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September 29th, Thursday - Edgewater, Maryland
We're BA...ACK! We pulled into the Rhode River
just as the sun was setting over the Wednesday night
races. It was a beautiful sight for us to behold
as we completed the first leg of our adventure.
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We
were gone for two months and a week. Cruising the
East Coast was a great way for us to break ourselves
into this new lifestyle. Things will be quite
different when we get to the Caribbean, but we will be
more confident about the boat and more comfortable
living on it in the new environment because of the time
spent on her this summer.
Life is different for us in many ways. Planning
and preparing meals so far has been easy. We are
fortunate that we never got the kids hooked on "kid
food." For the most part, they shared our meals with us.
BZ (Before Zia), they would complain frequently about
the cuisine and meals were always a bit of a chore.
AZ, however, they are both eager to try new things and
enthusiastic about most everything we have fed them.
Granted, we haven't expanded our repertoire too much
because we have been able to buy all the normal stuff we
are used to. I'm optimistic that they will be
willing to try new things once we leave the States.
They both liked the fresh clams Claude harvested on
Block Island, and they couldn't get enough clam chowder
all summer long.
I
have been trying to learn to plan meals in a more
realistic fashion. It used to be that I would make
a ton of everything and either freeze it or keep it in
the fridge for leftovers. Although leftovers are
good on the boat, I have limited freezer and fridge
space. I have managed to cook just enough for the
four of us to finish everything on multiple occasions.
This is a real first for me. Typically, I'll have
twice as much food as necessary, just to make sure there
is enough for everyone. And I take this to gross
extremes. I was in charge of buying the meat once
summer for a group of us sharing a beach house in the
Outer Banks. Everyone wound up going home with at
least one full meal for a family of four (or a dinner
party for twelve in some cases) at the end of it.
Did I catch a ration of shit for that one! I still
have a little trouble not going overboard at the grocery
store, but the fact that I have to carry it all back to
the boat, often over a mile away, helps. You
should see me wheeling my way through town with my hand
cart loaded down with grocery bags tied to every
available free spot. I was crossing the street in
Boston when a car full of navy boys in their white
sailor uniforms shouted out the window, "Ma'ame, you
dropped one of your bags back there."
Water conservation
dictates the way we do many daily chores on the boat.
Showers, dishes, brushing your teeth, cleaning and doing
laundry all come to mind. Showers are military
style - get wet, turn off the water, soap up, water on
to rinse. I have a big plastic bowl that I keep in
our head which I use to catch the cold water from the
shower head until the warm water starts to flow.
Dipping into this bowl provides water for tooth brushing
and face washing. Turning the water on just a
trickle is another trick that really helps extend the
amount of time a tank full of water lasts. Our
tank holds a hundred gallons and we have yet to run out.
Staying at marinas over the summer has allowed us to
fill it on a regular basis. We also have a water
maker on board that desalinates sea water. It
makes 16 gallons an hour and will be used a lot more
frequently in the Caribbean. We need to figure out
a way to catch fresh rain water and funnel it into our
water tanks. This will be another good source of
clean water for us once we are more removed from
civilization. Our "gray water" just trickles out
from various through hulls in the bottom of the boat so
we don't have to worry about holding tanks for that.
We have some friends who have been traveling and living
in a motor home for the last five years and this is a
big issue for them. I have found myself (this must
be my anal side) thinking that a spray bottle would be a
wonderfully efficient way to rinse dishes. I
haven't quite resorted to this yet, but I have added
spray bottles to my shopping list!
Both the water and food
consumption are basic efficiency issues. Indeed,
efficiency in general is a must in just about every
aspect of daily life. Everything is run off our
bank of batteries. The engines, the generator and
the solar panels all charge the batteries. Our
solar panels are awesome and generate more than enough
power for us so it isn't necessary for us to run the
generator or engines on a regular basis just to keep the
batteries fully charged. We have to be
hyper-conscious of energy consumption all the same.
No leaving lights on around the boat. The fridge
and freezer are a constant drain on the batteries.
When we are under way, all the navigational systems also
drain a lot of power. The water maker will add to
this once we start using it on a daily basis. It
is nice to have the generator on the boat as a backup,
in case of a string of cloudy days, but we rarely need
to use it. I have found, however, that my Food
Saver works a lot better when the generator is running.
The vacuum part of the operation doesn't seem to draw
nearly as much power as the heat seal at the end.
Sailing itself is all about efficiency. Harnessing
the power of the wind is a beautiful thing but some do
it a lot better than others. Planning trips to
take advantage of the wind has not been our forte this
summer. Although foul weather has certainly
stopped us from going places, wind direction never has.
I think we will get better at this, too, once we leave
the States. We'll have lots less people to visit
and therefore will be more flexible with our itinerary.
Learning more about how to trim the sails on this boat
is also a priority for us. We are hoping to get
some tips from some of our hot shot sailing friends
while we are in the area to help us learn more about
what to look for when we are trimming the sails.
It is amazing what a difference one or two turns on a
winch will make in the speed of the boat.
Finally, our family and social lives have changed
dramatically. The four of us are so much more of a
team now. Having fewer demands on our schedules,
we have more time for patience and understanding with
each other. Granted, this isn't always the case,
but I have noticed a difference. When one of us is
in a bad mood, however, the whole boat suffers.
Although quite commodious, Zia can get pretty small when
all you want to do is get some time to yourself.
We need to build in a little alone time into our days or
weeks on a regular basis, just for sanity's sake.
I have managed to get a little running in, although not
as much as I would like, and I will sometimes take the
girls while Joe does some project on the boat.
We'll work on other ways to give each other a break when
we have sandy beaches and beautiful warm water
surrounding us.
Joe tells me that my updates all sound so idyllic.
I find myself very reluctant to complain about anything,
lest my friends all kill or disown me! In truth,
aside from the lack of alone time, that is the one
complaint I have. I so miss all of my friends, all
of the socializing, the dinner parties, the pool
parties, the weekends triple booked with get-togethers.
We are going to cram as much of that into the next four
weeks here that we can. Our friends who have done
this before tell us that the Caribbean and Bahamas will
be much more social than the East Coast has been.
Down there, just about everyone you meet is cruising to
some extent, whereas the people you run into here are
out for a much more limited time, anywhere from weekends
to month long summer vacations. We are all looking
forward to seeing how different it all is when we start
"really cruising."
So, please call us or email us and let us know how you
are and what is happening in your lives. We love
connecting with you and keeping abreast of the
important, or even the mundane events that shape your
days. It is all interesting to us, as I hope our
adventures are to you.
With love,
Christy, Joe, Cassie, and Juliana
Next entry
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Many thanks to our
friend Craig Homenko for his assistance in setting up
the website.
We also would like
to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who has been kind
enough to host the website on his server.
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