Windtraveler-Life aboard
A lot of people wonder what our day to day life is like on our boat. It’s pretty simple really. So here’s, more or less, how our days go by at anchor:
We (well, Scott more than I) wake up almost every day at 6:30am to listen to Caribbean weather guru Chris Parker who gives cruisers a pretty detailed weather report every day on the SSB. From there, we usually pool over our chart and guide books to plan for days activities. While we’re doing that, I throw on the kettle for tea (the French press for coffee was a HUGE pain to clean, so we are straight-up tea drinkers now) and make a breakfast. Typically we have a half of a bagel with peanut butter – but I have been known to whip up scones or muffins on occasion to change it up. I water our plants and put them out in the sun.
After breakfast, we usually switch on our radio to 78A – the channel that has become a phone for our little flotilla. We make jokes – some clean, some dirty – talk smack, and make our plans for the day. Sometimes it involves a snorkel or lounging on the beach, sometimes spearfishing or a hike and pretty much always involves a group meal at the end of the day. Those are some of the best times.
After our excursion of choice, we retire back to our boats. Scott and I will take quick aft-deck showers* with Joy dish soap (yes, I bathe in dish soap now) and have a siesta of sorts. Sometimes this is time for boat projects (there is always, and I mean always something to maintain or fix), sometimes a nap and often time for reading. If there is Internet, I will crank out a blog or two – if not, I’ll just write. In the middle of all this we do boat tidying. A place for everything, and everything in it’s place. We run a tight ship over here!
All the while we are monitoring 78A to hear from our friends. Around 4pm we usually all get on to chat and plan for dinner. This almost always occurs on Rasmus because we have the bigger boat of the fleet and our little enclosed cock-pit with the Christmas lights has become the group living room. Everyone brings a dish and their own dinnerware (plates, silverware, drinks – makes clean-up MUCH easier). Sometimes, if I’m feeling dangerous I whip up a killer sangria** which pretty much means we all miss Chris Parker the next morning. We all retire between 9pm and 11pm (unless I make multiple batches of sangria) and we do our dishes, hang out the dish towels, batten down the hatches and rock to sleep like babies with the sound of waves gently lapping against the hull.
Then, we wake up and do it all again.
It’s a good life, for sure. One that I do not think we will ever tire of. I’ve never felt more at home.
Love,
Brittany & Scott
*The aft-deck fresh-water shower we installed is one of the best systems on our boat. We love it. Being able to rinse our gear and ourselves before we get into our boat makes life much, much more comfortable and a lot less salty.
** My sangria recipe was given to me by Brian and Lara, and then I made it ‘killer’. Here it is:
• 1 bottle of wine
• Very hefty pour of flavored rum (so far we have used mango, coconut and pineapple)
• Generous scoop of country-time lemonade and some water
• 1 can of mixed fruit cocktail in lite syrup.
Beware, this drink packs a punch
