s/v Field Trip

We have officially been living aboard for a year now.  My, how time flies!  It was last Christmas Eve when we hauled all of our belongings out of a storage unit in Argentina, down the docks in San Fernando, and aboard Field Trip for the first time.  I remember being amazed at how much stuff we had and being overwhelmed at trying to find some semblance of order among the chaos.  Since then, we have reorganized, de-cluttered, and rethought our use of storage over and over again.   It is an ever-evolving process as we transverse various environments and kid stages.  Toys and clothes have been given away as the kids grow out of them, and new ones take their place.  Our family rule is for every new item (clothing, kitchen gadget, toy, book, etc) that is brought on board, one item needs to leave to make room for it!  We don’t follow it all the time, but we can quickly tell when the rule needs to be reinstated!!  Christ...

We all grow up.  Some faster than others.  That was the sentiment from our recent fishing/diving trip.  Three of my Tau Kappa Epsilon pledge brothers joined Field Trip in Nassau Bahamas.  Times change when 20+ years fly by.  Marriage.  Careers.  Kids.  All very good.  What doesn't change is our fraternal friendship, memories and ability to laugh at each other and everything around us. It's very hard to find a time and place to get together.  Even harder when it involves a sailboat in a foreign country coupled with everyone's busy schedules.  A special thanks to our families for letting us have some guy time on the water.  It was fantastic. Everyone arrived late New Year's day in Nassau.  Early the next morning, we got up, provisioned the boat and left the marina.  It was a fast pace, but we wanted to get away from the city, and head to the remote islands of the Exumas. It was the first time sailing on a large...

We’ve crissed and crossed the gulf stream 4 times. Notorious for being challenging and at times down right dangerous – we made our best crossing as a family. The challenge? We set a date and place – Nassua Dec 22 for flights to Nashville. Never set a date and place far in advance when sailing. It almost always adds stress and causes potentially unnatural decisions to make the ‘date and place’. The key?  Patience & flexibility. We stayed in North Palm Beach for almost 2 weeks. 12 days longer than planned. Plans change. Our watermaker died and the weather was persistent out of the NE, E.  The good news, Beard Marine was excellent. They found the problem – our ‘Energy Transfer Device’ ($4,500) died. The better news, it was covered by warranty and Sea Recovery upgraded our entire unit to the new model a no charge. The new model is supposed to be more ‘bullet proof’ than the old design. We were thrilled. We also took the time to connect for drinks with ...

Here we sit, in a marina in North Palm Beach, Florida, to get our watermaker back on track.  It is only one of many things we are doing before making the leap to the island life once again.  Mark and I were remembering what it was like the first time we set foot on the East Coast of the US, after being in Argentina and the Caribbean for months.  We still plainly recall how it felt to walk into the nearby Bed, Bath, and Beyond store.  I'm sure everyone wondered what rock we'd crawled out from under as we rejoiced about all the choices and the good quality along every aisle!  Our cries of excitement formed a chorus of "oohs and awes"that caused other shoppers to stare.  We had walked blocks and blocks of Buenos Aires, searching for bedding and linens that paled in comparison to the walls of fabrics offered in this monstrous consumer smorgasbord!  Thankfully, we'd rented a car, so we could pack it full of all of the indulgences that America offers, unlik...

I f you've seen Fiddler on the Roof, you will have this song stuck in your head all day along with me! The character Tevye's bold lyrics stress the importance of traditions in holding families and communities together. "Traditions, traditions. Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as... as... as a fiddler on the roof!" Living onboard challenges this mom to uphold and maintain those ever-important traditions. At our home in Colorado, we have storage boxes for various holidays stacked in our basement - Easter, Christmas, Halloween, and Thanksgiving - filled with decorations and memories. But when you live within the square feet of a boat, that doesn't leave a ton of space for storing "non-necessities". Thankfully, we have found a few fun ways to celebrate holidays, and traditions live on!! Some are new traditions and some are simply 'adapted'. CHRISTMAS Our first official night aboard Field Trip was Christmas Eve....