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Barb
St. Augustine, FL working on LaLuna for the next cruise.
We lived aboard a Cheoy Lee Sailboat year-round in Maine for 8 years. In October, 2010 we set sail for the Bahamas and Caribbean.
Interests: travel, dogs, sailing, Maine, writing, sailboat maintenance, living on a sailboat, Bahamas, Caribbean, Cartagena, Grenada, Azores, Guatemala, San Blas, photography, food, more of the Azores.
Recent Activity
And so, earlier this summer, I went silent. Dark. Quiet. Under the radar. At least twice while we were cruising I wrote about not being in contact with friends and family---once while we were in the Bahamas in 2011, and again when we crossed the Atlantic in 2014. Those out of contact moments were not in my control. Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2019 at Harts At Sea
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*With a tip of the sailing hat to Judith Viorst and Alexander’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. The Set-Up OK. Just let me be up front, our enforced stay in lovely (some people’s favorite stop) St. Augustine has made both EW and me a tad very testy at times. On the worst of days, both of us were testy and discouraged at the same time. Fortunately, usually one of us is upset and the other one has perspective so we recover fairly quickly. I am thankful that Stew was indeed the larger person on the morning of my... Continue reading
Posted Oct 19, 2018 at Harts At Sea
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Oopsie. Sixteen years of living aboard and we just got bitch-slapped by our boat. La Luna, we love you.....When it persisted, I checked for the fictitious dead rodent, and then mentioned the smell to EW the next evening as we crawled into bed. “Hmmm. That may be propane. Don’t make coffee until I check it in the morning.” Continue reading
Posted Jul 5, 2018 at Harts At Sea
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When those who cruise still (or later) own a home, they “get” it. They tell you to bring your dirty laundry when you go to dinner. Often, they let you know that you’re invited to arrive early enough to take a shower prior to the meal. They offer a ride to the store. They get it. To be fair, as liveaboards for over 16 years, we have land-lubber friends and family who also get it and for that, I will be eternally grateful. Continue reading
Posted Jun 26, 2018 at Harts At Sea
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So I’m getting out of Limbo, even though we aren’t yet getting out of St. Augustine. The weather has not been conducive to painting – for the past five months. No joke. It rained almost every day in May and was cold through most of April. It was frigid (by Florida standards) December thru March. (This is posted with apologies to all who endured this past New England winter. Been there. Done that. My blood’s thinned.) Enough whinging. As I truthfully assure EW, “I still love you, the boat, and our lifestyle. Though the order may vary.” I’ve discovered that being in Limbo gives an excuse to eat more and exhibit fuzzy thinking. Here is a sample of what can happen when one is in Limbo Continue reading
Posted Jun 15, 2018 at Harts At Sea
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Here in St. Augustine, we are on a mooring in a very bouncy Matanzas River (Disclaimer: Today is Thursday, January 4th and it is not bouncing. The prior three days included north winds with gusts to 50. Bouncing.) This is the coldest weather we have experienced since February 2010. How cold is it? We had ice on the hatches this morning, and the laptop would not start until I had brought her to shore and warmed her up. Bitch. Continue reading
Posted Jan 5, 2018 at Harts At Sea
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We are still living our dream but a cruisers’ dream is not a fairy tale. Boats break down. We get health issues. Boats need repair. We find bad weather or it finds us. Do you have any idea how many things can go wrong in this cruising life? Most of us can imagine the worst, but I’m talking about those things you don’t think about, like an infestation of bugs, or losing the dinghy motor overboard, or (and this happened to at least one person I know on Facebook) you are knocked down by a severe reaction to lime juice and sunlight. Continue reading
Posted Dec 4, 2017 at Harts At Sea
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We are merely liveaboards just as we were in Maine for eight years. But now, we are liveaboards who have cruised and even if we currently don’t feel the deep peace and satisfaction we get when living the full cruising life—we still feel like cruisers from the tops of our heads to the tips of our toes. Accordingly, while we may act like dirt dwellers in polite company, we have the hearts, souls, and minds of cruisers. So for you newbies and plan-to-bes, here are a few examples of how to think like a cruiser. Continue reading
Posted Nov 15, 2017 at Harts At Sea
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Now, non-boaters might think that repairing the toe rails and stanchion bases, and removing the teak decks would have no impact down below. Non-boaters would be wrong. Ninety-nine percent of the things on deck are bolted through the deck to the living space below. Continue reading
Posted Oct 16, 2017 at Harts At Sea
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So for those of you who agree to visit and sleep in the forward cabin, we know. We truly do know that two people staying up there so they can see us is an act of love. Also, if we hear strange noises we won’t automatically assume fun. Continue reading
Posted Oct 16, 2017 at Harts At Sea
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Here’s what really happened. 1. We watched Irma obsessively and worried about our many friends and relatives in her path. (Our anxiety levels peaked in that time between Irma hitting St. Thomas and us hearing from EW’s cousin Jeff and Barb Hart the First—they are fine. They also made it through Maria with few issues.) 2. On Monday the 4th and Tuesday the 5th I started calling marinas and boatyards from St. Augustine to Georgia and found “no room at the inn”. EW had removed a bunch of bent and broken toe rail (some from Matthew most from an incident at sea) and had a lot of holes in the deck. His priority was to get the new toe rail on and it did not go well—even with steady and patient help from our friend T.S. (who prefers to remain anonymous—those aren’t even his initials). Continue reading
Posted Sep 29, 2017 at Harts At Sea
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From Geoffrey Smith of U.S.V.I. "The US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico need your help. There are so many ways you can assist us. There are groups of volunteers and websites organizing relief efforts. One of the best ways you can help us is to not forget that we are Americans too. We are on the front line for every hurricane that is on its way to the mainland. 48 hours after hurricane Irma crushed us I heard on CNN how Americans were about to feel the impact of this incredible storm. Americans had felt its impact days before, I can assure you first hand that they had. We are still feeling it. Last night we were hit again by Maria, another CAT5 hurricane. We are going to need your help in the days, weeks and months ahead but most of all we need you never to forget that we are Americans, we are the United States Virgin Islands." Continue reading
Posted Sep 21, 2017 at Harts At Sea
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No one deserves a hurricane. Not one island, not one state, not a city or town, and certainly not all their people. We are still reeling from the videos, stories, and photos of Hurricane Matthew and now we have Irma. We none of us “deserve” Irma. None of us want to meet her. All of us are thinking, “Not here.” “Not now.” “Not me.” Continue reading
Posted Sep 4, 2017 at Harts At Sea
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Some of you know that while EW is working on the boat like the hero he is, I’m working in the Gig Economy with 3-4 contracting/independent jobs (depending on who is counting). Yep. That’s a lot of fun. We should have done a bit of research before settling on St. Augustine. Tourism is their big business and it doesn’t pay well. I digress. Frequently. Work is (finally) going quite well, but if a cruiser is not often on the boat and actually living in a home on dirt, it can be easy for said cruiser to lose focus. I’ve found a few things that help. Continue reading
Posted Aug 15, 2017 at Harts At Sea
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Actually, EW had been out of town on a quick trip to Maine with Jerry and Betsy French (Hi, Jerry!) so I spent the holiday weekend packing. I vacuumed-bagged the cold weather stuff, boxed all dishes, books and – well everything in the main salon, galley, and master stateroom. Everything. Every damn thing. Some boxes were labeled “STAY” while others were labeled “GO”. Continue reading
Posted Jun 9, 2017 at Harts At Sea
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We who live aboard and do our own boat projects have to be optimists. No joke. You have to believe you will get a weather window. You have to believe you will be able to install a new muffler. You have to believe you can fix the wiring in Panama where they don’t sell much marine wire. You HAVE TO BEEE-LIEVE brothers and sisters! Continue reading
Posted May 19, 2017 at Harts At Sea
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As we’ve traveled from port to port since 2010, my friends have sent photos of their kids, their dogs, their grandkids, and themselves. Every one of those photos is downloaded into a file under the appropriate year. That file is labeled “Back Home”. It’s my friend and family photo album and I make sure to back it up regularly. Continue reading
Posted May 12, 2017 at Harts At Sea
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That brings us to Radio. One of the reasons I’ve not been prolific on the blog is that there are a whole lot of important things pulling at my time now that I am a “liveaboard” instead of a cruiser—particularly a working liveaboard. I’m working to make money so that we can fix the boat and become cruisers again, socializing with cruisers, spending time with EW, and doing all the normal life things one does—except I live on a boat on a mooring and we have no car. Continue reading
Posted Apr 25, 2017 at Harts At Sea
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Now I can cross this off my bucket list. (Yes, it was on my bucket list along with riding an elephant (done), getting paid to write (done), and running a parade (done, but it was tiny – though we did get to close a few streets). Yes, I have a strange bucket list. As most of you know, buying a boat, moving aboard, and going cruising were on EW’s bucket list. At first, I went along for the ride but by the time we moved aboard La Luna I was on board both figuratively and literally. Continue reading
Posted Apr 1, 2017 at Harts At Sea
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Living aboard is different from cruising. I miss cruising. We have cruising friends here in St. Augustine. They come down from the north to get warm or come up from the south to do boat work and get used to 60 degree days before going to Maine. (Just kidding. Kind of.) The point is, that there are few folks like us who live on board and work here, and many more who are moving north and south—albiet very slowly once they reach St. Augustine as this is a very sticky harbor. Continue reading
Posted Mar 29, 2017 at Harts At Sea
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Consequently, while we didn’t get lost, we did make a few wrong turns and had to backtrack. How can this happen when the navigator has an iPad with navigation software and a planned route? Well, that’s a good question. We were late to Tavares and late getting home and on both trips, EW announced that we had “missed our turn” a “while back”. Each time, after a bit of scrambling, EW found a road that would get us to our next “mark” and we were off again. Continue reading
Posted Mar 8, 2017 at Harts At Sea
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So yesterday, I blithely went to the Master Stateroom where I had been storing the burgees for about 6 months. No Joy. I tore the area apart—five times—No Joy. I ultimate had a hissy fit (I can still attribute those to Hurricane Aftermath for about four more days, at which point we will have been back aboard for a month and I have to move on.) No Joy from the hissy fit either, so I proceeded to tear apart the quarter berth area, and somewhere in there the forward door to the shower … BREAK If this boat were filled with “Joy” one could actually walk in a circle from Maine Salon to Quarter Berth to Shower, to Aft Head, to Master State Room, to Galley, and to Main Salon. That has NEVER happened on La Luna. It would bring me great “Joy”. Continue reading
Posted Nov 14, 2016 at Harts At Sea
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EW has been a fixing machine since we moved back aboard. He fixed the water muffler. He fixed the windlass. He fixed the propane. He re-installed the wind generator. He was a machine! I cleaned. You could even say I performed cleaning nearly on par with “Skewer Cleaning”. (Depending upon how one quantifies “nearly”.) My mom came from a long line of people who like to clean. (Shudders.) A number of my cousins have that gene, and some of my cousins received my portion of that gene as well. These are the cousins who keep a package of wooden skewers in their cleaning kit so that they can poke and prod every last piece of dust and dirt from whatever it is they are cleaning. I don’t have a cleaning kit, and if I did it wouldn’t have skewers. Continue reading
Posted Nov 7, 2016 at Harts At Sea
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Those of you who use Facebook know that we are back in the water and living aboard and very, very thankful. We also are grateful to the many who helped us, supported us, hugged us, housed us, fed us, loved us, made us smile, and provided excellent advice. There are two parts in getting a relatively undamaged boat back into the water, 1. Paying for it; 2. Doing the Heavy Lifting. Continue reading
Posted Oct 26, 2016 at Harts At Sea
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Every day something appears in the news, on Facebook, or on Twitter that makes at least one person say, “I hate people.” I feel sorry for that person. Sure, certain persons can go to H.E. Double Hockey Sticks but it has been my experience that people are wonderful. Now, you could attribute this belief to EW’s and my outlook on life: We like people, therefore they are wonderful. You may be right. Continue reading
Posted Oct 16, 2016 at Harts At Sea