Sailing Mystic Hearts

10/09/2024

One of my first tasks in the boat yard was to remove our old beige vinyl boot stripe. It was in terrible shape, with cracks and missing chunks of it (see the 2nd photo), so it was time to go.

We had no plans to replace it and instead would repaint the dark green boot stripe to freshen it up. The vinyl boot stripe was placed over top the green one, so you can really see the contrast in how faded the green one became over time (see the 3rd photo).

Repainting the green boot stripe would be a project for another day because we'd have to pick out and order paint for it, but this was still progress nonetheless.

09/09/2024

Sailboats don't belong on land! 🙈

We didn't love seeing our sailboat get lifted out of the water and placed upright with a dozen metal jackstands supporting it, but we felt confident in the crew at Cobb's Marina in Norfolk and their 75 ton (165,000 pounds!) travelift that did the heavy lifting. 💪🏻

Life on the hard was...hard. 12+ hour days of boat projects, climbing up and down the boat stairs constantly, and heat indexes up to 110 degrees. 🥵

Stay tuned for all the projects we tackled!

05/09/2024

4 years ago (yesterday), we bought Mystic Hearts!

It still seems hard to believe that we've been living and cruising on this beautiful boat as long as we have, but I'm so proud of us for following our dream and daring to live life differently.

In 4 years, we've...
⛵️ Cruised 8,655 nautical miles
🌎 Sailed to New England twice, the Florida Keys twice, and made many laps around the Chesapeake Bay
⚓️ Dropped the hook, picked up a mooring ball, or docked 183 times
🔨 Spent 15 days on the hard in a boat yard
🌀 Ran from Hurricane Henri in the Long Island Sound and weathered the remnants of two tropical storms on Solomons Island
☀️ Have watched the sun rise and set from the ocean on many overnight passages

And, the best is yet to come! We love our little life on the sea. 🫶🏻

28/08/2024

Mystic Hearts looking magical in Newport, RI ✨️

This might just be my favorite photo ever taken of our sailboat. It was captured summer 2021 when we were in Newport's northern anchorage by the Claiborne Pell Bridge. How spectacular is that sunset?! 🧡

📷: Mary Theona Photography (used with permission)

27/08/2024

Our friends on Blue Turtle Cruising are selling their beautiful sailboat. It has tons of upgrades and is ready to go on new adventures! Check out the listing if you're in the market for a classic monohull.

CSY Walk Over for sale in New Bedford Massachusetts. View pictures and details of this boat or search for more CSY boats for sale on boats.com.

27/08/2024

With as many items as we have to stow on board, I love that we have a garage on our Beneteau 473. There's access to it through both the cockpit and galley, and it's large enough to store boat chemicals, cleaning supplies, spare parts, extra cat litter, and a generator.

A garage wasn't on my "must-have" checklist when we were boat shopping, but now I couldn't imagine not having this space for extra storage!

26/08/2024

Several people have asked for a schematic of our 12V wiring from our recent lithium battery installation. Paul put this diagram together, which shows all of the electronics used for the project. 🔌⚡️🔋

A larger version of this diagram can be found on our website's blog at svmystichearts.com. Link in bio. 🖥

21/08/2024

We loved having dinner recently with new friends Kelly and Andrew from . Our marina feels like its own little community, and we're so lucky to be surrounded by wonderful people.

18/08/2024

Forever in love with our Beneteau 473. 💕

We couldn't have picked a better liveaboard boat for our family and adventures. I can't wait to share where we go next...⛵️

17/08/2024

We're finally wrapping up sharing our winter boat projects and will be quickly fast-forwarding to sharing our early summer stay in the boat yard. If boat projects are your thing, yay! More of them are coming! If not, stick with us because we'll have more cruising adventures to share with you all soon. ⛵️

Our engine room insulation (in one large piece of foam) had been breaking apart and falling off the wall for awhile, so it was time for it to go. Paul found 12x12" foam squares with a sticky back that he was able to mount instead, and 8 months later, they are still doing the job.

Plus, how cute was Mac kitty supervising the installation?! 😻

16/08/2024

After installing our lithium batteries over the winter, we also upgraded the 120V side of our electrical system.

We started by upgrading to ELCI breakers (in the port lazarette, pics 1 and 2) on shore power inlets. Then, we installed isolation transformers (in the starboard lazarette, pic 3). Isolation transformers give us 2 advantages. First, they isolate the boat from marina shore power, which prevents stray current issues. Second, the inlet and outlet power sides of the transformers can be configured independently. This allows us on the shore power side the ability to accept 120V or 240V as needed.

Finally, we ran the shore power to an automatic transfer switch with our generator (in the garage next to the generator). This will automatically use whichever power source is active.

Another successful winter project down! 🙌🏻

10/08/2024

Check out our custom cabinet for all of our new Victron electronics! 👀

We wanted a cabinet that would cover everything up and keep the cats out, but we also needed something that would come apart easily because our new Epoch Batteries and hot water heater are located underneath the wood base.

I picked up some white vinyl and batting (same material used to stuff quilts) at a local fabric store. Paul took plywood and cut all the pieces to fit, then wrapped each piece of plywood in the vinyl and lightly stuffed in some batting. He used a staple gun on the backside of each board's edge to finish it off.

We love how this turned out. It almost looks like a piece of cabinetry that was meant to be here all along.

09/08/2024

✅️ Lithium batteries installed

It feels incredible to have this project completed. Paul did such a good job researching everything needed to do the installation and then did the work himself.

We've wanted lithium batteries for years, but were determined to squeeze every last bit of life out of our old AGM batteries. Now that we have 920 Ah of lithium, I'm already dreaming about an electric galley. 😉

For a full list of all the electronics and tools we used (particularly our Epoch Batteries and Victron Energy gear), head on over to our blog at svmystichearts.com. (Link also in our bio.) We've broken down the pricing and provided links to everything.

06/08/2024

In our last post, we shared "before" photos of our upgrade to lithium batteries. Now, we're highlighting a few of the many steps that it took to get the new batteries installed and system hooked up.

✨️ DURING PHOTOS ✨️

1st Pic - The new lithium batteries strapped in and mounted to a shelf. Previously, only 1 AGM battery was able to fit into this exact space.
2nd Pic - Paul took a piece of plywood, covered it in epoxy to seal out moisture, and built a platform shelf to hold the new batteries.
3rd Pic - One of the finished battery cables that connects the 2 negative posts between the batteries.
4th Pic - Our new Victron lynx distributor system all located together in our aft cabin. The gray cable organizer is open to show where all the cables will be hidden. Each connection now has its own appropriately sized fuse, which was not the case with the old AGM batteries.

➡️ Stay tuned for updates. Our next post of the "after" photos will have additional details about the equipment we purchased. Then we'll show the custom cabinet we built along that back wall to cover everything.

05/08/2024

We took this past winter off from cruising to make some much-needed upgrades to Mystic Hearts, the biggest of which were the installation of new batteries. Our old AGM batteries (600 Ah total, so about 300 usable) were no longer serving us well, so we went ahead and made the switch to lithium. 🙌🏻

✨ ️BEFORE PHOTOS ✨️

1st Pic - A disorganized mess of cords. Some of the battery switch posts had 7 connections (not recommended)!! 🤦🏻‍♀️
2nd Pic - Another view under the bed of the battery switches.
3rd Pic - One of our old house batteries, located under the bed in the aft cabin. (The other two were located under our companionway stairs in front of the engine. We didn't want to put the new batteries there because it gets too hot.) The new lithium batteries will all be located where the old house battery (that was under the bed) is because it'll be the shortest distance to run the new cords to the new bus bar.

31/07/2024

Way back in 2020, we started following Steph and Travis's adventures on Sailing Jibsea. We just missed seeing them that autumn while we were in Annapolis on our shakedown cruise because of timing, but they were the first sailors to recognize our boat "in the wild." 🥹

After that, they took off down the U.S. East Coast, cruised through the Caribbean, and then crossed the Atlantic Ocean (twice). They've been to so many incredible places (we especially love their footage from the Faroe Islands just north of the U.K.) and they have one of the best YouTube channels out there (check them out and subscribe if you haven't already). 🌎

We've loved keeping up with them over the years, but never thought we'd both be in the same place at the same time again. Needless to say, we were excited when we heard they were headed up our way to put their boat on the hard. 🎉

So good to finallyyyy meet and hang out before your next big adventure! See you back out on the water! ⛵️

30/07/2024

We've done so much boat work lately (a lot to catch everyone up on! 🙈) that it's nice to just have a relaxing afternoon and cool off at the pool.

If you've ever spent time in the Chesapeake Bay during the summer, you know that the humidity here is no joke. 🥵 It's no surprise that our favorite season on the Bay is autumn. Warm days, cool nights, and even sweater weather...we're looking forward to these days ahead because there is nothing better than fall cruising in the Chesapeake. 🍂

23/07/2024

Same anchorage, three different views. ⚓️

22/07/2024

We haven't shared a post on .sailing.kitties recently, but no worries, they're doing great! Mac turned 14 in June, and Joseph is we believe the same age now as well (based on what a vet approximated his age to be when he found us 12 years ago). 🥳

They're still not huge fans of sailing, but they love sitting in the cockpit in each new anchorage and being general terrors right before meal time. 😹 They're both very chatty, love a good pet, and still love their boat home 4 years later.

Don't let your cruising dreams stop just because you have a pet (or two)! Our cats will always be along for the ride with us. ⛵️

19/07/2024

After the storm passed, we were treated to a beautiful sky, with the sunset off our port side and a double rainbow off our starboard. It's hard to believe that just minutes before the sky was as dark and angry-looking as it was.

17/07/2024

💛⛵️💛

12/07/2024

Three Sheets Podcast recently had us on their show to discuss the cruising lifestyle. You can catch the full interview here. ⤵️

This week Erik and David sit down with Paul and Rebecca from SV Mystic Hearts as they detail what liveaboard life is like along America’s East Coast balancin...