4. Back On Board

    Leaving Riverside Marina - Ft Pierce, FL

We spent almost a week at our home in Jax.  We cleaned and closed down our house.  We spent multiple days at our commercial building working on clearing the space for a new tenant.

    AppleBox warehouse looking pretty empty.  The new sail we are stitching is laid out on the floor.

The girls had fun with lots of their friends.  And we were blessed to celebrate our friends’ adoption of a family of four.  

    It's official - the Wolff family just doubled in size!

Super productive week but we were all excited to get back to Abby and back on the water.  

She welcomed us back with a bit of warmer weather and we shed our layers for tanks tops and shorts, even if only for one day.  

We spent time with our new friends, the Lawsons, another liveaboard family finishing up loose ends in Ft Pierce before heading to the Bahamas.  Sky and Savannah became fast friends and she even got to sleep over at their boat.  

            We hosted the second night.

We are keeping our fingers crossed that all works out for us to cross to the Bahamas together.  

We spent the last day in the marina prepping to head to the open ocean for the first time (and taking advantage of some great food in the area).

    Archie's - Andrew schooling Paige.

We thought we were stowing everything as best we could but we would soon find out it was all in vain.  The next morning the wind had kicked up as promised and we took the small craft advisory as an indication of great sailing to come.  

    Our first glimpse of the ocean.

Leaving the inlet at Ft Pierce was so exciting.  Everyone was in high spirits as we saw the open ocean in front of us.  We only had a flake of a foresail out and the 20-30 knot winds were moving us along at a steady 6-7 knots.  

    The moms will be happy to notice everyone wearing their life vests.

The wave surfing was super fun but we soon realized that “items tend to shift during shipping”.  

I was making repeated trips below deck to see what new item had wiggled free from it’s holding, each time thinking I had secured the last possible mess.  

    A small bit of the mess in the galley.

At one point Andrew heard a thud and sent me running to check.  An entire cabinet top we had forgotten to re-screw down during refit had shifted in our cabin and all the three ringed binders with owner's manuals and various schematics had flown onto the floor.  

    The shelf was full, only one book only slid to the bed, the rest are on the floor.

Luckily, the ice maker on that same shelf still sat firmly in it’s place.  That’s one of our luxury items onboard that we would sorely miss if it took a dive :)

After having their giggly fill of bouncing on waves and getting cold spray in the face, the girls headed below deck to be a little more comfy but not before Paige tripped on all the stuff that had fallen on the cabin floor, landing flat on her back.  

She was fine but Sky & I laughed at her uncaringly as she laid there to determine if it was a laugh or cry moment - she laughed too :)

Because the conditions turned out to be much more than we bargained for, we took our first bail out option at St Lucie.  You would think being surprised by wind and sea and having to turn in sooner than planned or turning into the inlet and fighting wind and current at a whopping 1 knot would be the most frustrating point of the day but NO.  Trying to lay the anchor out 7 times without a windlass (for our non-boaters, a motor that reels in the anchor for you) and not catching a holding anywhere, that was the moment that made me want to cuss and cry all at the same time.  I enjoy handling the anchor most days, it is great exercise but today just wasn't our day.  

    Even through frustration you can't deny the beautiful surroundings - Jupiter Lighthouse.

By this time, we were so exhausted and ready to find our stopping point for the night.  Jupiter offered no such luck.  We even had our first running aground.  Not a first you look forward to but Andrew and Abby worked it out.  We pressed on while the moon rose beautifully, passing many drawbridges along the way.  We finally happened upon a restaurant with a fixed dock near North Palm Beach and decided to treat ourselves to dinner and then took advantage of their hospitality and stayed the night, planning to ask forgiveness if they had asked us to move :)

    Our safe haven for the night.

We all slept like rocks!

So this week brought us lots of firsts:

-first boat family friends we’ve met on our trip and spent time with aboard

-Sky’s first boat sleepover with a friend

-first meal Andrew prepared for us onboard :)

    I'm one lucky lady :)

-first ocean passage

-first gale force winds

-first full on waves over the bow

-first failed anchoring

-first grounding

-and the furthest south we’ve ever been in Abby.

What a week!

Things learned this week:

Our cabin is not ready for ocean passage.  Moments into the adventure items began flying across cabinets and onto the floor.  We have new items added to the list of “to do”s -adding hooks and bungees to secure all stowed items.  Luckily I have a handy Andy aboard ;)

Abby can handle a lot!  

And we’re pretty tough too.

Now we bob at a beautiful mooring in Lake Worth, licking our wounds and planning the next leg of the adventure.  We will be checking out another marine supply store hoping for deals and doing the final prep for the crossing to the Bahamas (which will have to include one more trip back to Jax - but this is really it!). Thinking we will be ready to leave, officially, in the next 2-3 weeks - my fingers are crossed for two ;)

5. Happy 1 Month Aboard, Abby

3. Boat Life / Land Life

    Making our way south.

It is strange putting together the “sailing” blog while sitting in my home on land :) but here is what we’ve been up to.  After Paige’s birthday visit from the grandparents we delivered them to the dock via dinghy, no problem.  Our trip back to Abby gave us a little excitement/drama, enough to to be post worthy so here goes.  Andrew had seen a very nice 60’ yacht beached on a sandbar near the Ponce Inlet so we decided to go exploring to get a better look on our way back to the boat.  As we moved toward the inlet, the sun began to set and the fog grew thicker and thicker.  After hearing our little outboard engine putter a few times as we were about to run aground ourselves, we decided to pull out google earth on my tablet (which usually stays in the dry bag).  By the time we had the satellite image up, the fog was so thick we could no longer see landmarks for reference and had to trust that the computer was smarter than us!  We wound our way past the inlet opening, seeing the larger waves of the ocean much closer than we would want.  The girls were FREAKING out and Paige was convinced we were headed out to the open ocean and, I’m sure in her mind at the time, never to be seen again!  We tried to show them how we were navigating based on the images and used them as lookouts as best we could.  It is amazing the things you think you see when you can’t see anything at all!  Our 15 minute dinghy ride took over an hour to get back to Abby.  Andrew & I had a few intense moments but really didn't feel the panic the girls did because we trusted Google.  Once we arrived back at the boat both girls had a good cry from the stress.  We apologized for not having a better plan and all had a good hug.  

Lessons learned:  

- this experience is not for pushing the boundaries to see what we can endure, we need to make sure the whole crew is “onboard” with the plan.  We don’t want to regularly freak them out or they will not enjoy this experience.  

- fog is not something to be messed with!  You would think we would have learned that from our first experience but we are hard headed, what can I say?

    Ponce Inlet anchorage - note the fog, middle of the day.

After a much more exciting night than we had planned, we were ready to head further south.  We had a fun passage out of New Smyrna and traveled all day with another boat, Rockyella, until Titusville.  There is a tiny passage called Haulover Canal that was densely populated with fishing boats, some having to pull out of our path so we could pass.  We had never seen anything like it.  Where the Indian River opens up heading south is more like a very large lake.  We had quite a bit of chop and some huge wind gusts.  The girls love those moments and get giggling hard.  We had our first pretty severe heeling (for non-sailors- meaning the boat leans far over because of all the wind in the sail) which sent many items in the cabin flying - makes a mess but helps you learn what needs to find a new home :)

    Anchorage at Cocoa Beach

After finishing a total of 4 nights at anchor, we rewarded ourselves with a stay at the Vero Beach Marina and dinner at Riverside Cafe.  OMG - great place to stay and even better food!  We were a little over stimulated to be on land, with people, and lots of TVs but we enjoyed ourselves so much.

    View from Riverside Cafe - breath taking

We are now docked at the “no frills but very affordable” Riverside Marina in Ft Pierce.  

    First time at a dock with no finger piers, you should see us dismount :)

Andrew is doing some finishing touches aboard while the girls and I are at home trying to get everything set for us to leave long term.  We’ve be able to use this time as an opportunity for the girls to take some much missed dance classes at our home studio - Scott Jones School of Dance and squeeze in lots of sleepovers and friend time.

    Crazies!

Things learned in our third week aboard:

The boat is home - I am surprised to find that the four walls of our home are no longer where we feel "at home”.  We have lived here for 10yrs next month. It is not a fancy house, sixties style that needs lots of improvements but we have loved it and turned it into our little haven.  But our 37’ boat feels more like home lately than our comfy 4 walls, why?  Because it's where we are living!  It's no longer about the stuff we have accumulated to make us cozy or happy or entertained but the family I share the space with and the interactions with them that make me feel like the wife and mom I was meant to be.  Lesson: don't be over “stuffed”.  Focus on what is important and what you have or don't have no longer matters.

    Cute girls, being cute in their cute V-berth.

Play the role you're cast - I will try to combine the 3 things I know best: being a wife, living aboard and being a performer.  Andy & I have had a few disagreements aboard usually over nothing particularly important and the resolve quickly.  I have pinpointed that it is usually because I'm trying to do his job, not mine.  Now if you don't subscribe to the “Wives submit to your husbands”, you may appreciate that there is, in fact, a hierarchy on a boat and if there is more than one captain, mutiny ensues.  I have realized that any disagreement comes when I am questioning the captain instead of embracing my role as first mate which is equally important even if it is viewed as a supporting role.  It's like being cast in one role and trying to play another.  Here's a FRIENDS reference for everyone our age :)  It's like being cast as Monica and trying to play Rachel.  Rachel is only truly convincing as Rachel when she has Monica to play off of.  A captain can only truly focus on his duties when his crew is fulfilling their's and a husband is only free to thrive when he has the full and undying support of his wife, a role I cherish.

    The rewards of the sailing life

We have a few more days on land to wrap things up before heading back to the boat so if you’re in Jax and need us, better make it quick :)

Hoping the next post will be from aboard and in a new location.

4. Back on Board