Mom's View of Life Aboard

Sarah's always hungry when
she wakes.

    
     Well here I am finally sitting in front of the computer entering my 2 cents on living aboard our boat and our journey toward our final goal the BVI’s. I did not really know what to expect once we entered the big old Atlantic but I now have a better respect for the forces of nature and the power of the water in motion.  

A proud moment!

    
 The scenery on the journey down the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Canada has left me in awe. I am thankful for the opportunity to have shared seeing it with Jon and the girls. The American portion of the trip, although less spectacular from a scenery point, has been filled with new experiences from sailing on the Atlantic to parking the boat in tight spaces with pilings to dealing with constant tidal changes.  The kindness of the people we have encountered has been refreshing whether it’s the girl checking out our groceries in Annapolis, the cab driver who took Jon on several rides to pick up marine supplies or the friend of Jon’s who so kindly allowed us to use his dock and condo facilities for several days. WOW! Great folks here.

     For the passage planning, skilled boat handling and incredible boat repairs I must say a huge thanks to Captain Jon. For the great support, helping during late night watches, exceptional cookies and brownies I say thanks to Sarah and Nicole. Finally I have to thank the boat for she has safely delivered us to each of our destinations, something for which I am grateful!

Nicole's plants have
survived so far!

     At present we are anchored on a beautiful little creek, Fishing Creek, where we just watched a rain storm pass through. We are anchored alongside Raftan and another family of five from Montreal who Raftan met while in Annapolis. They are doing the Intracoastal down to Florida and then to the Bahamas. I am glad to be anchored for the day as the wind is kicking up its heels again. It seems to me that every time we decide to sail on what Jon has dubbed “bonus sail days” the wind likes to play its game of sending us 20 to 30 knots of wind much to the Captains delight, but from my perspective I now prefer 0 to 15 knots as sea sickness seems to be my best friend lately. Oh well time to try out all those sea sickness remedies we have purchased.

     I have really enjoyed cooking on the boat but the one thing that is challenging is the time it takes to get stuff organized to cook. Since things are stored in tight spaces everything takes time to locate. We all agree that the food eaten after a day’s sailing tastes better than ever before. I have been using our little propane stove for dinners and baking and have had pretty good success. We are eating foods similar to those at home with not much sea food as of late.

 

 

     Tomorrow we head to Solomans Island on the Patuxent River. We hope to explore the town and soak up the atmosphere of the Chesapeake Bay while there. All in all I am finally relaxing into the boat lifestyle and am very happy to have the opportunity to do this journey.

Love to all at home,

Terri

Nova Scotia to Cape Cod

     We left Halifax for Lockeport on a night passage intending to get diesel in Lockeport. However, after managing to sail all night decided to head on for Cape Cod. All in all the trip took two nights and we arrived at Pope Island Marina in New Bedford Massachucetts early this morning.

     On the passage we encountered lots of waves. Up and down, up and down, the pitching and rolling became pretty tiring after a while and the waves were fairly sizeable by yesterday accounting for our first real experience with large ocean swell. Most of the time we managed to not feel sick by staying above deck or lying down while below. I tried out my first audiobook, "Hunger Games," and enjoyed it so I will be buying many more for the longer ocean passage to come in November.

     The weather was sunny most of the days and as Dad planned we took advantage of a weather window that allowed us to sail the majority of the time. Sarah did some awesome steering yesterday as we all took turns at the wheel. Both of us feel that we've learned a lot more about sailing over the past three weeks and are much more comfortable with a lot of tasks. Plus after so much docking we have a system pretty well down and are pros!

     Last night we had some sticky planning to do while communicating with customs about checking in to the US. Sticky situations always seem to happen in the middle of the night. We passed through the Cape Cod canal in the dark in a crazy 4 knot current and decided to make for New Bedford to anchor and then rest up. All I can say I saw of Cape Cod was a few lights and a lot of darkness. Exhausted and really in need of a shower we were all grateful to get safely to Pope Island Marina. I'm not gonna lie, it was so nice to get off the boat onto solid land after feeling cooped up for the last few days. The customs people were great today, very accomodating, and we bought a prepaid cell phone to use while in the US. Tonight we are safely tied to a dock and looking forward to a still and undisturbed sleep. I plan to settle in with a nice Keiths and watch "How I Met Your Mother" for a few solid hours (awesome show if you haven't seen it).

     The next few days we'll be making our way towards New York City. This involves contending with the open ocean and a strong current in the Long Island Sound. Despite all the tiredness and difficulties of these passages it will be pretty amazing to pull into a marina in downtown New York. So here's to the city that never sleeps.

Nicole.

Thoughts on Living Onboard

Labour Day weekend. Leaving Friday after dark we made a quick crossing to Kerr Bay. Out of CBYC we almost hit a buoy due to the poor night vision of our captain :P It was a bit unsettling after that and although our passage was quick and smooth I got to thinking about how intense our ocean passage will be. So exposed.

Saturday was sunny with an overlying haze from the humidity. We swam, washed the boat, napped, read and ate tasty meals of hotdogs, burgs and veggies. It was a relief to have this weekend of relaxation and good sailing after the emotional chaos of the past week. Nice to fall gently into a routine onboard.

Sunday and Monday mornings brief storms blew overhead. We had a great sail to Prinyer's Cove in Prince Edward County Sunday. Dad was finally able to take a break from using drills and screw drivers to test out things like "heaving-to" (a useful storm tactic) and creating a pulley attachment for the anchor (to allow for smooth anchoring if waves are coming from a different direction than the wind).

One notable thing about living on a sailboat...frequent encounters with spiders! Learning to co- exist appears to be the only option. Luckily none of us are really afraid of them...minus one encounter with a massive dock spider at Beaurivage Island a few weeks back. Mom and Dad were pretty freaked and I was the one who had to go below to see if it was caught in one of the window screens. It was! We managed to prod it overboard, after which it proceeded to skim across the surface of the water at an alarming pace. Yikes.

Since we left the dock and in spite of a small knot of tension in my stomach, I keep having the most wonderful thought: that right now in this time and place I am exactly where I want to be. Nothing will ever be perfect in this life. Or even in this lifestyle. But I can feel the intense truth of that one thought, and it is comforting.

Until next time when we leave on our greatest journey yet,
Nicole.