Winterize

Interior. Needs some remodeling in the V berth to make more space, re plumbed
all electrical rewired, wood refinished, galley rebuilt and lots of other little things.

Cold bilge work. Rebuilding some floor supports after finally getting the bilge
emptied. The engine needs to be replaced.

Going Underground

We visited the abandoned mines in Rosendale NY this past weekend. They used to be used for mining cement that most famously was used in making the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. After they closed some have been turned into mushroom farms, used in films and for concerts. Below ground are endless cavernous rooms, deep cold water, roads, and even a city. Above ground are houses and a cement factory that have been forgotten and are being reclaimed by nature.

First mine we came to. They have a stage off to the right set up for concerts.

Flooded section that seems to go back quite far.

Happy T-Day

Trout Day! Decided to smoke up some trout for the Thanksgiving feast.

1 to 1 1/4 lb trout. Brine bath for about an hour then drizzled the inside with some local honey, lemon/garlic seasoning and a sprig of organic rosemary.

Fall Pictures

Purchase

Went up to ME this weekend for the final dealings with the boat. We now officially own a boat and it was delivered to our friends house for the winter.

First night on the boat was rather cold but otherwise pretty fun. Nothing like Yukon Jack for the cold hoary nights.

Birthdays, Boats and a Journey to Tibet.

So we bought a boat! ....but we'll get to that later.

Nothing like turning another year older to make you evaluate what is currently working and not working in your life. Nothing like a trip to a mountain top Tibetan Buddhist Monastary, KARMA TRIYANA DHARMACHAKRA (KTD), to make you feel silly for stressing about it to begin with. Clear your mind, the answers are already there.

"We all have a Buddha Mind", our tour guide explained while we sat upon meditation pillows in the sun bathed Main Shrine room floating with the remnants of incense -- "It's just under all the layers of the ego", she finished.

Autumn Leaves and Winter Snow

It was high 70's in San Clemente today -- people were down at the beach, surfers out in the waves, however here on the East Coast we had our first big snow fall. We sat peering out the windows at an array of yellow, green and red leaves that clung to the trees -- not quite ready to let Autumn go. Meanwhile winter arrived nonetheless nestling a foot of snow onto the ground as it began to claim its territory. Boy it was a beautiful sight.

Snowday Smokeout

Been working on making a smoker the last few weeks on and off. 

Peepers

Kind of a poor foliage season this year. Everything either changed to early or is holding on. Few pics from this weekend.

New Ground

We have finally reached a new point in our boat search, a successful marine survey. Now we are on to final price negotiations then the purchase. The whole buying experience is a lot different than expected. It is much harder than imagined to find an ocean worthy boat, boats capable of cruising around near shore are easier to find than a boat you would risk your life in traveling far from land, in a limited price range even though they are out there. Most boats reach a point in life when neglect catches us and they rapidly deteriorate and become too costly to fix. The steps to buying are also much slower than expected between scheduling appointments to look, negotiating prices, marine survey, re negotiating, working out transportation of the boat… All this before the actual work even starts. At a cost of similar to an old used car this particular boat is in need of work, not everyone can afford the nice newer ones, it needs to be repaired and cleaned and rebuilt. Expect to see months of posts going over all our changes to get it ready to sail.

The Cape Dory Story

Maine brought new wind to our sails when we encountered a 30' Cape Dory at the Northeast Sail Boat Rescue in Freeport, Maine a few weeks ago. Nick trekked back up for the Marine Survey today and from what I hear things are looking good! I hope you are as excited as I am to hear back from him! Stay tuned Nomad friends!

When you can't travel far, travel smart!

Offshore traveling at a temporary pause doesn't mean local travel can't be exciting. Sometimes the best travels are close to home. An overnight trip to Maine to check out a few new boats led us to this hidden gem of a campsite. 

Beach front accommodations

Hermit Island Campground is situated on a small island, accessible by car during low tide, and is located about 45 minutes from Freeport, Maine. Here we found our romantic private beach campsite.

Little trip video

On our quick tour of New England shot a quick video between the constant rain.

Moving Forward

Well more information about the ME trip finally. We put in an offer on a new boat and it got accepted. It is a Cape Dory 30 foot Ketch from Northeast Sailboat Rescue. Now it is time for the dreaded marine survey that on our last go around turned up lots of bad news. Hopefully this one will turn out better and we can proceed with a purchase.

Keep on keepin on

It has been a depressing couple of weeks after realizing we couldn't get the boat we wanted, our plans to sail South this Fall bottomed out and we had to face that the trip wasn't happening right now.  After all we gave up we are feeling like maybe it wasn't the right choice.  We have looked at so many boats and honestly not many options left.  After so many dissapointing leads we really felt at the bottom but rallied once again to do a trip to Maine to follow out last lead.  More to come on the trip soon, here is Carolyn in the boat yard trying to find us the vessel we need.