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I am all for sharing mistakes Jimmy and I make as we venture into the cruising world. Some of these may seem obvious but reflecting on these things does help us learn from these experiences, even during a trip on our dinghy. When we took our dinghy on a longer trip during a recent weekend, several things worth noting popped up including a few lessons learned. First a Summary: I need more practice at the helm of the dinghy, including starting the engine. The weight distribu

Never knowing what to call it…black water, sewage? I think black water gets the point across. Not as complicated as the water supply system, it is still a very important system to keep functioning for obvious reasons. From tankage, collection and disposal you will immediately know if your black water system is not functioning properly. So, let’s talk sewage! Tankage Keeping a big tank of sewage on the boat does not seem appealing but almost all boats of any size have one.

In April we posted a list of projects we had done during our first three months in St. Petersburg and now it is time to capture projects for our second three months. And oh, boy, this was an expensive quarter. We are hoping that the third quarter does not require so many boat bucks. New batteries fit nicely into bottom of lazarette Here is an outline of work for April, May and June that we can recall: New Bimini side curtains and zippers for the cockpit enclosure - The Eise

Throughout our 5-year plan schedule to transition from full time work to full time cruising we have had many opportunities to “bailout”. I consider these as milestone decision points, moments where we would do a gut check to see if this is in fact what we want to be doing. Each milestone seemed to have evoked different emotions. About Time and the Shell Point house Selling our beloved About Time This was our first decision point along the five-year plan. It was exciting t

To kick this series off I want to go over all the pieces and parts of Utopia's potable water system. From tankage, water procurement, pressurization, hot water and desalination I will try to be as through as possible. So lets talk water: Tankage So where do we keep the water on our boat? Utopia is a Caliber 40 LRC sailboat and the LRC stands for Long Range Cruiser. One of the things that makes it a long range cruiser is the tankage it boast for water, fuel and blackwater.

This was an article I wrote for the Florida Water Resources Journal (February 2023) and thought it would be fun to share it here. People occasionally ask how potable water is supplied on boats. When it comes to potable water sources, a boat at sea can be compared to traveling by recreational vehicle, backpacking, or living in a remote location: it is possible, but takes a little bit of planning and time. There are a few options to ensure you have safe drinking water while t

Over the next several weeks I am going to be doing a detailed overview of each of our boat systems. A lot of these systems are something everyone has in their terrestrial homes but with an interesting flair that is special for a boat. Below is a brief synopsis of what to expect. I plan on creating an entire article on each system: Drinking Water I will elaborate on our fresh water system, plumbing system, tankage, pressurized system, hot water and how we get and/or make ou

As mentioned in Small Plans Become Big Plans , it was in 2019 that Jimmy and I had decided we want to move forward with full time cruising before we reached age 62, and preferably in five years. Seems like a simple concept until you spend a whole two minutes thinking about it. Then it can feel overwhelming to figure out what needs to be done. Our major concerns dealt with finances and our household items. Then there were questions regarding health insurance, what about our

Departure The Yacht Rigger had completed the work on Utopia , so she was ready to move back to her slip over at the Harborage. We planned to leave the slip first this morning while we were feeling fresh and before the afternoon rains arrived. Utopia was sitting in a slip without any finger piers. To get onto her we had to cross over another boat and step onto Utopia’s starboard side, amidships. At least our side gates lined up well. Utopia sits snuggly in her slip at The Yac

When one thinks of the worst thing that could happen on your boat, many would say falling overboard underway, encountering a hurricane or hitting something and sinking. Although a concern, it is pretty common for sailors to fear fire more than anything. A fiber glass boat is pretty much a big floating petroleum product and if fire catches that product, it is very difficult to put the fire out and will often burn a boat down to the water line very quickly. Also, if that boat

Today is the 24th anniversary wedding anniversary of Jimmy and me. So it seems fitting to share how wedding days, Maine and boats seem to have a large crossover for the two of us. First Trip to Maine, 1999 During our wedding planning we decided to take a honeymoon to a location neither one of us has been to before and thought Maine would be a unique place to explore. We stayed in Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island and enjoyed a wonderful week of hiking in Acadia National Par

One morning in 2019, while waiting for the tide to rise high enough to take our last sailboat About Time out for a day sail, Jimmy and I had a conversation that wound up with a serious talk about our future and lead to our implementing a five-year plan to go full time cruising. The conversation just kind of happened organically; I had never intended to ask Jimmy the “big question” that day, it just happened. It started with small dreams When we purchased About Time in 201

& How did we learn how to sail? Let's back up a bit and talk about our sailing background (and lack thereof), while answering the question of how Jimmy and I took up sailing. The short answer is that we were looking for a hobby to take on as a couple. When we decided to try out sailing, we had no clue how impactful that hobby was going to be. Early 2006 Jimmy suggested that we learn to sail as a hobby for us to do together. Apparently, he had lightly dreamed of sailing, altho

Now it comes to one of the main reasons we moved Utopia to St. Petersburg…Lithium Batteries. As we speak, Utopia is sitting over at “The Yacht Rigger” having the old lead acid house batteries pulled and having new lithium batteries installed. This project that has been on the project list from the very beginning will absolutely be a game changer for how we live on the boat and anchor in remote places. I might toss out some terms that might not be obvious so if you have

Jimmy and I have always loved hiking. Once we slip the lines we look forward to finding some cool places to explore and hike along the way. However we have one hiking trip in mind that will take us away from Utopia for half a year, and that is to hike the Appalachian Trail. The Appalachian Trail is a continuous route from Maine to Georgia. Those that choose to hike the whole path in one go typically take six months to complete it. Jimmy and I plan to hike the trail doing w

Last October I got brave and attended a women’s sailing meet up during the Sailboat Show in Annapolis, and attending that event led to a great day of sailing in Apalachee Bay today. I had heard about the event from a podcast I listen to (On the Wind Sailing). Believe it or not, I was even feeling shy when I asked my friend Denise to attend the event with me and was very happy to when she said yes. It was a great event, and we met a lot of women with a wide variety of exper

Now that we have been in St. Pete for three months, I though I would give an update on our boat projects. As in all things boat, the goal is to do projects as fast or faster than they are added to the list. This is a list of the big ones that are done or ongoing: Shaft Seal -We did a short haul in March and had a new shaft seal placed in one day. This should last us another 5 to 10 years hopefully. Radar -We successfully installed a new radar, and it is functioning. That

Okay, I debated whether or not to make this into a post, but thought it might be nice to share a story about sailing for a change of pace, after all this is supposed to be a sailing blog. Since arriving in St. Petersburg, we have focused on getting some projects underway that have kept us at the dock on days we probably would have rather been sailing. As mentioned in the last blog post, we finally left our slip after two months when we had an appointment to get the boat ha

Success! It took some work, but our boat's shaft seal leaks at a normal leakless rate. Jimmy found an authorized installer for our Tides Sure Seal, just over in Salt Creek (see Jimmy’s Feb. 5 blog called Keeping the Sea Out of the Boat ). Elite Marine scheduled our haul-out on a high tide and they also let us know that we would be required to back into the slip, then disconnect our backstays in order for the haul out to take place. Since Utopia had not left the slip since

It was quite chilly this past weekend so we filled our time on the boat taking care of miscellaneous tasks. A sneak peak into a day of chores on the boat: We wake up just as early on the weekends as we do the weekdays. This Saturday we had morning coffee and cooked oatmeal on Utopia before heading out for a long run. Our goal was to end the run the closest grocery store to the boat. As we approached the store, part of the concrete sidewalk caught on Jimmy’s shoe and down