Ok, we’ve been ‘living aboard’ Rory for 4 months and 5 days. “What’s it like” we are often asked. So as succinctly as we can, here’s a response to that question..

First some statistics to date:

Nautical miles traveled – 1,759

Engine hours – 205

Diesel fuel consumption – 154 gallons

Sailing/motoring miles – S=632 M=1,127 (Canals all needed to be motored)

Anchoring/marina nites – A=69 M=55 (better than our goal of 50/50)

Number of states visited – 8 – WI, MI, OH, PA, NY, NJ, DE, MD

Traveled – 4 Great Lakes-Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario; 3 canals-Oswego, Erie, C&D; 30 locks; 1 river-Hudson; 122 nm of the Atlantic Ocean; 2 large bays-Delaware, Chesapeake

Since Sailing Travels w/Rory & Bo was set up as a compilation of ‘Highlights, Lowlights, Insights and Hindsights while traveling aboard a sailboat’, we’ll try to categorize our “what’s it like” answers as such.

Highlights

-Waking up every day on the water; sunrise, fog & mist, clouds, rain, all are beautiful.

-Learning to look at things with a new perspective. Every single day.

-The INCREDIBLE people you meet along the way; whether you spend 5 minutes, 2 hours, 1 day, 12 days w/them. The sharing of traveling adventures, stories, laughs are, to use a canned word, “Priceless.”

-Gaining the ability to adapt quickly if need be and the confidence that comes from such. Each day brings more confidence in ones abilities and oddly, more importantly confidence in Rory’s abilities. It all takes time.

-Learning how to communicate better between us!?! Kinda. Could go in Lowlights as well. (where’s my devil emoji?)

Lowlights

-Shit breaks! Inevitable! From your favorite candle holder to the essential tachometer to pins falling out of shackles. Shit just breaks.

-The lows are lower, the highs are higher. You can go from one to the other in an instant, usually high to low.

-Stress & anxiety. I’ve always been a somewhat ‘Nervous Nellie’ and have been known to have a good quality anxiety attack; its in my genetics from my mom’s side. However, D has always been an even keel sort of guy, until early in this trip. He literally had a couple borderline panic attacks when planning docking or a tricky maneuver or obsessing over an anchor set holding thru the nite. He’s pretty much over it now but he still gets worked up over things from time to time. Knowledge, experience and trust in yourself helps.

-Boat bruises. If either of us have less than 5 bruises it’s unusual. If we’d end up in the hospital for something the Dr’s would probably bring in the police to question us as to whether or not we beat on each other.

-Humidity and dust add a few food particles = mold. Constant battle.

-Having 2 people on board w/long hair brings a continuous array of hairballs in corners. At home we always blamed the cat! Surprised either of us have any hair left.

Insights

-ALWAYS trust your instincts! Always! If somethings sounds, seems, feels ‘wrong’ or out of place it probably is. We can think of SO many instances where this is the case. The best example was on our friend Russ & Rhonda’s sailboat when we heard a loud ‘ping’. Couldn’t immediately see anything so shrugged it off. D then later noticed a loose pin on deck. Further inspection found the main sheet block was holding on only because it was jammed in the lines. Yikes! That could have been disastrous. More examples like that exist. ALWAYS!

-The importance of sleep. Seems like a no brainer but on a sailboat one needs to sometimes make snap decisions, sail long distances or sail in rough waters. If you haven’t had enough sleep because the boat last nite seemed like you were inside a washing machine those snap decisions may become wet noodle decisions and not safe or sound.

-Never underestimate the power of Mother Nature! She rules. When on land, if a storm’s coming you’d go into your house to watch it and wait it out. On water it’s not so simple. Do you run with it, do you try to dodge it, do you heave to, do you, do you, do you. Best to try to ‘plan’ to not be in it in the first place.

-Planning in general. When on land and before Covid we pretty much ran on Plan A. Now we’re lucky if we can get Plan B to work; Plan’s C thru E may exist. A famous quote generally in reference to sailing that Bruce E. used to say a lot “Plans are the lines you draw in the sand at low tide”.

-Getting ‘ME’ time. When you’re constantly in close proximity to one another on a boat it’s not the easiest thing to do. Me being an only child generally needs more alone time. D goes off and does boat projects on deck or immerses himself in a book. I go into the Vberth and close the door or my new favorite alone time; doing the laundry. I take a book or write notes. Ok, you all knew I was weird. Work in progress.

-Patience. Wow, big one here, not one either of us is the best at. Think boat storage as example. In order to get to the one item you need you have to empty out the entire cabinet, lazzerette or locker to get to it. Every single time. Every single item. Patience plays a role in many things on a boat and one gets better at it day by day. Or not!

Hindsights

-‘Stuff’ can be a burden. Trying to pack for months/years is an initial crap shoot. You try your best but inevitably you bring too much. Will edit things down when quite sure they’re not needed. Then purge baby purge.

-Who’d of thought that you would be in constant motion? Even in the calmest marina or on the calmest anchorage the tide will turn or a boat will go by creating a HUGE wake that makes you think the boat is gonna flip. In other words you almost always have the hatches battened for those rogue moments. Also brings into enforcement Sailing Rule #2 – always have one hand for yourself and one hand on the boat. Inside and out!

Things One Misses or Takes for Granted

-Not much actually, surprised us a bit. Quite obviously friends and family. BUT – a nice hot bath, the sight and smell of your flower gardens, fall colors on the farm, not worrying about how much power one uses, not counting how many times you flushed the head to ensure that it doesn’t explode.

Practicalities

-Grocery shopping. A well orchestrated event. One tries to break up getting the ‘big stuff’ so one doesn’t have to carry too much. If in marina, we will walk to the store depending on distance and Uber/Lyft back. If on anchor, we take Bo to a spot we can tie him up, walk to store and Uber/Lyft back if need be.

-Water. So far has been relatively easy except for the 17 days we spent at anchor, rationing to a degree there. Without rationing, we use about 12 gallons/day. So we can last for about 17 days. When in a marina, most of them have city water, ie) w/chlorine. We have a filter that attaches to the spigot before going thru the hose that removes chlorine (our tanks degrade with it). We have 2 aluminum water tanks, 80 and 120 gallons. We now have a pre-filter that removes sediment and a Sea Gull filter that removes everything else that we use for drinking water. We just purchased a water maker that will turn seawater into drinking water with the help of a fair amount of energy.

-Fuel. Similar to water. Certain marinas carry the appropriate diesel fuel required. One just pulls up to the fuel dock and fill the tank. Our tank is 80 gallons. We have a filter for fuel as well. Not really necessary in the states, but an added precaution. Bo wants unleaded gas w/out ethanol; harder to find than one thinks.

-Electricity. We have one 310W solar panel that will provide enough just to run the fridge and freezer, IF the sun shines. Now that the sun is getting lower and less of it during the day it is becoming more of a challenge. We also have a generator that will charge the batteries running it about an hour when need. Currently not an everyday occurrence. The engine will also charge the batteries when in use; and will also give us hot water. We have more solar in the cart at the Amazon store.

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