A Week on the Hook.

by Riley

heading out of Mile Hammock Bay this morning with a few other sailboats. and a dolphin, too!

coming into Wrightsville Beach

our anchorage at Wrightsville

A week on the hook. That really isn't a long time but still, it's an achievement for us.

Right now we're in Wrightsville Beach. We got here Friday after a one night stay in Mile Hammock Bay. Mile Hammock is within a military base with a lot of training activity. Other than the sounds of bombs, and personnel zipping around our sailboat on fast inflatable skiffs, it was a pretty relaxing anchorage. We were also invited over to another boat for drinks that evening. The next day, we arrived here.

My friend James, who was a great help in the refit of Winbrandt while we were at the boatyard, came down to visit this morning. We met at the dinghy docks about 7:30 and man, it was cold on that ride over there. There was frost on the ground. After a warm breakfast, he took me to get a few parts I had been needing but was in too much of a hurry to get before we left. Later this afternoon, Allison, Gidget and I went to the beach and hung out. I'm just now finally starting to trust my anchor. I had been having a hard time letting the boat out of my sight for very long.

All in all, life aboard is just getting better. Hey, it might even warm up in a day or two.

Three Days.

by Riley

Beaufort, NC

Three days at anchor. Not a lot, but I have to say, I get restless easily, even though I've been in a new place everyday. We are currently in Beaufort, NC. We've traveled about 20 miles a day, just trying to figure things out. I hope to be at about 40 miles a day soon. It's been a little chilly the last few days, making it kinda nice for sleeping, but slow going in the morning. I'm still in the learning process of anchoring. It took me two tries today, I was a little too close for comfort so I pulled it up and moved and am glad I did.

When Allison and I went ashore today, I was able to get charts enough to get us to Florida, hopefully without getting lost. I have a GPS but my faith in it isn't the best; paper is easy to read and doesn't have glitches. While at the dinghy dock we met some other cruisers. So apparently when cruising, you're supposed to have "boat cards" to trade. You know, name, which boat, contact info, etc. I kinda knew this, but it fell between the cracks on the to-do list. So needless to say, without one, I looked like a newb. Since it was so obvious, one seasoned cruiser asked us, "how long have you been cruising?" I replied, "three days," which sounded kinda funny and took some of the pressure off. It was fun talking with new people, but I'm afraid those darn cards are going to get me in trouble again.

We're Gone.

by Riley

We'll we're gone! It was a lot of hard work to get here, but hopefully it will be worth it. Sunday after church we threw off the dock lines and headed for warmer waters. There are so many unknowns, so I'm a bit nervous and probably will be for a while, but we're going to try and live the dream.

The Time Has Come.

by Riley

Well, the time has come. I'm dictating this to Allison as we are driving down the road, headed to live aboard a sailboat. At times I thought this day was never going to get here. And the amount of work that needed to be done too great to accomplish. Now I've found myself homeless and jobless, with no other better place to be than floating down the coast. I've always lived a life of very little change. I grew up in the same house all my life. And when I moved out to live on my own, I moved three miles away. I've had the same job since I was 15. Now I'm leaving behind all I've ever known to chase an idea that constantly has me wondering if it really was such a good one to start with.

Yesterday, as I left the house that I built and had put so much work into, I really felt the sense that my life was making one of those large transitions. The house was originally built to be a rental, and now it has become just that. While I have no clue what direction things are going to take, I feel a combination of excitement, anxiousness and fear for the life we are getting ready to live.

So here I am, with everything that we (hopefully) need for two people and a dog to live, all in a few tupperwares in the back of a pickup truck.

Did I mention it's a really small boat?

Before and After.

by Allison

It's only a matter of weeks now before we start to call this old boat "home."  In some ways it feels like we have been working on her forever, and we thought that this day would never come.  But on the other hand, time flew by and I can't believe that we've already accomplished so much!

Let's take a look at some of our before and after shots:

We bought Winbrandt during the winter, and we spent most of those long, cold months sanding and refinishing all of the teak interior.  ALL of it.  To be perfectly honest, once we started... we wished we hadn't.  It took forever.  But, it really does look nice now. Riley built the beautiful new table, complete with an inlaid compass rose, and my mother in law sewed new covers for our cushions.

With just a few pennies, Riley built the new doors himself, and they really changed the whole appearance of the cockpit (not to mention making entering and exiting so much easier).  This is when we finally felt like some of our hard work was starting to make a noticeable difference!  He also cleaned up that side over there with the broken electronics.  He's installed a few others since the picture was taken.

Once the weather started getting a little nicer, Winbrandt got a good cleaning and polishing, a fresh coat of bottom paint and a new boot stripe before going back into the water.

We also replaced the countertop in the galley and replaced all four windows.

And these were (mostly) just the cosmetic changes!  You can read about all of the other projects we tackled (well, the ones that made onto the blog, anyway) under the repairs and restorations tab.

The Answer is Probably, "No."

by Riley

So, I think some people may be wondering how I gained the knowledge and competency to take on this kind of adventure? The truth is I haven't. Yet.

No, I've never sailed in the ocean.
No, I don't know what to bring, or exactly what foods I'll eat.
No, I haven't planned out exactly where we're going, or when, or for how long.
No, I haven't planned all my finances out to a T.
No, we've never even spent that much consecutive time on the boat.
No, I don't have money for a new engine if mine breaks.
No, we don't have a shower, microwave, A/C, or a sink big enough to reasonably wash dishes in.

But, I also didn't know how to do so many of the things that I have already figured out along the way. The entire reason for this trip is to find adventure outside of a normal, land-based life (where I was beginning to feel like a hamster on a wheel). I may appear reckless, and perhaps I am. Some people have told me I'm looking for something, I think they're right. I'm 27, and I'll be old with arthritis soon enough. I'm going to live while I can. If I wait until I have the things most wouldn't leave without, I simply couldn't go. Living on this boat has a lot of primitive qualities compared to others, but I believe the "lack of" will do my soul good.

Catching Up.

by Riley

Well folks, it's been a while since I caught you up on the progress. We are getting pretty close to our shove off date. The house is being packed up into boxes and it's starting to feel real. 

I was fortunate enough to acquire an autopilot recently, and was able to install with only one call to tech support. When I was a kid, I always wanted a robot to do my chores for me. IT'S BETTER THAN I THOUGHT! While I do love steering my boat, it sure is nice being able to take a break and eat a sandwich or go... you know.

This past week we took a short, shakedown overnighter. These are always good to give you a sense of what you have to look forward to. Oh, it was so nice. A cool breeze blowing, the sun was shining, but we were in the shade under our new bimini top, with books and magazines to read. When those got boring, I jumped off the side to go for a swim. Did I already say it was nice? 

All good thing must come to an end.

Night fell, and so did the battery levels. Our sailboat had two, 100 amp hour batteries. That should be good enough to run everything we have for a pretty long time. But the thing is, while I have just about fixed or repaired everything on the boat, I crossed my fingers with the battery bank. $$$. I'm frugal, not cheap! So as night came and I turned on the anchor light, I could see on the voltage indicator that something was up... or should I say, down. As I lay in bed looking through the front hatch at the light atop the mast getting dimmer and dimmer, I we had a problem. But hey, no worries! I'll just turn the switch over to the other battery. Haha, it was worse than the first. No lights, no fan, I went back to bed. But, Allison needs her fan. It's 2 am, so I do what I do best. Fix stuff. I put on my head lamp and headed for my tools. Believe it or not, I just so happened to bring along another battery! Actually two. They were free, so I didn't know how good they were. So at 2:30 in the morning I find myself sanding battery cables and turning a wrench while my headlamp is now going dead. "Work faster!" Allison yelled. Sweaty, bleeding and tired, I tightened the last bolt and flip the switch. Done. Crisis averted. Why does it always happen in the middle of the night?

Ok, I made up the part about Allison. 

The next morning all was good in the world.