When we first revealed our cruising plan to our friends and families, they were full of questions. Regardless of how we phrased it, explaining that we were quitting our jobs and selling our house so we could sail the Caribbean with our two dogs made us sound crazy. A cruising lifestyle can be strange and has its own challenges. For us, it’s all a part of the adventure. Below are the answers to our 10 most frequently asked questions.
Tag: dogs
Luperon: The Grime, the Beauty, the Culture
We absolutely loved Luperon, but for very different reasons than the Bahamas. In fact, the two couldn’t be more different. The Bahamas had stunning beaches, turquoise clear water, and isolation. Luperon’s water was filthy, but the green country side was magnificent, the town was lively, the food was delicious and inexpensive, and it was full of puppies. Here’s a rundown of our time in Luperon: the grime, the beauty, the culture.
The Grime
The first mooring ball we picked up in the anchorage was covered in scum. As I lifted it out of the water with a boat hook, a family of crabs came rushing out. Disgusted, I released the mooring ball and told Rob we needed to find another that was maintained. Surely that ball couldn’t be in service. But the second ball turned out to be equally grotesque. I slipped our line into the loop, or so I thought. The loop wasn’t intact and we floated away. Well, the third time’s a charm. We secured Kairos to the third mooring ball we picked up and it too was covered in sludge. One thing was clear, the water was filthy.
We heard about a stomach bug that goes around Luperon and I’m certain it’s because of the water. The anchorage is calm and well protected from storms. Many people leave their boats in the anchorage during hurricane season. What makes it a great hurricane hole also limits the amount of current in the anchorage. Because of the reduced water flow, the stagnant water collects grime and bacteria. We washed our hands after each dinghy ride. The water is the one thing we really disliked about Luperon.
As gross as the water was in the light, at night it transformed into a magical light show. The bioluminescence glow surrounded our dinghy and lit up when agitated. When using our saltwater head at night, the toilet appeared to be full of lighting bugs. Though disgusting, the bioluminescence water was a beautiful sight at night.
The Beauty
Okay, so the anchorage water was grimy, but the landscape was gorgeous. The country side was lush and green. We were delighted to see mountains on the horizon again. Rocky cliffs with crashing waves surrounded the anchorage. The Dominican Republic is a beautiful country and we were in awe of its beauty during our entire stay.
Just north of town is a pristine beach along the coast. Luperon Beach is covered in white sand and the clear blue water is very different than the anchorage water. It’s a beautiful beach and it’s obvious why this location was once an all-inclusive resort.
The Luperon Beach Resort was comprised of 662 rooms, 6 pools, tennis courts, disco, gym, multiple restaurants and bars, and horse stables. The once magnificent resort has drastically deteriorated over the last four years since it closed. The accommodations have been stripped of all valuables and the resort land is now grazed by cows. We can see why someone would want to share this paradise with others, so it’s very sad to see the enormous resort abandoned (well, expect for the cows).
Luperon Beach Resort Before….
Luperon Beach Resort Now….
The Culture
As much as we loved the landscape, we adored the people and food of the Dominican Republic even more. The Dominican Republic culture is lively, vibrant, and colorful. The people are incredibly friendly and welcoming. Everyone wears a smile.
Most people speak Spanish, so Rob’s been dusting off his Spanish speaking skills. He knows enough to get by and after only two weeks in the DR he’s able to carry on conversations. As for me, “el pollo frito por favor” is about the extent of my vocabulary.
General elections will be held on May 15th in the DR and you can’t look in any direction without spotting election posters. Campaign trucks drive the streets with enormous speakers in the bed blasting loud music and exciting crowds. Motorcycle parades would gather to celebrate and rally behind a candidate. It was wonderful to see the Dominican people so enthusiastic about their politics.
We love eating cheap street food and the DR did not disappoint. After a 22 hour passage, we were sleep deprived and hungry. Our first stop was the chicken shack. There was no menu, only a plate of the day that could be ordered. We shared a meal called “The Dominican Flag”, which consisted of fried chicken, beans, rice, and cabbage salad. This meal cost 125 pesos ($2.75 USD). After 2 months in the Bahamas, where everything is expensive, this was amazing. It turned out to be the best fried chicken we’ve ever had. We visited the chicken shack 4 more times during our 9 day visit.
If kind faces, vibrant music, and cheap and delicious food are not enough reasons to love Luperon, it was also full of dogs. If you don’t like dogs, then Luperon is not the place for you. You’ll see two or three dogs on every street corner. The dogs are sweet and well behaved. They are only looking for attention and any leftover food scraps you might be willing to share. I’m certain that most Luperon dogs survive on chicken bones alone. Each dog has its own territory it stalks. Buttercup was one of our favorite pups. She hung out at Wendy’s Bar most of the time. She would meet us at the dinghy dock and walk around town with us. One night she followed us to dinner and slept at our feet while we ate. If we didn’t already have two pups on board, I’m sure we would have left Luperon with a boat full of Dominican dogs or at least little Buttercup.
Luperon may have dirty streets, grimy anchorage water, and poor infrastructure, but the people, food, music, and lush landscape more than make up for these deficiencies. We are very glad we had the opportunity to experience the Dominican Republic. We are envious of the simplicity of life in the DR and we understand why some cruisers choose to live there year round. It’s not for everyone, but Luperon charmed our socks off (or would have, if we wore socks).
There is No Such Thing As a Free Lunch
Just 4 short months ago when I was working for an engineering firm, I would attend “lunch and learns” one or two times a week. A company sales rep would bring in lunch and present their products to us engineers. Engineers are like college students and love “free” food, so we’d come out by the dozens to attend these “lunch and learns”. But the lunch wasn’t free. In exchange for lunch, we gave up an hour of our day to learn about the company’s products and potentially specify them on the projects we were working on.
We are very fortunate that we get to travel to exotic and beautiful places, but don’t let our gorgeous pictures on facebook fool you…cruising is hard work. It’s actually more difficult than either of us had imagined. But cruising is like everything else in life, you can’t get something for nothing. Here are some of the less glamorous aspects of our new lifestyle.
1) Water Conservation
Our water tanks hold 100 gallons and we have an additional 20 gallons in jerry cans. While we really wanted to install a watermaker, we couldn’t swallow the $5,500 price tag. If we do a good job of monitoring our water usage, this amount will last us about 10 days. This means rinsing dishes quickly with low pressure water, very quick showers, washing the deck with a bucket of water instead of a hose, and never leaving the water running.
2) Showering
Showers on the boat are not particularly pleasant. Our hot water heater has two heat sources. One is AC electric power and the other is heat from running our engine. We don’t have the battery capacity to run AC power to the hot water heater, so I try to only shower on days when we’ve turned on the engine. The downside is that the water is lava hot and our shower temperature control is touchy. Finding a temperature between lava hot and freezing is a skill that I’m still developing. Because water conservation is important, we can’t leave the water running. So, we have to take navy showers. Get wet, shut off the water, lather up, rinse, repeat. Even though I only used our bathtub 3 times in the 2.5 years we lived in our Denver home, I would have killed for a soak in a hot bath when my legs were covered in bug bites.
3) Manual Toilet
Without going into too much detail here, modern day toilets are amazing inventions that add comfort to our lives. But most heads (boat toilets) have manual pumps. This can be rather unpleasant. Privacy on the boat is nonexistent, so if you weren’t already aware of your partner’s bathroom habits, you will be after a week on a boat. We thought it was ridiculous that some boats our size have two heads on board. Now we sometimes wish we had a second.
We also have to avoid flushing any toilet paper. It will plug our waste system and who wants the job of unplugging it. We have a small trash can with a lid in the bathroom to dispose of toilet paper. It’s really not as gross as it sounds, but it’s less convenient.
4) Dog Hair, Dog Hair, and More Dog Hair
Dog hair is everywhere. I’m sure we had just as much dog hair in our Denver home, but it was much much bigger. The dog hair would just gather in the corners and vacuuming/sweeping once a month kept it out of sight. Now that the four of us live in a much smaller space, there is dog hair everywhere despite constant vacuuming. We have to vacuum and/or sweep every few days just to stay on top of it.
5) The Motion of the Ocean
We haven’t seen any major storms while at anchor yet, but we have certainly had some rocky nights. In Shroud Cay we couldn’t even cook dinner, because of the waves. It’s really impossible to do anything other than watch movies to pass the time.
6) Dinghy Rides
If the boat is our house, then the dinghy is our car. It is the vehicle we take to shore. In flat clam waters, it’s a lovely ride. But typically there’s wind and where there’s wind, there are waves and when there are waves, we get soaked. Despite wearing raincoats, we rarely arrive at our destinations dry. Getting a face full of salt water each time we walk the dogs gets rather frustrating. We are on the hunt for a larger dinghy which should help some.
7) Laundry
Staniel Cay and Black Point Settlement
Our first stop after exiting the Exumas Cay Land and Sea Park was Staniel Cay. As we neared the island, it was obvious that Staniel Cay was going to be a very different atmosphere than the solitude we just left behind. Surrounded by all of these mega-mega yachts, we instantly felt a stroke of jealousy. I wish our boat had a 3 story slide into the water, jet skis at our disposal, and cool vintage Italian speed boats to zip around on.
The mega-mega yachts were certainly an experience, but I couldn’t wait to do the ONE thing that I’d been looking forward to since leaving Florida. Swim with the pigs! We took the dinghy over to pig beach where we saw about 10 pigs hanging out in the water. These pigs are obviously very well fed by the tourists. They were HUGE. We don’t have a lot of food to spare on the boat, so I only brought one granola bar to offer to the piggies. As soon as we landed the dinghy, there were 10 GIANT pigs charging at me for my granola bar. I was so excited to feed the pigs, but in the moment I just dropped the food and ran. My experience with the pigs wasn’t exactly how I imagined it, but it was still pretty cool to see these wild animals swimming in the crystal clear Bahamian waters. Rob offered a pig some of his beer and made a drinking buddy for life. The pig continued to follow him demanding more. Once the pigs realized that we were out of food, they lost interest in us and moved on to the next boat that was coming to shore.
After the piggies, the next must do at Staniel is snorkeling Thunderball Grotto. Now the rock doesn’t look like much from the outside, but inside, the cave opens up and rays of sunshine beam through the top. If you don’t like swimming near fish, then you won’t like the Grotto. There are hundreds of fish dancing in the bursts of light. The coral was gorgeous and it really felt like we were in our own life size aquarium. It’s easy to see why the producers of the James Bond movie, Thunderball, chose this location for filming.
With the swimming pigs and the Grotto checked off our list, it was time to find some fresh produce. We took the dinghy to shore and walked around the town. There were three small grocery stores and a bakery, where we picked up a few supplies. The general store even had the fuel filters we needed for the outboard engine. This was the first time in over a week that we saw a single home on an island, let alone an entire town, so we were happy to stock up and dispose of some trash; even if it cost $6.50 a bag.
While we were on Staniel Cay, we decided to grab a bite and a beer at the Yatch Club bar. It’s a cute and lively bar with pool tables and a water view. We hadn’t been out since my birthday pie at Lorelie’s nearly 3 weeks ago. It was nice to get away from the boat and meet some people. All and all, we enjoyed our stop at Staniel Cay, but after a couple of nights, we were ready to leave the crowds behind.
Our next stop was just a few miles south at Black Point Settlement. Now we have been told my multiple cruisers that Black Point has the BEST laundry. I know what you are a thinking, what could possibly be so wonderful about a laundromat that it becomes famous in the cruising community!?! We too thought it was strange that laundry at Black Point was a must do, but we saved all of our dirty clothes for this stop. We washed everything on our boat, even the cushion covers. This amounted to three loads. And I will say that it was a very nice laundromat. The dinghy dock provides easy access, there is free wifi, you can get a haircut for $15, order conch fitters (5 for a $1), and take a hot shower.
There was a cruisers happy hour at a nearby restaurant, Scorpio’s, so we decided to grab some Caribbean chicken wings and drinks. We met a couple of young cruising couples and exchanged boat stories. It was very nice to meet people with similar experiences. One couple had to replace their boat engine, not once, but TWICE, which made me feel fortunate that are boat issues weren’t nearly as severe.
We really enjoyed Black Point Settlement and would have stayed longer, but Baxter developed an ear infection and despite cleaning it with vinegar, it wasn’t getting any better. We knew he needed some antibiotic cream, but it was going to be difficult to come by. I was able to contact the ONE veterinarian office in the Exumas, which is about 45 miles south in George Town. A vet from Ft. Lauderdale flies in once a month, but we had just missed him. However, they did have some antibiotic cream that they would sell us, so we left Black Point Settlement early on St Patrick’s Day morning with a mission to find Baxter some relief.
On our way, Rob put out some trolling lines in hopes of scoring a tuna. We are now out of the Exumas Cay Land and Sea Park, so fishing is permitted. FISH ON! Another dolphinfish (mahi mahi). Well, it’s not the tuna we were hoping for, but were happy to have the protein. Fish tacos for dinner!
Cruising Down the ICW
We left the Regatta Pointe Marina on Thursday, Feb 11th at noon. We said goodbye to our C Dock friends whose warmth and helpfulness made the beginning of our journey so enjoyable. Well, as enjoyable as 2 months of boat work can be. It was a perfect day–light winds, 70°F, and sunny.
All of our engine frustrations were behind us and we were excited to finally be traveling somewhere.
The ICW (Inner Costal Waterway) was pretty easy to navigate. We just need to remember “Greens to the Sea”. We kept the green markers on our starboard side and the red ones on our port side. We cruised the ICW all the way to Fort Myers for a total of 92 miles. We passed under 12 draw bridges, which we had to hail on the VHF radio. It was all pretty exciting and pretty easy. The only drawback being that whoever was at the helm had to pay attention to “the road”. There was so much action, that we couldn’t put it in autopilot and relax.
Our first night we stayed on a mooring ball at Marina Jack’s in Sarasota. Here we took our first dinghy ride with the dogs. I really wish we would have practiced dinghy riding with the pups at the marina. If we had, we probably would have learned that our dinghy is a bit small for all of us. Even after removing the dinghy seat, it’s still a bit cozy. We also would have learned that there is an issue in our fuel supply line to the motor. What should have been a quick dinghy ride to shore, turned out to be a long start/stop process. At one point Rob even tried rowing, but with the dinghy being packed full with puppies, he didn’t have enough room. We limped along with me holding the pups down and Rob fiddling with the priming bulb. For some reason Baxter wants to jump out of the dinghy and attack buoys. I’m not sure what he thinks they are, but I know he does not like what he sees.
Once on shore we walked the dogs in a park in downtown Sarasota. It was squirrel central in the park, which made Jaela very excited. There is nothing she loves more in this world than squirrels, not even us. The dinghy ride back to the boat was better. We cooked dinner and watched the sunset behind the bridge. Minus the dinghy ride hiccup, it was a pretty perfect day.
Day 2 on the ICW was more or less the same. More bridges, plenty of sunshine, and lots of action in the waterway. We decided to anchor near Don Pedro Park around 2pm. We spent the afternoon walking the trails in the park and the pups got to stretch their legs on the beach. We watched another spectacular sunset while we ate dinner in the cockpit. In the morning, we saw dolphins playing near the boat. It was the perfect day. It’s days like this that we envisioned when we first decided to take this adventure.
Our ride down the ICW gave us confidence in ourselves and in our boat, but our first day in the Gulf washed it all away. Holy crap, the Gulf can be a rocky road. We exited the ICW in Fort Myers and headed into the Gulf for the first time. We had plenty of wind, so we put the sails up and started down the coast. We had 3 to 5 foot seas, but the waves were frequent and were hitting our stern on the starboard side, which made for some serious rocking action.
As it was getting dark, we put the pups down below and suited up in our life jackets which have our ACR PLBs attached. We were still feeling pretty good and in control at this point. But as the sun was setting, the wind and waves picked up. We brought the dogs up to see if they would do their business in the cockpit. There was no way we were going to risk taking them to their turf pad on the bow of the boat. At this point Baxter started throwing up and we knew we needed to find an anchorage.
We started heading towards Gordon Pass in Naples. What we didn’t know was that it was approaching high tide, which meant copious amounts of water rushing through the narrow inlet to feed all of the inland canals and bays. Also, the channel is narrow with shoaling on the north side. It was dark and we were entering the channel in very dangerous conditions.
I manned the spotlight and Rob was at the helm trying to keep Kairos in the center of the channel as she surfed on the incoming waves. For those that know me, you know that I like to challenge Rob and think that I can do most things just as well as he can. Steering the boat in chaotic conditions is NOT one of those things. I was scared and frantic, but Rob was cool as always and navigated us safely into the channel despite the poor visibility and rocky conditions. I was very impressed.
Once we were inside the canal and had land to protect us from the wind, the waves dissipated and we could finally breathe. We found an anchorage spot among some very large $5 million homes. Just 10 minutes ago we were terrified of crashing into rocks and now we were anchored next to the rich and famous.
All four of us were so exhausted, we quickly ate dinner and fell asleep. We were humbled by the Gulf and Gordon Pass and have a new found respect for navigating at night. It was the scariest moment of our journey thus far, but we made it through it and were finally resting safely.
Puppy Proofing
Any dog owner can relate to the sacrifices we make for our furry children. They depend on us for everything—food, safety, shelter, affection, water, etc. It’s difficult to see how our pups are related to wild dogs, because these two wouldn’t last a day on their own. Jaela would probably chase a squirrel off a cliff and Baxter would curl up and die without his blanket.
We take them out in the early morning cold rain when all we want to do is sleep in. We take them to the vet and spend too much money to make sure they are healthy and stay that way. We clean up their vomit when they throw up when we are already running late for something. We put our time and energy into making sure they get enough exercise, are happy, and learn obedience. And in return, we get their unconditional love. Their tails nearly fall off from so much excitement when we walk through the door, even when we’ve been gone only minutes. The only thing they want, other than our food, is to be near us.
Life on the boat is no different. So many of our boat projects revolve around making the boat safer and more comfortable for these two moochers.
Teak Time
10 Lessons Learned from Life Aboard
We have been living aboard for 10 days now. I can’t believe it’s actually been that long. The time is flying by. We’ve learned a lot of things since moving on board. For example we just learned how to take apart and clean a carburetor. We also recently learned which way the valve handle should be pointed to ensure we are pumping the toilet to the holding tank instead of overboard (oops– fortunately we haven’t really used it yet). But in addition to learning about our boat’s systems, we have also learned (or relearned in many causes) some valuable life lessons. Here are our 10 lessons learned from 10 days of living aboard.
Renaming ceremony and decals
Rebuilt fresh water pump
Replaced shower sump pump
New cushions and throw pillows
Dodger zipper repairs and canvas waterproofing
Repaired macerator and washdown pump electrical
Repaired windlass and foot switch
Sanitized water tanks
Cleaned, organized, and moved on board
Cleaned and inflated dinghy
Cleaned dinghy motor carburetor
Replaced lights and fixed some bad connections
Repaired tachometer
Assembled ditch bag, medical kit, and safety gear
Polished metal and strataglass
Got insurance
Installed a TV
Installed a stereo and cockpit speakers
Set up reefing lines
Cleaned anchor locker and removed rusty chain
Sailed the boat and completed lessons
Assembled spare parts
Cleaned the bilge
Varnished the outside teak
Replace the boat level gauge
Refrigerator maintenance
Added a propane grill
1) Get to Know Your Neighbors
This isn’t an entirely new concept to us. We were good friends with our neighbors back in Denver. However, in most of the places I’ve lived, I didn’t make an effort to know my neighbors…let alone everyone on the block.
I’ve been blown away by the kindness and helpfulness we’ve encountered since beginning this journey. From our beach apartment neighbor, Jon, who took us fishing, stocked our boat with every possible medical supply we might need, and invited us to many fish fries, to our dock neighbors, who are always there to throw us a line, help us disassemble a carburetor, and happily share useful tips–we have been truly blessed to meet such wonderful people.
Striking up conversations with strangers isn’t something that comes natural to me. Like most engineers, I can be a bit of an introvert. But the warmth of the sailing community makes it very easy to find instant friends. A large portion of our success so far has come from learning from others who have been there and done that.
So regardless if we will be neighbors for a night or for months, we will continue to make an effort to strike up conversations with anyone we meet along the way. And this is something I will continue to do after our sailing adventure is done. We’ve all had those “small world” experiences. Obviously you won’t become besties with every person you sit next to on a plane or make a business contact with each person you talk to at the dog park, but you never know if you don’t initiate a conversation.
2) Back to the Basics
Our new home is quite a bit smaller than our 2700 sq. ft. home in Denver. Needless to say, we’ve had to downsize a lot. We’ve are constantly asking the question, “is this a need or a want?” More often than not, the answer is “it’s a want.” It turns out that we don’t NEED much.
We’ve cooked dinner on board 9 out of the last 10 nights. We’ve made many of our favorite dishes with one pot, one frying pan, a wooden spoon, a knife, and a cutting board. I certainly do miss my fully stocked kitchen, but we’ve been able to make delicious meals without all of our kitchen gadgets.
We still, however, have several wants on board. Do I need throw pillows? No, but they are pretty and make me smile. Does Rob need a spear gun? No, but he’s pretty excited to try it out. Do the dogs need doggie beds? No, but it makes them comfortable.
Just like anything else, it’s a balancing act. We make sure our needs are covered (food, shelter, water, medical, safety) and wisely chose what wants we bring on board.
3) Patience is a Virtue
We were so used to “Go, go, go”…that it’s taking time for us to adjust to “Slow, slow, slow”.
Whether it’s with each other, with frustrating boat projects, or with the Bahamas who are taking FOREVER to issue our dog permits, our patience is constantly being tested. However, we purposely left the hustle and bustle of our Denver lives to enjoy the “relaxing” sailing lifestyle. We are learning to slow down and smell the roses ocean.
4) Organization is Key
Finally something I’m already good at! There is a place for everything and everything has its place on a boat. We are now living in a small space and organization is key. This is right up my alley. Because of my OCD characteristics, I find great satisfaction in organizing our boat and ensuring that everything is tucked safely away in its home at the end of the day. It’s important to have a system–otherwise you’ll end up tearing the place apart looking for a dinghy patch kit (which now lives inside the ditch bag).
5) Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
This is certainly something I need to work on. Rob and I get to spend a lot of time together now. Like every single moment. 24/7. Most of the time it’s great. But anytime you spend this much time with one person, you’re bound to get on each other’s nerves sometimes. Because of my type A personality, I may tend to over react occasionally. So when Rob misplaces the dinghy patch kit or the dogs get their dirty paws on my new cushions, my natural response is to implode. However, I’m learning to “shake it off” and remember what’s really important. And I’m finding life is a lot more fun and enjoyable for everyone.
6) Keep it Simple Stupid
Boat systems today look a lot different than they did in 1989 when our Pearson 39-2 was built. Therefore, most of our systems were added some time after the boat was manufactured. Thus, our Pearson users manual doesn’t do us much good when we are troubleshooting these upgrades. Moving parts and electrical systems fail. Without proper maintenance, they will fail frequently in a marine environment. So whenever possible, it’s best to keep it simple. Sure there are a lot of new boating gadgets out there to make life more comfortable aboard. But adding complexity, likely means adding more maintenance cost and time.
Having said that, we’re totally getting a watermaker. It will give us more flexibility during our adventure and come on…making drinkable water from the ocean sounds pretty cool. Maybe we can retrofit it to be a winemaker?
7) Measure Your Progress Over Time
We’ve had many days where it seems like for every step forward we take two steps back. We start each day with a list of things we want to accomplish. At the end of the day, we sometimes celebrate with beers because we were able to cross each item off. Other days we sulk over beers because our to do list grew instead of shrunk.
You win some, you lose some. But when we look back over the last month, we are so proud of everything we have accomplished:
A New Year, A New Home
Happy New Year everyone! We are officially liveaboards! We said goodbye to our very colorful beach apartment on Friday and moved all of our belongings on board Kairos. This was by far our most pleasant moving experience to date. It’s not such a dreadful and daunting task when everything you own fits in your car. Once on board we spent the remainder of the day organizing and developing storage solutions. We were both pleasantly surprised with how much we were able to bring on board. We still have some unused storage on the boat, which I plan to fill with new shoes and bathing suits (just kidding…kinda’).
With our things safely packed away, we had our first dinner on the boat. This was my first time cooking in a galley (yes, everything has a different name on a boat–it’s like learning a new language). I love cooking. It is one of my favorite things to do. When asked what people miss most from land life when they move aboard, most say their showers, bathtub, or garden. For me it will be my kitchen. Our galley is perfectly adequate to prepare meals, but I’m going to miss my enormous counter space for prep, garbage disposal for easy clean up, my large John Boos cutting block, and my natural gas stove with hood.
But even without the comforts of my old kitchen, I was determined to prepare a nice meal for our first night on board. I made Asian lettuce wraps. It’s a very easy recipe and it’s a healthy meal (gotta’ work on our beach bods) we both enjoy. The propane stove will take some getting used to, but I was just happy it turned on. It is very rare for something on our boat to work the first time we try it. Night 2 on the boat was just as successful (baked chicken, mashed potatoes, and kale salad). The oven also turned on the first try. We’re starting to think that we got rid of all the evil juju after we did the renaming ceremony.
Dinner and drinks in the cockpit were very relaxing and for the first time since we started this adventure, we got a taste of what we set out for. All this hard work is really starting to pay off.
One night aboard and I’ve already discovered how to get an amazing night’s sleep on a boat. Solution: drink a bottle of wine before bed. I slept like a rock. Unfortunately, drinking a bottle of wine every night is not good for my health, so I will need to find a long term solution. We’ve had a couple of cool nights here in Florida, so sleeping hasn’t been difficult. I am a little nervous for the hot and humid nights. Kairos does not have AC.
Before we said goodbye to 2015, we were able to take Kairos out for her maiden voyage. Rob’s parents were in town and with their help not only did Kairos take her first sail, but the dogs did too. They were both nervous and confused, but overall did really well. Baxter absolutely loves being on the boat. His excitement made him very thirsty, which caused him to drink a ton of water. Then he had to potty on the bow two hours into our sail. I’ve ordered a turf pad to place on the bow for them and we’ll probably start potty training next week. I was pretty nervous about the potty training, but Baxter proved when they have to go, they will.
We took Kairos out twice while Rob’s parents were here. Rob was able to back into the slip and avoid the concrete wall of death both times. We are getting more comfortable docking and sailing. We are starting lessons this week to better prepare ourselves for all situations.
Life aboard looks a little different. Sunday at 11:00 AM in Denver we’d be drinking bloody marys and watching football with friends. Right now Rob is troubleshooting an electrical issue on the mini-fridge, while I squeeze in some blog time before shocking our water tanks again. Boat work has become our full time jobs and right now we are working overtime every weekend. But sunny sailing days like Thursday, relaxing nights listening to music in the cockpit like Friday, and seeing Kairos transformed into a home, makes it all worth it.
However, some things never change. We will find a way to catch the Green Bay game tonight. Go Pack!