- Ooooh. Ate too much. Must . . . nap . . . now . . .
Farley’s Friday: Happy American Thanksgiving
Sailing
Mattina: Provisioning for the Winter
Matt and I have settled in Vero Beach, Florida for a couple of weeks, giving us time to do our final system testing and provision the boat for the winter.
The Lagoon 380 has ample storage for the foods and supplies we want to take with us. Over the last few years we’ve noticed grocery shopping has improved in the Bahamas, and we worry less about having everything with us.
I’ve kept a list over the years that I keep updated. During the winter months, I mark when we run out of something and know if I have to buy more or less of an item the next season.
Below you see my first pass at loading the boat up. We take several goes at it until we’ve filled our storage spaces.
To give us more room for meat, we load our freezer with unfrozen meat. This takes up a lot less space than putting frozen meat into the freezer. It does use more amps than if we put it in frozen, but it’s worth it. We layer the meat by type, alternating rows. First row steak, next pork, next chicken, and then start over with steak. This way we don’t have to dig to the bottom for a type of meat we want.
We try to store evenly by weight in each hull, allowing the boat to sit flat on the water.
We’ve also found that once we are ‘out there’ we don’t need as much as we do on land. If we don’t have it, we do without and we always seem okay with that.
Thanks for reading . . .
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Farley’s Friday: To Nap or to Steer the Sailboat?
Farley here.
Cruising is exhausting. I have to keep track of birds, dolphins, other boats, dogs on shore and bridges. Kristina and Matt let this all pass by without keeping watch.
Sometimes it’s all just too much for me, and I need a place to crash. If the boat is bouncing around too much, my favourite place is in the cockpit. There’s a spot I fit perfectly. If I’m in here, Kristina doesn’t insist on tethering me (unless it’s really rough, but then I don’t mind.)
When it’s smooth out, Matt lets me drive. My owners put a new back on the helm station seat this year, and I can lean into it without falling through. Much better than the old seat. I’m pretty sure they upgraded this feature just for me.
Woof, woof.
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Mattina: Testing Her Systems
The first week underway after leaving the boat on the hard for the summer is a bit hectic.
After making sure all our sails and engine were in working order, we sailed, motor sailed and ran on the engines alone.
- Taken in fall of 2010, but the mooring field looks exactly the same.
Someone had to go up here!
We traveled from St. Augustine, Florida to Vero Beach, Florida.
While travelling, we docked, anchored and moored.
Above, we are on a mooring ball at Vero. Now we are running our power off the genset and the solar panels. We like to test these systems before we go offshore and while we still have easy access to parts.
Thanks for reading . . .
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Writing While Cruising
Writing while cruising seems like a dream come true. And mostly this is the case, but there are pros and cons as there are with most things in life.
I enjoy having time to myself without distractions. We often go days without Internet access, which frees up time. The temptation to check how many people have read my blog, if my agent has sent me an email, or – and I hate to admit this – check Facebook disappears. My phone never rings since I don’t actually have a phone. J
On the flip side, the difficultly comes when I want to research a topic. At home, I can do this any time I want. Underway, I have to wait until we have a decent connection with enough bandwidth to be able to search. I am less active with other blogs and don’t tend to comment as much, so sometimes I feel like I’m missing things.
Each year in the Bahamas we find the WiFi access improves. I use my Kindle for email, but can’t really do much else with it on the Internet. At least I can stay in touch with family, usually on a daily basis. I start to worry if I haven’t connected for a while.
Internet gets removed as a distraction, but other distractions get added while we are sailing. If something is happening on the boat that needs attention, I might have to stop typing mid-word. There’s no time to finish a thought.
One evening, I was alone on Mattina after dark and having a productive writing session. The winds picked up, changed direction, and it started to rain. So while I was writing without distractions, I was keeping an eye on the GPS. It gives us our exact position and would let me know if Mattina started to drag. A little bit of tension and stress doesn’t hurt (I don’t like to be alone in a storm after dark on the boat – did I mention I was alone?), but it does mean I’m not 100% focused on writing.
Every ten minutes or so, I walked around the boat to check our position and check other boats in the anchorage. The risk of being dragged into rises with the number of boats in the anchorage. All ended well, but I probably wrote fewer words than I would have if the weather had remained calm.
Would I trade Mattina for any other place to write? No way.
Thanks for reading . . .
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Farley’s Friday: A Dog Underway
Farley here.
Well, I’m on the water, moving south.
Before we left the dock, I helped Matt get the sails rigged. We started early, just as the sun was coming up. Matt and Kristina wanted the sails up before the wind picked up. I guess it’s not great to have full sail up when the boat is tied to the dock.
I tried to tell Matt what the fastest way to get this done was, but he never listens to me. I know how the sails to go on, he just doesn’t understand dog speak. Plus if he was faster, I would have the trampoline back.
Our first day on the water was cold and Kristina was overprotective. She made me wear my harness and tethered me to the cockpit just because I kept trying to go lie on my trampoline. How embarrassing. The other dogs don’t have to wear a harness when they’re on the Intra-coastal waterway.
But best of all, I saw my first dolphins and barked at them. I had to let them know I’m the boss.
Woof, Woof.
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Mattina: A Week at the Dock Commissioning
Seven days working on Mattina on the hard, followed by one day launching, and then another seven days commissioning gets her ready for traveling south.
Mattina hanging in the travel life always makes me nervous. The crew at St. Augustine are professional and take their time, and we launched safely.
Early mornings are a great time to get the sails up before the wind starts blowing. The sails are stored below during the summer, protecting them from sun and wind damage.
We hoisted the Genoa first.
Next up was the main.
The engines are maintained, the dinghy is operational, the fridge and freezer are keeping food cold, the BBQ is keeping us fed, the genset and solar panels are giving us power, the SSB is picking up Chris Parker (weather network), the Wi-Fi antenna is allowing us to access the internet, the water pumps are pumping, and we’re just about ready to leave the dock.
We won’t test the water maker until we are farther south and into clearer water, but I know it will work.
Next step, untie the lines and start heading south.
Thanks for reading . . .
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Farley’s Friday: My Sailboat is Launched
Farley here.
I’m a happy dog. Mattina is in the water. I barked the whole time we were in traveller lift waiting to set sail. I was just too excited to contain myself. I couldn’t control my behaviour and jumped off the boat right as Kristina and Matt were letting the lines go. Alas, the dock hands were too quick. One of them grabbed my harness and lifted me back on board. I don’t know what I was thinking.
Now that we’re in the water, Kristina and Matt aren’t on a deadline and I get more attention. I’ve already had three walks today!
To celebrate, I rolled all over my trampoline. I love my trampoline.
Then, I ran below and played on the bed. I’m not allowed to do this, so don’t tell Kristina, but sometimes a dog just has to express himself.
Woof Woof.
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Mattina – A Week On The Hard
Before I blog, I want to say I’m thinking of everyone affected by the hurricane and wish them my best. We were lucky to be in a spot that Sandy missed.
So it may look like Matt is doing all the work, but that’s only because I took all the pictures. I just wanted to point out I worked hard too.
We arrived at the marina in St. Augustine on Wednesday and have been working hard to get ready to launch (yesterday – we are now in the water).
First up: Open of the boat and check she’s dry. Yup – very dry, making us very happy. We ran a de-humidifier over the summer to help.
Next: Wash the marina dirt off the boat.
Once the boat was clean, we waxed the hulls.
After that, it was on to maintenance. We prioritized things that need to be done while the boat is out of the water. We won’t put the sails back up or deploy our safety gear until after we launch.
We hired marina staff to paint the bottom of Mattina. We scrubbed the dinghy and painted its bottom with the same bottom paint used on Mattina.
The last step: Check thru hulls are clear and working.
Today is the day we’ve been waiting for. We launch this morning and then we move on board.
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Hurricane Sandy Brings Out the Best
Wednesday is my day to post about cruising, but in respect to those who are suffering from Hurricane Sandy, I decided to post something different.
I’ve been watching the footage and here is what I see: The kindness and bravery shown today was incredible.
A rescue worker carries an elderly woman from her home and takes care to keep her purse dry. A small thing, but I’m sure it was important to her.
Rescue workers help a man get to their vehicle and help him get his two dogs in the back. They didn’t leave his pets behind.
The bravery shown by the coast guard unit who rescued the people from the HMS bounty is amazing. They went out to sea in dangerous conditions that threatened to down their helicopter, and they saved people lives. In their interview, they were humble. I can’t say enough positive about the coast guard, both Canadian and American. I spend half my year on a sailboat, so this really hits home. This is Bravery with a capital B.
Today’s event made me feel good about the human race. There are so many amazing people out there.
Even though I wasn’t put in harm’s way by the hurricane, I want to thank all the people out there who helped others.
