Sail on Sail Pending

Cruising has been defined by many as 70% living in paradise, 10% being uncomfortable and 20% fixing your boat in exotic locations. Hopefully, our 20% will be coming to an end soon. 🙂

When we were in the boat yard getting our sail drive seals replace our dingy popped from the heat. Every day our dingy expands and every night our dingy deflates because of the changes in the air pressure. The heat in the boat yard was just too much for our dingy to take. A seam that was already weakened by a broken handle,  split open from the excess heat and now Rich and I had to figure out how to fix it with only our small repair kit.

First we blew it up and sprayed soapy water around it to find the exact place of the leak. We discover it wasn’t a small leak, but a huge hole in the seam, so we decided to take the dingy to the beach and set up a dingy repair shop.

This is the blown seam that we are going to patch.

 

We took the engine off and flipped the dingy over for easier access to the spot that needed repaired.

Of course, we couldn’t remember to bring everything we needed from the boat the first time, so we had to swim or paddle board back to the boat a few times. Talk about getting some excersize!

We cut off the handle that created the weak seal to begin with, and glued the seam back together.

After gluing the seam back together we put three patches over the seam, each one larger the the last. Here is what our finished patch looks like. Notice the handle is gone.

As of this morning the dingy was still holding air!!! Yea! We sprayed soap around the patch and a little air was escaping, but it was very, very little. We put a little silicone sealer on it and it seams to have helped.

      We know that this patch won’t be a forever fix, but it should be good enough for awhile and the best we could do with a small repair kit, on a deserted beach, on a private island in paradise. 🙂 

 

 

We’ve been living the “Cruiser” life style now for almost three months. We’ve met some of the most amazing and unique people that are living the same dream lifestyle as we are.

Cruisers “boat homes” are filled with all types of crews.
We are families with young children, tweens and teens. We are world schooling our children.
We are young couples on a year or two sabbatical or just cruising until the money runs out and they have to fill their “cruising kitty”
We are older retired couples, cruising as long as their aging body’s will allow.
We are a group of friends on a sailing adventure after college.
We are solo sailors, single handling the sailboat.
We are from all walks of life and from every country around the world, but we are one community.

Some of us are exploring a specific region of the world, some of us are cruising around the entire world, some of us don’t have a destination or plan.

Some of us are new to this adventure lifestyle and at the beginning of our journey; some are at the end. Some of us are years or decades into it with no plans to end.

A couple traits that we mostly all share.
1.) We are minimalists. We purchase only what we can use or consume because there is not room on a boat for excess anything.
2.) We respect the world we live in, Mother Nature, the Oceans and each other.
3.) Most of the energy we use comes from the sun or the wind. We use very little fossil fuels.
4.) Our lifestyle is not about the destination, but about the journey.
5.) Most of us don’t watch tv or even pay attention to the news unless it’s a big news event.
6.) If we see a sailor in trouble, we always go help them.
7.) We embrace the local cultures of where our boat home is located.
8.) We hold passports from every country in the world, but do not “live” in that country.

When we get together we talk about places we’ve been, places we are going, our boats, things breaking on our boats, how to fix things that break on our boats, and things we wish we had on our boats. We always have something in common and can talk to a complete stranger for hours.

None of us are really in any hurry to do anything and get use to just hanging out in a beautiful cove or bay. One of our favorite sayings is, “Mañana is the busiest day of the week.” We take time to celebrate the sun everyday and sit and watch the sunset every night. When you look around the harbor at sunset, almost every boat has the crew sitting and watching the sun go down. Some people will blow a conch shell, some people are enjoying sun downers, some are just sitting, relaxing and watching. Almost every “cruiser” takes the time to just sit and appreciate another day that has come and gone.

This lifestyle is definitely not for everyone. The past three months have tested and pushed Rich, Tyler and me mentally and physically. We have accomplished things that we never thought we could do. We are learning to get along together in a small area and respect each other’s space. We are learning how to talk to one another in stressful situations, so we don’t yell or make a bad situation worse. When something breaks, we are learning how to compensate and fix it ourselves. We can not just pop over to Lowes or Home Depot for a tool or part… and we are learning that duct tape and WD-40, can solve a lot of problems.

Each day we are getting more comfortable with Sail Pending, each other and our abilities as sailors. We are getting excited to get moving South and explore new islands where we have never been. We are also getting anxious and a little nervous about the longer hops and having to do overnight sails to keep moving south. Our sailing so far has been easy day sails.

I know it has been awhile since I have written a blog, but that is because we are settling into our new cruising lifestyle and have been pretty busy with boat projects and visits from family over the Thanksgiving Holiday.
Since we departed from Compass Point Marina on October 26th, we have visited 2 countries; US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico (both US) and British Virgin Islands (UK). We have visited and explored 14 different Islands. Here is a map of our track and islands we have visited.

The Islands we have explored are (in no particular order): St. Thomas, St. John, Tortolla, Puerto Rico, Culebra, Isla Culebrita, Cayo de Luis Pena, Water Island, Norman Island, Beef Island, Jost van Dyke, Little Jost van Dyke, Peter Island, Great St. James Island.

We have spent 2 nights in a Marina, 16 nights on Mooring balls, and 20 nights at anchor.

Knock on wood…. We have only had a couple minor maintenance issues.
1.) We had to change the impeller on the generator
2.) Unclog a head
3.) Replace a fuse on our freezer

I will try to write more and post more pictures and history of the islands we visit, but we are enjoying ourselves so much it is hard to turn on electronics and write. 🙂