Two Months

Here we are at last. Finally living on board Taia. Finally with some time to start this blog.

It's been a long road. We purchased Taia (previously known as Liberty) in May 2012 in Virginia, USA. We then sailed her to a marina in Maryland and hauled her out in August 2012. She remained on the hard until July 25, 2013, when we finally got here.
Up until then, it was a really busy time for us back home in Canada. Leaving a life on land is not as simple as it may sound. There's just a lot of decisions to make. And of course, having the boat more than 1000 km away added a bit to the complexity.
We sold our house and the cars, sold or donated most of our stuff, we packed those things we wanted to keep and moved them to my in-laws's house. On top of that, there was a lot of paperwork to take care of in order to be able to go south.

We've been at the marina ever since we got here on July. We planned to stay at the marina for 2 months, easing into the new lifestyle and getting the boat ready for cruising. Living at the marina is easier compared to anchoring, although more expensive. While at the marina, you don't have to worry about electricity consumption (the boat is plugged to shore power all the time) and the marina has a some nice facilities that you can take advantage of: laundry room, a nice swimming pool that the kids love, a playground, etc.

Here's a non-exhaustive list of the projects we've been working on:

• Have the refrigeration system replaced. The old one was not energy efficient and it broke down.
• Replace leaky engine exhaust pipe.
• Fix engine muffler.
• Remove old (and smelly) holding tank and hoses. Install new ones.
• Replace shower sump pump. We realized later that this wasn't necessary; the problem with the discharge was elsewhere... doh!
• Replace head pump.
• Install a new water filtering system in the galley. Canister filter and dedicated faucet. Our boat water tastes better than the tap water we used to drink in London.
• Install new stereo. This wasn't high priority until we realized how much we missed our own music library.
• Replace old incandescent navigation lights with LED's.
• We had our main sail cover repaired and had the genoa inspected and fixed.
• Make sunbrella covers for all the hatches and the dinghy outboard.
• Bought a new dinghy. Ouch! That one hurt because it wasn't in the budget, but it was necessary.

On top of that, we also started home-school for the kids back in August. I really wanted to have the routine established before we started sailing. That is going quite well and the kids like it. We do school in the mornings and then in the afternoon we work on the boat while the kids play.

We have two last projects to finish before we start heading south in mid October. We want to install gauges for the water and diesel tanks (it's just going to make our lives easier to know much of any of those we have left without using dip sticks or guesstimations). The last must-have project is replacing the genoa sheet footblocks. That last project has been underway for a few days, and we should be able to finish it within the next couple of days.

But it wasn't all just work. We try to find a balance between work and fun, because that's why we are doing this and also to keep the kids happy. So in these last couple of months we managed to go to Texas to visit family, went to Washington, DC and Annapolis, got some visits from family and friends, visited local museums, parks and beaches. It has been fun :)

That's enough for a post, I think. Here are some pictures of us during the last couple of months.

Ernesto on top of the mast, replacing the anchor light... 17 meters high.

Camila and Matias learning how to drive the dinghy.

Visit to Washington, DC, with Ernesto's parents. US Congress at the back.

Matias inside Jefferson Memorial.

The National Mall with the Washington Monument

US Naval Academy in Annapolis

Annapolis City Dock

War of 1812 battle re-enactment.

Matias in 1812 attire.

The kids made 1812 like toys.