Back to Boat Life

When we bought the Beneteau, it was definitely the right boat for us. We had chartered similar boats, and we were excited to do some coastal cruising on our own schedule. As we grew our confidence, we started overnight passages and then venturing farther and farther offshore. And we might have sailed it a bit harder than she was meant to be sailed. Not in a dangerous way, but in the way of robustness.

I see that clearly now that we've moved aboard Hazagussa, the red Pegasus that you saw briefly in the last post. The Pegasus components -- sailing hardware especially, but pumps, hatches, and all sorts of minor pieces too look and feel so much bigger and sturdier.

The list of things that I never had to troubleshoot, replace, or repair on the Beneteau is as follows:

• any of the winches
• water heater
• a little pump at the bottom of the freezer to remove meltwater. However, the freezer was broken as often as not, so this pump didn't get put through the paces like the rest of the boat.

So it's a little bit funny that the boat thing I've done most since we moved aboard is troubleshoot the water heater.

For most of us, it's not a big deal, because we're at the dock, and hot showers are a short walk away.

But I don't think I've written yet that one of our capable and able crew, namely Heather, is somewhat less capable with a broken ankle. The marina has accommodated us by allowing us to pull side-to on a long floating dock rather than make her try to cross a gangway. But getting on and off is an adventure, and it's not been the best weather, so she opted for an ice water shower.

Other than the hot water thing, living aboard again is so great. The salon is big and full of light, and we're all in here without being on top of each other during the rainy days. The cat has find a way to squirm under the salon table, and he has himself a little spot that floats him above strands of cabling. We'll have to put a blanket in that spot for him on Velvet Elvis.

We even cooked home made food yesterday for the first time since we arrived.

As I write, it's blowing out there:

This shows that in the last hour, the average wind speed has been 19 kts, with gusts up to about 32.

This is one of my favorite pictures that I've ever taken. It looked that surreal and more in real life.

Nav station is pretty comfortable

Maks's spot in the belly of the boat.