One Month Aboard

We were told on multiple occasions that living in the dry (a boatyard) is worse than camping. The major downside is that you have no running water or plumbing, so you’re basically left with a bucket… I’ll let you figure out the rest. Thankfully the boatyard where we bought our boat had very nice bathrooms with showers available for us to use. It was like being in college or summer camp all over again! We were able to convince the yard workers to finish our projects in a speedy manner, despite how busy they were preparing for spring and summer. In the end, we only spent a few weeks in the dry and we were so excited and busy with projects we didn’t even realize the time had gone by before it was splash day! And even then, the yard was so kind to let us stay at their dock for a week to make sure all our systems were in order before we set sail. I posted daily vlogs on all our socials during that time since we had so much going on, so you should definitely go check those out if you’re curious what projects we did. 

Of course, a major system would break the day before we were supposed to leave the dock and we would be forced to stay in Deltaville, VA for longer than we anticipated. And of course, it would be the plumbing system. So even after we had rushed to get in the water as fast as possible so we could have running water, we were still stuck without plumbing for another four days (two of which were spent at anchor). But every time we saw our boat, we were filled with the most immense joy and disbelief that we actually owned our very own sailboat. It almost didn’t matter what was broken. That’s boat life.

We had discovered that our plumbing system was potentially fully original to the boat from 1996. The hoses had so much calcification (hard buildup) the diameter was less than half of what it should have been and a few valves were completely blocked. I’ll spare you any other disgusting details, but essentially the entire system had to be replaced, including a new macerator pump and manual flush pump. Sailors pride themselves in how they manage to do all the work on their own boats to save money and prepare themselves for situations where they may not have access to a professional. Plumbing is certainly not the kind of system you want to be learning on, it’s something you want an experienced individual to finish as quickly as possible with the least amount of messy trial and error. But it’s the first system that broke on us, so it’s where we had to begin. Theo did most of the work on this one being that he is such a gentleman, so I was just on standby with 99.9% alcohol. He really did such a fantastic job remaining calm and patient the entire time. I cannot stress enough how gross of a job that was. Having a working toilet onboard is really such a luxury and something we definitely won’t be taking for granted anytime soon.

So just when we thought we were wrapping things up here in Deltaville, tragedy struck again. This time, a few parts in our outboard seemingly disintegrated in front of us. It’s an older model, so sourcing the parts required us to wait another week here to get it fixed. And as if that wasn’t bad timing enough, the day the outboard parts were delivered one of our Garmin chartplotters completely died. Total black screen. Even tech support was dumbfounded at how unresponsive the plotter was after multiple attempts to get it going. So our only option was to send the plotter in for repair which could take anywhere from 1-2 weeks after they receive it. Wow. Another week or even longer in Deltaville and the nearby towns. And we aren’t even certain if the plotter can actually be fixed at this point, so we may just be waiting around for even worse news.

It was looking less and less likely that we would make it to the Bahamas before hurricane season. Honestly, none of this would have bothered us much if the weather in Virginia was a lot friendly. Somehow it's almost May but the temperatures are still getting as low as 45F overnight… and being on the water the cold breeze and lack of insulation on our boat essentially makes it feel like freezing. We are perishing. Every three days it feels like the sun comes out from behind the clouds and we are given a rush of dopamine and a sliver of hope. Only to realize the temperatures are dropping again for another several cloudy days. We’ve been living in the Caribbean for the past five years, so we are acclimated to a steady 86F with a humidity of 80-90% and direct, full sunshine. You could find us in sweatshirts and sweatpants at 80F on the beach during the day, no exaggeration. 

When we packed up our belongings to move aboard, we were very strict about what we brought with us. Sailboats have VERY limited space as is, and the priority goes towards tools, spare parts and food. So being that we pictured ourselves staying in the tropics for years to come, we basically only packed bikinis and board shorts. Big mistake. The two pairs of pants we each brought have been worn so many times in a row without being washed it’s getting unsanitary. Same goes for our few hoodies and long sleeves. The worst part is, even if we wanted to have my parents ship us some more of our ‘winter’ clothes from storage, or just order new stuff online, we know that ultimately it’s going to take up unnecessary space on the boat and will be thrown out. We’ve just been praying the weather will get nicer soon…

It’s been one month since moving aboard Lost Years and we’ve already experienced the highs and lows that cruisers have warned us about. We regret nothing, except maybe we should have delayed moving aboard closer to summertime? That would have meant completely giving up on the Bahamas for this season and we weren’t ready to do that at the time. We are still clueless as to where we should go instead, but since we are now delayed an unknown amount of time I guess that decision has been pushed back again. On the bright side, it means we can order more things off our wishlist! For anyone that might want to contribute to our crazy dream in even the slightest way, we do have an Amazon wishlist ranging from life saving equipment to small kitchen necessities. Anything at this point helps us immensely, so if you see something you want to gift us as a house-warming or maybe an early wedding present just pop us an email at hello@sailinglostyears.com so we can organize the right shipping address and timeline for delivery. A free way that you can support us is by following us on our socials @sailinglostyears and engaging with our posts (likes, comments, reshares) so we can build a following and potentially work with brands in the future as a source of income.

By the time the next Caribbean cruising season begins, Lost Years will be absolutely kitted out and we will be ready to trial real off-grid living in the Bahamas.

— Jordan Farrow