Building a 38’ sailboat from stump to ship, to take sail around the world.
From Acorn To Arabella. If you can remember, back when I started this project, I was working full-time as a route setter at a local rock climbing gym. I largely set climbing aside while I built Arabella, but my goal has always been to sail Arabella to remote places where the climbing is steep and…
From Acorn To Arabella. This week, I move the boat and drop anchor in Terence Bay—which is surrounded by some of Nova Scotia’s best climbing areas. But Robin is still making her way back to Canada with the truck and all of our climbing gear. My rock climbing stoke will have to wait just a…
From Acorn To Arabella. You can still contribute to the fight against cancer at https://profile.pmc.org/bf0201 This week, we map out our passage from Shelburne to Lunenburg, NS, making sure to follow a route safely offshore enough to avoid the many shoals and exposed rocks on the south coast of Nova Scotia. After a quick read…
From Acorn To Arabella. This week, we’re taking Arabella international—we’re sailing from Provincetown, MA to Shelburne, Nova Scotia. But, before we go too far, we need to calibrate our NEW Pelagic autopilot. After our autopilot broke a few hours into our last multi-day offshore passage (leaving us to hand steer for three straight days and…
From Acorn To Arabella. This week, we’re getting our homebuilt wooden boat ready for her first international passage. Sure, it’s just to Canada, but to us, it’s a big deal! First up is finishing work on the bowsprit. I needed to get the bow out of our bronze bow roller before we could reinstall it.…
From Acorn To Arabella. ————————– Sign up for our email newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hn3Qyv Acorn to Arabella started as a wooden boat building project in Granby, Massachusetts. Steve began the journey as an amateur wooden boat builder crafting a 38′ wooden sailboat in his backyard: designer William Atkin’s Ingrid with a Stormy Petrel’s gaff rig. These videos…
From Acorn To Arabella. ————————– Sign up for our email newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hn3Qyv Acorn to Arabella started as a wooden boat building project in Granby, Massachusetts. Steve began the journey as an amateur wooden boat builder crafting a 38′ wooden sailboat in his backyard: designer William Atkin’s Ingrid with a Stormy Petrel’s gaff rig. These videos…
From Acorn To Arabella. A calm morning in Marion Harbor makes for the perfect day to deal with the rot I found in Arabella’s bowsprit while we were back in Miami. What I thought was just a small spot of rot turned out to be a bit bigger than I had imagined—an indication that this…
From Acorn To Arabella. This week, we’re setting out for a 4-day offshore run from Norfolk, VA back to Mattapoisett, MA—where we launched Arabella almost two years ago to the date! Our good friend George joined us for the passage. We learned an expensive lesson about securing our anchor before heading offshore, so I took…
From Acorn To Arabella. Work on the dodger may be done, but before we can leave Okracoke, we need to install our new Garmin GMI20. The last one died halfway through our passage from Miami to Beaufort, and we had a replacement unit sent to the Okracoke post office. Despite our best efforts to get…
From Acorn To Arabella. This week, Arabella makes her way to Ocracoke Island, at the south end of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Robin and I have been looking forward to visiting the Outer Banks, and maybe exploring long-abandoned Portsmouth Island. With winds expected to pipe up, we deployed a conservative sail plan for our passage…
From Acorn To Arabella. If you’re struggling, consider therapy with our sponsor BetterHelp. Click https://betterhelp.com/acorn for a 10% discount on your first month of therapy with a licensed professional specific to your needs. After our offshore run, I promised Robin that I would wait for her in Beaufort so she could see the wild horses…
From Acorn To Arabella. This week, the journey resumes on day three of our offshore sailing passage from Miami, FL to Beaufort, NC. Along for the journey was my old college buddy, Dave, and my new friend, Jesse, who we met in Key Biscayne. On day 2 of our passage, we brought a Mahi up…
From Acorn To Arabella. This week, we’re getting ready for a 600-mile offshore passage from Miami, FL to Beaufort, NC. Before we set sail, I took the chance to get some boat work done: scrubbing and oiling the decks, smoothing out the battens so they don’t get stuck in the lazy jacks when we hoist…
From Acorn To Arabella. This week, we start with a visit from the one and only Sam Holmes—a real, actual sailor! Sam regales us with tales of suffering and single handing his sailboat, and gives us some advice for the passages in our future. If you’re not already following him, make sure to check him…
From Acorn To Arabella. You know what they say: “BOAT” stands for “Break Out Another Thousand.” While we were anchored in the Dry Tortugas, I got our Spectra watermaker back online. This week, back in Key West, we’re troubleshooting an issue with the feed pump pressure switch, which cuts the watermaker pump in and out…
From Acorn To Arabella. This week’s video resumes in the Dry Tortugas, where we’re stuck on finding a solution for installing our auto helm. But that can wait…first, fishing! Our bait attracted a few good-sized Nurse Sharks and Goliath Groupers, putting on quite the show for Akiva! The Nurse Sharks are gentle, but they’re still…
From Acorn To Arabella. In this episode, we sail Arabella over to the clear, blue waters of the Dry Tortugas National Park, 70 miles west of Key West. Starting from the Ten Thousand Islands, we hit Key West for provisions, hot showers, and to pick up the parts we need to get our auto helm…
From Acorn To Arabella. In this week’s episode, we say goodbye to Sanibel Island and the beautiful “Ding” Darling Wilderness, and we set sail for Florida’s Ten Thousand Islands, an archipelago just north of and adjacent to the Everglades. It felt great to raise the sails after so much motoring. We enjoyed a lively, adventurous…
From Acorn To Arabella. Along our journey south, we decided to drop the anchor in North Captiva and stay a few days. We totally fell in love with this sleepy island town. From walking along the shell-covered white sand beaches to checking out the wildlife, there was so much to love about North Captiva. Don’t…
From Acorn To Arabella. We took Arabella to Boca Grande for a week to get some boat work done…but we had to spend some time adventuring, too. We paddle boarded over to Three Sisters Island, took Victoria out sailing (after repairing her transom), wandered around the "Old Florida" back roads, had lunch at the Pink…
From Acorn To Arabella. Get an exclusive 15% discount on Saily data plans! Use code ARABELLA at checkout. Download Saily app or go to https://saily.com/arabella ————————– We’ve sailed our beautiful wooden sailboat all the way from Maine to Boca Grande, where it’s time to stop and give our tender, Victoria, a little TLC. Her transom…
From Acorn To Arabella. Four months ago, we left Maine on our hand built wooden sailboat. Join us in Southwest Florida, as we adventure our way through Cabbage Key and Cayo Costa. We set out on paddleboards to find the elusive "Tunnel of Love," a natural mangrove tunnel that leads into a lagoon on the…