Isaias update

Since some of you don’t have Instagram or FB, here’s an update from Indigo Lady.

It’s just after noon and the winds are building into the upper 20s. Isaias is about 55nm off of Fort Pierce and the center will not make landfall here. He was demoted to tropical storm overnight last night. We will likely see soon sustained 30-50 kt winds gusting to 60/65 for several hours.

I’m taking advantage of the wind and current lack of rain to do some baking without heating up the cabin.

I’ll update again later today. Cheers!

Looking north and south of us.

Isaias is on his way!

Here’s an update for those of you concerned about our safety here in Fort Pierce with hurricane Isaias on the way.

After going back and forth a few times, we decided to stay on board during the storm. To be honest, I was the only one going back and forth; Dave always wanted to stay aboard.

So why are we staying aboard? First, Isaias will arrive here as a weak category 1 hurricane, the brunt of which will arrive in the morning. Tonight will be tropical storm force winds which we’ve been through before while at anchor. Secondly, this marina is rated for category 3 hurricanes. We are also not alone. The harbor master is manning the radio up in the office tonight and tomorrow. On our dock alone there are at least 5 other boats whose owners are staying aboard, many more in the marina as a whole. Plus, on board we have our own food, water and power, which no hotel can promise (unless we drive over an hour west). Finally, it’s inevitable that sometime in the next several years of cruising we will end up having to weather a storm like this probably at anchor and unable to get ashore. I’d rather practice in a marina like this one first. Dave refers to this as hurricane on training wheels.

The skies clouded around 6pm. We’re on our third round of heavy rain. The first was kind enough to wait until we returned with our takeout. (Thanks Mother Nature!) We took advantage of a break between bouts of rain to stand on the “back porch” sipping rum, toasting Neptune and Poseidon, and enjoying the fresh air before the next batch of rain chases us back inside, which is where we are now with some seriously black skies out there and a downpour. I think it’s time for a movie…and more rum

I will post updates tomorrow on my lifeonlady Instagram and FB accounts (links to the left).

Cheers!

Greetings from sunny Florida!

We made it! We arrived at Lady last night around 6pm, proceeded to unload the car and had takeout delivery by 8:30pm. The nice marina folks checked Lady’s interior for us this week, so we knew her interior wasn’t covered in mold and we could sleep on her upon arrival. Thank goodness, because one hotel stay on the drive down was stressful enough in these COVID times!

It’s hotter than freaking hell and also very humid! I’m sitting still in the cockpit, in the breeze, at 8:00am and I’m already sweating. The boat’s interior temperature is currently the same as the outside temp, but it will creep up to about 5 degrees over ambient as the day progresses. The breeze is blowing from our port side, so the hatches don’t draw much inside. Our two air scoops will funnel some into two of the cabins, and we’ll have every fan going. The next few days are not going to be comfortable or fun. Can’t swim at the marina, so we’ll have to hose off occasionally and drink lots of ice water to prevent heat stroke. 

This is short because we have a ton of work to do. All those things we unpacked from the car are strewn across Lady’s salon and spare cabins and need to be unpacked and stowed, and Dave has a long list of repairs to tend to.

But first, I’m going to the farmer’s market for some fresh produce. I hope folks are wearing masks!

 

Into the fray…

And I’m back!  Sorry for the extended radio silence, but this blog is about living aboard and I’ve been at home on land for the past three months.

We’re heading back to Indigo Lady sometime in the next two weeks.  If you recall, she is parked at a marina in Fort Pierce, Florida. Yup, we’re heading toward COVID territory.

It may sound a bit crazy, but Fort Pierce is in St. Lucie County which has the third lowest infection rate in Florida (just over 3000 cumulative) and death rates on par with NH. We are taking steps to be as safe as possible. We are driving down over two days with only one night in a hotel for which we’re bringing our own bedding and a large container of disinfectant wipes. We have two N95 masks, a box of disposables and several fabric ones. We are self sufficient on board Lady with our own hose to run fresh water from the dock to our tanks, our own showers, our own electricity (though sadly no AC), and our own washing machine. Because we’re driving we are buying all our nonperishable provisions up here, so we’ll only have to make one quick trip to a Florida market for fresh and frozen foods. 

Why are we going down in the midst of a pandemic? Primarily, our lithium iron phosphate batteries need to be replaced. (That’s a story in itself which I will tell in a future blog post.) They are en route from Europe as I type and should arrive in Miami at the end of this coming week. From there it will take “up to seven days,” we’ve been told, to reach the marina in Fort Pierce. It will take Dave 1-2 days to get them installed. While we await their arrival we will tend to other boat projects. Our large fresh water tank needs to be extricated and brought somewhere to be welded (one thing Dave can’t do on board). One of our hot water tanks needs some parts replaced, which Dave already has in hand. Our cross-ship cable needs a replacement connector, also already in hand. We also need to replace our four 6V batteries. I can’t actually do any of this work, but I will hand Dave tools when he needs them. I also have bug screens to finish making for 6 hatches and 8 portholes, and I will do the grocery shopping.

We figure we need two round trips to the welder, one round trip to Costco for the 6V batteries, and one round-trip to the grocery store. Other than that, we’ll stay onboard other than an occasional walk and maybe takeout from a local restaurant once or twice.

How long will we be down there? That depends on our throttle. Did I mention that also needed repairs? In early May we shipped it to the one guy in the US who does work here for the Finnish company. He couldn’t fix it and sent it to Finland for repair almost two weeks ago. We’re still waiting to find out when they will get it back to us. If it arrives before we’re done all the other boat work we will install it, drop lines, and head to the Floriday Keys for the remainder of August (or until we get chased out by a hurricane). We will have enough provisions on board so that we won’t need to go ashore other than maybe once or twice to offload garbage, although if we’re careful we may not even need to do that. We plan on exploring several of the diving/snorkeling sights in the near to mid Keys, sitting at anchor or on a mooring ball several nights at each. 

Around September 1st we’ll start the return trip to the Fort Pierce marina. Once there we’ll close up Lady again and drive home to return in January when we will, if we’re fortunate, continue our trek to the Caribbean.

Transferable Lessons

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!

 

Under the sea…

The stay at home order has given me plenty of time to sort through the photos and videos from our time in The Bahamas. A little too much time, perhaps.

I got to try out my new camera which can be used underwater. I have a prescription mask for my distance vision, which is problematic when trying to look at the tiny camera screen underwater. I need to get one of those stick-on magnifiers. It’s going to take some practice using the camera effectively underwater, but my first efforts weren’t all that bad. I discovered that I can improve the video clips in iMovie, which is most excellent.

So for your viewing pleasure, here’s a little something I put together from my underwater video clips and set to music. Enjoy!

 

Would you like a side of pandemic to go with that first year learning curve?

One thing I knew for certain when we started this first year of cruising, was that it would be a steep learning curve. At the time I probably thought the learning curve was steep when we set off last April to move the boat from NH to Virginia, but looking back on it now, that was more of a hill than the mountain of learning curve I started climbing once we were at the point of leaving the country. Then enter the pandemic. Yikes!

In prior posts I’ve talked about my struggles with learning how to adequately utilize weather data for cruise planning. I continue to work on that. No better time than the present since I’m stuck at home for the foreseeable future. I’ve also talked about struggling to create and maintain a routine, figuring out how to keep in touch when in foreign countries and when traveling offshore, taking inordinate amounts of time to plan routes and learn about the places we will be visiting, and about honing my boat-driving and anchoring skills. These are all part of the learning curve. 

For me, the biggest challenge for this part of our first cruising year was provisioning to leave the country. There were so many questions buzzing around my head. How much can we really fit on our boat? Are there additional nooks and crannies we can make use of for food storage? How do I determine what we will need for 6-8 weeks? How do I best determine how much of each item we’ll need? What fresh produce can I store out of the refrigerator and how long will it last? What provisions will I be able to get once in the Bahamas and other countries further south? I had so many questions and only did a little research (a little too late) about how other cruisers handle this. I found some helpful tips, but many of my questions were boat (space) and people (eating habits and preferences) specific. Plus I was provisioning not only for me and Dave but also for my folks who have different preferences and habits. What I settled on may have been mostly sufficient under normal circumstances, it was not sufficient for a pandemic, let alone in an area with limited access to groceries.

I have learned from this experience, however. In part that learning came from experiencing the impact of my provisioning decisions. Other stuff I learned from cruisers we met while in the Bahamas, several of whom were prepared to be self-sufficient for up to 2 months. Here are my biggest provisioning lessons.

Plan for being self-sufficient for 2-3 months. This is a multifaceted lesson. For our situation, this means stocking a lot more for making our own bread products and baking in general. Think bread, English muffins, bagels, pizza dough, tortillas. Fresh produce runs out quickly and we have a small fridge, and the freezer, while quite large, can only hold so much. Next time we will stock more canned fruits, veggies and meats as well as some freeze-dried foods (including eggs), and more powdered milk. I’m conflicted about freeze-dried and powdered provisions because they are highly processed and come in a lot of packaging, which is not environmentally friendly. However, they are much lighter than canned goods and have a long shelf-life, both important considerations on a boat. I will have to curb my guilt by doing some environmental penance to ensure our larger environmental impact is balanced (not kidding). Eating canned and freeze-dried items requires a different approach to cooking, as I’m learning. These items are best in meals like soups, stews, stir fries and casseroles, so this will necessitate stocking more rice, grains and pastas. 

Find airtight food storage solutions. Things like flours and grains often (not always) come with insect eggs. Storing them in home in the US for immediate use rarely results in an issue, although a couple of times I’ve found meal worms in something I let sit a little too long at the back of the pantry. In the hot and humid climate of the Caribbean, however, hatching can occur more quickly. If stored in an airtight environment, which has much less oxygen, these items will last longer without revealing the hidden insects within. 

We did have some provisioning successes. We did a good job of provisioning the types of foods we enjoy eating; we didn’t stock anything we wouldn’t eat. We had plenty of frozen meats, more than plenty frozen veggies (Dave does not consider this a success, but I do), and plenty of canned chicken and tuna (for lunches). Even though we enjoy cooking meals from recipes we’ve come to love that require specific ingredients, we are also good at substituting when we don’t have something on hand. Dave is also very good at creating meals from what’s on hand, and I’m getting better at it. We haven’t had a boring meal aboard yet. I learned about and tried sprouting seeds. They are incredibly easy to grow on the boat and provide fresh greens (sprouts) when store-bought fresh produce runs out or runs thin. (I enjoyed them so much I even ordered some for here at home.) We acquired big blocks of cheese that kept in the freezer (shelf side that is less cold); we even came home with some. We had 5 lbs of clementines that lasted 3 weeks out of the fridge and we only lost one to mold. I had powdered whole milk on board and was able to make yogurt. We had plenty of paper products, cleaners and toiletries aboard (also an important part of provisioning). I’m sure there were more successes, but these are the ones that stand out.

I am hopeful for our next round of provisioning for the Bahamas. Our successes combined with the lessons learned should serve us well; there’s no greater teacher than experience. Next time I think I’ll pass on that side of pandemic 😉

We’re home

Well, it’s not what we’d hoped for this season, but the four of us drove through the night and are now safely back at our homes in NH. Now we quarantine for 14 days and hope we didn’t contract the virus en route home.

Now we try to settle back into a land routine in the midst of a pandemic. But first I need a good night’s sleep.

I will blog while I’m home and it will have to do with boating (some of it anyway) as I have a lot to reflect on from this most recent experience.

Stay healthy and take care of each other!

Fixin’ to head home

From our anchorage in West Palm Beach on Thursday we started calling marinas between Fort Lauderdale and Stuart looking for one that would either allow us to moor or tie up dockside until July or put our boat on the hard until January. (For the uninitiated, “on the hard” means on land, preferably tied down, which is the best scenario for hurricane season.) We didn’t want to go too far north because (a) the further we go, the more likely we have to go ashore for provisions (read that as more risk of exposure to coronavirus), and (b) we’d have to retrace those miles before we get to the Bahamas. 

One marina in Fort Lauderdale quoted us $36,000 to store her on the hard until January. Uh, thanks, but no thanks. Many marinas were booked and others were just not taking new boats for anything long term because of the pandemic. Then we hit pay dirt, well, at least as good as one can get in a situation like this. We called the Fort Pierce City Marina. They had not been taking anyone other than cruisers passing through who needed a night to rest before continuing on or to wait out weather. On Thursday, however, they had finally gotten the okay from city officials to take “drop-and-go” boats. Show up, secure your boat to the dock, close her up and get off to head home. We were their first such arrangement. Amen! We booked with them through at least July, depending on how this virua plays out. They even allowed us two nights when we called back to tell them we couldn’t get the rental car until Monday morning. We promised to stay on our boat until we leave Monday, other than to sign the requisite paperwork and dump our garbage. The dockmaster met us and helped with a pumpout and showed us to our slip and chatted with us for a bit. Nice folk here.

We started the trek here Friday and finished it yesterday. We settled on our dock by lunch. Then we started the tiring process of getting the boat ready to be closed up for 3+ months. Dave was rational enough to make us stop working by 4pm so we didn’t exhaust ourselves completely and we had fruity rum drinks before dinner. The rum isn’t gone yet, but it’s getting dangerously low. We have enough for fruity rum drinks this afternoon. (I hear rumor the NH liquor stores are still open- yay!) After a yummy pancake breakfast this morning we set about continuing our work, stopping only for lunch. The only reason I’m blogging now is because Dad discovered a leak in the hot water tank that is in their cabin. We’d heard the water pump purr occasionally last night, but Dave couldn’t trace the leak this morning. So he and dad took the tank out and are trouble shooting it as I type. Dave knows he can’t repair it now, but he’s looking for what he may need to fix or replace for when we return. Once he’s done I can finish cleaning the floors in the salon and galley, Then it will be time for showers and drinks, then Easter dinner. 

Yes, we will have some semblance of Easter dinner. We have canned ham (for emergency provisions, but this works) pineapple and brown sugar, frozen veggies and stuff for a cheesy risotto. Plus there are homemade chocolate chip cookies for later. Yum!

The scariest part of our journey starts tomorrow when we venture into civilization for the first time in four weeks. We will minimize our contact with other humans, and are prepared to clean surfaces and our hands when necessary, armed with disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizer and homemade masks (although we only have enough supplies on board for one each). I’m sure Hertz is cleaning their cars, but I’ll wipe it down myself for good measure when I pick it up. We will stop for leg stretching, gas, bathrooms, coffee and maybe a to-go dinner. Other than that, we’re driving straight through to NH and are bringing food for breakfast, lunches and snacks, plus water and juice. We even have a cooler for the remaining fridge and freezer items.
Dave had wanted to get the cooler off the boat anyway. Hopefully we arrive home without contracting the virus en route. Then we will quarantine in our own homes for 14 days. Yeehaw. 

Back to cleaning and stowing stuff. Stay safe, stay healthy and take care of each other!

And we’re back

We had a (mostly) uneventful crossing back to the US from Bahamas yesterday into today. Waters were calm and winds light. The waves picked up a bit overnight, but still comfortable. Glad we took that weather window or we’d have been stuck until at least Saturday.

The port battery control box shut down (fuse blew), but with our new generator controller we were able to run that motor on the generator alone and replace the fuse in the morning after my folks were up (because the battery box is in their cabin). Everything was going fine on Starboard until 5am when Dave wanted to have that generator on continually to give those batteries a break. Unfortunately, he had to shut it down right after it had auto-started to do this and it didn’t like that and wouldn’t restart. So he cross connected port and starboard systems running both motors off port generator but still charging starboard batteries. After a few hours of ‘rest’ the starboard generator did restart and Dave was able to undo the cross connection.

We are now anchored back at West Palm Beach. Tomorrow we will make some calls and determine where to leave the boat. Once we get her in place, we will rent a car and drive home together overnight, stopping as little as possible and bringing food & water we already have onboard.

Then I guess we self-quarantine back at home for a bit. Not what we’d hoped for our first cruising season, but at least we got a brief taste of the Bahamas and none of us had contracted the corona virus. Let’s hope it stays that way!

Stay healthy and take care of each other!