Category: Living Aboard

We’ve been at this for 10 days now, and I’m wondering at what point it will start to feel like a lifestyle rather than a vacation. Our primary reason for choosing to do this was to explore other countries and cultures, which is what many of my favorite (adult life) vacations have been about anyway, so it doesn’t really feel any different yet.

During our month-long shakedown cruise last July, we dealt with procuring groceries while aboard, keeping the boat clean, and doing laundry. I even did some consulting work last summer and I will be publishing a monthly newsletter for our boating club throughout this year and into 2020, and Dave still participates in conference calls for the STEM Guitar program. We’ve certainly had to do repairs (it is a boat, after all). We research and plan routes to our destinations, decide if we’ll anchor, moor or dock (and keep check on our finances). It is always an adventure, which is what we wanted, even though we’re still in the USA. Maybe this is what the lifestyle will always feel like, just with varying challenges based on location. I suppose we’ll see.

At any rate, we have been exploring. We have through August to get to Chesapeake, VA, so we are not lacking in exploration time!

Since my last post we have spent time in Scituate harbor and had two friends aboard, one for an overnight. We got boarded by the Coast Guard just as we were coming up on the Sandwich Harbor in the canal. It was a routine safety check. We were pretty much the only boat out there, and it looked like they were doing some training. We passed with only a warning about our horn which apparently decided to stop working sometime this past week. So now we have another thing to fix, but did purchase an air horn in Sandwich as a backup; so we’re legal now. We spent and afternoon at the Heritage Museum in Sandwich and one night at the dock in the harbor. We had a half tranquil and half adventurous ride to Oak Bluffs harbor at Martha’s Vineyard. We saw only two patrol boats in the canal, no commercial or recreational traffic there at all. All was smooth until Woods Hole where the current was screaming against us. It appeared to be about 5 kts as we were making only 2 kts headway under full power. After Woods Hole, the predicted 2-foot seas were choppy, built to 4-5 feet and we had a 2 kt current against us. The payoff? It’s off season here, so we’re not being charged for the town mooring we are on for 4 nights. Score! We’ve dubbed around Oak Bluffs, Edgartown and Vineyard Haven doing the tourist thing. Tomorrow looks like we’ll be stuck aboard in the rain, but we’re about due for down time anyway, with a day of movies. A very friendly nearby hotel is even letting us boost their WiFi, so we watched game 4 of the Bruins vs. Blue Jackets on Thursday and are abot to watch game 5 tonight.

But now it’s time for dinner- homemade pizza!

 

It was a decently warm April afternoon when we boarded Indigo Lady Wednesday. Our cousins, Bob, Jo, and Adrianna came down to hang with us for a bit and wish us a bon voyage, which was very sweet! That evening, we four intrepid travelers (me, Dave and my folks) had a delicious filet mignon dinner aboard, courtesy of “chef Dave.” We woke Thursday morning to gorgeous sunshine, clear skies, and relative warmth (at least in the sun) for a late April day. Bob came back with our full propane tank from home, because one of our two on board went empty while Dave was cooking dinner. Thanks for the save, Bob! We topped off our fuel when the marina opened, and then started our journey. First stop- Gloucester, MA.

It was a reasonable trip down, but got chillier and windier around Cape Ann, so the boys had to add layers to keep warm. Mom & I hunkered down in the salon in our layers and eventually fell asleep. Around 4pm we picked up a rugged town mooring just off a park with a small beach, about a mile from town.

That was the sunshine and roses part. But this is an adventure, and adventures are unpredictable. Plus, this is April in the northeast and it ain’t boating season, folks. So here’s our current reality.

Here in the harbor, air and water temps are in the mid 40s, and the winds have been southeast at 10-15 kts with gusts up to 30kts. Overnight the winds shifted southwest and are still gusting close to 30 knots. Yesterday there were off and on rain showers. Today is actually partly sunny, which is cheery, but my goodness is it windy! The forecast for the next several days, however, looks like mid to upper 40s with a chance of rain each day. Oh goody. We should be able to travel tomorrow, probably to Scituate, but we’ll likely be stuck there a couple of days. At least in Scituate we will be able to get ashore and to town much easier than here. Of course, this is all subject to change, depending on whether or not the marine forecast changes.

I’m still getting used to the new sounds, so I haven’t slept well. Fortunately, I can nap during the day. Nobody slept through last night. It wasn’t the winds gusting around 35 kts that woke us; it was the waves they generated slamming into our bridge deck that woke us repeatedly. Boy is that loud! [Translation: bridge deck = underside of the boat between our hulls, right under our beds.] Thankfully we avoided the thunderstorms, lightning and hail my friends & family in NH and southwest ME got yesterday evening!

The rain and bone-chilling wind kept us inside most of yesterday, but we did go ashore for a bit between rain showers to walk around the park. That was enjoyable and invigorating! Just what we needed on a gray day. It was also damp inside and out, with condensation coating every wall and window inside. This morning there was less condensation, and we cracked open all the hatches and portholes to clear out the rest. It worked! Then it got more blustery, so we closed them up again. The sun and space heater are making the inside warm, but despite the sun, it’s still quite cold outside in the wind. We’ve been battling the chill & damp with a little space heater in the salon (60oF never felt so warm!), and eating hot, yummy food. I’ve also been drinking tea nonstop. I wear my wool hat to bed at night to retain my heat (45o water = 45o cabins, although our bodies warm them a few degrees). It reminds me of winter cabin trips with the Outing Club when I was at UNH.

Today we are taking advantage of the sun and wind to dry some towels and rags out on the lifelines. I hope I used enough clothespins! Dave also rigged some lines inside between our ceiling handholds for things we’d rather not have accidentally blow overboard. We may try to go ashore a bit after lunch, but at the moment the boys are trying to trouble shoot a faulty float switch in one of the shower box sump pumps. It’s always something.

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