Oh crap! What's that alarm?

As you would expect, spending the first few days on a boat you don’t know very well are nerve-racking. Every sound, beep or creek is new. We definitely slept lightly the first couple nights, getting up to check on the anchor, our swing and anyone around us.

While we have an oversized anchor, we seriously questioned if it would hold when 40 mph gusts came through in a thunderstorm. Luckily it did, but there is nothing is more humbling than the weather!

The dogs are living their best lives! However, the first time getting them onto the dingy was chaotic. By the second and third times, they were well oiled machines.

There have been many ups and downs, as we expected with this new lifestyle. But, we’re settling into some sort of routine. Here’s an overview of life at anchor so far:

• Our new routine involves morning and evening beach/sandbar walks with the dogs, including military-style mosquito evasion tactics.
• We sourced a lighter and finally got to have “first night at anchor” burgers on the grill… on night four.
• After multiple attempts and hours of troubleshooting, Tom fixed the autopilot! 
• I was able to work from the boat all week without any issue.
• The boat’s US Coast Guard documentation arrived, so we’re nearly legal.
• We took the dingy over to a nearby beach bar for happy hour, confirming it’s much more cost effective to sip a cocktail on our boat and definitely a better view.
• One of the freezers stopped working, spoiling a decent amount of our meat supply.
• We had several low voltage alarms jolt us out of bed at all hours of the night… still trying to get to the bottom of this one but did learn so much this week about our lithium battery and solar setup. If you have any experience in this area and want to help, we’d appreciate it.
• We watched every sunrise and sunset since we’ve been here, including a full moon rising over the water. Incredible.

We never expected this to be easy. It’s not. Nothing good in life is. We still have so much to learn.

When you’ve been up at 3 a.m. three mornings in a row and then find out you ruined a significant amount of your food, you’re naturally not very happy. Likewise, when you’re sitting on the bow watching the sun set, sipping a glass of wine as your boat gently sways, it makes you want to pinch yourself.

I’m very proud that throughout all the stressful moments, we never lost our patience with each other and always tried to take the positive “we’ll figure this out” attitude.

What’s next? We plan to stay close for the next week as we continue to get used to things and check the final items off the to-do list, such as one last trip to the tax collector and registration decals for Escapist and the tender.

For those who are reading this and following us on social media, thank you! It’s been fun to read your messages and comments. As two people who have never been very active on Instagram, it’s been fun to document and share some of this journey with you.