Hi!! Have you seen our latest YouTube video?❤️
This is going to be a two-week-long summary, so bear with me here…😅
(9/25/2022 – 10/9/2022)
I’m happy to report I passed all my exams for my Captain’s license last week!!⛵️ I officially completed the course on Monday, and we spent the afternoon celebrating. 🥂 We tried out a new restaurant for lunch, and I got a long overdue haircut before spending the rest of the evening relaxing at home in PJs, sipping gin and tonics and telling jokes until sunset. ❤️
On Tuesday, we attempted to get back in the swing of things. Since the beginning of September, I’ve let my usual tasks/chores fall through the cracks. Ray is an angel and has done his best to keep up with the laundry, boat maintenance, and general tidying so that I could focus on studying, but Sabado really does require two caretakers. So, I started by taking inventory of our provisions. With our journey to the Caribbean coming up soon, I decided to let our food supplies dwindle so I could do a thorough restock while we were in a big city. We rarely have more than one grocery store offering delivery services. However, Boston has Wegmans, Stop & Shop, Aldi, and Costco, so I pulled out everything we still have, wiped down the shelves/cabinets, reorganized, and put together three separate Instacart lists.
I like to fill our freezer almost entirely with meat. You can usually find fresh fruits and vegetables on the islands, but we had to search for meat in the Bahamas. When we could find some, it was usually unlabeled and repackaged, so it was hard to tell how well it had been handled… I hear the Caribbean has more grocery options than the Bahamas, but it might take us a while to get there, so better safe than sorry! I like the frozen, individually vacuum-sealed meats from Costco.
I refilled our canned and dried goods cabinets from Aldi and got any remaining odds and ends from Wegmans.
Since we’ve been staying on a mooring ball, we’ve had a shipping address, allowing us to stock up on spare parts in anticipation of leaving the USA. So, Ray spent a good chunk of last week unpacking and organizing the parts he ordered for all our main systems: engines, wind turbines, watermaker, generator, etc.
On Wednesday, Ray decided he’d had enough of our squeaky wind turbine, so (after running his idea by the company’s engineer), he decided to drill a hole into it, spray some lubricant, and reseal the hole. Did I love the idea of him leaning out on one foot 10ft above our sugar scoop while the Boston ferry boats raced by throwing massive wakes every 10mins? Not one bit. I did try to talk him out of it, but with Hurricane Ian heading our way, I knew we wouldn’t be somewhere calmer anytime soon, and the noise was quite literally driving him crazy.
He agreed to wear his grippiest shoes, and if he felt like he was going to fall, he promised to fully commit and jump into the water to avoid hitting his head on the sugar scoop below. Against my better judgment, I agreed and stood behind him to hand him tools and give incoming wake warnings.
I’m happy to report Ray did not swim in the Boston Harbor that day, and our wind turbine has been silent ever since. 👏🏼
Thursday night, we were invited over to a neighboring boat for happy hour. We sipped wine and swapped stories while snuggling with their newborn puppies!!
The remnants of Hurricane Ian made it to Boston over the weekend. The mooring field got breezy, bouncy, and cold, so we stayed inside and finished cleaning and organizing Sabado.
On Monday, our new friend Tom, a Bostonian and fellow sailor offered to drive us to get our propane tanks refilled. Refilling our tanks is always a bit of a struggle because most Uber drivers don’t want propane in their cars, and refill facilities are rarely within walking distance. Tom picked us up from the marina and told us about the city’s history as he drove us around.
Tom, if you’re reading this- thank you so much! ❤️
We headed back to the boat with two full cans.
We spent the rest of this week hiding from the wind/rain/cold and planning for our departure.
Thursday afternoon, we finally ditched our mooring ball and headed South. It was the first sunny day we’d had in a while, so despite having to motor due to lack of wind, we were happy to be warm(ish) and on the move.
While we were in Boston, we had decided to get the front portion of our helm enclosure replaced. Over time, the clear vinyl had become cloudy and began to crack near the seams. It had gotten so bad that we had to stand outside the enclosure on our way into Boston to see ahead. So, we brought the front and two side panels to Allerton Harbor Canvas. The guys at Allerton know what they’re doing, so we took their advice and upgraded to strataglass, a noticeably thicker material with a ten-year clarity guarantee. They noticed our original enclosure did not have heat sealed or bound edges, which led to the fraying we were seeing. So, they cleaned everything up, replaced all the stitching with UV-resistant thread and were able to reuse most of the sunbrella fabric we already had on the borders, bringing down the cost of the job.
Here are a few photos they sent over of the process:
Pretty cool, right? You can get a better feel of the final product in our latest YouTube video!
We were impressed when we got the finished panels back, but this week was the first time we got to use them while moving the boat, and man, what a difference!! We could see everything, and it was crystal clear!
We dodged crab pots in rough seas for a few hours before turning into the Cape Cod Canal at sunset.
Once we made it through the canal, we headed toward an anchorage just an hour or so farther. We’d anchored there on our way North, so dropping the hook in the dark wasn’t an issue.
We woke up the following day to a bit of a squall. It was cold and wet, but we bundled up and decided to make another small hop South to Newport, Rhode Island. We motored along, periodically popping inside to defrost our fingers. Thankfully, the sun came out just as we were pulling in. We hopped onto a mooring ball and dinghied to shore for a couple of drinks in a heated restaurant.
We’re planning on staying here for a couple nights, re-fueling, then getting back out on anchor. We’re trying to move South slowly to obey our insurance restriction (we need to be North of the Florida/Georgia line until November 1st), but it’s getting increasingly cold up here…
Anyway, I hope you had a great week! ❤️