Sunday Summary #55 - Boat Work in Exotic Places

Sunday Summary #55 - Boat Work in Exotic Places

February 07, 2022

Sunday Summary #55

Boat Work & Exotic Places

Hey ,

Welcome to Scho & Jo’s 55th Sunday Summary. This edition of the Sunday Summary was written on a Monday aboard PIVOT in an anchorage near Islamorada, Florida.

    Last Week.

    When we first toyed with the idea of buying a boat, someone told us “buying a boat is doing boat work in exotic places.” A year later after buying a boat, we’re finally doing boat work in exotic places. Up until now, we’ve been doing boat work, but it has been far from exotic. So let us catch you up with the boat work we’ve been doing in exotic places 😉

    Monday we left No Name Harbor and proceed south/west to Boca Chita Key based off a recommendation we received from another Looper. Once we arrived, we met another boater, Tom, from a suburb of Altanta who we ended up sharing sunset fires with as we chatted and got to know him. We spent a few days there enjoying the beautiful weather on the small island, getting some work done on our laptops, and boat work...

    We keep our dinghy in the water, towing it behind PIVOT as we cruise. Since we primarily anchor out and use our dinghy twice a day to take Ollie to shore, we’ve been able to limit the amount of growth on the bottom of our dinghy. However, the two weeks our dinghy spent locked up on the dinghy dock in St. Augustine during the holidays meant we came back to it with a little beard on the bottom. We made the most of the boat work by taking the dinghy out for a short ride around some of the neighboring islands and mangroves before we beached the dinghy and scrapped off the growth continuing our theme of boat work in exotic places. Now our dinghy is looking good as new!

    This was a momentous week for us as it was the first time we took PIVOT Oceanside. We didn’t expect to take PIVOT oceanside until maybe New Jersey, but due to the big blow that came through last weekend, we wanted to be on the leeward side of the island to give us as much protection from the wind. So oceanside it was. We’re happy to report it’s not so bad, although we do prefer the protection of the inside. Our experience on the oceanside makes us respect the power and strength of our oceans even more.

    Once we arrived to our anchorage in Key Largo, we jumped in the clear water and were able to check the status of the hull. Elliot scraped the barnacles off the bottom, keel, and rudder while I (Jenn) scrapped the thin layer of algae off the sides. While Elliot was diving the boat, he was able to check our anodes (zinc pieces that encourage salt water corrosion of them instead of other, more valuable pieces of metal). Doing more boat work, you guessed it... in exotic places.

    In taking Ollie to shore, our outboard motor propeller got caught on some fishing line. We rowed back to shore and continued doing boat work in exotic places by disassembling the propeller so we could remove the fishing line. Our dinghy is back and working.

    We prepared for guests as our friends, Alicia and Nate from

    , join us for some time in the Florida Keys. We met them in Islamorada and celebrate Nate’s birthday aboard PIVOT. We have been enjoying some low key work days while balancing some dinghy rides, happy hours at the Lorelei Restaurant, and games in the evenings. After a few days adjusting to the motion of the boat and the live aboard lifestyle on PIVOT, we took them on a short cruise to get water and prep for our weekend guests.

    Two more guests joined us last weekend for a grand total of 6 people and 1 dog aboard PIVOT. Elliot's younger sister, Nicole, and her boyfriend, Joey, joined us for a weekend of fun in the Florida Keys where we went oceanside out to Alligator Reef and were rocking and rolling with the swell of the ocean as we snorkeled around the reef. Later that afternoon we made our way back to the gulf side and got a free mooring ball at Lignumvitae Key Botanical State Park, grilled out a delicious dinner, and played some new games in the evening. It was a lot of fun in the sun and we thoroughly enjoyed the company of friends and family on board with some great weather. This time enjoying the exotic places and all they have to offer!

    The following day we made our way back to our anchorage in Islamorada and took out the paddle boards for both paddle boarding and lounging as we enjoyed every minute of our Sunday Funday. Alicia and I (Jenn) even went for some sunset dips in the water - taking full advantage of 1) having a boat, 2) being in the Florida Keys, and 3) having friends to share it with.

    “Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don't wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future.”-Earl Nightingale

    This Week.

    The boat work, exotic places, and computer work continue this week. We'll be making our way further south to Marathon this week as we explore more of the beautiful Florida Keys. One of our goals this week is to jump in the water every day as we have a tendency to be a bit workaholics. We're excited to get all caught up on work before starting the Great Loop in just a few short weeks!

    Monthly Stats.

    One of the small projects we did on our way southbound was install our Nebo Link, which is a small device that tracks our cruise and allows us to connect with other Loopers. Going north we used the free Nebo app on our phone, but now that we have installed the device, it automatically turns on and records our boating activity as soon as we start our engine. Best of all, Nebo sends us an email at the end of every cruise as well as some monthly statistics of our travels. Here is a look back on January!

    Nights at a marina dock: 1Nights on a mooring ball: 8Nights on a free dock: 3Nights at anchor: 19

     Videos. 

    Incase you missed it, here are all the vlogs we’ve released since our last Sunday Summary:

    ​Cruising Over 1000 miles Southbound on the ICW (getting to our Great Loop start)

    ​ICW Sailing Experts from Maine to Florida on a Tartan 37 | Great Loop Stories

    Our Full Time Vlogging Gear for 2022 (Canon, DJI, GoPro)

     Blogs. 

    If you want to hear more behind the scenes of some of our shenanigans, we write blog posts that accompany each of our YouTube videos. Here are the blogs we've published since our last Sunday Summary:

     Great Loop Recommendations. 

    We are looking for recommendations for destinations and spots along our Great Loop to go see, visit, and enjoy. It's been a real challenge for us to keep track and stay organized with the many wonderful recommendations we've received thus far. So we've created a Google Form to help us stay organized.

     Gratitudes. 

    We’re so happy to have both friends and family visiting us as we travel on the Loop and live on a boat. We don’t know exactly what lies after the Great Loop, although we have many dreams and ideas, we love having friends and family aboard to enjoy this chapter of our lives with us now. Although having 6 people on our boat meant there was a lot of shuffling, it is moments like these that we’ll remember forever and help keep us grounded when things get tough. The past weekend was some of our most fun boating memories to date and we are so grateful to have shared these memories with our friends and family. 

    Peace and love,Jenn + Elliot