Safety First

Ivy is learning how to crawl now and has been sitting up on her own for about a month now, so we realized it was time to get serious about getting some safety features into the boat.

The most important one is some safety netting in the v-berth. It's the safest place for her to crawl around without getting into trouble.


I had planned on sewing up some lee cloths, but we had a bunch of leftover netting and we were able to make that work for us. We put pillows and blankets in front of it so she doesn't fall in between the netting.

Once she pulls herself up, it may not work anymore. I'm not sure. But at least we have something that works now!

Ivy at the Helm

A moment I want to forever remember:

Leaving Peddocks to make our way back home, late in the evening. We had the perfect weather - a bit of chill in the air, *finally*. Ivy had just curled into the Ergo for her nap. She scratched at the strap around my waist with her little hand. *scritch scratch scritch scratch* and then was fast asleep.


I clipped the GPS to the ergo to have easy access - we were leaving the anchorage and I didn't want to suddenly run aground. Justin was forward at the bow, pulling the rocna out of the thick, black mud. The dinghy trailed behind us. Willie was already hiding in the v-berth, shivering and shedding from the fright of his home moving.

Having Ivy around definitely made things harder, and an extra set of hands would have come in handy a few times while we were out, but it was good to see that we were capable of handling the boat even if I was mostly incapacitated.

The sail home was quiet and peaceful and the wind was perfect. It was nice to finally be out sailing, but we weren't sad that it hadn't happened earlier in the year and we won't be too upset if it's the only sail of the season.

Our Sail of the Summer

Well, we did it! We finally took Madrigal out for a sail.

Infants definitely make things much more challenging, but it can be done and we proved it!

We went to Peddocks and met friends. They rafted up together and we chose to anchor separately, close by. We hung out with them, grilled, etc. It was great seeing everyone again - Mark will be heading south to the Carolinas in a few weeks and we learned that Mike will be sailing with him, then going to school down in Florida. This will make for an entirely different scene at Constitution Marina this year, and our good friends will be missed.


We had planned on staying out two nights, but learned that Peddocks has changed greatly. Signs litter the shoreline - "No Trespassing: Police Take Notice". And take notice they did. Thankfully they didn't bother us and we were able to get Willie to shore without anyone noticing, but they were out and about with the boats, stopping people who were close to shore.

It's really upsetting to see our favorite gem of Boston closed off to the public. Earlier in the year, I had heard that they were destroying some of the buildings on the island in order to create a campground. The news was published in the Boston Globe just a few days before it happened, so there was no chance that any action could have been taken to stop such a thing from happening. Instead we tried to take the news as a good thing - more people would get to visit the island and see what a wonderful place it was. But instead, it has come to this. To go to Peddocks, you must (apparently) have to pay to take a ferry, then pay to stay in the campground. I'd like to hope that this is not true and that we will get to visit the island again with our boat without fear of getting ticketed, but the array of signs has me assuming the worst. And even if we can visit it again, how much of it will be left? How much has the campground changed the island? How much destruction has taken place? How many buildings were left standing, and how did they change those buildings in order to allow camping to take place? I can only guess that Peddocks is a very different place than it was just a year ago, and that's a hard change for me to accept.