A Week Aboard S/V Sabado: 1/8/2023 – 1/15/2023

Hello hello! Have you seen our latest YouTube video?

Last Sunday, we said our goodbyes and dropped my parents off at the airport. Norman Family- you are welcome aboard Sabado anytime! ❤️ We returned to the marina and swung by our friend’s boat to say hi. We ended up tying our dinghy to their stern and riding along while they moved their boat from the dock to our anchorage. I hadn’t slept well in days, so I showered and went back to bed the second we got home. I woke up in time to make me and Ray some dinner, watch an episode of our favorite show, then head back to bed.

Monday morning, I woke up feeling like myself again. We headed to shore and saw one of the coolest yachts I’ve seen yet sitting on the fuel dock. 

I did a quick Google search and discovered it’s currently owned by Mark Getty (the Getty Images guy), but it served as a patrol gunboat for the US Navy during World War 2! You can read more about it here if you’re curious. 

We dropped off our laundry at the local laundromat, picked up a few things from Budget Marine, reprovisioned, and checked our mail. Once we made it back to Sabado, I started the deep clean she so desperately needed after 2 weeks of fun in the sun with our family aboard.

The next day Ray scrubbed the teak and organized the garage (what we call the port forward cabin that we converted into storage for tools and spare parts). We went to shore that afternoon to pick up our laundry and stopped by the store for cocktail-ing supplies. Ray had gotten some tall glass bottles in the mail and wanted to use them to store batched cocktails. For his first batch, he made an old-fashioned! This bottle holds 10… which is more like 5 for us.

Wednesday morning, we woke up to a ridiculous swell in the anchorage. It felt like we were underway! We quickly got sick of it and decided to pull up the anchor. We motored around the island, hoping to find a spot in front of Honeymoon Beach, but it was too crowded when we got there, so we headed toward our second choice: Brewers Bay, right by the airport. Maybe I have a preconceived notion, but “right by the airport” seems like it would be the least peaceful spot on the island… Boy, was I wrong! Not only was it flat calm, but the water was crystal clear, and the view was amazing! 

I blew up my waterbed and jumped right in. Ray brought me a cocktail, and I stayed in the water the rest of the afternoon. ❤️

That night we decided to grill up some steaks, open a bottle of wine that my parents had left for us, and watch the sunset while dancing around to early 2000s hits.

The next day I heard a sound off our stern while cleaning up after breakfast. I went out to take a look and was greeted by two turtles swimming right alongside our boat! I called Ray over, and we both stood and watched them until they dove back down. 

Ray wasn’t feeling well, so I spent the rest of the morning cleaning and studying while he rested. That afternoon I took my final exam to upgrade my Captain’s License to Master (I passed!) and worked on our YouTube video while several rainstorms passed overhead. 

Later, a monohull dropped its anchor a bit too close to us. We looked in the binoculars and saw that their bow had taken quite a beating (they’d clearly been in collisions before), and their “Captain” was shotgunning a beer. So, we decided to move to the other end of the anchorage. The wind and rain picked up again shortly after that, and we were thankful we had moved because that monohull was already dragging. 

The following day our anchor chain was making a strange noise. The spot we had moved to was pretty rocky, but we weren’t dragging anchor, so we assumed a portion of the chain had gotten caught around a rock. Ray pulled up and re-released about 20ft of chain, which did the trick. 

We sipped our coffee and discussed our plan for the next few days. There was a weather window to get to the BVI that we had our eye on, and we needed to get some stuff done before leaving St. Thomas. So, we moved to an anchorage closer to town. We had every intention of tackling a chunk of our to-do list that day, but Ray had made a batch of martinis that we just had to sample…

Saturday, we hit the ground running. We got up, had breakfast, published our video, did a little workout, then headed to shore. Our first stop was the dumpster- we finally gave up on our inflatable paddle board and threw it in the trash. This was our third one. The first one sprung a leak that we could never track down to repair, the second literally exploded- bursting at the seams while lying in our cockpit- and now the third one had a leak that we were just too annoyed to track down at this point. We bought all 3 on sale at a boat show, and we have a feeling they had been “refurbished.” Anyway, if you have a rigid paddle board brand that you love, let us know!

Our second stop was to fill up one of our propane tanks. We have two onboard, but I prefer to keep them both filled after one holiday weekend in Maine where everything was closed, we were freezing and propane-less… We stopped to put gas in the car our friends graciously let us borrow, then drove back out to Budget Marine. We picked up some new line to replace what we currently have on our dinghy davit system, then drove over to Home Depot to pick up some parts for a friend. We swung by the grocery store on the way home to stock up for our upcoming trip and spent the rest of the day putting things away and doing some computer work. 

We originally planned to leave St. Thomas today, but you know how we are with plans… Maybe tomorrow!

I hope you had a great week! ❤️