Sunday Summary #56

Protected Anchorages

Hey ,

Welcome to Scho & Jo’s 56th Sunday Summary. This edition of the Sunday Summary was written on a Monday aboard PIVOT who is safely anchored in Curry Hammock State Park, Florida.

Last Week.

We have been really enjoying having our guests, Nate and Alicia from The Passport Couple, aboard PIVOT with us to enjoy boat life over the past two weeks. [SPOILER: they will be in our video coming out tomorrow at 10:00 am]. A little background on our friends... we met this full-time travel couple while we were in lockdown in India for 5 months and they were stuck in Cambodia for 7 months. We initially began getting to know them on zoom calls every few weeks until we finally met in person for a trip to the North Carolina mountains to celebrate the 2021 New Year. Meeting this couple in person solidified our friendship even more and we began accountability meetings twice a week to help keep each of us accountable to our entrepreneurial, business, and personal goals for the week. They have been an incredible support system and reliable friends who understand what we do as YouTubers, bloggers, and full-time travelers as they do the same. Having them on board PIVOT has been such a fun experience. We have been all on our computers during the day and then enjoying sundowners on the fly bridge, followed by dinner and games. It’s been really nice to have them on board because it helps get us off our laptops and enjoying boat life and life in general. 

We spent the earlier part of last week enjoying our time in Islamorada by having work days in the morning and enjoying some happy hours at Lorelei’s Restaurant and Bar, only a short dinghy ride away from our anchorage. We originally planned to leave on Wednesday to continue heading south to Marathon, Florida, but as things end up taking longer on a boat due to the nature of the life style, we weren’t ready to leave until much later in the day. At that point, we were hit with 14 knots (16 mph / 26 kph) winds and being on the windward side of the bay, those 14 knot winds also brought some decent swell (rolling and waves of the ocean, which translates to a rocky Pivot) and whitecaps (wave-breaking, which occurs in deeper water when the wave height becomes too large compared to the wavelength) which made for a rocky few days aboard PIVOT. This weather lasted for about 2 days, until about Thursday late afternoon.

After the weather passed, it was time for us to refill our water and head to a marina for a night. Having 6 people and 1 dog on PIVOT for a weekend, and 4 people on board the remainder of our time, it’s no surprise that we ran out of water sooner than what we usually do. So we pulled up our anchor and made our way south to our next destination of Marathon, Florida. We pulled into the very busy and crowed Boot Key Harbor, filled up on water, enjoyed some overdue showers, and found a very tight spot amongst the many other anchored boats for a night.

After spending a night in Boot Key Harbor, we were on the look out for another anchorage, oceanside, that would give us the needed protection from some predicted heavy winds this week. So we pulled up our anchor and made our way to Curry Hammock State Park and felt much more comfortable to ride out the next few days of intense winds. Before the winds started, Elliot and I took out the paddle boards and explored some mangroves with another set of Loopers (people who are also doing the Great Loop). Last night we cooked up some appetizers while making our salon into our “movie theatre” and watched the Super Bowl.

This Week.

We’ll be attending the Current Awards, which is an event and awards ceremony honoring some of the best influencers in the boating and marine industry. This is something we’ve never been to before and are really excited to meet some other people in the boating space!This week we have several days of predicted windy weather of 24 knots with gusts (27mph/44kph) coming from the north and slowly shifting to the east. Thanks to our awesome spot in this anchorage, we should be protected from mangroves on 3/4 sides and safe from really intense swell and winds, giving us an awesome place to hide out and get more computer work done.

“If you want to see the sunshine,you have to weather the storm.”-Frank Lane

 Videos. 

Incase you missed it, here are all the vlogs we’ve released since our last Sunday Summary:A big thank you to everyone who submitted their questions! We really appreciated it. 

Q&A about our Boating Experiences, Relationship, finding Work Life Balance, and the Great Loop

If you haven’t already, we would love for you to share our videos with your friends and family to spread the love. It's a FREE way to show us support that goes a very long way!

 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:

• Crossing the Chesapeake Bay in November

• Leaving the Chesapeake Bay for a Challenging Entrance into Norfolk, Virginia

• Leaving Norfolk and Running Aground Before the Deep Creek Lock

 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. 

As we’ve cruised around the Florida Keys, we’ve realized how few and far between protected anchorages are as much of the land is developed. When we find a protected anchorage and an anchorage surrounded by mangroves, it brings us immense joy as it’s like a little slice of heaven. It’s a playground and a safe haven all at once. We’re grateful to have these protected waterways while we wait out some strong winds this week.

Peace and love,Jenn + Elliot