Category: Boat Life

Boat Life

These are the day-in, day-out experiences of boat life cruising on SV Banjo.  Sometimes it is mundane, sometimes it is thrilling.  There are even days that test the patience of the crew.  But every bit of it is real, unscripted, and authentic.

Life Aboard

A large portion of our daily boat life revolves around taking care of our two dogs, performing maintenance, and upgrading the boat.  We love to sail and travel at every possible opportunity, but the reality aboard a cruising sailboat involves fixing things, inventing things and creative problem solving.  However, we always try to take advantage of moments throughout our day to be grateful and to enjoy the day.  You will find that sunsets are some of our favorite things and we video them almost daily.

Want to see what life aboard a sailboat is like?  Explore our experiences.  We hope you enjoy and find these posts helpful.

 

Hurricane Florence: Early Hours at BridgePointe Marina

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Hurricane Florence

Although limited on time and resources, we wanted to get this video out.  Our hope was to show people exactly how fast storm surge can rise. During the initial hours of Hurricane Florence we witnessed several feet of rise over the course of a couple hours.  And those were the early hours. Coupled with wind and rain and the conditions only got worse as the day and night wore on. Please forgive the choppy editing. Video Description In an effort to assist and help our dock-master, several of us volunteered…

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Everyday We Learn A Little Bit More about Life Aboard

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Life Aboard

There is no rhyme or reason to this post except to make a few observations about life aboard.  First, life aboard a sailboat is MUCH harder in some ways than shore life.  That isn’t a jab at land-lubbers, just humble observations from someone who has lived both.  Life aboard a small sailboat teaches you to be very deliberate in your actions.  Not only must you be deliberate, you must be deliberate each and every time.  One hand for the boat, one for yourself is an absolute RULE, at all times,…

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Victron BMV-712 Smart Battery Monitor Review

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Victron BMV-712 Smart

A month and a half ago, we upgraded our house bank battery monitor.  We went from a Victron BMV-602 to a Victron BMV-712 Smart Battery Monitor.  We re-wired our existing monitor to our engine start battery so we could monitor it separately.   In this post, we are going to give you our impressions and review of the Victron BMV-712 Smart Battery Monitor. Background A few months ago, we performed some major re-work of our house bank.  At the time, we discovered our house battery bank was at the end…

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Hurricane Florence: Slow Boat Sailing Interview with SV Banjo Crew

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Slow Boat Sailing Interview with SV Banjo

Our home dock is BridgePointe Marina in New Bern, NC, which was hit very hard by the winds and storm surge of Hurricane Florence.  In the days following, we were contacted by Linus Wilson of the Slow Boat Sailing blog.  He wished to discuss our experiences with the storm and our plans aboard Banjo.  Although we are not experienced interviewees, we wanted to share the interview with you.  Also, we are not professional nautical engineers.  Therefore we were unable to comment on some questions.  We did, however, offer our views…

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Fiery Sunset Video at Anchor

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Fiery Sunset

Last night provided an amazing fiery sunset video at anchor.  In fact, it was one of the most captivating I have seen since we brought Banjo to New Bern.  Having made it through Hurricane Florence, I held a deep sense of gratitude.  Sitting on deck, the horizon was brilliant as if the anchorage sky was on fire.  Wanted to share the entire sequence.  It seemed as if the moment I turned my attention away, it changed again and again.  The sky kept sneaking up on me in completely different ways.…

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