Tag Archives: boats liveaboard

Liveaboards tempt fate in the path of Irma

No matter how tough you think you are, there is absolutely no way to control or secure a boat once it has broken loose in a hurricane. Which leads me to my main question: what is accomplished by staying aboard?

A nearly perfect dinghy

The perfect dinghy for us may be vastly different than the perfect dinghy for you. I’d love to hear about what you use and how you’ve adapted it to fit your needs. To start the conversation I thought I’d share our solution to harbor transportation.

Top 7 boating habits to avoid

As summer begins in New England and thousands of boaters hit the water, a significant portion of them will unknowingly break the written and unwritten rules of the water. Below is an incomplete list of boating faux pas, assembled by a professional mariner in no particular order, to keep your reputation, and your boat, in working order.

This must be what yachting is like

Even with an abundance (relatively speaking) of power, there are still some things we just can’t do. One of them is to heat water with an electric water heater. Before I get into the nitty gritty of our situation, I’ll give you a spoiler: we have found a way to make hot water with little electricity or fuel. It is incredible. We now have electricity, refrigeration, and hot showers. This must be what yachting is like!

The cat fell overboard

To be honest, we aren’t exactly sure if he fell or jumped. Regardless, he went for a swim on Sunday, making a few laps around the boat before being wrangled into the dinghy.

Moving offshore and off the grid

The goal of my planning was entirely sustainable, off-grid living from May to November. All of our systems will run off of our 12-volt battery system, charged primarily by solar and additionally by wind generators.

A transitional season and a change of scenery

This is supposed to be the time of year that we are sanding and painting, cleaning, rigging, and finishing up projects before the sailing season begins. Yet we’ve felt delayed, if not downright bummed out, when the majority of our available work days are fraught with cold, dark, damp or downright wet weather.

Preparation kept us safe during the March blizzard

The white tipped waves rolling into the marina were 3-4 feet high. Before I knew it, I was knee-deep in the frigid ocean while securing the forward spring line to a new cleat.

When the harbor freezes around your boat

On December 15, 2016, an arctic chill snapped us into winter mode with subzero temperatures and gale force winds. Wind chill values dipped to nearly -40 degrees Fahrenheit, freezing the surface of the bay around us in a matter of hours. Comfortably warm below, we settled in for a movie and listened to the wind’s harmonic resonance in the mast and rigging.