After a month in Marathon, we’re nearly finished with our DIY bimini. With just a few more finishing touches, including modifications for the backstay, the radar pole, and the solar panels, we’ll be ready to take off to The Bahamas.
If you think we have this whole life thing figured out, don’t let us fool you! We constantly feel like we’re never getting enough done, that we’re falling behind, and that life is moving too quickly. Anyone else feel like it’s a struggle to find balance in life?
After spending as much time in boatyards as we have, it might make you wonder: Is it all worth it? In this episode, we set off on our first overnighter of the season.
We broke out of boat jail (aka the boatyard) and are sailing south! On a frisky upwind sail across Charlotte Harbor, we break in our new headsail from Precision Sails; then our way to Fort Myers, we get a chance to fire up our Spirit 1.0 electric outboard from ePropulsion.
In this episode we continue south on a beautiful downwind day sail from Venice Beach to Boca Grande Pass, then spend a few days anchored at Cayo Costa State Park. We noticed a couple of younger cruisers drop their anchor next to us, so we dropped by to say hello.
July was a fun month. After the rush of getting up to the midwest to help move Lauren's family move house, we got a little time to relax and enjoy the best time of year in the midwest.
While cruising down the west coast of Florida, we run into a few obstacles: Our power runs out without all of our solar panels up; a navigation mistake results in us finding the bottom(!); and working while traveling is just plain complicated. But hey, it’s all good fun!
Where as April and May were normal-ish, June was an absolutely wild ride: It completed our first full year living aboard the boat; we bought a van and named him Chip; we hauled the boat out of the water for hurricane season and drove north to help Lauren's parents move out of her childhood home, and attended our first electronic music festival.
Imagine what one week of cruising looks like, and you’ll never get two identical weeks. BUT— if we had to pick one, these 7 days are pretty typical of our cruising life.
April and May were odd months if we were "normal" cruisers. But since we consider ourselves more 'slow travelers' who happen to live and work on a sailboat, it was just more of the same for us.
