Hey all! I know it’s been a little while without an update; our lives have been crazy the past few weeks. I wanted to give you all an update of the major things going on and why we have been gone.
About 2 weeks ago we were in Connecticut when we noticed that our radar wasn’t acting quite right. It was making a strange sound when in use and it was also malfunctioning-- turning off on its own. We know we need it to get all the way North but decided to put it off until our next stop. So, we pulled off the dock in Bridgeport to head North with our broken radar. On our voyage, we got a phone call that my grandfather wasn’t doing well, so we turned right around and went back to our marina in Bridgeport since it was well-protected and safe. We knew we would be gone for about 2 weeks so making sure Calypso was secure was extremely important. Since we were driving to Florida and would be gone for a little while anyway, we decided to also ship the radar out on our drive. The unnerving thing about shipping the radar out is that we don’t know exactly when or if we will get it back, but this was definitely the best time to get it done!
My Grandfather passed, we took the long drive to Florida and attended my grandfather's funeral, spent some time with family and said our goodbyes. It was an emotional time but so good to spend that time with loved ones. We made the long drive back to CT and got back on the boat this past week. During all that time we still haven't heard back about our radar. They haven't been in contact with us at all so we don't know if they can fix it or if we need to replace it. We made an executive decision to still pull off the dock in 2 days, but not go too far just yet. We will hang out in the Long Island Sound area because any further north than that, the fog is intense and gets worse as you go up the northeast. When it's foggy you can't visibly see what's going on, so your radar will be your lifeline as you go North. Sailing the Northeast of the US comes with big risk for boats-- between all of the rocks and all of the fog, radar is imperative. We definitely will not go further north without it.
So, we will hang out at different anchorages here until we get word on what's going on with our radar. We hear that there is a lot to do and see there so we are excited! It would be wonderful if they could fix it, but if they can't, we will have to buy a new one and Jeremiah will install it. I will definitely be doing a follow up post of what happens with the radar.
Another thing I need to do is go provisioning... AGAIN! I already did provisioning prior to us heading north the first time, but when we got the phone call I decided to fill up our yeti cooler with all of the food and bring it with us on the trip to Florida. I really didn’t want to waste all of that food, so we ate out of our yeti cooler on our road trip, haha! Now that we're back I did end up having to throw away some stuff like milk, yogurt, etc that I couldn’t fit in the cooler. So, I will be provisioning again this week.
The last thing we need to do is replace the boat zincs. These little metal half circles protect the metal parts of your boat from corrosion, which occurs when any different metals are electrically connected in water. Basically these little things protect your propeller when there's electrical current. Rather than eating your props, it eats through the zincs first. These are great because instead of having to spend thousands of dollars on replacing the props, you just need to make sure that the zincs are replaced! This is extremely common in boat maintenance. In a Marina, you will need to replace them more often because there's more electrical current (more boats and more electricity to power the docks and whatnot). If you’re out on anchor away from other boats, you likely never have to change it.
So, that's where we are. We will be dealing with these issues and then get on the water again to head to Long Island Sound. I’ll be writing again soon!