With the Covid-19 pandemic raging worldwide, we have been hiding out in Saltbox13 and enjoying our first winter at home in ten years! Obviously, we are normally on our boat, Island Spirit, spending winters in Florida, Bahamas or the Caribbean Sea. This has been a very different winter for us, but we have made the best of it, playing house. Did I say that we love our Saltbox13 which we designed and built in 1984? Well, we do! This house has been a lifetime joy, so spending time here has been fun, especially with our wonderful neighbors and the fantastic kids on our street. With the new media, bourbon, prosecco room, the weber grill, firepit and large bathrooms, we are not roughing it here. Please enjoy this photo update of winter 2020-21!
Time around our Fire Pit
Our first-ever firepit off the back deck, very enjoyable
YouTube on the Media Room TV, so fun
Sailing vessel DELOS released their 59 North Series. We supported them and really enjoyed the 4 videos!
Well, Let’s Decorate for Christmas
First time in ten years we were home for Christmas, so lets light up the place
We recommisioned the French Godin Petit Stove, so much fun
This is a Godin stove we have had since the 80’s. It really is fantastic and burns coal or wood, The coal storage under the garage floor had a over a ton of coal, so we had plenty of fuel.
SNOW SNOW SNOW, all winter long!
Our home looked so pretty lit up with the snowWe had an LED projector that placed snowflakes on the walls.
Winter at Home was Comfortable
A beautiful selfie that I always enjoy taking with Radeen
Upside Down Snowman and further Snowman FUN
This was how we felt being home in the snow…argh
Walks, Walks, Walks, doing 60-80 miles a month
Jim and Gail met us for multiple walks and THE ANTUGUA BRIDE-TO-BE, Courtney, made a guest appearance!
Merry Christmas 2020
Hayden and Radeen’s Christmas at Home 2020 photoAlways our go-to bottle for a celebration, the best French Champagne, MOETSTINK, STANK, STUNK…2020
My Favorite Photographic Subject, Radeen
Looking good as usual, Love this
The Endless Winter of 2020
Our shadows as we walked every daySelfie with Frosty our largest Snowman
We have the BEST Neighborhood Children
The sweet kids on our street knew we were missing the Caribbean, so they made us a Snow-woman with a Bikini top on…tooooo funny
Weber BBQ all winter long
I love to BBQ, so, I shoveled enough snow off the deck to keep the grill open 🙂
Did I say WALKS? Yup, 2.0 miles every day we can
Stretching one mile out with many layers on, it is COLD
Thank you all for following along. This is not our usual posting about sailing and luewater and travel, but 2020 has not been a normal year for anyone. Soon, we will have our 2nd Covid-19 vaccine shots, fly to Antigua for that special wedding and then we will return to sailing….we hope. For now, let’s get into SPRING TIME WEATHER SOON.
Yes, we are still at home from Summer 2020 into Fall 2020 and all winter 2020. I am trying to bring the blog up to date with a few photos and a brief update on what is going on with Team sv Island Spirit. We are home until we get Covid-19 vaccines, it looks like that will be in late March 2020. Then sometime after that we will return to the boat, which is stored in Puerto Rico, and resume sailing. It might be April, May, June, July, and it might be the USVI and Spanish Virgins, but we will NOT be complaining about that.
We have been busy working on our home, which we call Saltbox13 as we took what was a flooded basement last winter, gutted it and remodeled it into what we are calling the MBP Room, or Media / Bourbon / Prosecco Room. We have made great progress on this, with all the flooring, electrical, heating and tile work now completed. The bar is nearly fully stocked and the media wall is doing well with the Samsung Smart TV and surround sound. We added Disney+ and, along with YouTube Sailing channels and subscriptions, we are fully immersed in sailing and travel entertainment. With our refurbished French Petit Godin coal/wood stove and rebuilt mantel and hearth, this room is really taking shape. Take a look here….
Our Daily Routine
With Covid ramped up so high all Fall and Winter long, we have simply conceded to remain home and wait it out. We go for walks every day, walking 2 miles and getting in 60+ miles a month. We cook every meal in and we pick up groceries via cubside services at the stores. We use Amazon, of course, and we simply carry on. We honestly had planned to return to our sailing program Nov 7, 2020, but that was when the CDC published an advisory to NOT TRAVEL TO PUERTO RICO! So, with that, we postponed the flights. Well, Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb….we are still waiting. Now it looks like we will be getting vaccinated in March and then, finally after that, we will set sail. Difficult time for everyone and we count our many blessings. It is what it is and we are pushing onward.
Photos of the MBP Build
We selected a remnant piece of granite for the bar top, It has red and gray in it!Part way to working out the back splash and wall design
Good friend and artist, Sharon Gabor designed a black subway tile with pencil to work with the black vessel sink and our stone tile….PERFECTRadeen shows off the new granite top and sink. Black back splash is not yet installedThe finished Bar needs a center drop light and final plumbing
Mallory Visits Us
We picked up Mallory at PHL and had a fabulous visit with our niece and my dadOf course we had to eat at GENO”S STEAKSWonderful meals were shared around our table with Mallory and DadA required Liberty Bell and Philly tour Plus a stop at our very own neighborhood CHOCOLATE Factory
As Whiteaker Yacht Sales Brokers, we enjoyed selling several boats
Servicing our Grand Banks 38 Hardtop Express customers, we took the boat out for a demo run with dear friends Jim and VanessaI create my 18th yearly calendar for the Island Packet Yacht Owners AssociationI sold an IP 35 and helped prepare her for trucking from NY to FL.
Fire Pits, Christmas Tree and Decorations
With winter setting in, we added a fun FIRE PIT off the deck and had a few fires and drinksWe have not had a Christmas Tree in ten years, so, lets go BIG. This beauty required a rental truckFirepit GrL with Full MoonThe Tree is UP! And it is 9 feet tall. Thank you to Doug & Hayden Franks’ Boy Scout troop!
Fully Decorated for Christmas with LIGHTS!
What a fun time adding LED lights, about 10,000 til I was all finished. This was just the start 🙂
Conclusion
Our Fall into our Winter here at Saltbox 13 is going well, and we are really enjoying “playing house” as we wait out the Covid-19 pandemic. We can not think of a better place to wait. We really love this home we designed and built a long, long time ago. It is a JOY to spend some time here, yet we really can’t wait until we can return to Island Spirit and be anchored off HONEYMOON BEACH. ST JOHNS, USVI. Thank you for checking in….
