2. HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM ABBY & CREW

Week 2 - Happy New Year

We rang in the New Year in style with a horse-drawn carriage tour of St Augustine, fireworks, dinner w/ live band and counting it down with a whole bunch of new sailing friends aboard S/V Valhalla - thanks Stan & Sarah.

        A unique look at our oldest city.

New Year’s Day was spent relaxing aboard.  Teaching the cup song to the girls proved to be both entertaining as well as refreshing -for Andrew, as he dove into the water to save an over-zealous solo cup who flew out of the cockpit :)

    Just before he finds out how cold the water is!

St Augustine was a great stop for picking up the supplies needed to wrap up a few boat projects.  We even traversed King St with our "new to us" whisker pole in hand.  

    Beautiful downtown St Aug, crazy sailors.

The weather turned a bit on us and the St Augustine Municipal Marina was gracious enough to hold a space open for us on the other side of the bridge so we moved from our first home in the north mooring field to a calmer spot in the south field for our last night there.

Jan 2 was a fun and exciting day, even if the girls didn’t know it yet :)  

We dropped our mooring and headed south to Marineland Marina.  We had a chilly but short motor south and the crew at Marineland were super helpful at getting us docked quickly with the gusty wind - thank you, Eric, Quinn, and Daniel at Marineland.  

We rushed to get settled in so we could meet up with our friends, the Wolff pack, at Marineland Dolphin Adventure Park.

We had an amazing tour guide, Valerie, who taught us about all the different marine life they have at the aquarium.  

The kids even had an opportunity to pet and feed the dolphins.  Such an amazingly fun way to celebrate 2016 and our new life!  

    Marineland

    Andrew's battle with Neptune has already begun.

A trip back home to Jax was in order to wrap up a few loose ends.  

It is always bittersweet to go home.  The girls get kind of excited to see all their stuff and watch tv, Andrew gets stressed out because it reminds him of all the stuff we are leaving undone, and I feel like I’m in a tailspin because I have so many projects to complete before we cross to the Bahamas that I’m not sure where to start.  But we try to keep our head about us and just eat it like an elephant, “one bite at a time”.  

We were so happy we spent the first part of the year at the dock because we had a FL style burst of winter and we fired up the heater to stay warm.  Now, I have to apologize to anyone in freezing snow, etc. because it was nothing like that; but we are Floridians, anything below 50 gets us layering up, cuddling like we’ve had an Arctic blast :)

    brrrr

We took the first opportunity of nice weather to move a little further south and even sailed most of the day towards Daytona.  

After our beautiful day sail, we topped it off by dropping the hook for the first time just south of Memorial Bridge.  We had great holding and a perfectly still night that got us excited about all the nights on the hook we have ahead of us (even though Andrew did pop out the top to check our positioning every 15 minutes :)

January 8 is one of my favorite days of the year.  

It is the day I first became a mom, my most favorite job!  Happy 13th Birthday, Paige!  

We woke and pulled anchor promptly to head to the local city dock to pick up Paige's birthday surprise.  Mom & Dad Howell met us there to squeeze Paige's neck and Mom joined us aboard for the quick 2 hr ride south to New Smyrna where Dad met up with us.  

We revisited the Inlet Harbor Marina, one of our most notable stops of our delivery home where we crashed into the dock - see The Bump & Grind if you want to read more about that :)  

Surprisingly the dock guys remember that day really well, too!

It was fun to celebrate in a familiar setting and great to have Mom & Dad join us for a slumber party onboard.

Things learned in our second week aboard:

    I don't have near the time I imagined.  I had dreams of endless minutes to read and write and maybe ponder life as I stare into the distance but that doesn't happen as often as you would think.  There is always something to be done; just as breakfast dishes are done, it is time to adjust the sail.  You may sit for a moment then the charge for the fridge needs reset.  I'll be ready for a sit down but everyone else is hungry :)

    It's not normal yet, I'm still counting the days aboard.  The transition from vacation mode into normal life mode is still illusive.  I'm a foodie and would love to eat out in every location, every day.  Luckily my family is very appreciative when we make a good meal in, it encourages me to press on.

    The quality of communication and family time is invaluable.  Watching my girls learn to communicate better and everyone enjoy each others' company is what this is all about!

    Crazy girls having way too much fun!

Oh, and we completed our first full day back to school aboard - yay us!

    Celebratory popcorn and m&ms after school.

We are looking forward to a week in Fort Pierce to complete the rest of the projects aboard and what is hopefully the final trip home to Jax.  We'll keep you posted.

3. Boat Life / Land Life

1. Our First Week Aboard - 12/31/2015

We left our home marina in Jacksonville one week ago today and thought this would be the perfect time to look back over our first week aboard.

    Our first mooring with a beautiful view of the Castillo de San Marcos. St Augustine, FL

12/24 - The excitement and anticipation of moving aboard had us all moving full speed ahead!  Andrew, at the boat doing last minute tweaks and the girls & I at home loading cold goods and anything else that came to mind for the final run to the boat.  We have limited space available for storage but managed to bring on board everything you would need for the apocalypse.

The moment Abby escaped from her slip, her home for the past 2 years, happened in a blur and before we knew it we were watching the marina shrink in the distance.  We all shared sentiments about how we couldn't believe we were finally doing it!  We made great time with the outgoing tide and even had a chance to stretch our main sail for the first time in forever.  It was a magical afternoon of watching as we passed by familiar settings traversing the Intracoastal for the first time from Jax, enjoying meals and snacks in the cockpit, and chatting it up the whole time; no one spent any time below deck, we just experienced it all together.

    Passing under the Dames Point Bridge.  Jacksonville, FL

As the sun set, we noticed our temp gauge abnormally high.  We pulled over & dropped anchor to check it out but we're underway again soon when everything looked in order, but not before realizing that in our hast we hadn't actually bolted down the anchor roller.  That made for a little excitement on our first anchor pull :)

As we continued along with the beautiful sunset, we again found our temp out of control so we pulled out of the channel again.  At this point in our day, all the adrenaline from leaving had worn off!  We were tired and hungry and contemplated just anchoring for the night.  It felt like quite a let down if we wouldn't actually arrive at our first destination but Andrew and I tried to keep our spirits up for the girls. We, in our heads, know there will be many times on our journey that we won't reach the intended destination for whatever reason (weather, wind, daylight), our hearts were just set on Christmas morning in St Augustine and we weren't ready to give up on that yet.  We decided dinner was the solution - a little brain food and energy to push ahead.  Andrew got to diagnosing while I made dinner.  After finding the drip that was messing with the temp gauge and a Ziptie fix to our water strainer (not recommended) we were on our way, little did we know that a thick fog had set in.  

    Note the Zipties on the left :)

We pushed the last few miles slowly through the fog with both girls on the bow straining to see the channel markers in the distance, me running below every 5 minutes to check the Zipties and Andrew navigating by instruments only.  Approaching the Vilano Beach Bridge in the fog made it look other worldly but as we cleared it and rounded the bend the fog lifted a bit and St Augustine, adorned with it's Christmas best, came into view.  We picked up our first mooring ball on the first try, like a pro, and wished each other Merry Christmas as the clock struck midnight and we soaked in our new surroundings.  Although pressing through the fog was not the smartest choice, it all seemed well worth it now!

    Our first glimpse of St Augustine on Christmas Eve.

A week on board our new home has flown by.  Santa brought the girls instruments, Paige - ukulele & Sky - lap harp, and we have enjoyed their serenades as we work.  We have spent our days moving in to our new space.  Each day it feels a little more like home.  We still have tools out - always - and a few boxes of liquor that have yet to find a home but everything else is beginning to settle in.  

    Chillin'

Things to be learned in your first week aboard:

    Move Slowly- Anything that has to be done takes about 10 extra steps on a boat.  Whether it's removing all the items in the fridge to get to the beer or searching every storage bin for the one item you need, just expect daily tasks to take a few minutes instead of a few seconds and you will alleviate   frustration.

    We are always tired- I think our bodies will get used to the constant motion and adapt but I've sent most of the week feeling a bit jet-lagged.  At least we have very comfy beds to rest in :)

   We are very blessed to have this opportunity- As I watch the city bustle beside us and we struggle to relax into the slower pace of our new daily grind, I am reminded of what a unique opportunity this is.

    I love my family very much- We can push each others' buttons to drive each other crazy but there are no other people on the earth I would consider sharing this 37' floating haven with.  We've had lots of laughs and only a few tears so far, we've played family games and found our own little corners for private time but everyones' favorite moments are sharing our "highs and lows" from previous days.

HIGHS & LOWS - 12/25/2015 about our passage to St Augustine

Andrew: 

    LOW -thinking the engine was overheating and we would be stuck for awhile, maybe even days, due to the holiday

    HIGH -rounding the bend and seeing St Augustine and watching the girls realize we made it and not letting everyone down.

Sky:

    LOW -loading up at the dock, everyone peaking out (stressed) and being pulled in all different directions

              -being on lookout during the fog and the nerves from the pressure

    HIGH -leaving Arlington Marina, actually doing it!

              -decorating for Christmas aboard and chilling together

Paige:

    LOW -navigating in the fog and the stress of the responsibility

    HIGH -sitting in St Augustine looking at all the Christmas lights

Summer:

    LOW -having to stop and thinking we may not make it, not because of the breakdown but thinking our fatigue would keep us from accomplishing the goal

    HIGH -every other moment of the day!  Traveling waters we'd never been in, everyone taking turns at the helm, looking at the houses we passed, visits from dolphins, the girls engagement during the fog, how excited everyone was when St Augustine came into view, to the very last moment of the day when Paige began to doze while sitting straight up and talking to us :)

    Merry Christmas from aboard Abby Singer.

So, all that happened in our first week aboard.  Just imagine what we'll learn next week as we move to our second marina south and my baby turns 13.

2. Happy New Year from Abby & Crew

It's time for Brain Surgery.

Many people wish for toys for Christmas, we wished for a new Brain 4 Abby. Her old brain had put up a good fight but was showing the signs of 32 years of wear, it was time for a transplant.

Every time we turned something on or off, we held our breath hoping nothing would short or catch fire. On her voyage home the breaker continually tripped any time te tried to use the ac. We knew this transplant was an upgrade that we would eventually have to do and felt confident we could do it once we had some miles under our keel and time to sort out and understand the electrical systems.  Not something we wanted attempt right out the gate, ironically this was the first project we ended up taking on; after all, open fires and boats don't go well together. 

There's more to this story in the next entry "Prepping the O.R."

DRAG QUEEN

This is our 3rd night ever out on the hook.  We left our "home" slip in Arlington, headed south up the river and stopped for dinner @ The Landing.  After dinner, we headed further north and dropped anchor downtown, next to Baptist Hospital.  To make sure we wouldn't drag, we backed down hard on the anchor, setting her deep in the sandy mud bottom.  Then we launched the application "Drag Queen" this one 

NOT this one

 on my my cell, to mark our position and set the alarm on the app to notify us incase we drag anchor.  This time we took caution to set the GPS mark as close to the anchor as possible, hoping to avoid false alarms like we have had on every other previous night @ anchor.  We hung out in the cockpit till about 1am, enjoying the peace and quiet of Abby in contrast to the buzz of the city surroundings, then headed off to bed.  Around 2am the anchor alarm went off.  I jumped up, only to find that the current had switched directions .  The hook had done it's job and turned with us and reset with minimal dragging.  I probably needed to loosen the alarm parameters but we were tucked between 2 bridges and land, all 150 yards away and I wanted as much warning as possible if a problem arose.  So I reset the ancor alarm and went back to bed.  I like this app drag queen.  It's pretty useful.  It's on my cell which I have to charge at night anyway and it keeps us from using power hungry devices all night.