Ep. 2: Preparing for Passage
Preparing our 47’ Catalina sailboat to sail from Texas to St. Thomas during a pandemic.
Hi Yall!
Welcome to Episode 2! What a crazy time this was. I just moved from downtown Houston apartment into a new tiny space on my parents 47’ sailboat. If you missed any of this, click here for Episode 1!
In the episode, we start off at the Seabrook Shipyard where S/V Verano was “on the hard” as the boating community called it. After a crane removed the mast, a different kind of crane lifted her out of the water and put her up on stilts so we could accomplish quite a chore list which included needed access to the bottom of the boat. We added underwater lights, bow thrusters, thru hull for the water maker and generator and included in the video was a secondary haul out for an emergency thru hull for the depth sounder. Over a year ago, I created a logo for Verano and painted it on her keel, but this go-round she needed yet another bottom job-which covered up my painting. Since there was very little happening and I had all the time in the world, I repainted her name on the keel and also added a turtle to the rudder for kicks. I use a white chalk pencil to sketch it out from a mock up I made on Procreate for Ipad, a small can of white bottom paint (which will run around $100!) and my every-day paint brushes from Hobby Lobby. It takes about 3 coats of paint to be this bright white but should ultimately last until the next time we take her out of the water!
Even though I had been sailing for years and years with my parents, we typically only took day trips when it was sunny. I never needed to have foul weather gear or anything boating related other than a swimsuit so I really needed a full set for our passage. There were only two nights under passage this gear was needed and both times I was so sick I stayed down below and didn’t need them.
I do mention in this segment that I spent the beginning of March (just a few days after Houston issued a “Stay At Home” order due to Covid-19) with a horrible upper respiratory infection. At this point they were not testing for Covid unless you had a fever-which I lacked. Four weeks later I still had this awful cough. I wore a mask while I still had the cough but there was a lot of back and forth with the Texas and local governments on the necessity of masks and how to enforce them. Even as we were leaving in mid-May, they still were not in agreement with much and it was all very confusing!
During this “Stay at Home” order, the restaurants were allowed to stay open for take-out, but when they were allowed to open at a small capacity, we made sure to go (safely) patronize some of our favorite hometown establishments. We chose TBoneToms in Kemah, Texas for our first restaurant visit in over 2 months! It’s great Texas BBQ that has been featured on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives. They had outdoor seating and all of the tables were spaced 6 feet apart per state regulations. We had a great experience, but coming from the hospitality industry, I was sorely disappointed in how the other patrons treated the wait staff who were working so hard to do things safely and quickly after being out of work for months. (On another note-I strongly believe everyone should work in the service industry before being able to dine out so they can appreciate the hard work it requires-not to mention doing it in the Texas heat with a mask, gloves, and ever-changing rules and regulations.)
Provisioning was the hardest part of the entire preparation time. Stores had limits on canned goods-which ultimately is what sailors live off of under passage. There were also lines to get into almost every grocery store. (Pictured below is the 30 minute line to get into Trader Joes.) Fresh food only stays fresh for so long, so canned meats, veggies and soups become very important.
We were expecting to be out at sea for at least 2 weeks, with the potential for extra days in Miami and The Bahamas (to refuel) with no access to groceries. On top of this and the uncertainty, we were preparing for a 2 week quarantine when we arrived to St. Thomas. This meant a month’s worth of canned goods to feed four of us for 3 meals a day. It really can be quite a bit more than you’d expect if you don’t have fresh meat andWe managed to start collecting a few cans here and there and eventually ended up with plenty! Our pantry storage is actually MASSIVE and we were able to keep and store all of our cans well after sorting and recording all for our inventory!
At the end of the episode, you see us casting off the lines from Watergate Marina in Kemah, TX to head to Galveston to do our final staging. This where most of our family saw us off. If you’re familiar at all with the trip, you’ll notice a few extra bodies on the boat that did not make the passage with us. A few close friends came in from Dallas to surprise me and make the short trip with us from Kemah to Galveston. You’ll get to see their surprise, our time in Galveston, and the first half of our journey in Episode 3!
If you’ve made it to the end of this blog and still haven’t watched Episode 2, here you go!
Cheers,
Ashton