We made huge progress on all our windows and floor and the ceiling (yes…still the ceiling, but in a good way).

We had a buddy boat haul out at the same boat yard so we had friends for a few days before they flew home for the holidays. It was awesome and we almost felt normal.

We are trying not to panic that we officially have a splash date. Can’t believe it’s finally happening!!!

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Excerpt from the NOBAD Fam & Friends email sent on 12/15/2025…

Hellooooo Nobad Fam! 

Well, we finally did it, we finally scheduled our splash date! It’s official…and it’s terrifying. We desperately need to be on our boat out on the water and no longer in this boatyard. We are all going stir crazy and psyching ourselves out. We also have the “boatyard blues” being away from family during Christmas and literally doing nothing Christmas related. 

We made huge progress this week: the floor is all in and new flooring down, the windows are almost ALL done! Josh finished up the the repairs on the hulls and gel coat damage from the anchor (so now we are ready for bottom paint!). Josh also installed the track and hand railing back on the port side of the boat, the final pieces to the already finished fixed ceiling! 

This week we will be running on adrenaline and caffeine…although that’s not new for us these last few weeks. With all the updates finishing off that had to be done while the boat was hauled out, Josh is now shifting gears to make the repairs and upgrades that will allow us to live on the boat comfortably. So tomorrow he will pick up our new solar panels, inverters, wires, fuses, etc and get all our new battery pack installed (which is gigantic). Between the panels the boat came with, the additional new ones we bought, and our generators, we should be good to go to power what we need to on the boat (ex. fridges, electronics). 

Once the power is set up, we will test our watermaker. When we bought the boat, the broker told us it was “obsolete”. Not sure what that means, but if it means not working, we think we know why – it was underpowered. Watermakers are super important for sailors (although not necessary). They allow you to turn ocean water into usable water onboard (desalinate). We have two large water reservoirs on board that we can also manually fill by hose (at like a fuel dock) if necessary. But ideally, our watermaker is doing that for us. So we are hoping that obsolete just means underpowered and the one we have onboard will work. Otherwise, we will need to order a new one. 

I’ll be wrapping up the few little things I need to do to the windows and then I’m PROVISIONING. Meaning, spending a lotta money at Costco and Aldi to stock up our boat fridge, and freezer with all the food and food related items. 

I’ll also be ordering our new running rigging this week (all the ropes that maneuver the sails) because ours are in poor condition and we gotta get our new head sail up so she’s ready to go. 

We are also trying to get our boat nice and clean and pretty for the surveyor on Friday. We will be scrubbing the deck and trying to get as organized as possible on the inside for the surveyor and we are asking everyone in our circle to keep us your prayers this week. That we will finish what need to for the survey and that things will run smooth with insurance and for our launch (on Friday or Saturday pending weather). 

If the weather is good, then we will leave Port Canaveral either Friday and Saturday and head down the coast line to Ft. Pierce. Here we will anchor for a few days and either hang out there thru Christmas, or if the weather is good, keep pushing south down to the Keys for Christmas. Once we are on the water our clocks and scheduling shift to “weather windows” because we don’t want to sail in big waves…

As for now, we just keep reminding ourselves, the boat doesn’t need to be perfect it just needs to be safe and livable. And we are so close to both these marks – trying to keep our heads down and focused. 

Ride the t.