Sitting here tonight, I am reminded of why I love our lifestyle. We are currently about 20 miles offshore with a gentle swell to the ocean, a gorgeous sunset to the west and an almost full moon to the east. It is peaceful. Gives you time for introspection. But it isn’t always this way…. Just four days ago I was questioning why I ever decided to go to sea.
Living on a boat is much harder than living on land. Simple jobs become more complicated. Getting groceries is a half-day affair of taking the dingy to shore, getting to the supermarket, and getting everything back to the boat instead of a 15-minute stop on the way home from work. Laundry is mostly done by hand in the galley sink with an occasional trip to the laundromat to wash towels and bedding. These things I don’t mind so much. It’s the unexpected things that we struggle to figure out or don’t have answers for that become stressful.
I dropped my darn cell phone overboard (again!!!!) over a week ago. Thankfully I had insurance on it but that began a long, difficult process of getting it replaced with an online application, multiple emails and phone calls. Just setting up my laptop at anchor is a 10-minute process! Then, the only way to get a replacement is to have them mail you the phone…big problem when you are at anchor and don’t have a mailbox handy. If all goes as planned, I should have a phone waiting for me in Brunswick when we arrive 3 days from now.
To add to our stress, something seems to be always breaking on the boat. The GFI outlet in the galley broke, knocking out all the AC outlets on the starboard side. The water pump keeps running. After an extensive search for leaks we finally replaced the pump itself. We have a small leak in the hot water heater that needs replacing when we get to Georgia. The inverter trips about half the time we run the generator requiring the entire seating to be removed to reset it. That is also on our list for replacing when we get to Brunswick.
When we left Cape Lookout, the engine started acting up. We went into Beaufort, NC to a dock but were unable to find the problem. We had a mechanic come out but were unable to replicate the issue that occurred frequently on the way in. He said our engine is running perfectly…how frustrating!
As a result, Nick wanted to go down the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) to Wrightsville Beach, NC in case we had more issues. I hate the ICW. The bridges are short, so we stress about getting under them. Our antenna often goes tick-tick-tick on the bottom of the bridge as we pass. One big wake from a motor boat will make our mast hit the bridge. Where inlets to the ocean connect to the ICW, shoaling occurs taking the 10-12-foot depths of the channel down to 6 feet or less. We slow down to a crawl and feel our way for deeper water.
It took us two days to get down to Wrightsville Beach and another six hours this morning to get out to sea. With all these issues pressing on me, I felt nauseated with my stomach tied in knots the entire trip. It wasn’t until early this afternoon when we entered the Cape Fear River with 40-foot depths and no more bridges that I finally felt myself start to unwind.
None of our issues are insurmountable. In fact, taken one at a time it would have been just another typical day on the boat. But when so many things go wrong at once, it gets overwhelming. Compounding that stress was my loss of connection to the outside world. I think we take for granted our instant connection to friends and family. That contact through emails, Facebook, texts and phone calls are truly what keeps me sane when life gets difficult. Losing my phone cut me off from all social connection and when we are travelling, even Nick and I don’t have long conversations because we are trying to get sleep on our off-shift. I am truly missing my friends’ reality checks and moral support. I worry about my mom when I am out of contact with her and miss having her wise advice. Funny how much we come to depend on a stupid phone! I’m looking forward to feeling connected again to my circle of peeps, visiting with friends back in Brunswick and hopefully getting all our boat problems resolved before we continue south.
