New insights provided by our adventure

 We left our marina on Saturday, Feb. 25th.  Up until our departure we had slept on the boat about 7 nights while in our slip in the marina.  The first night sleeping on the boat we spent time identifying sounds/movements that were new to us.ie. slapping of water on the hull, gentle rocking when a boat would go by that unsettled the water outside our slip and sometimes a rubbing sound of the fenders against the dock.

We got accustomed to all of those sounds and slept well after the first night. Then we left Merritt Island and sailed down the ICW and anchored our first night in Vero Beach.  We had never dropped anchor before except a day practice and there is always a chance that if you don't secure it correctly your anchor will be dragged along by your boat and you will end up somewhere you don't want to be like running into a nearby boat or running aground on a sandbar. So falling asleep that night wasn't easy....at least for Cindy.  In fact I (Cindy) slept in the saloon of the boat because I could see out of the side portholes and each time I awoke I looked for the anchorage lights of our lead boat.  Each boat at anchorage must turn on special lights at the top of their masts so surrounding boats can see them.  That point of light reassured me that we were still the same distance from the lead boat and that our anchor was holding us securely.  During one of my awake periods, I thought about how important it is that we remain firmly anchored in our lives and I made a list of things that anchor me. 

I am anchored by my faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  During the worst moments in life when I was most afraid, I relied on the testimony I have of Christ's atonement for all the people on earth and the great love He has for all of us. I am anchored by the promise that nothing is really lost to those who follow and love Him. He can heal us physically, emotionally and mentally and He has power to still waves. Matthew 8:24-26 That verse has a whole new meaning to me now.😊 I am anchored by my sweetheart. When I am afraid he steadies me. Especially on this adventure his knowledge exceeds mine  and I often need to place trust in him. I am anchored by my family who means everything to me.  They bring me great joy and I feel honored to be associated with both my family of birth and the family that David and I have created.  Our children truly are our greatest treasures and I'm so grateful that I will be with them even into the eternities.

That night spent watching the anchorage light of our buddy boat reminded me to look up and look toward the light even when it seems small in the darkness.  It can bring us comfort and hope and still our fears.

We are on the way!

 On Saturday, Feb. 25, we left our marina in Merritt Island, Fl and headed for the Bahamas.  We were lucky enough to find two other boats who were going, one of which has gone 7 times before so we asked to tag along hoping to benefit from their knowledge.

The first day we sailed on the ICW or Intercoastal Waterway (also known as the Ditch).  Many people travel on this because it doesn't have the chop of the ocean and there are multiple anchorages.  The downside of traveling on it is the depth constantly changes and it is often very busy with motorized boats and there are lots of bridges to pass under.

 Some of the bridges are fixed and some are draw bridges which you must hail on the VHF radio and ask for the bridge to be raised.  Each bridge has different schedules, which you can find on an app, but some only open once every hour or half hour

Our mast is 63' above the water line and the fixed bridges on the ICW are supposed to be 65 ft. but if the water level is up there may be less clearance than that so you approach the bridges very slowly.  As a result of all these obstacles we motored our boat all day because sailing doesn't give you enough control of the boat.  Haha!  No brakes on boats.

Cindy at the helm!

  

There are some amazing homes along the ICW.  Probably pretty spendy.

Our buddy boat going under the bridge.  His mast is 11' shorter than ours.

This is the gauge that we watched constantly for 10 hours to make sure it was deep enough.  Our keel is 5 ft. deep so we have to be in water at least 6 ft.  The SOG is speed over ground and is calculated in knots which are close to miles per hour.  So we traveled 55 miles the first day.

David taking a little break. 

On Sunday we are heading out into the ocean.  We will sail from Vero Beach, FL to West Palm Beach and then anchor overnight.  Stay tuned for more on the Sunday sail.

Not everything in owning a boat is easy!

 When we bought the boat, the survey (equivalent to home inspection) found a number of items that our insurer wanted to have corrected. Some were pretty trivial, like reinstalling a handhold that had been removed.

A couple were significant. There was an old repair at the front of the boat at the waterline. Insurance wanted that fixed. And there was a gouge in the keel where the boat had run aground. The surveyor recommended a repair to the “fiberglass” on the keel. (Turns out there was none—it was just lead). And the surveyor noted some “excess play” in the steering. (Which felt fine to me.)

WE found a couple of items we wanted to repair before we headed away from the great boating infrastructure that is Florida. Every large boat has some “thru hulls”--holes in the bottom of the boat that are there on purpose, for things like water intake to cool the engine, water intake for the generator and air conditioner, and water outlets for things like sinks. They each have a valve to open and close them. But if one of those fails, then you’ve got a hole in the bottom of your boat.

Our through hulls looked OK. But they have spacers, and some of those spacers were wood. Bad idea. Some of the wood spacers were damp and breaking down. If one of those spacers fails, then you’ve got a 3/8 open area around the thru hull. Very bad.     Here they are all fixed.

So we decided to get all that fixed. Can’t fix the keel or thru hulls or waterline repairs while in the water. We had to haul the boat onto land. That requires a really powerful lift. Our boat weighs about 27,000 pounds, weighed on the lift. Some boats weigh a lot more. And it takes a crew of 4 to get the boat out, moved, and propped up properly on land. As you can imagine, a crew of 4 and an expensive lift don’t come cheap. So we spent a bit even before anything had been repaired.

Then, when it came time to haul the boat, the marina made it, seemingly, as difficult as possible. First, we had to dock the boat temporarily and drop our jib (front sail.) I guess there is some risk that, in high winds, they can come unwound and damage themselves and nearby boats.

Then, they made us pull the boat into the lift BACKWARDS. I was still learning how to “park” the boat in forward. Parking in reverse???

Well, nothing to do but do it. Tinho (brother in law—a boat expert) had told me a story about a boat on a previous day that had really botched its approach to the lift, multiple times. So, I thought maybe I wouldn’t be the worst approach they had seen…

Actually, it turned out better than I thought. The crew told me my approach was “average.’ Even if they were being kind, I’ll take it.

After the boat was settled on land, Tinho spent 4 days working on it. I helped as much as I could. His expertise was priceless.

And on valentine’s day, we re-launched the boat and headed straight for the ocean for a celebration sail. Wind was very light, but it was still a fun way to spend valentine’s day!

This is Tinho Dornellas, the boat wizard fixing the thru holes!

Learning as you go!

 Because both of us had sailed for most of our lives we thought we already knew a lot about sailing and sailboats, but we quickly found out that there is a whole world of information about live aboard sailboats that we will need to learn as we go!  If we wait until we know everything we will never leave port.😁😏

One of the first things we needed to learn about was sail repair.  The boat we bought had a damaged jib sail.  The last hurricane to come through central Florida in Nov. 2022 had unraveled the edge of the sail and beaten it up pretty good.  We hoped we could just have it resewn. So we took it to a sail maker in Cocoa Village, FL., Sails by Morgan.  He has a great reputation and has been doing this awhile.  Below are a few pictures of his shop.

Taking measurements for possible fixes.  This sail is over 300 square feet of sail material.  

He needs this huge wood floor to stretch the sails out for measurement and repairs. In the background you can see all the types of rope he sells to attach your sails to the standing rigging.  

I watched his apprentice repair another sail with a heavy duty sewing machine that has 5 needles side by side.  There is a metal guard rail about 6" wide in front of the needles to keep the operator's hands clear of those.  He is sewing through the equivalent of 3-5 layers of denim material.  The edges of a sail (the pretty blue on this sail) are called the sacrificial.  It gets its name from the fact that if the sacrificial tears it may spare the main part of the sail. Sail cloth costs $14-$32 per yard and the sunbrella material around the edges costs about $26/yard.

Unfortunately, our sail needed to be replaced so we ordered a used but near new Genoa sail.  The difference between a jib and a genoa is how far behind the main mast the sail can extend so we added a big more sail with this purchase.  I also learned that the jib or genoa (or you can sail a spinnaker) actually is designed to funnel the air unto the main sail to increase your overall speed.

David and I have been learning new things constantly for the past month.  It can be overwhelming but we are trying to approach each new skill as a fun challenge for our slightly used brains.  We have also met several people who jumped into buying a live-aboard sailboat without any prior sailing experience and have lived to tell the tale!  I'm grateful that our past experiences have made us a little more comfortable with this big life change.   

We bought a boat!!

 After a failed attempt in the winter of 2022 (we went under contract, did the survey and found hull damage and had to reject the boat when the current owner didn't want to fix the structural damage), we have completed a 3 year dream with the purchase of our beautiful Hunter 41 sailboat.  We named her Lani Kai which means Heavenly Seas!  Here are a few pictures of her.

These are two possible layouts of our boat.  Our is the one on the bottom.

Ours is the one in the middle.  Our neighbors on both sides are from Idaho too.  Isn't that crazy? Below is our saloon (nothing stronger than rootbeer served here).

Our kitchen or galley.

        Bunk 1                                                                        Bunk 2

Rear head or bathroom

The master suite with a porthole to watch the stars at night!

The boat pulled out of the water for hull inspection!

Captain David at the helm on a rare cold day in Florida!  

Stock photo of a Hunter 41 under                                                                sail!

Check back to see what happens next!

buying a boat, sailing