Category: Ashore

I feel like I have a bit of a leg up on this stay-at-home/ social distancing thing because of my cruising experience, limited though it has been thus far. Last year we were aboard for four months and this year for almost three. Those experiences have helped me a little during this pandemic, especially with food and isolation. 

Provisioning for and eating while living aboard has made it significantly easier to adapt to the current shopping situation here at home. Common ingredients can be difficult to find now, people are eating almost all their meals at home, and many try to stock up so they don’t have to shop weekly. For many this is a huge learning curve to surmount. For me it has become quite familiar. We often can’t find specific ingredients we want while cruising. We can’t just run to the grocery store to pick up something we forgot or ran out of. We have to plan on having 4+ weeks of three meals a day on board at the start of a trip because we’re never sure when we’ll be able to get to a grocery store again and we eat most of our meals on board. Because of these experiences we are better at making due without certain items and at being creative with what we can get and what we have on hand. We’ve also had plenty of opportunity to examine how we eat (preferences and quantities) so we can shop accordingly when the time comes and not be bored with our daily cuisine. I feel for those who don’t have this experience.

Writing about grocery shopping reminds me of another lesson from cruising that is  applicable now in the midst of the pandemic. Usually when we’re home, if it occurs to us that we need or want something, we just hop in the car and go get it. We can’t do that living on board. Shopping while cruising requires research and planning. Where can we get ashore? Where are the stores we need? Will we walk, hire a ride or rent a car? So we start a shopping list often several days in advance, revisit it regularly, start researching the area in which we will shop, and on shopping day have a plan of attack for getting what we need in the most efficient way possible.  Since we arrived home in the midst of this pandemic and literally fresh off the boat, we were still in this mindset and it pays off. The last thing we need is to expose ourselves to potential infection more frequently. So we plan our trips even now with efficiency and safety in mind- a couple of hours driving around for 2 to 3 stops; it takes one mask and some hand sanitizer. We try to keep it to one trip each in a week. So far so good.

While cruising, Dave and I often find ourselves isolated for several days in a row, sometimes intentionally, other times based on circumstance (weather, remote anchorage). Cruising has also made me familiar with being away from family and friends for long chunks of time with only virtual means of communication available. Notice I said “familiar with” rather than “used to” or “comfortable with.” I still don’t like that aspect of cruising, but at least it feels familiar as we employ similar means of keeping in touch now. It doesn’t feel quite so unusual to be isolated here at home with intermittent interactions with others. Granted, the interactions are different, but they’re still interactions. Here at home I actually enjoy more frequent contact with family and friends, even if it is mostly virtual. While in the Bahamas during this pandemic, our social interaction with others was mostly boat to dinghy. Normally cruisers would invite each other onboard for sundowners or a shared meal. Alas that was not to be this time around, so boat to boat conversations had to suffice. We’ve adapted that experience to visiting with my immediate family here at home. We gather outside when it’s nice, but bring our own chairs and sit at least six feet apart. It may require extra clothing layers and a blanket, but at least we can talk face to face. If it’s too windy, we use the garage. 

You know what I really miss? I miss hugs. Dave is the only person with whom I’ve had physical contact for 3 weeks now. In composing my thoughts for this post I realized that for two solid months last summer as we cruised the Chesapeake, Dave and I were each other’s only physical contact other than a brief two-day visit with a cousin and his wife. I don’t recall feeling like I was being denied physical contact for those two months. I suppose it’s because we were still in close proximity to others in the various venues we visited weekly if not daily, having conversations face to face. It feels very different now, though. Now I can visit my family in person but we can’t touch. That’s hard. I can’t imagine how difficult this time is for people who live alone.

I still have a lot to learn about living aboard. I’m taking the opportunity while isolating ashore to reflect on the lessons I’ve learned already and reading other cruiser’s blogs to learn how they deal with various aspects of the cruising life. One thing I’m focusing on now is what to provision and what to plan to make from scratch. One thing I’ve learned about food on board is that it’s often easier to have raw ingredients on hand and to make things from scratch. While here ashore in relative isolation I have time to experiment and practice. Tonight, in honor of Cinco de Mayo, I will be making my own corn tortillas for tacos. This will be accompanied by beans and rice, but I started with dry black beans. I’ll let you know how it goes in my next post, when I think I will talk more about food, waste and garbage on board.

Until next time, stay healthy and take care of each other!

Happy December!

We’ve been back home for almost a week. It took a few days to get back into a normal sleeping pattern and stop feeling exhausted after our affair at sea. We are all thankful to come away with just a little exhaustion and a couple of colds. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read my last post about our Coast Guard rescue.) I have much to be thankful for, but since this blog is about me learning to love living aboard, I’ll try to stay focused on that aspect of my life. 

First of all, I’m thankful to even be in a position to attempt this lifestyle. This is largely due to my husband, Dave, who has been planning and saving for this for decades, long before we got together. He not only dreams and wishes, he takes the steps necessary to make them come true. I am thankful to Dave for so many things. I’m thankful for his having this crazy idea to live on a boat in the Caribbean for our retirement. I’m also thankful he was willing to adapt his original plan (year-round in the Caribbean) so we can live at home on land several months a year so I can get my in-person fix of family and friends. Dave pushes me to go beyond my comfort zone while at the same time supporting me through it, for which I am also thankful. Oh we argue about living aboard stuff and how far out of my comfort zone I’m willing to go, but we get past the arguing to compromise. I couldn’t ask for a better friend and partner in this life.

We couldn’t have done this without the support of family and friends. I’m thankful to my parents for raising me to have the confidence needed to give this live-aboard lifestyle a try, and for imbuing in me a sense of curiosity that makes me want to explore and meet new people. I’m also thankful that they like to travel on Indigo Lady with us, because I get to take a piece of home with me for a while each year. I’m thankful for my sister, Sarah, for understanding me and keeping me sane (this is no small task). I’m thankful for the rest of our family and friends who are supporting us in this endeavor, including helping us bring Lady home when we bought her, converting her to solar electric, moving her further south, and providing general encouragement and support through the good and the not so good. We look forward to you visiting us aboard! 

The enactment of this dream of ours started this past April. I’m thankful for all the people we’ve met along the way thus far, in person as well as online in various cruising groups. You have provided information, advice and recommendations, and have answered our myriad questions. You have offered us your local knowledge, assistance, or simply your company for a few hours. Others of you have befriended us and keep in touch, extending our network of cruising friends and supports. I am thankful for you who follow me on this journey by reading this blog and perhaps following my Instgarm and Facebook; you help me feel connected on this journey. 

I could go on, but this is long enough and I wanted to focus on people. I (actually, we) wouldn’t have gotten this far without you all, and for that I am grateful. 

“No one who achieves success does so without the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude.”

~Alfred North Whitehead

Sorry I missed posting last week. We we were camping with friends. Although my sister claims that since we were in their RV it wasn’t really camping. Perhaps, but we only slept in said land yacht. The rest of the time, including cooking and eating meals, was spent outside, mostly around the campfire, which we started around lunchtime. Anyhoo….

It’s challenging to keep up a blog about learning to love living aboard while I’m on land. I’m not thinking much about living aboard. I just settled back into my land routine. It is a well-baked routine with which I have many years of practice, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised it happened so quickly. I am thinking ahead to November and moving the boat to Florida, but we’ve decided we will transit the North Carolina ICW to Beaufort, NC and then do mostly continuous offshore cruising to Florida, weather permitting, of course. It’s more of a delivery than living aboard, and I will have the annual Holiday Craft Fair on my mind as I try to complete as many items as possible while we’re under way.

I love being back in the yoga studio! Yoga on the boat is often beautiful and serene, but it can get lonely. Balance can be challenging, as one might imagine being on a floating object, but it seems that boat yoga has improved my land balance a little, which is a welcome benefit. I also like the companionship and energy of doing yoga with others. I hope I will find some yoga buddies in the Caribbean.

The past couple of weeks I’ve spent preparing to teach my first AARP Smart Driver class as a new volunteer. Given my educator background and my need to be uber-prepared for such presentations, I’ve been preparing for days. The downside is that I’ve spent far too much time sitting in front of a computer over the past two weeks, rather than being outside. The upside is that I only have to do this once, since the curriculum is unlikely to change for the next several years. I also felt a bit of a crunch to get the planning done since my first class was supposed to be this Monday & Wednesday. Notice I said “supposed to be.” I ended up canceling yesterday when one of my three registrants said she wouldn’t be able to make it. It’s difficult to have rich discussions around varied driving experiences with only two perspectives. Alas! The class I have scheduled for November 2nd already has at least nine students, so I know that one will proceed as planned. And I’m already done my preparations 🙂

This is the last weekend of summer and it actually feels like summer. We’ll be spending this afternoon and evening mostly outside with friends, music, and bacon! It’s our friends’ annual Bacon Fest fundraiser for their nonprofit, The Continuum Arts Collective, which supports students in the arts by supplying materials and mentors. What an excellent way to spend a gorgeous Saturday! 

Monday officially ushers in autumn, although it’s felt like autumn since our return. The leaves are changing color a little more each day. The air is crisp (and not humid!). It is the season of craft fairs, county fairs, harvesting and putting up food. I’ve canned salsa and pickled beets. As I type, my Bacon Fest food entry is baking in the oven- apple tartlets with candied bacon. They smell great and I can’t wait to try one! There will be much more seasonal baking in the coming weeks (without bacon). Next weekend starts the much anticipated slew of autumn events with the Deerfield Fair. After that there’s Apple Harvest Day, mine and mom’s annual Columbus Day sleepover and local activities (while the Marchi men and Dave gather for their annual ME weekend), eating apple cider donuts, choosing pie pumpkins and jack o’lanterns, Halloween. Welcome autumn- I look forward to spending time with you!

I am so happy to be home! I missed my family and friends very much. I know myself, and I knew when Dave and I started dating and he told me of his plan to live aboard in the Caribbean that I would join him in pursuit of that dream, but that I couldn’t do it year-round. Fortunately he understands this, so he acquiesced to return home each year for the autumn and through the holidays. After being away only four months and missing family and friends so badly, I’m not sure I’ll be able to be away for 8 months a year once we actually get the boat to the Caribbean. I may have to sneak home for a week or two about halfway through, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there

We haven’t lost any time since arriving back on land. Dave has already refinished the deck, resealed the driveway, ordered a new garage door, and contracted to get the house painted. I started tackling the long list of tech issues aboard that we need to solve while home, weeded three garden beds, 8 raised beds, and the entire side of the house where a growing stand of milkweed is developing (we asked our neighbor not to mow that patch while we were gone). I’m also ramping up to teach my first AARP Driver Safety class at the end of this month (and another in early November), plus fitting in sewing in preparation for the craft fair I participate in during the first week of December. I did not get nearly enough sewing done aboard! On top of all that, we’re scheduling in visits with family & friends.

There are aspects of being aboard that I do miss. I miss the slower pace that living aboard often affords, like swinging in the hammocks in the afternoon just reading or listening to the sounds of the water and birds. When I’m ashore I feel like I have to constantly be doing something. (Truthfully, it took me about a month aboard to shake that feeling.) I miss having my boat home with me as I explore new places. Here on land I have to travel away from home to explore new places, which not only involves driving time, but also the expense of accommodations and food if I choose to explore a place for more than one day. Most of my day aboard is spent outside in the fresh air, while here on land most of my day is spent inside. I think my body misses the boat. A boat in the water is never completely stationary, even when not in transit. The constant motion requires my muscles to work in harmony in ways they don’t have to on land.  I also find that I sit too much when I’m home, while aboard sitting still for long periods of time is rare for me. 

Still, I love being home. I may have mentioned that already 🙂 . I love the conveniences like hardware and grocery stores close by, a comparatively spacious bathroom (7.5’ x 8’ feels huge), plenty of water, the hot tub, and WiFi. It’s easier to move in my land-home without bumping my head, shins, knees, elbows. I’m always bruised when I’m on board. Those bruises have finally faded over the past week and a half on land. While I love Indigo Lady’s layout and spaciousness compared to other catamarans we looked at (within our price range), we did make compromises. Her beds in the hulls are over the bridge deck. This makes changing the bed challenging. It also means I have to climb steps to get into and out of her. That’s fun in the middle of the night when I need the bathroom, because I have to crawl over Dave. (Yes, I could sleep on the outside, but it doesn’t feel right. I know, weird.) We’ve done what we can to make the beds themselves comfortable, but it will never be as comfortable as my bed on land. The seating is also uncomfortable on board. In part this is due to the fact that as I get older my back gives me more trouble, so I’m rarely comfortable sitting anywhere, but at home on land I have more options than I do on board, including lying flat. It’s difficult to lie flat on a boat that is all curves and hard surfaces. 

Our galley is really quite spacious for a boat. We have ample storage for dry goods and non-perishables, we have a fridge and a huge freezer, and as a solar-electric boat we can have electric gadgets. As a result of all that, I’m becoming quite comfortable cooking and baking aboard, but there’s still nothing like cooking in my kitchen here on land. I’ve already canned salsa and will soon be doing pickled beets. I enjoy having convenient access to fresh food whenever I want. Just this year the CSA I belong to started offering shares for flexible months and year round, so I was able to join for just the months we’re home. Now I get my favorite late summer and autumn produce- fresh and organic. Yum! I know that once we reach the Caribbean, obtaining food provisions will be more challenging, but it will also result in us getting more exercise, and trying new foods, which I am looking forward to.

This is a great time of year to be home. I have no love lost for winter anymore, and I tend to appreciate spring simply because it means winter is over. Summer is all to brief here at home, but in the Caribbean it’s pretty much summer all the time (at least the months we’ll be there). But autumn, that’s a mid-latitude season. I love the colors, textures and smells, the crisp feel in the air, the flavors of hearty autumn produce. It’s a time when nature slows down for a bit. My body and mind sync with and appreciate that restfulness. It is a time to recenter and reset myself. Plus I enjoy the autumn and early winter holidays which always mean time focused on celebrating with family and friends. Autumn is cozy and I need a little bit of that each year.

So I will delight in this time at home, spend as much of it with family and friends as I can, and just as it starts to get a bit too cold, I’ll head south for warmer climes with a sense of readiness for our next adventure.