Monday, November 30, 2015

Haul out day.....
 

Early Monday morning and its time to get the boat to Cracker Boy Boat Works for a haul out!
First time seeing the boat pulled out of the water! Yikes!!! We were a little anxious to say the least.

Sweet Ride is getting a good power washing. Having sat in the marina in Stuart she had a lot of growth on the hull. After that we could see that she needed bottom paint.

 

There is nothing quite like working on our own boat! Feeling the love.

I had a chance to roam the boatyard for a much needed chance to do some interesting  photography.

A few short days of having her on land and we were able to get new bottom paint, new zincs, stabilizer fin guards, hull waxed, and most importantly a swim ladder. Back in the water she goes!

That was an adventure in itself! Not too painful for us, but Andy really dislikes the car and the hotel!

We are all so happy to be on board again enjoying the sweet life!

Monday, December 8, 2015

Trip to remember!!!

I am finally sitting down to document our wonderful trip down from New Hampshire to Florida!

We started our adventure September 19. We experienced a mixed bag of emotions -leaving New Hampshire, excited about starting a new chapter in our life and saying goodbye to family, friends and the routines of normal life on land.

 The first part of our trip we headed down to Sandwich, MA where we picked up our temporary crew, Pam and Jeff. Jeff was our broker who found Sweet Ride for us and was the perfect person to have aboard to help us get really comfortable with cruising.

After a fabulous run down to New York and cruising down the East River we ran into a little problem! Weather!!! Here we were, trying to do our first night run and by the time we past Sandy Hook, the seas were very uncomfortable. We had not experienced 7 - 9 foot waves head on and we quickly decided that although Pam and Jeff were willing and able to continue on, Christopher and I were not so brave!! Andy was also in favor of turning back!!! Trying to lay on the bed, he was thrown into the air several times! Meow!!! We turned back, tucked into an safe cove by Sandy Hook and waited until morning. Weather conditions were not going to improve with the threat of a hurricane and the onslaught of another storm, so we decided to take the boat to a safe harbor, Liberty Landing in New Jersey, across from Manhattan. I was in full favor of that, since I really enjoy New York City.

  

( Our first time backing into a slip! It was so tight. Woohooo!!! Not a scratch.)

It took 14 days to get a good weather window! By that time, Jeff and Pam had to departed for other obligations.  We decided to do our first real night run on our own.

Fortunately, we had met a nice couple on a Nordhavn 47, Dragonfly, that were also heading south. We buddy boated with them for the next weak and were grateful to have that bit of support during night runs and anchorages. We definitely gained more confidence and by the time we continued our trip on our own we felt so comfortable with our boat.
Our trip consisted of a combination of ocean runs and Intracoastal Waterway runs. We loved the excitement of seeing small places like Beaufort, NC and large cities like Charleston!




There were also a  surprising number of dolphins that loved traveling with us. I think we photographed them daily!

                                            (The ICW gave me so much to photograph.)

(Here was a little souvenir we found floating in in the ICW in Coinjock, VA. Haha!!! Rather large for our boat, but well worth fishing it out of the water.)

We arrived in Stuart, Florida on October 27th. We felt like we had truly accomplished something. Now we are resting, planning and getting the boat ready for our next trip!

August 10, 2015

Six more weeks!

We are getting the boat ready for our big trip down to Florida in September. Christopher has been hard at work getting an extra anchor, an EPIRB, a ditch kit, a swim ladder, and any other necessary safety gear ready and on board! I am working on making lists for provisioning the boat. We will stop in the Chesapeake Bay for the Krogen rendezvous. This will be our first time taking the boat that far.  Hoping for a sweet ride. Wohoo!!

August 6, 2015

A few more trips under our belt!!


We are learning more each time we venture out on our Sweet Ride..... 
One trip down the coast took us to Gloucester, a beautiful little town.

We took both Andy and Charlie. They are both working on adapting to sea life. Andy is becoming a chill boat cat while Charlie is a bit nervous, especially when the boat moves, the cat looks at him funny, the engine makes noise,..... he has a way to go before becoming a chill boat dog. 

 It became a little bit of a challenge when I couldn't convince Charlie to use his fake grass patch on the back deck for 24 hours and so we finally took him to land by dingy ( his first ride in the dingy) so he could use real grass. We all felt much relief! He actually really enjoyed the dingy when we sped up and he was able to relax and feel the breeze. He will get the hang of it.

I think Christopher had a need for speed that day. :)

On the way home we ran into some weather changes. We managed to get to the Isle of Shoals just as it started getting very very windy and learned to moor the boat in rougher weather! Yay! Did it!

 We are definitely looking forward to the next trip!

July 21, 2015

Its a good day!

We just received our Krogen plaque...  so we are officially the new owners of Sweet Ride!! Yippee!!!!

   Let's see...... How should we celebrate?

A ride in the bay, practice anchoring and dinghy unloading of course! We are so looking forward to our big adventure of taking Sweet Ride down to the Krogen rendez-vu and then to Florida. 

Taking turns driving the boat has been a blast but I am still a little scared of docking her!!! Christopher has is down and we make a great team. Everyone that suggested having the communication headphones for docking has been right! They work so well and there is no stress! Fantastic!!!

July 19, 2015

A beautiful morning in the fog!