February 15-28 2026
We spent the whole month of February in Coconut Grove Miami, unintentionally.
However, we visited David Kennedy park a ton, which allowed our kids to set a goal to conquer the monkey bars – and they did! We were so proud of them for trying and accomplishing their goal. We saw a couple good storms and made new friends. Finally found the courage to swim in the bay. Hopefully, we aren’t here much longer…
TWO letters to home below!
Letter to home v. 02.22.2026
Hello Nobad Fam,
The days seem to blur together here. We have nowhere to be and a million and one things to do. It’s crazy to think we’ve been here just over 2 weeks.
On Monday we connected with another BWC buddy boat and had a really good day! We went out to lunch together at Monty’s and then spent the rest of the day at the park nearby. Our kiddos scootered together and played at the playground. The parents were able to just relax and visit together. It was almost therapeutic. Their boat is in a situation similar to ours (although they are currently hauled out again for repairs). They bought a ‘fixer upper’ as well. We found solidarity in our boat trials and that we are still “stuck” here in Florida. Hopefully we can both jump to the Bahamas soon! (maybe even together).
We set some goals this week as a family to have a tad more structure in our days. These include everyone going to shore in the mornings to walk Kramer, not just Josh. We have a good routine now that includes the kids also doing workouts (on their terms) at the outdoor workout equipment at the park. It’s been fun to see them improve on the machines that are available. They even saw their own progress on the monkey bars! Today Finn completed the whole set!
We also started to get back into the routine of chores and the kids have been awesome at doing (most) of them.
On Wednesday, some of the parts were finally available to pick up for the solar arch. So Josh rode his bike 20ish miles round trip to Grainger (and he also stopped at Walmart). He was exhausted by the time he got back to the boat. And he also broke some spokes on our bike. So on Thursday we all went to shore with the kiddos’ scooters and walked to a bike shop to drop off our wheels for repair. Grateful that was in walking distance. The kids then got to ride their scooters for a long while at a different park they’ve been dying to go back to.
Friday I had a meeting so Josh took the kiddos off the boat. They visited the library! Something we’ve been trying to do ever since we discovered there was one close. They read lots of books! Skylar came back with some pictures she colored. Since they were gone, I was able to get some good cleaning done on the boat. It felt so good.
Yesterday we did boat chores and then went back to shore to pick up the fixed bike wheel. The kiddos had to scrub and clean the trampolines out front. There was zero wind, for once. It was a beautiful hot day – something we thought we would see a lot more of.
We were hoping to get all the pieces to start assembling the arch before the weekend, so we had the weekend to get it put together. But the shipping took too long and then we had some issues with finding some parts. As always. Then we realized some of the parts we did get were the wrong size, so had to order new ones. We need to rent a truck to pick up the pipe and are trying to figure out how to rent one. However, Josh has mapped every single piece he needs so he knows where he needs to go on Monday/Tuesday and what to buy (and how many). So our focus this coming week is to get this arch built so we can get outta here! Josh has 7 days. That’s what we told our boat gang already in the Bahamas.
We are ready to leave Miami, even just to a new anchorage here in Biscayne Bay. This isn’t a bad place. It’s been really good for a lot of reasons. It’s not near a beach and the parks are starting to lose their charm.
However, the kiddos were braver than mom and dad and after our morning walk this morning they jumped into the water behind the boat before church! We’ve been too nervous too…because we are in Florida and we have seen a crocodile here near shore. Josh jumped in after them. Another cold front is ripping through today and tomorrow. It will replace the high 70s/low 80s with hight 40s/ low 50s. Are we even in Southern Florida?! What is going on? We’ve seen more colder days than our family back in Idaho.
Oh, also! We started a patreon because, why not. I’m having fun learning how to use it and what types of things we can do with it.
We are so grateful to all of you. We had a lot of answered prayers and tender mercies this week. It’s easy to doubt our lifestyle and not give up, especially when all our buddies are already over in the Bahamas (although they can’t escape this radical weather either). But we have a renewed sense of energy to get this ole’ boat to crystal blue waters and white sand beaches. Your prayers sustain us and once we are there and settled, we welcome all visitors! Love you all and we thank Heavenly Father for you every day.
Ride the t,
Capt. Josh, 1st mate Sam, and our salty crew
Letter to home v. 03.01.2026
Ahoy me Nobad Family,
We survived another blow, this one with gusts up into the high 20’s knots. It wasn’t too bad, just means we were stuck on the boat thru Monday and Tuesday morning. But as soon as the winds ceased late Tuesday morning, we were in the dinghy hauling it to shore. The kids and dog were going stir crazy. It’s so crazy how the weather can go from ripping winds and rocking the boat to complete stillness within minutes. You may think, duh, that’s what happens. You notice it a lot when your entire home moves on the water. Josh then biked over 20 miles around town to pick up more parts for the solar arch.
On Wednesday we met up with new kid boat friends at the park (SV Callisto)! They played for almost 4 hours together. We met them through a kid boat whatsapp group. I saw they had come into the bay and we connected. They jumped to the Bahamas on Friday. We had two kid boats anchored next to us in the bay on Thursday and it was cool! SV Callisto came to Biscayne Bay with another kid boat SV Float On. There’s just a comfort in having people you know anchored next to you. The parents from SV Float On reached out to me to say hi, and we chatted for a bit. They left for the Everglades on Friday. They are seasoned sailors and with that, gave some seasoned advice – “Plan is a 4 letter word. We now set goals, which is a 5 letter word and much better. Then we call them stretch goals so we surprise ourselves once in a while by meeting one once in awhile. Like a super stretch goal this summer is Newfoundland. I give us 6.7% change of getting there. But it’s where we are aiming. If we get to Rhone Island then we will count it as a win.” Josh and I both laughed and breathed a sign of relief. You really can’t hold onto plans too tight. The boat and/or the ocean/weather always decide for you. We are learning, and it’s hard, but we are adapting to this mindset.
Thursday, Josh got an early start and went back into town to pick up more parts for the arch and get the pipes ordered. He’s logged over 50 miles biked this week!
In other news, I’ve officially mastered handling the dinghy! I know how to hoist it up in the davits and lower it into the water. I can start the outboard and drive it around the bay. So that’s been fun! Also a huge help/relief to Josh so we aren’t completely reliant on him and I can take the kiddos to shore by myself or run Josh to shore to do errands, allowing us to keep the dinghy at the boat in case of emergency or something.
There are two anchorages in this part of the bay. To help you see where we are anchored, we are in location A. When we arrived there were many boats anchored here, now only a couple. In location B, there are also several anchored boats, including SV Vega, whom I’ve been messaging for the last two weeks (another kid boat!). We finally met her and her kids at the park yesterday! It was really nice to meet them. They are also very new to this cruising life. A new catamaran showed up in anchorage B on Friday and Josh was able to to meet the mom and their little kiddos on the dinghy going into town. They swapped phone numbers because, as they and we know, there is safety in numbers. We don’t know their boat’s name; they don’t have any decal on the outside, just a logo. We think they are from Sweden so we will call them the Swedes for now until we get to know them better.
We were really hoping to make a lot of progress on the arch yesterday after we went to the park with SV Vega, but instead we were dealing with unexpected crazy squalls and a downpour. Although rain was in the forecast, the first big squall that ripped through here seemed to catch everyone in the bay off guard. We were safe but watched the fishing boats and small sail boats out for racing and practice haul it back into the marinas. However, towards the end of the squall, there were two of these small racing sailboats near us that were not having a good day. One had blown out its sails and the other had capsized. So we watched that unfold for a good half hour (they had help from their coaches on dinghys getting them hauled in). Then SV Vega texted me and said their bridle snapped. They were good and able to get a temporary fix in place. Then we saw the Swedes cruising in the storm around their boat in their dinghy so I told Josh to text and check on them. Their dinghy had actually come untied off the back of the boat and they chased it down. Luckily SV Vega caught it. GUYS – so much was going on. Then we saw a trawler coming out of the channel toward the bay that did a wild u-turn toward an unmanned jetski floating nearby, and the suspected driver was in the water not by it (this was near our new friends in location B). What a life, right? After the storm had passed, a tow boat came by us towing in a fishing boat.
Unfortunately, the forecast for today and this coming week has changed to daily rainstorms and some thunderstorms. Lightning is a sailor’s worst nightmare – if your boat is struck you’re kinda toast. We have two friend boats who are both hauled out right now undergoing major repairs due to lightning strikes. We had our first thunder and lightening storm today during boat church. Honestly, Josh and I heard very little of fast and testimony meeting as we were just praying the lightning would not strike us or our new friends. We have a break with sun before the next round comes through tonight. Going to be an interesting week and, unfortunately, delay the arch going up. Since we don’t want to drill holes in our boat to install it and then rain hits (and add even more metal to the outside of our boat). We will see. Josh is determined to have it all assembled by end of this coming week — it’s our new “stretch goal” as we learned from our friends on SV Float On.
We have fun plans (or should I say goals) to explore this bay more. Head over to No Name Harbor, anchor there and do some snorkeling and go to an actual beach. Since the next weather window won’t be for a while. Once we have all the parts we don’t need to stay in Coconut Grove. Although, our new friends “the Swedes” are interested in the arch we are building because they also don’t have one and need to build one. So, as with all things, we shall see. We also may move our boat over by our new friends in location B since they plan to be here a while and it will be fun to play with their kids and paddle board around together. The husband on SV Vega has to back to their home in Maryland next week, so also just being closer to them to help out if needed.
We are so grateful to be safe and we will probably be sending up a lot of prayers as these thunderstorms role through. Luckily, we are in shallow waters, not the open ocean. Next to several marinas and tow boats. We don’t plan on needing the services, obviously. But it’s reassuring nonetheless. We love you all and are so grateful for the calls and texts we received this past week. We love hearing from our family and friends, we wouldn’t be here without you.
Ride the t,
Capt. Josh, 1st mate Sam, and our salty crew
Nobad Weather Fam 
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