Ahoy! And welcome to the Adventures of the Saint Robert.
As you know, Kacey and I love a good adventure, and what could be more adventurous than moving aboard a 50 foot sailboat with three little boys! This has been our dream for longer than I can remember, and we are thrilled to finally set sail. Our plans are open ended- we will quite literally go where the wind blows us- but our goals are more anchored: we want to raise a healthy and happy family, while seeing the world at our own speed and volition, and have a hell of a fun time doing it.
We have a boat that will take us anywhere we could imagine going, we have a crew that is tried, true, blue, and up for anything, and we have just the right combination of determination and naivety to actually go through with a scheme like this.
It’s bound to be equal parts chaos, hilarity, frustration and pure joy- but whatever it is, we’ll try to document it in photos and print in the pages of this blog and on Instagram (@sv.saint.robert, @brothersrenfroe, and @lakacey) so please follow along with us on our latest Life of Saturdays adventure!
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We moved aboard the Saint Robert a month ago. And let me tell you, it has been a looong month. After a whirlwind road trip from Florida to Maryland, via Colorado and Pittsburgh, we finally got down to the task of launching the barky. Though all her systems were not quite ready to go, she was unceremoniously dropped in the water at 11:40am, Saturday June 30. Not that we are keeping track, but it does strike me that the brass band and hoard of screaming supporters was strangely absent…
Fortunately, the lack of audience was appreciated, as the tide was out, so our ker-plunk was more of a ker-splat in the mud below the launching dock: to be sure, a slightly less than heroic relaunching than I was hoping for. But as the saying goes, time and tide wait for no man. A few hours later and our waterline was agreeably afloat, we shoved off and were tied up to the service dock. Putting the barky back in the water after four years on the hard was a monumental achievement in our minds, but it was also just the beginning of the gargantuan effort to make our boat (i.e. home) safe, functional, and comfortable, for our family of five, rather inexperienced, sailors.
We left Baltimore on Sunday, headed south- headed anywhere!- for the first time. Our maiden voyage was uneventful for the most part, leaving at 5:45am the boys slept for a good part of it, then were engrossed by the giant chocolate doughnuts we had bought the night before. They spent time playing above (popping water balloons) and below decks (watching the ipad) and to a quorum didn’t mind the short period of heavy seas that we encountered for a few miles, half-way down our route. This confirmed to a small degree my hope and assertion that the crew of the Saint Robert would have, each of us, an iron stomach.
We pulled into Bert Jabin’s yard in south Annapolis at about 10:30am and spent the rest of the day prepping the boat for de-masting the following morning. Again, this went surprisingly smoothly- even the weather cooperated by providing a slightly overcast sky, no harsh sun and no rain until we had the stick all the way removed- and then we were on our way to the South Annapolis Yacht Center for a two week stay- to explore historic Annapolis, and hopefully get a few more boat projects checked off the list before the mast is ready to go back up.
