"Ready"

The month of May has been a slog. It equally feels like it went fast and slow. The goal: get moved onto the boat and ready to leave the dock.

The thing is, no matter how much you prepare, plan, provision, take the class, study the maps, etc., you will never feel “ready”.

The to-do list was 60+ items long. We provisioned enough food to not need to head to Publix for a while. Took care of chores and housekeeping items, such as oil changes, installing and breaking in a new dingy engine, washing the cushion covers in the salon and cockpit, and installing a security camera (because Tom used to configure security cameras for a living and couldn’t resist). We brought the dogs over to live on the boat for a few days so they could get used to things before doing a sail. Tom also set up our internet, “which consists of a Starlink and Peplink that has a seamless failover to T-Mobile and AT&T 5G (cell)”. I certainly can’t give much more detail than that, but the internet works great and he’s happy to answer questions about our setup!

We only had one alarm go off in the middle of the night. While it scared the sh*t out of us, we figured it out and learned from it. Everything is new and has a learning curve to it.

Today, we motor sailed from the marina in West Palm Beach to our first anchorage in Jupiter. It was a quick 20+ mile hop but if you’ve ever gone through the Jupiter Inlet, you know it can be dicey. And, it was dicey.

We had a solid plan based on the expected wind, weather and tide conditions and the boat handled beautifully. For those not familiar, the Jupiter Inlet can have a ripping tide that creates standing waves. There’s also a lot of shoaling (shallow areas) that shift. If I was doing it again, I’d do a couple things differently, but we made it through without any issues. 

That’s what this lifestyle is. Nothing is perfect. Something always needs fixing (like our autopilot that decided not to work today). The weather dictates your schedule, so you’re not always in control. But, the highs are pretty darn high.

We were so excited about the thought of grilling burgers on our first night at anchor. Got the propane, all the ingredients and then realized we didn't bring a lighter or matches on the boat... because fire is bad on boats. So, a big bowl of pasta at 8:30 p.m. after a long day is what we got. We adapted and it was just what we needed.

The next few days, we plan to stay put in this area, getting used to life at a slower pace. Then, who knows? No place to go but everywhere. Cheers!