Log 3: Shipyard Showdown

Sweat. Smiling. Money. Cursing. Learning. Time? More money. Repeat. As our first log says, we’re at the start of our journey, but not necessarily the beginning.

After we made the leap, leaving our jobs to focus on our sailing trip; time warped. Along with a handful of other “big life stuff” we’ll get into later, refitting Belafonte in the shipyard soaked up close to 3 months of that time.

In that time, we painted nearly every inch of Belafonte (topside, bottom side, and ablative paint), worked on the plumbing and added new fixtures in the “head” (what a boat’s restroom is called, for those not familiar), worked with the awesome people at Oasis Shipyard to fabricate and put in new motor mounts for our engine, redesigned the “galley” (basically a boat’s living room), serviced our Aires Windvane (more about that later), and I’m sure I’m missing several smaller things.

We have to give a shout out to Oasis Shipyard and Marina, and Top Water Marine. They were wonderful to work with; professional, pleasant, and super hard workers! Without their creative help, we wouldn’t have our motor on mounts at all. It’s a big deal and we literally couldn’t have done it without them.

Reflecting back on our time in the Shipyard, it was an important part of the journey too. Although we have been living full time on Belafonte for about 6 months now and have sailed it up and down the coast of Florida, we still learned even more about Belafonte, and feel all the more comfortable for the times ahead. Admittedly, I even became a bit more comfortable with heights! When you have to climb up and down a ladder every time you go through your home’s “front door” or even use the bathroom (which was always outstandingly clean at Oasis by the way) you start to get use to it. Belafonte felt more like a treehouse than a boat while “on the hard” (aka land, as boaters call it). Considering it’s a tiring time, we made the most of it.

Making it south near Boca Raton, we’ve met up with dear friends also headed out on a sailing adventure. Now, crossing over the Gulf Stream is in our sights. Although there is still some work needing to be done on the boat, like the last post said, it’s been nice to take our time alongside friends. As we polish our provisions, make last adjustments, and finish last duties, I can’t help but dream of the work’s payoff.

~ Day 18