francois about 10 miles and it has the word arm in it… I think. We left our guide book out in the rain last night. I put it in the laz (where the generator, water maker, hot water heater ect are) to dry out. The baby now temporary sleeps in our cabin and the crib is by the door, thus I can’t look up the name…. and I’m too lazy to start up the gps nav stuff and figure it out.