Grenada Boat Yard Blues

When we made plans to head back to the states for a family visit, we decided to haul Borealis and store her on the hard rather than leave her unattended in the water. Since it was nearly a year since Borealis was out of the water, it also gave us an opportunity to inspect the boat's bottom and do some necessary maintenance.

Getting it all done: 10 pre-cruising projects we tackled

So what have we been doing for the past six weeks since we quit our jobs and moved aboard Borealis? Well, lots, since it takes plenty of preparation to get ourselves and the boat ready for offshore sailing and to leave the country for a year or more.

Since becoming officially unemployed in late-August, we haven't had a lot of time to really relax and enjoy our new liveaboard or cruising lifestyle, because it takes a surprising amount of work to sell nearly everything you own, move aboard a boat and sail off into the sunset :)

We've done most of the work ourselves and it's kept us going from morning 'til night. So here is a look at 10 recent projects we've completed. [Read about the long list of projects we tackled since December 2017 before finally getting Borealis in the water].

Finally in the water

After months of contractor and weather delays, we finally got Borealis into the water on June 26. It was about two months after our usual April splash date and took countless hours of hard work.

Boat bottom blues

When we bought Borealis in early winter we knew her chipped, cracked and loose bottom paint was going to take time and money to fix before we got in the water in spring...we just didn't know how frustratingly long that process was going to be.

The good news is that after months of weather and contractor delays, we are finally close to launching. 

A never-ending boat project list

Other than being a great seaworthy boat, another main reason that Nick and I bought Borealis is that she's in very good condition and shows only slight wear for her age and despite having been cruised extensively (from Maine to South America and back).

While in the past we've spent wintertime away from our boat, that's not the case this year with a new (to us) boat, since we came away from our marine survey (like a home inspection) with a long list of to-do projects. Thankfully, we have a few years of boat ownership experience under our belts, and we both enjoy tinkering on boat projects. While some projects are larger and will be more costly (we've already gotten estimates from four contractors on different repairs or upgrades), we've been able to tackle and make headway on many other projects.


We started with some easy cleaning, and now with the weather warming here in D.C., we've started to move on to some slightly more involved projects on our list.