Live Free 2 Sail Fast

Great Dane On A Boat: Epic Adventures Await

Nearly every Sunday our Great Dane (Quincy) writes this advice and wisdom column to other dogs and humans who want to read her stuff.  See, Quincy the Great Dane lives on a cruising sailboat that’s leaving for blue water adventures in November, starting in Baja California.  We’re all looking for epic adventures to follow.

Here’s her advice and wisdom for today:  “Sometimes when you’re hot, just stick your head out the window“.

While we know that Quincy doesn’t have the same life as when we had a land-based house, she’s adapting to life on the boat nicely and seems to enjoy herself.  We know that when we leave we’ll need to work on the bathroom thing and more adaptation will take place, but it will be a work on progress.  For us, the Sea of Cortez is calling and epic adventures with family AND Quincy await.

We lived a traditional American life (house, two cars, dog eat) for years but realized how much we WANTED to spend time showing our kids some of the world through travel. So we’re working hard to prep the boat to leave in November, traveling and adventuring together.  You can follow us on this website, Patreon and YouTube.    

Baby Steps to November

We’re making baby steps toward leaving in November….one thing at time but at least three projects going at any one time; if that makes any sense.  Last week we knocked a couple things off the list as we were between “Camp Grandma’s”.  We were able to get the kids their new passports (both parents have to be there/you must have a passport with more time on it than 6 months before you leave the country), we did our last Minney’s run (coming home with several great finds) and we officially emptied out and gave up our storage shed!  This last one was huge, as it means we’ve cast off the safety net of being able to throw the junk in the shed and not worry about it.  Ever figured out how much junk can go into your car before you reach a breaking point?  See my wife’s Jeep right about now-

As I said above, I’m in the middle of three different projects with mando mid-July completion dates (before we have boatloads of family and friends here for my wife’s retirement).  I’m currently knocking out the varnishing projects (inside and out), working on making my own dinghy chaps (despite getting several polite suggestions that others could help make them for a fee) and working on getting the stainless project done that will hold our new antennas and wind generator off the stern davits.  This is one of the last major expenses we have besides the new liferaft.  

So, no kids column today as the kids are at Camp Grandma but Quincy will be back Sunday with more advice and wisdom.  Till then, keep reading! 

Don’t forget you can click on our YouTube, Patreon and Pinterest links for more info- 

Strippin Isn’t all Fun and Games

Stripping is hard work!  For those of you who know what I’m talking about, you know that stripping is hard and not all fun and games.  NOW I know why people pay a great stripper, cause it’s long hours in the heat and has sucked the energy out of me big time.   (more…)

Great Dane On A Boat: Quincy’s Alter-Ego

Wow, I’ve been waiting for Quincy’s Word of the Day all day, thinking I missed it.  But really, it’s just late.  Read on: (more…)

Many Faces of a Boat Dog

I’m scraping, sanding, cleaning and varnishing….alot.  Michelle retires in July and we’ll have family and friends here, so I’m working hard on the aesthetics neglected while I’ve worked on sewer systems, engine bits and other things you just don’t see unless you know what you’re looking at.  So in that vain, I’m giving you the many faces of Quincy the Sailboat Dog today since I’m not able to spend time on some of the other blog projects I have going but not finished. Enjoy: (more…)

Re-Blog: Catalina with the LiveFree 2 SailFast crew — brianb29

On Saturday I wrote about our trip to Catalina Island from San Diego but was remiss in not mentioning that we had crew on board; and they’re great friends and a fellow blogger.  Brian and Christina were our neighbors for a few years while they listened to all our wild sailboat dreams; till they decided to sell their own house and buy a sailboat on the east coast.  He had been talking about doing it…then they actually bought the boat and sold their house.  Then last year these guys decided to come experience bare boating and shared a 45′ bare boat catamaran with us, the kids and another couple in the BVI for 7 days of sailing; all of us getting our catamaran experience checked off.  Since they’ve since moved back to Southern California and we’ve moved onto the boat I knew Brian and Christina might jump at the chance to come visit Catalina with us….the slow way.

Here’s my original post from Saturday: San Diego to Catalina Island by Sailboat (And Back)

Brian’s got his own blog about his boat and boating life you can check out and perhaps follow if you choose at brianb29.com. (more…)

Great Dane on a Boat: Guest Appearance on the Boat?

We decided to bring on a guest blogger as part of Quincy’s Sunday advice series:

“Quincy the Great Dane thinks she’s the only sailing dog that can gain international fame on this website, so I decided to come with my feeder and walker to see if I could steal some of that spotlight!  See, a Great Dane is large and overbearing and smelly….not too smart,,,but us puppies are really better.  Seriously, I LIKE the water, I smell better, I’m cuddly and my feeder person doesn’t EVER leave me alone….cause I may chew something up.  On this boat thing, I was in my element.  I mean….why can’t I do this permanently?  I loved the fact that there were lots and lots of tuggy ropes everywhere to play with…and I completely overcame and scared that Egret bird on the dock who was nearly three times my size…I think.  Getting the hint yet?  That Great Dane chick doesn’t have nothing on me!  You all need to tell the writer guy that I need to come on the boat more often!  Till then,,I’m off to look for more food”   

Here’s puppy Hunter in the cockpit:

Over the last two weeks, we took off for Catalina for the holiday but came back Sunday, meaning we had Monday free before we took off again for another adventure.   With a day between adventures, we invited the in-laws for dinner and along came their puppy, Hunter.  I was surprised at how well he did on the boat- climbing, exploring and generally doing better than anyone expected.  I was happy to barbecue some marinated chicken and a great piece of fish hand caught by the Surf-Fur Crew.  Need something wind and water proof that fits perfect and softens over time?  Check out the Surf-Fur website and make sure to tell em that LF2SF sent you….they’ll get a kick out of it.  This week we received our new autopilot, shopped for a new life raft and today I started prep to varnish the toe rails (they need it) before I would be forced to strip all the vanish completely.  We’re staying busy.  

For those who read the website on a regular basis or everyone who’s just stopping by…thanks for checking us out.  Remember we have a fledgling You Tube site and we’re live and running on Patreon if you want to support our adventures.  Have a great weekend! 

San Diego to Catalina Island by Sailboat (And Back)

Heading from San Diego to Catalina Island by sailboat is fairly easy…unless you want to try to sail the distance via a straight course.  Most of the time the wind blows from the north straight south, meaning most boats will be heading directly into the wind to get to Catalina on the shortest course from San Diego.  If you have time; you can tack toward Catalina Island, but that will add infinite hours to your sail.  There are also folks who break up the trip by heading for guest slips in Oceanside or Dana Point, making it a 2-3 day trip just to get to the island from San Diego.  We neither tack or break up the trip getting there; but we do have to motor TO Catalina, always trying to sail back.  Seriously, without the motor heading to Catalina it’s just no contest, as we usually don’t have the time it would take to do the long sweeping tacks (on a rhumb line it’s approx 72 miles to Catalina just from the 4th buoy outside of San Diego).  We’ve done this trip many times from Oceanside when we had a boat there, but it’s a different animal from San Diego.  Read on for more- (more…)

Kids Corner for Fri, May 30th

Hello, everybody!!! Today I’m gonna tell you about “GLORIETA BAY, PART 2. Anyway, we were totally all like “OMG!” about the rug shark, jumping up and down and waving at our parents to get over here A.S.A.P. {as soon as possible}anyway, our parents told us to leave it alone, as for it probably had all kinds of infectious diseases and germs. After that we went back to the boat and had dinner. After that we went to bed. In the morning we enjoyed our hot chocolate and coffee. Unsurprisingly, dad didn’t want anything, he just wanted to mess with the mast. That day we went to shore! We had an awesome dinner of mextex food, then went to the beloved…{drumroll please}…ICE CREAM STORE! it was amazing! They even had “MANGO TANGO”! after that we went to the book store. I’m a Percy Jackson fan, so of course, I saw what they had. Even though I’ve read the whole series, I still wanted to see what they had. Apparently, they DID have something I had not read. It was called “PERCY JACKSONS GREEK GODS”. It was pretty good. Anyways, we left after that. The next morning, we got up bright and early to leave Glorieta bay. Teagan up and out.

We did this trip about a month ago as test # 1 of our new solar system, which worked fine.  It’s been a busy last couple of weeks, we’ll update in more posts-

Getting Our “Outside” On

For the last month or so, we’ve done pretty well in getting off the slip to get our “outside” on.  We’re back from another adventure and I’m loving getting back to the website for updates.  It’s been busy.  We conducted test # 1 of our Solar Panels with the Grandparents in Glorietta Bay just before Mother’s Day, then pressed on to a weekend trip to Paso Robles, Ca to restock our grog and see old friends.  After that, we leaned into test # 2 of our Solar Panels with a night crossing from San Diego to Catalina Island (Ca) for 3 days and a long fast day trip back….and via a one day turn-around, we headed out again for some giggle testing at Universal Studios, Hollywood.  We’re back and I’m refocused on what I need to fix from the Catalina Trip- leaking transmission fluid, cabinet doors that fall out with any swell and I’ll wager a myriad of other things I’ve forgotten.  Of course…being us…the kids went with us everywhere and we were happy to be around them for these different experiences.  Our new auto-pilot also showed up and I get to install it…as soon as our wheel is back fixed from the metal shop.  

When the Blog runs silent…we’re probably getting our outside on or I’m doing heavy work on the boat and don’t take the time to write.  We’re down to five (5) months till we cut the docklines and we’re feeling it.  I love it…it’s an end date to back plan from…now till then.  We’re LF2SF and we want to make sure you know if you have questions, comments or just want reach out to us, blog comments are ALWAYS answered…as soon as we’re back from our adventures.