October 2015 - Sea Biscuit Sailing

Finding Momentum

Oct 31, 2015 | Projects, Transitioning from land to sea | 0

As the days roll along here in Deltaville, we’re finally in the groove with our projects and feeing the momentum towards relaunching. The necessary parts started arriving a few days back, and we can’t move quickly enough to get everything replaced, set up, and working. Today we ripped the tape off to reveal our brand new navy boot stripe and WOW – huge difference. Once we paint the bottom and polish the hull, I’ll do a full reveal. She is almost unrecognizable! Having friends nearby has kept morale high. Brittanny and Kjell, old friends from Northern Spy in Manhattan where I was...

Life on the Hard

Oct 26, 2015 | Projects, The Glamorous Yacht Life, Virginia | 3

“We’ll wrap up the work in a week, tops”, Brian’s words, as we watched our boat be hauled out from the water and placed atop supports in the Deltaville Boatyard. Tucked in with a hundred other vessels, Nightingale Tune and crew has entered boat purgatory. Six days into our stay, we’ve discovered that just setting projects in motion takes much longer than you’d think. We’ve accomplished three things so far: spending money on tools and materials to do projects, cleaning sludge out of our suddenly stinky bilge, and sanding off the red boot stripe that circles our boat just...

Alternator Plans

Oct 20, 2015 | Projects, Uncategorized, Virginia | 0

Three nights ago, as we sat at anchor in San Domingo Creek shouting over the roar of the engine (our regular battery charging routine), Brian looked down at the instrument gauges and noticed that both the alternator (converts engine-generated power into battery power) and the tachometer (displays RPMs on the propeller) readings were at 0. For over an hour, we’d been running the motor, generating nothing but diesel fumes. The battery gauge confirmed it – voltage was low. We looked at each other and made the this is bad face. No electricity means no starter – not ideal when you’re 30...

Painfully Adorable St. Michaels, MD

Oct 16, 2015 | Uncategorized | 3

We’ve been running our engine several hours per day in order to charge the ancient, decrepit batteries that power our boat’s systems, lights, and portable electronics. This routine of horrible noise and vibration has been the blight on an otherwise fantastic first week out, and we’re looking forward to our arrival in Deltaville, VA, where we’ll be installing new batteries and enough solar panels to cover all of our needs. With that mission pressing us onward, we said goodbye to new friends in Weems Creek yesterday and sailed over to St. Michaels, 36 miles across the bay. Once we’d...

The Life Nomadic

Oct 14, 2015 | Boat life, Projects | 6

Shortly after our arrival in Weems Creek, the perfect engine for our dinghy materialized on Craigslist, and arrangements were made to meet the seller at his house back in town, half an hour away. The routine hunt for needs in strange ports is old hat for seasoned cruisers, but being our first time, we braced ourselves for the predictable curve balls that boat life tends to throw one’s way. By the time we’d rowed to the dinghy landing we were already running late, so we Ubered the rest of the way. Morgan, the man selling the outboard, walked us through...