Well…we have finally arrived to our boat-abode. Let me tell you – it has been two very very big days…

Day 1: April 28

After a very long 13 hour drive, we awoke at our hotel ready and raring to get to our boat. There has been so much leading up to this point that our emotions were in overdrive! We took off for the marina by 8AM. The drive took about an hour and a half, and the further we drove, the more city-life disappeared and nature-life took over. It was an exquisite drive through New England scenic treasures…trees, farms, open space, rivers, tiny towns, more open space, flowers everywhere, blooming foliage and no traffic!

By 10AM we pulled into the barely visible street that would take us to our marina: The Sailing Emporium. It was awesome to see our boat again after nearly 2 full months. Upon arrival at the marina we quickly found the main office to introduce ourselves to the staff and get all the details & lay of the land. Everyone was super friendly and helpful!

I’ll give you a quick little tour ‘explanation’ of our marina-home for the next 5 weeks. East of the main office is the ‘head’ (bathroom). Its surprisingly large and very clean, with 5 stall bathrooms on one side and 5 private showers on the other for each men and women. Behind the heads is a dingy storage shed (oh yeah..we need to buy one of those!) and down the long dock to the South is our slip.

West of the office is a building called The Carriage House. The bottom level is split between a small laundry room and storage locker room. Each slip (boat parking spot) has a fairly large storage locker associated with it, though we don’t really need ours. The top floor houses a library with some very spectacular views of the bay and sunsets. It will be a fantastic spot for me to get some ‘real’ work done! The rest of the marina is storage for the many large power and sailboats.

Take a Tour Of Our Marina “Home”

After a short tour of the marina, the previous owner of our boat met with us and gave a walk-through of our vessel. Let me tell you this is NOT normally done with new or used boat purchase. But it was so extremely wonderful (and super generous on his part) because he spent a good 3 hours telling us so many important intricacies of the boat and how things work. Otherwise we would be so very lost and have to learn many more things “the hard way”.

We spent the next 3-4 hours simply trying to get some things cleaned. Seeing as how our girl is almost 30 years old and had been sitting for the better part of a year, she needed a good scrub down. So we started with the bow (front) of the V-Berth cabin, which is going to be our “master bedroom” and got to work.

The most surprising thing about the process of cleaning (anything) on the boat has been that it takes a lot more elbow grease than many household chores. It also is kind of strange to have to clean all surfaces from the ceiling to the floor and everything in-between, underneath, hidden in tiny compartments and hard to get to (or impossible to get to) places! There is a lot of bumping and bending and crouching in weird positions for long periods of time. So by the end of 4 hours we were both super sore and exhausted, but it seemed as if we made NO PROGRESS (ugh!). The V berth was acceptable, so we set up the temporary bedding, a two-person sleeping bag and some old sheets from our old bed, threw up some pillows and called it good for the day.

We decided to go out in our tiny town for dinner. The main city street is about 5 blocks from the marina. We found ONE restaurant in town and hoped for the best. However now we have to stick to a budget and be conscious of every cost. Like many east-coast restaurants, this one was pretty expensive, so we decided to save some dough and share a meal. We had fresh caught and grilled Mahi Mahi with veggies & rice. Holy cow was it tasty! I think I’m going to like this eating fresh-caught fish thing on a regular basis!

Exhaustion set in as soon as we got back to the marina. We decided to hang out in the library and watch the sunset. Gorgeous. Simply stunning. Words really can’t describe how spectacular it was – to be in such a beautiful spot all by ourselves soaking it all in. As soon as the sun set, we were back on the boat getting ready for bed. Even though it was still early, we spent the next couple of hours trying to get ourselves cleaned up and comfy before turning out the lights and calling it a night.

Day 2: April 29

This morning we woke up extremely sore and tired. It was a bit of a restless first night since sleeping in a V-berth is not quite like sleeping in a normal square-shaped bed. It was also a little chilly on the first night, and kind of smelly (since the boat has a lot of chemical-smell as it was sealed for winter).

Before getting to work, Jake cooked a couple of frozen burritos we had leftover and a snack-pack of pineapples. It was our first boat-cooked meal and a very tasty one at that! Soon thereafter we got right to business…most important business…the decal for s/v Bosco. She currently has the old name stamped across her backside. Once we get the new vinyl’s delivered, we can have a proper renaming ceremony.

After the “serious” stuff was out of the way, I could focus energy on cleaning and prepping the galley (kitchen), emptying out every cupboard and giving it as good a scrub down as I could. My head was buried in the refrigerator (which loads from the top like a cooler) for the better part of an hour. It was pretty gross stuff but I guess I have to get used to gross. Meanwhile, Jake focused on cleaning the cockpit and upper decks of the boat, clearing wasp and bird nests off everything and hosing her down.

Once the fridge / freezer was cleaned, we had to de-winterize it. I know that this boat “speak” will be confusing so I’ll try to explain in layman terms. In order to do this, first Jake had to get into the bilge (the lowest compartment on the boat where water drains / sits until let out) and open the seacock (valve that lets water in the vessel). Before this could happen though, we had to make sure that the sea-water strainers in the bilge were clear of any debris. There are two of these in our bilge, one of which is buried kind of deep and are also super grimy and disgusting! But he got them both cleared out and back in. Seacock levers have been turned to open and now we can turn it on…and hold our breath…

…and it works! The compressor started pumping waste water overboard and cold water in, just like magic! Thank goodness we took several ASA classes otherwise we wouldn’t have known what to do! First boat project was a success!

Knowing we had about an hour for it to cool down, we took advantage and hit up the nearest town for some groceries and other miscellaneous things from the hardware store and a West Marine (our new home away from boat-home). In any medium sized city, these tasks would be relatively simple, especially if you know your way around said city. But out in the boonies there is pretty much nothing. So these tasks took us the better part of the afternoon.

Once we got back to the boat 3 hours later, I got to work finishing up the kitchen so that it wasn’t a disaster zone. Jake went to pick up our new boat grill, which was just delivered to our marina! In no time we were grilling some ‘dogs’ and enjoying a cold beverage. We ate the entire package since we really didn’t eat anything for lunch and were famished. But now that we’ve stocked up on groceries for at least a couple of days, we should be okay and hopefully eating on a regular basis again. By early evening, I had the kitchen more-or-less in order and things put away. I’m sure they won’t stay like this because once under sail I can imagine everything spilling everywhere, but for right now, it’ll do.

Evening has been very pleasant tonight. We sat on the bow of our boat with our comfy cushioned chairs and watched the sunset and the water and birds and realized how very worth it all of this will be. We also got to enjoy a nice hot shower in the marina, which felt super refreshing! I guess this is our life now. Boat work…boat work…boat work…boat work…eat a meal or two…more boat work…maybe relax at the end of the night if you are lucky.

Tomorrow will be another big day of cleaning the dreaded BILGE, which causes our boat to smell…well, like a boat 😉

2 days in and this living on a boat thing is hard, hard work. But I know it will get easier as we get more settled and comfortable. Plus it will be so very worth it for the water front views, traveling to exotic locations, living simply and on no real schedule.

Oh so much more to come…