San Juan Island Cruising
About six weeks ago, we finally moved back aboard Limerick. We stayed in a house near the boatyard for most of the winter months, while Mike made some major upgrades to Limerick. New fuel tanks, all new electrical, upgraded heating, plumbing, and lots of little things here and there. We also had all of the vinyl windows in the flybridge enclosure replaced, and I [...]
Great Lakes and Boat Projects
Shortly after posting the last post we found out that we would be heading to Northern Michigan for the summer for work. Having never seen the Great Lakes we were excited to go and left Limerick's many projects unfinished. We spent most of the nearly four months there on a small landmass in the middle of Lake Michigan - Beaver Island. I had heard [...]
Diesel Tank Replacement
When we returned to the boat in March, after six months of work in Key West, we were a little overwhelmed with needing to start the diesel fuel tank replacement project. So we procrastinated for a few days and took a trip to the San Juans via ferry to stay at our favorite resort. We are keeping the boat under shrink-wrap for now because [...]
From Washington to Florida and Back Again
After delivering a Lagoon 45 from the Exumas in the Bahamas to Florida last Spring, we spent a couple of months cruising up to Desolation Sound in British Columbia (check out our favorite cruising guides for that area). Before we knew it we were once again putting Limerick on the hard and headed back to Florida - this time for our jobs in seafloor [...]
Financing our Wandering Lifestyle
How do we afford our wandering lifestyle? The short answer is that we work for it, very hard at times, so that we are able to go cruising for months at a time. We have an entire section on this website dedicated to our financial philosophy. We share our expenses and thoughts on how we went from full-time corporate jobs to this wandering lifestyle. [...]
Cruising the Bahamas
Are you searching for a delivery captain? We are always looking for fun deliveries that are more about bringing the boat safely to its destination than being in a rush. Check out our site PacificCaptains.com for more. For the past month we cruised on this gorgeous 45' catamaran to bring it back to Florida from George Town in the Exumas, Bahamas. Cruising the Bahamas [...]
San Diego Birthday – Sailing and Kayaking
I love birthdays because they are a great excuse to do something fun. And of course there is cake and that is how we started the day: 7am. Cupcakes. We usually don't do presents, but we've been wanting a manual coffee grinder for the boat, so that was Mike's present.Later in the day we headed down to San Diego Bay and rented a 26' sailboat. [...]
Making the Bed on a Boat – Made Easy
Ever try to make a boat bunk or RV bed to which you only have access from one side? It's not easy! Add to that a mattress which is of non-standard dimensions and it makes for quite a challenging and frustrating exercise. When we bought Limerick all of our cushions were covered in a palm tree fabric that we felt was just a little too [...]
Cruising BC’s Desolation Sound
After our shakedown cruise in June, followed by another haul-out to fix a few more items, we were finally ready to start heading north. Or so we thought... While the boat was being lowered into the water we received a call offering work on the Columbia River for a few weeks. The next day, we hauled back out and put Limerick back into storage. [...]
Shakedown Cruise to the San Juan Islands
After three months of working on the boat we took her out for a week-long shakedown cruise. We have replaced nearly every thru-hull, installed new seacocks, revamped how the heads flush, changed out a lot of hoses, refurbished the anchor windlass, installed a new waterpump (not just an impeller) on the main engine, and generally improved and replaced a lot of systems. We wanted [...]
Shrink Wrap Finally Gets Removed
Nine months ago, we had our boat shrink-wrapped for winter. Two months ago, we drove back to Washington after spending most of the winter in San Diego. We've been working on the boat non-stop since then. Yesterday we finally emerged from our cocoon. We have a few more projects we could not get to with the cover on before we can finally get back [...]
Galley Organization – Drawers
When I look at photos of other people's boats, I always wonder what is inside all of their cabinets and closets. How do they store and organize their stuff in a small space? I'm starting small and showing you the contents of our galley drawers. We have a total of four drawers in the galley: Two small utensil drawers and two large storage drawers. [...]
Storage Trailer or How to Live Like a Nomad
In 2011, when we quit our 9-5 jobs to buy a sailboat and go cruising, we debated on what we really wanted to keep from our stationary life. I had a few bigger things that I could not part with, and since my parents had just sold off all of their possessions to go cruising themselves, we didn't have anywhere to put our extra stuff. (Mike's parents didn't [...]
On the Road Again
After five months in and around San Diego we are on our way back to the boat in Washington. We wanted to drive along the coast on Highway One but it's closed due to recent storms. Interstate 5 through California is the most boring drive - ever, so we decided to go east of the Sierras. March is the perfect time to visit Death Valley as [...]
Rose Valley Falls
We have had a lot of rain here in Southern California, so last weekend we headed up to Rose Valley Falls in Ventura County to see if it was flowing yet. It is amazing to see how green everything is getting after the long drought. We are back in San Diego after spending two months in Ventura helping my dad produce the newest episode of Travel Secrets. [...]
2016 in Review
I haven't done one of these reviews since 2012 -- the first year we cruised on Camille. We bought Limerick Christmas 2015 and the first thing we did was to take a little shakedown cruise for the new year. A trip to the San Juan Islands was a great way to unwind after the whirlwind of buying a boat and get to know our new home.In February we got [...]
Another Fun and Easy Holiday Gift Idea
What's better than a homemade gift? Are you struggling to find creative gift ideas? Read on and learn how easy it can be. Being able to go to the beach to collect rocks for the home-made gift in -- December! We collected about half a 5-gallon bucket full of small beach rocks to make five of these early spring blooms. Fill a shallow vase 1/4 [...]
Easy (and tasty) Home-Made Holiday Gifts
When making home-made holiday gifts on a boat I have limited options since I don't have much space to spread out. I also have to be able to complete them in a day so we can change our "craft area" back into usable space. Making the cookie jars doesn't require a lot of space or time, so they are perfect for an on-board project. These would work [...]
That’s a Wrap!
In our opinion, the Pacific Northwest is one of the world's most beautiful cruising grounds, but the cruising season can be rather short - some say it's only two months: July and August. Of course, when cruising on a trawler with a heater, this window can be much longer. This year our season was cut down to just two months though, not counting a couple [...]
The Broughton Archipelago and Cruising Guides
The Broughton Archipelago is located east of Vancouver Island and made up of hundreds of islets and a few big islands. It is the farthest north we are able to travel this summer as work is calling... Thoughts on Cruising Guides We have a collection of over ten cruising guides just for our area on board. Most of them haven't been updated in years and [...]
