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Back together

14 Jun

We have spent the past few days crawling through systems and holds, checking engines, and getting the exterior detailed and waxed. We pulled things back out and reinstalled them on deck (things like our life ring, ditch bag, man overboard marker…you know…important for safe sailing kinds of things).

We also got our stack pack repaired (yahoo!) by a local canvas guy, so it didn’t have to back up in tatters. So nice to not look all holey and thready anymore. Our stack pack has jack lines that run up the mast to help our mainsail fall nicely, so Andy even got to spend some time hanging in the wind…his favorite chore. At least this time he kept his hands intact and didn’t bleed all over Robin and the deck!

Saturday evening finds us all ready to sail and grocery reprovisioned, thanks to a nice local cruiser and her minivan.

Sunday we take our maiden Pacific  Northwest voyage on Tango across the Strait back to the States. The weather shouldn’t be bad, but it is supposed to be rainy and windy. Welcome to Washington,  eh?!

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Galley provisioning

Our new land anchor

7 May

We have said this before, but we loved saying goodbye to our cars when we started full-time cruising. Between walking, biking or scootering, mass transit, and cabs we have not missed owning, maintaining, driving, or being responsible for a car. We have also enjoyed lowering our consumption of fossil fuels and being more mindful of our consumerism.

But, with the temporary loss of Tango, we need a way to do the 3,500 mile hop from here to there. We had planned on renting an RV or a minivan to shlep all our gear, dogs, and selves from Palm Beach to Victoria. A plan that sounded great until we saw the one-way fees that everyone charges. For some reason those fees get higher around Memorial Day heading into summertime (and they weren’t trivial to begin with). Go figure.

While car ownership is no longer our favorite thing, we do want to be smart and not throw our money at a rental company, if for nearly the same price we can purchase a vehicle that we can later resell. Better idea, right? We thought so too. So, say hello to our cross country transportation.

We bought an 2004 Dodge Caravan whose issues seem mostly cosmetic (things like peeling paint, radio button and vanity mirror missing, no floor mats, and broken dash). While we need the shlepping room a mini van delivers, we are not really mini van folk. We felt a need to decorate…and with the factory paint already old and messed up we can only make it better! We’ll see how long our decor survives on the road trip…it’s our version of a geotagging game.

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The van

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Our hula bobble plays us down the road…we haven’t agreed on a name yet

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For the girls – owls, Fin, and the Beatles

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It IS time for an Adventure!

Next up…

9 Dec

We plan to leave Great Harbour Cay at sunrise tomorrow and sail down the east side of the Berry Island chain to stay on Chub Cay for the night. So sad to say goodbye to Great Harbour. This is a very wonderful island, and the people are warm, friendly and caring. Provisioning today includes a new Tango must…hogfish.

On the island Herbert is the fish man, and he has promised Peyton several pounds of hogfish tonight…can’t leave without that!
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Hogfish and lobster. Yes, this is Andy's portion (if you couldn't tell from the hot sauce)

Hogfish and lobster. Yes, this is Andy’s portion (if you couldn’t tell from the hot sauce)

The plan on Wednesday is to cross over the last bit of the deep Atlantic (the Northwest/Northeast Providence Channel) and head into Nassau. We are hoping to do a combo of marina/anchoring while in Nassau to offset the cost, but that is weather dependent. We love it here in the Berry islands, and aren’t super excited for be adding more time to our Nassau visit (higher crime, expensive marinas, lots of big boat traffic), but there is some squally, high wind junk coming in on Friday. We’d rather be ahead of the nastiness, than socked in…and we have a very good reason. The girl’s big Christmas present is coming up…two days in Atlantis! We’ll be staying in their marina (yes, dock fees give new meaning to expensive), but it gives us free admission to the park during our stay.

The girls are so excited, and with no family this year we don’t want to miss this treat due to nasty weather, so off we go!

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Grocery shopping car style

22 May

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Our friends on Haanli got a car for the day and shared with us! Not having to think about weight made me a bit carefree. This is the result! Now I just have to get it across the mooring field to Tango.

But, we are now provisioned for the trip to Grand Bahama tomorrow!

Farmers market

4 May

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I love the bounty of our fruit/vegetable basket after a trip to the farmers market! Even found some leechy fruit.

And the moral is…

22 Feb

We needed milk and a few other things. The grocery was five miles from our marina. So Robin decided to bike there. Problem was, she went there hungry.

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Next time,  she will stick to the list…or eat first!

Provisioning

20 Sep

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There is an art to storing a month’s worth of food for four people, boaty style.

Some factors to consider: motion (bad for glass), humidity, weevils (they love cardboard), small refrigeration space (and an even smaller freezer), and just space in general. So, we buy cans and food in bulk and vacuum seal as much as possible. I keep a master spreadsheet of what is hidden where…so in six months we won’t have to tear Tango apart to find that bag of beans. Some goes on shelves, other food gets stuck under settee seats, under beds, or in containers stuck in forward lockers.

The girls say they feel like pirates…with stashes of rice (100 lbs) and piles and pounds of dried fruits, nuts, and canned meat under their bed. All this combined might make an odd meal…but it would be nutritious!

It may be fun to pretend the pirate adventure…let’s just skip the scurvy.