Think its a good day to start a great adventure!

It is hard to believe but our day of departure has finally arrived. So far all the planning and work to get to this point has been an adventure in it's self. As I walked through town yesterday I was struck with a feeling that I had not felt in a long time. Nantucket really is a beautiful place. It is strange but over the past few years I have spent to much time thinking about what is next, I have to do this, I have to do that. Having been consumed with personal and professional responsibilities, I had completely lost touch with what makes Nantucket one of the greatest places I have ever been. Yesterday as I walked down main street, I could smell spring in the air, and I regained a respect for where I have lived that I had not felt in years. I will miss this place over the next year. We have made some of the best friends anyone could ask for, they are all as they say "the finest kind"! As I sit here on the boat, the sun is beginning to break over the horizon, what wonders will Anna and I see over the next year? Have we planned correctly? Have we everything we need? Right know at this moment, all I know is that we are unbelievably lucky to have this opportunity. For all those who helped us get to this point, our friends our coworkers and our family, thank you so much. You are what makes Nantucket great.

T Minus 72 hours

Anna's Birthday Dinner. Umm Sushi

Good old Blue rigged with the bikes on top and ready to go



Our home on land. See you next year.


Our new HBI, that is Hard Bottom Inflatable in boat talk. It is to be our taxi for the next year, bringing us to and from shore.

Right before we stuck down the name and hailing port on the bottom. This is always stressful, it is a one shot deal. Because our boat is federally documented the name and hailing port must be visible on the stern of the boat. With our HBI being stored on the back swim platform, it blocks our boat name and port, thus the need to put the name on the bottom.

It is hard to believe but I think we are ready to go. Anna and I have had a full first week on the boat. Many of our evenings have been spent with friends, it is a bittersweet feeling to know that we will not see many of them for a hole year. Tonight some of our closest friends organised a party at the Nantucket Anglers Club to give us a good sendoff. It's sure to be a great time with a formidable headache in the morning. Our evenings at the Club are always a blast, the people are some of the best always good for a laugh and a smile. Thinking back on our first week I would be remiss not to mention that we had our first birthday on board. Anna and I celebrated her 36th birthday on Monday, we got some sushi takeout and a bottle of wine. What a great way to start our adventure. With 72 hours till we push off the dock and round Brant Point we intend on soaking up Nantucket and all our friends so they can stay fresh in our hearts and minds till our return next year.

Our new home on the water

It is hard to believe but our trip is just days away from becoming a reality. Anna and I moved out of our home this past week, and have settled into our new home on the water. It has been a blessing that the weather has been some of the best we could ask for. Saturday on Nantucket was a total ten. Anna and I both agree that moving out of our house was one of the hardest things we have done in years. How we accumulated so much stuff is a mystery to the both of us, all we know is that we are glad it is behind us. Living on the boat has been totally awesome, we were able to unpack all our clothes, pots, pans, passports, books, movies, CD's, tools, cup, utensils, COFFEE, ect. Waking up on Friday morning I left the boat to take my first of many public restroom showers, on my walk back feeling clean and refreshed a head appeared from the boat next to ours and announced nice jammies. I had to laugh as I was filled with a nostalgic feeling that I was back in my freshman dorm in college. One thing is clear, a lot of things are going to change now that we live on the water, so far it has been for the better. As the day progressed, there was a lot of activity on the dock, the charter boats are in and the sound of Captains readying there boats is ever present. Summer is almost her and the waterfront has definitely awaken from its winter slumber.

Our old boat is famous

Anna and I were checking out some you tube footage of Nordic Tugs and much to our surprise we saw a video of our old boat tootsie. Man we just loved that boat. Think you might agree after you see this clip. It is now owned by a local man that is doing a great job of keeping her up. I have to admit he uses it even more that we did. There is nothing better than working a day on the water and seeing this little boat we loved so much cruising her way up to the head of the harbor.


Click on the link below to see the clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2xf-2tIcLw

Is this realy March?

Anna and I decided to spend this unbelievable day on the water practicing many of the boating skills she learned while at her trawlerfest course in FL. She spent a few hours getting comfortable handling our boat. This included counting the number of turns of the wheel it takes to move the rudder from hard port to starboard. On our inboard this is the only way to tell when the rudder is centered. She took note of how many boat lengths it takes for our boat to come to a complete stop once put in neutral from different speeds. We both practiced backing up to objects and calling out distances. Our boat has a few blind spots from the wheelhouse and good communication is essential when docking in a tough spot. We finished off the afternoon by doing a man overboard drill. We had often talked of the need to do this, but in the past years had never actually done it. We both felt better having completed this drill and found that in the end we both learned things about how we should react to this situation that we had never before considered. With six weeks to go till our departure, it is crystal clear to us that our little boat is to be our home for a hole year, the more time we spend working the kinks out know, the better we will be when the time comes to us to push off.




When we returned to the dock we bumped into our friends Frank and Andrea, we just couldn't resist the opportunity to head up the harbor on one of the nicest March days I can remember.

The scenery was awesome, hope these pic's do it justice.

My buddy Frank, you might remember him from the hailer comments of an earlier post. Oddly enough he just couldn't resist trying it out.

Six Weeks! Bring it on!

Some great Pic's

Martie took a few great photos of our boat yesterday, it is so hard to get good pictures of your own boat so this one is a real treat. It was such a wonderful day, I keep thinking we are definitely going to pay for it. We joked that tomorrow it will most likely snow. All Jokes aside, the great weather allowed us to do some great upgrades to our new home. We installed a new cd radio so we can plug in our Ipod. (got to have good tunes on a 6500 mile trip) We also installed a loud hailer. This addition caused one of my good buddies to break out in laughter. He is aware that I grew up in NJ and in his New England bread opinion thinks it is quite fitting that a man with NJ routes would feel the need to put such an obnoxious item on their boat. I tried to defend the hailer telling him that it was for running in the fog. He just laughed and laughed. Could he be right? I loved growing up off of Sandy Hook NJ and still feel it is one of the most awesome waterfronts I know, but I do have to agree there are a few rotten apples in the Metropolitan area. Anna and I ran in to one in FL, he pulled his fully pimped out Sea Ray up to a bar and proceeded to blast Bon Jovi tunes out of is two speakers mounted aft on the top of the saloon roof. That is on top of the roof next to his radar, sat tv and every other electronic gadget know to mankind. Would you believe the name of the boat. The "Badda Bing". Oh yes this Tony Saprano want to be out of Toms River NJ is the first thing that came to mind as Frank laughed. I tell you one thing I am not going to do with the hailer, I am not going to use it to talk to Anna on the bow. That I am sure would not go over well.

Sorry we have been away from the blog, we have been busy and are know in the home strech!

Check out the new awning on the back. Susan Burns from Canvas Works on Nantucket did a great job. This should help keep the heat down in the salon.

Just another shot from the Sun Deck.

Here is a shot of our new table. We were going to buy one from a marine distributor, but we felt our good friend Micheal DeHeart of Offshore Woodworks would be able to do it better. We were right, the table is great and the Mahogany inlay is a great touch.

With only seven weeks till our departure, we thought it was a good time to break out the Flag.

If I could just keep the seagulls from &^*%ing on my boat!

It has been a full few weeks since we returned from Florida. We returned to Nantucket to the reality that we are leaving the Island for a year and we have a ton of stuff to do before that happens. So here we go, this is what has been happening.

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that Anna and I put a dry erase board up in our kitchen with a list of tasks that needed to be done. Until last week we were very frustrated that although we had started almost everything on the list nothing had really been completed. About two weeks ago all that started to change. We have installed many new items on the boat and above all other things WE RENTED OUR HOUSE. THANK GOD! I must admit there have been many a unpleasant conversation between Anna and I over the fact that this had not happened. We both acknowledged that if we did not have the income from the house there is no way we could pull off this trip. Well we finally did it and its a huge relief.

Having the house rented, you would think that all would be perfect with the world, then the unthinkable. Our little four pawed friend had been acting a bit off for the past few months, and we had been very concerned about him. We brought him to the vet and (Buckle Your Seatbelt) he has diabetes. Ok, so god is truly messing with us. Well it was a tough adjustment, but we are on the path to getting our little buddy well again and have come up with a plan to deal with it on our trip. If things were easy it wouldn't be nearly as fun.

Right?

Only Seven weeks left. Tick Tock Tick Tock