Following Dreams

Setting Sail on a New Adventure: Dolphins and Sunsets

Setting Sail on a New Adventure: Dolphins and Sunsets

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Setting off on a new adventure

We embark on a new adventure from St. Augustine on a cloudy June morning, feeling a mix of excitement and trepidation. The whole family is on deck as we set off through the Bridge of Lions. After months in lockdown we are headed north for hurricane season and the start of a new adventure. 

Our journey begins! Passing through the iconic Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine, Florida as we set sail for new horizons.
Our journey begins! Passing through the iconic Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine, Florida as we set sail for new horizons.
A refreshing change in weather and scenery

The day starts with a light drizzle, which keeps the heat down and makes for a refreshing change from the Florida sun. As we navigate out of the Ponce De Leon Inlet the water is a bit choppy, but soon calms down once we are in the open ocean.

Jason keeping a sharp lookout on the horizon with his trusty binoculars
Jason keeping a sharp lookout on the horizon with his trusty binoculars
Embracing the freedom of the ocean

We take advantage of the peaceful conditions and open up the sails. We relish the sound of the wind in the rigging and the feeling of being miles away from anyone else. The sense of freedom is exhilarating as we cut through the waves, making our way north.

The world is a beautiful place, especially from the bow of a boat.
The world is a beautiful place, especially from the bow of a boat.
An unforgettable encounter with playful dolphins

Later, as we enter the Jacksonville Inlet, we are struck by the vastness of the river, which seems to stretch out endlessly before us. A pod of playful dolphins joins us and seems to enjoy the company of our boat. Watching these beautiful creatures frolicking in the water is a magical moment for all of us. 

Making friends with the locals 🐬👋
Making friends with the locals 🐬👋
Just around the river bend

We make our way upriver to the Sister’s Creek free dock, where we decide to stop for the night. It is a peaceful journey, with the kids enjoying the ride and soaking up the views of the water.

Osiris watching the water
Osiris watching the water
Finding peace and tranquility at Sister’s Creek

The kids are thrilled to find a nearby park where they can play and burn off some energy. Meanwhile, we take a moment to relax and soak up the peaceful surroundings. Afterwards, we cook up a quick dinner on board and settle down to watch a truly breathtaking sunset.

Docked and ready for the next adventure - Rana and crew at Sister's Creek free dock
Docked and ready for the next adventure – Rana and crew at Sister’s Creek free dock
A breathtaking sunset to end the day.

We drift off to sleep feeling content and grateful for the experiences we have shared. We look forward to the journey ahead, little knowing of the adventures yet to come.

Sunset viewed from the cockpit
Sunset viewed from the cockpit

We invite you to continue following along as we navigate our way north for hurricane season. There are plenty more adventures and challenges along the way, and we can’t wait to share them with you. So stay tuned, and let’s keep sailing together! Check out our YouTube page with some clips from this trip. Or check out some of our older blog posts here.

Reigniting the Spark: Our Renewed Commitment to Water Adventures

Reigniting the Spark: Our Renewed Commitment to Water Adventures

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Hello friends, we’re back to our water adventures! After a hiatus from blogging, we’re thrilled to announce our return. Over the past months, we’ve embarked on unexpected journeys and we’re now ready to get back to what we love: sharing our exciting and unique water adventures with you. We can’t wait to reconnect with our readers and update you on what we’ve been up to. Stay tuned for more updates and new content!

Chasing the horizon, sailing towards new adventures.
Chasing the horizon, sailing towards new adventures.

We have a lot of catching up to do, and we’ll be sharing our past experiences as well as new ones with you. From our daily routines on the boat to our favorite destinations, we’ll be posting every week. Whether you’ve been following us for a while or are new to our blog, we’re excited to have you join us for the journey.

Nothing but calm waters and endless horizons ahead.
Nothing but calm waters and endless horizons ahead.

We are eager to get back to sharing our experiences with you and we hope that you will continue to follow along with us. Thank you for being a part of our journey and we can’t wait to reconnect with you through our stories.

Anchored in paradise, surrounded by the beauty of the sea and the warmth of the sunset.
Anchored in paradise, surrounded by the beauty of the sea and the warmth of the sunset.

We will be aiming to post every Wednesday. Can’t wait? Check out our other blog posts here while we work on more for you! Or check our our social media pages on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

Fair winds and following seas,

Carolyn, Jason, Deirdre & Osiris

Making memories and living our best life on the water with our crew.
Making memories and living our best life on the water with our crew.
A boat, so much more than the sum of her parts.

A boat, so much more than the sum of her parts.

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What is at a boat’s core?

As I sit here amongst the field of other boats rocking and swaying with each gust of the wind and change in the water, I finally see the very core of what a boat is. When I was a new boat owner, I thought that the core was all of the work I would need to do to keep her afloat. A boat builder might say the core is the layers of fiberglass, wood, or metal that make up the hull. A spectator might see the beautiful colors and shape of the sails as she glides past and believe that to be the core. All of those views contribute to what makes a boat but now I see that at the true core of a boat is…

 

 

Freedom

A boat offers unbridled freedom to any sailor willing to cast off. So much so that when we are not sailing, we must lash our boats down to fixed docks or trailers. Even while moored to a fixture a boat still dances around as much as she has the ability. She longs for the opportunity to move with the wind and seas and break free from her bonds.

 

 

Can’t Hold Them Down

Even as we bring them in to their land based temporary homes, they become increasingly more disagreeable. As we slow to a crawl and carefully ease them into their slips, they favor the wind and waves more as if to fight the chains of oppression they will soon be bound by.

 

 

History Will Tell

It is this unpredictable freedom that has both terrified and tantalized sailors for thousands of generations. The suggestion of lands and adventures in far off places combined with a partner that shines brightest while cutting through the seas and riding the wind, sailors never stood a chance.

St Augustine or bust…Part 1

St Augustine or bust…Part 1

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The Adventure Starts (Slowly)
We set off from our home for the last year and half in the Ortega River. Having no idea what to expect, we planned out the trip as well as we knew how. After watching the weather for a few weeks we picked a weather window that we felt comfortable with. Under motor power our boat can only travel at around 8mph. This means that the 45-minute car ride to St Augustine was going to take us more like 20 hours in our slow boat. Since we picked a low wind weather window it meant motoring the entire time.
Skipper Carolyn!
Skipper Carolyn!
The Ditch (ICW)
In the interest of being safe, we decided to avoid making the whole trip straight through. We didn’t feel comfortable with traveling at night just yet. Our route did not have us going out into the ocean this time. Instead, we would be following the St Johns river and the ICW (Intercoastal Water Way). This is a winding path that is often narrow and shallow. Making it in the dark seemed like a bad idea for us just starting out.
Ortega River to St Augustine
Ortega River to St Augustine
First Stop
Since we were not going to make the whole trip in one-shot, we found a small marina called Palm Cove just off the ICW in Jacksonville. This place is about halfway between the Ortega River and St Augustine so it seemed like the perfect place to go. It also happened to be the marina we took possession of Rána at so we had an idea of what to expect. We also knew that we could only get in through their channel at high tide or we would run aground.
Palm Cove Marina (Jacksonville FL)
Palm Cove Marina (Jacksonville FL)
Seeing the Sights
The first half of our trip involved motoring through downtown Jacksonville. It was amazing seeing the high-rise buildings and massive bridges as we crawled past. Going only 8mph really gives you a lot of time to look around and enjoy the view! It sure beats driving at 70mph and missing everything.
Main Street Bridge (Jacksonville FL)
Main Street Bridge (Jacksonville FL)
Look, the Ocean!
Eventually, we made it to the Jacksonville ocean inlet. Although we did not need to go out into the ocean, this was where the ICW met up with the St Johns river so we had to get pretty close. All of the inlets where the ocean comes into a river are notorious for being unstable. The water coming and going often has fast currents and causes the silt on the bottom to shift around a lot making shoaling. This meant that even though our charts said we should have plenty of depth under us, we might still run aground on one of these unexpected shoals.
Mayport Inlet (Jacksonville FL)
Mayport Inlet (Jacksonville FL)
Running Aground
Just as we started making the turn south toward the ICW we saw a sailboat. I noticed that it had its sails open and also had smoke coming from the back, most likely from their engine. I didn’t think much of it at first but as we got closer, I started to realize that it wasn’t moving. This could only mean that she was grounded.
We were on a course that would put us right through where this sailboat was stopped so we quickly slowed down and turned to get further away. Just as we did, we felt it. Bump! Ever so slightly, we touched the bottom of the river with the bottom of our boat. We quickly reversed and moved away from the shoal. Seeing the stuck sailboat and reacting quickly saved us some possible boat damage and getting stuck. It didn’t help much with the pucker factor though.
Jason Driving
Jason Driving
Doing Circles
Despite our nerves being completely wrecked, we made our way down the ICW with very little stress from that point on. We actually went faster than we had expected so we ended up in front of the Palm Cove channel about 3 hours before we could go into it. Since we had not successfully anchored at that point, we decided to just spin circles outside their channel. When the tide got high enough, we made our way into their channel and successfully docked.
Circling Palm Cove Marina
Circling Palm Cove Marina
Palm Cove Marina
It was our first real planned trip as sailors and we felt great. We might not have known everything we could have and we made some mistakes but we did it and it was awesome! We would stay for just one night then be on our way to St Augustine in the morning.
It’s Finally Moving Day

It’s Finally Moving Day

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Why did we move to a boat again?

We finally decided it was time to change our boat life. It had been so long since we moved aboard Rána. Mostly, we had just been going through the motion getting used to this new way of life. We spent our time fixing things, trying to find places to store our stuff, balancing how much food can fit into the fridge, and fighting the never-ending battle of decay caused by living near the water.
Ash in the refrigerator
Ash in the refrigerator
As long as we were staying at a dock our life was pretty much the same as living in a house, only much harder and in a smaller space. After a while this really made us wonder why we are doing it in the first place.

It’s about time

We had done the hard part of boat life for long enough. We decided to take our next step. It was time to make our floating home a traveling home. To that end we decided our first stop needed to be somewhat nearby. This would give us some experience without being too challenging.
We had been staying in the Ortega River in Jacksonville Florida. Not far, about a 45-minute drive, is St Augustine. At over 400 years old, it is known as the oldest city in this country. St Augustine was founded by the Spanish before the United States even existed so there is a great deal of history to be found. Since it was so close this seemed like the perfect place to try out traveling.
Flagler College St Augustine Florida
Flagler College St Augustine Florida
We called the marina in St Augustine and made our reservation to be able to stay in a slip. We were not ready for anything more extreme like anchoring overnight or using a mooring ball. All we had to do was make the trip from the Ortega River to St Augustine.

Cleaning time

It took more effort than we had expected just to get the boat ready to leave. We had settled into living at our slip so much that we had to rethink how everything was stored on the boat so nothing would fall and hurt someone.
Where are you supposed to keep the cat?
Where are you supposed to keep the cat?
Once we finally got our plan together and got everything ready to leave, we had to wait until we felt comfortable with the weather. Being inexperienced really made us drag our feet. It was best for us to leave knowing we would have nearly perfect weather for our whole trip so that we wouldn’t have to deal with anything unexpected. That 45-minute drive would be a 20-hour boat trip since the boat only travels at around 8mph!

Saying goodbye to Ortega Landing

Eventually we decided to push ourselves and not let fear stop us. We said our goodbyes to the friends we had made and set off with fear and excitement.
Cruising through Jacksonville
Cruising through Jacksonville
Finally Sailing…

Finally Sailing…

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With the wind in your hair, the horizon in the distance, the sea in the air, and no resistance, you’re sailing. As nice as that sounds, it’s almost what we’re doing. We finally got to go out sailing. How can we have spent so much time not just owning but living on a sailboat and almost never go sailing?
Prior to buying Rána the last time we had sailed was on our 14’ Vagabond, Blue Horizon. She was a fun little daysailer. She was rigged as a fractional sloop with main sail and foresail so she had all of the same basic controls and surfaces as Rána. It was a little different with Blue Horizon since she also had a dagger board instead of a keel but all in all she was just about as complicated. Aside from size, which seems like the most obvious difference between the two, the fact that Rána is also our home plays a large roll in how we use her.
Since Rána has the added benefit of holding just about everything we own as well as all of us living things, it is a little more daunting to decide to take her out for a day sail. We have to stow everything we can in a safe place, get everyone ready and in sailing mindset, prepare the animals, remove our sunshades, disconnect shore power, checkout and start the engine, do a last minute doublecheck of lines and wires, close thru-hulls, shutoff our air conditioning, untie our lines, then set off. To add to all of this we can only get in and out of our slip between about 2 hours before and 2 hours after high tide which is always changing times on us.
Once we finally get completely ready and the tide is playing in our favor we can go out. That’s the point at which we always seem to get stuck. We know we want to. We know we love being on the water but somehow, we seem to stop ourselves. Often the excuse is another boat project. Since there is always another boat project this seems to be an easy way out.
Finally, after months and months of not sailing while living on our sailboat, Carolyn found a quote on the internet that said, “Sailing should always be at the top of the to do list.” This obviously hit both of us like a ton of bricks. We both asked ourselves why we were living on a sailboat if we weren’t doing any sailing. We quickly realized that we had to make a change so we decided to take her out sailing the next possible time. For us, based on the tide was the following weekend. We got Rána prepared and set off. This time Carolyn even got us out of the marina and drove us to the nearby bridge.
Once we were in the open area of the larger river we opened the mainsail. Since this was the first time we had done this since our sea-trial before buying the boat, and we had just put up new rigging, we went slowly and overly cautiously. I think we both kept waiting for it to jump out and bite us or something.
The wind was mild (7-10 knots) and the current was slow (~1-2 knots) so it was very easy. Once the main was open we both thought why not open the Genoa as well. With Carolyn on the helm, I pulled the Genoa out and filled it up with air. The boat heeled over maybe 5-8 degrees and suddenly we were really sailing our home.
We had been concerned that the kids would not like being heeled over at all but once we were they seemed to enjoy it. The water was a little choppy so the boat was bouncing a bit which also seemed to be fun for both of them.
We didn’t get to sail for too long since we only had about a 4 hour window before we wouldn’t be able to get back to our slip but every single minute of it was fun. As much as we tried we mostly forgot just about all of the things we thought we knew about sailing so we weren’t trimming the sails perfectly and we were fighting the boats weather helm but it didn’t matter. We were sailing. Now the top of our To-Do list is always sailing first.
What’s Stopping You?

What’s Stopping You?

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Over a year ago we sold everything; our house, our cars, toys, books and furniture to follow a dream of living on a boat and travelling the world. That was a monumentally big thing to do. We completely uprooted our lives and that added a lot of pressure to succeed. In a year and a half of owning the boat and a year of living on board we have barely moved it. Why?
It’s weird because I have been onboard with the idea of living on a boat from the beginning. In fact I was the one who pointed out we don’t have to wait for retirement to make it a reality.
Jason loves to sail. I have never sailed before but I love to travel. There really isn’t anywhere I wouldn’t like to visit. I want to go back to Ireland, visit uninhabited islands, experience the cultures of the South Pacific, see the cherry blossoms in Kyoto and the tulips blooming in the Netherlands, I want to see the Parthenon and the Great Pyramids and so many other places. We have been interested in the sailing and traveling life from the start. So what is stopping us?
Well we had some problems with the engine leaking water into the oil. The standing rigging that holds up the mast was 18 years old and in bad shape. One of our through-hulls started letting water seep into the boat from the river. Those were all critical things to fix… but…
I’ve never needed to be handy with fixing things in my life. Because repairs aren’t something I know how to do well, I tend to shy away from trying them. This is a mental roadblock for me. One that I have had to start facing because boats are a lot of work! Often too much for just one person.
I have needed to help more and more with projects. I helped re-bed hardware, remove, refit and replace through-hulls, epoxy and paint repairs, hoist sails, and climb the mast among other things.
I’m still not very handy but I am learning. As I learn and help I am realizing our boat starts to feel more real. Not just a place where we happen to live but something that is truly ours.
Some days it feels overwhelming and like maybe living on a boat was a bad choice and it would be so much easier to live in a house.
Then again… is an easy life what we really want? Or do we want to follow our dreams? Our brains build roadblocks in our path to success. They do this to mitigate the pain of failure. Our brains help us give up on our goals before even trying.
The truth is we have only been half committed to our dream. We have been letting the work that needs to be done become our roadblocks against really living our dream. One of those roadblocks for me has been driving the boat. It is 42 feet long and it is our home. The idea of making a mistake can be paralyzing if I let it.
I recently commented about not feeling comfortable docking the boat. One person replied to add a bunch of extra bumpers on and give it a try. This really resonated with me because what she was essentially saying is ‘face your roadblocks.’ I haven’t docked the boat yet but I did decide to take the helm and back it out of our slip to take it out for our first time actually sailing! This was big for me. It helped me realize that the fears we build up in our heads are usually worse than reality.
The more I do on the boat, and roadblocks I confront, the more excited I become to actually get sailing. It feels real in a different kind of way then just wanting to travel and even selling everything and living on our boat.
It feels a little bit more mine.
What are your dreams? What roadblocks are getting in your way? What can you do to face your roadblocks?