Boat Shopping in Florida

Yep, we are once again hopping on a plane and heading out to view as many boats as possible. This time, our destination is Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. There just aren't many catamarans on the West Coast. None, actually at the moment. So, off to the East Coast it is. Our broker, Clive, is amazing and is compiling a list of boats to view. We are specifically looking at Lagoons and Leopards in the 40-45 foot range.

This timing also happens to fall on our 15th wedding anniversary, so what better way to celebrate? The kids are heading back to their grandparents for the duration of our trip. J and I will have a visit and then head on out. While we know they'd have fun on the plane and for parts of the trip, we just know after the 4th or 5th boat, they would tire of it and be bored. Plus, we are on a mission! To find the exact model of cat that will best fit our family. 

We've rented a car to be prepared to drive around as needed and of course, do a little exploring along the way. Any sightseeing suggestions? Send them our way! =)

The Boat Box

Yikes, time is flying by way too quickly! We are officially on Christmas break and most of our free time is spent working on the house. I'm taking a little break this afternoon to work on the blog.

As I clean up from the holidays, I am setting aside piles to go back into storage, donate, and one for the boat. I have been thinking ahead to future holidays and wondering just what to bring to decorate the boat with. There isn't much out there on this topic, so I am just going with my gut and what I think will work in a much smaller space. Some LED lights, a few decorations, and ornaments, but I figure we will just make do with what we have, as well as create new decorations depending on where we are. That will be all part of the adventure!

Santa brought a huge stack of board games and card games for the boat. These are definitely going into the boat pile. The kids' Christmas Elf, Christopher, will for sure find his way to where we are (I have promised the kids he would find us). One of my favorite finds were these Glow in the Dark Playing Cards

Thus, a few "Boat Boxes", large plastic totes, have joined our household and I am slowly filling them with things to bring on board. Home school curriculum, small surprises, decorations, and whatever else I think we might need are making their way into these totes. Of course, the kids are also "helping" with this endeavor, so I have to be sure and check through the contents before I pack the tote and stick it in storage (we have a "to go on the boat" area in there).

What items did you pack on board for the various holidays?

Pirates and a U-Haul

Black Friday is typically a day for people who love to shop to get their fix. Well, not for us. We usually stay away from the chaos and instead, chose to go visit some sailing friends up north for a pirate adventure. If you are a Pirates of the Caribbean fan, you will understand. The Lady Washington was used in the first film (Curse of the Black Pearl) and starred as the HMS Interceptor.
We met up with the crew from s/v Odyle and toured the ship. Here are a few pics from the tour:

Afterwards, we let the kids play for a bit on the beach before heading off to pick up the U-Haul to bring home our Black Friday purchases. Yep, you read that right. We bought so much that we needed a U-Haul. Now before you start picturing TVs and the like, it was actually for all the insulation for the house. As we purchased over 30 bags, we needed something a bit larger to transport it back home.

Jared and Zach took off for Home Depot way up near San Francisco (this stuff isn't carried locally, unfortunately) while Matt, Cadence, and I headed for home. The plan was for Jared to drop off the insulation at the house and return the U-Haul that evening. Due to traffic, he didn't get back until 9pm, so we ended up making the return early in the AM.

The rest of the weekend was spent installing insulation to prepare for inspection on Monday. Talk about pressure! We passed with flying colors and could finally schedule the drywall installers (we did everything ourselves last time and decided paying a crew to do it this time was well worth it).

We are hoping to wrap up construction on this addition by February. Just in time to enjoy it for a few months before we sell it. We love this house, but unless we win the lottery between now and June, we need the money for the boat purchase and cruising kitty.

Progress on the House

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! What have we been up to lately? Well, today, up to our necks in insulation installation! We took some time out to celebrate Thanksgiving with our family and then got right back at it.

We are making lots of progress on the home addition and are now working on installing the insulation and new windows. There's an inspection on those this week and then we can start on the drywall! The kids really want to go get a Christmas tree, but that has to wait until after drywall and the new flooring projects are completed. Fingers crossed we are done in a few weeks! 

We want to enjoy all this hard work before we sell the house in the spring. In between working at our regular jobs, working on the house, and dealing with the kids' schedules, we are also trying to continue to move things into storage and slowly sell or give stuff away.

BVI to USVI: Homeward Bound

5am found us up and about preparing to set sail for Road Town, Tortola. The trip seemed to fly by and we were a little sad it was over. On the other hand, we were missing our kiddos like crazy and thought ahead to when we would bring them back to enjoy these beautiful islands on our own boat!
We sailed as the sun rose and enjoyed a nice and relaxing ride. Coffee in hand, we took in the views and relished the last bit of time out on the water. Around 7am, we hailed BVIYC on the VHF and got crickets. Their website stated they opened at 7 am, but in fact, they didn't open until 8 am. Oh well, we decided we would just tie up to the fuel dock anyway and unload the boat.

As we neared the dock, two employees waved us over and helped us tie up. Awesome luck! They said they would go through checkout with us even though no one was up in the office yet. Perfect! We got everything off the boat, trash deposited, and by the time everything was checked off their list, the office staff let us know we were good to go. They even called us a cab so we could catch the 9:30 am ferry to St. Thomas! Only downside was Jared's sunglasses decided to go for a swim as we were walking away from the boat. He dug out his snorkel mask and underwater flashlight (the water was really murky) and dove in. After a few dives, he came up with sand. At least they were lost at the end of the trip and not at the start!

The cab ride to the terminal was quick and before we knew it, we had our tickets purchased and some time to kill. We set off to find Jared some new sunglasses and souvenirs for the kids. Mission accomplished, we stopped by an ice cream stand for a cold treat and head back to the terminal.

After going through security, we settled down to wait for the ferry. I had been writing down our daily adventures and was in the middle of this morning's recap when it was time to board.
















We started out sitting outside but the sun was pretty intense, so we decided to move inside the cabin. A blast of frigid air hit us,so cold, I wished I had my jacket! We took in the views for the next 45 minutes (so many other islands we want to explore), and soon we were on solid ground and walking in search of lunch in Charlotte Amalie.

Google showed us that a restaurant was close by at the marina, so off we went. The Hook Line and Sinker  is a nice place with views of sailboats all around. Let me just say that this restaurant has the BEST food! Definitely go grab a meal there if you are in the area. SO GOOD! The staff was great as well.

As we wrapped up lunch, I called David, our cab driver from the start of our trip, and a few minutes later we were heading to the airport, chatting all the way. If you want David's number, let us know. He is a superstar and knows these islands in and out!

After going through airport security, we grabbed a snack and settled down to wait for our plane to arrive. There isn't much to do at this airport, so bring a book or two. We were told to check in at least three hours before our flight. Well, it took us all of 20 minutes to get through to the gate. Not sure where that three hours came from, but we heard it from both our new boat broker AND our cab driver.

Oh well. I took the time to catch up on my journal entries and Jared napped. No sooner had I caught up on my writing, that it was time to board the plane. We were now on our way to Miami, FL to catch our connection to San Francisco, CA. We settled in with snacks and just watched the islands disappear beneath us. As we flew towards Florida, we tried to identify the various islands we were seeing. This flight did not have the cool interactive map (guess we just lucked out on our first leg of the journey), so I noted the shapes and decided I would look them up once we got to Miami.

We landed 45 minutes ahead of schedule and had time to get some dinner before catching our connecting flight.

Around 11:45 pm, we landed in SF and much thanks to the baggage claim gods, our luggage was out FIRST! Wahoo! We were in our car and driving to the grandparents by 12:10am. By 2:30am, we had showered and crashed into bed (after kissing each of our kiddos). Matt woke up and briefly smiled and gave me a hug before falling back asleep.

What a trip! It solidified our entire reason for going cruising with our family. The island time, culture, and new sites we experienced, were just the tip of what we will be seeing. All in less than 6 months!

We are lining up a trip to Florida in February to attend the Miami Boat Show and hopefully buy a boat! If not there, then we are for sure going to look in Croatia or Greece. I really want to start over there anyway; so much history and things to see! Not to mention the food and culture!

We've been asked about sailing the BVIs in October. Let me just say that it was great! There aren't many boats around, so you have your pick of the anchorages. We had The Baths to ourselves for a morning; same for most of the snorkeling spots and beaches. Saw only ONE tiny mosquito the entire trip! We came prepared to wage battle after reading travel forums and it was all for nothing (guess we will just pack away the repellent wipes and blankets for another trip).  So, yes, October is an awesome time to visit the islands! =)

Last Night in the BVI: Snorkeling The Indians

The Indians are comprised of four large rocks jutting out of the sea off of Norman Island, named after the Arawak Indians. There is a 5th Indian underwater. Pelican Rock is on the other side.

There was only one other boat tied up when we secured ours to the mooring ball. I think it was a cruising family, as you can definitely tell these boats from your typical charter boat. Lots more gear and items on board. Again, we can hardly wait until that is US cruising around with our family! =)

Anyway, they were heading back to their boat, and we noticed that we didn't have too much daylight left and had better get going. We set off in the dink over to the dingy mooring that was set right up along the snorkeling area. Secured that, geared up and jumped in. Well, Jared jumped in. I was a bit more hesitant, as this was out in the open sea and the word 'sharks' kept popping into my head. I joined him a few minutes later, after he promised to stay next to me. I really need to stop reading so much on the internet... My fear came not from personal experience, but from reading a few sailing forums online and how some people have seen bull sharks in the area. Reef sharks don't bother me, but bull sharks do.

We snorkeled for about 40 minutes before the sun began to drop below the horizon. This was the best snorkeling of the entire trip and highly recommend this as one of your MUST STOPS if you venture this way! Beautiful purple sea fans waved back and forth, colorful coral as far as the eye could see, and the multitude of schools of fish were just breathtaking.

Hoping our new camera works better than this one. Just doesn't do it justice!

We had scoped out a couple of anchorages on the way over and decided upon Soldier's Bay. It had a low point where the breeze would pass through and was shallow that we could see the underwater world below. Just amazing. You could even see the shadow of the boat on the sea floor below in the moonlight.

You can see The Indians and Pelican Rock in the background!

We had a great evening, despite it being our last one in the BVI for awhile. We enjoyed it for awhile before reality set in.
We began the task of packing up and getting ready to depart for home the following morning. We had an early wake up call of 5am! We needed to be sailing by 6am in order to make port in time to check out and catch a cab for the 9am ferry to St. Thomas!

We will be heading towards those lights bright and early the following day!