Lessons Learned

We've learned quite a bit from our trip.

While we had two batteries, we probably used a lot less power than we thought. It also really helped that we had a solar powered anchor light and that we used battery powered reading lights at night. We would like to invest in a new solar pad to help recharge the battery. The current one is pretty old and we aren't sure how efficient it is.

We probably won't cruise on Threesome for more than two weeks next time. It takes a toll on your body when you're sleeping on 2'' cushions and crawling around. It is a really good boat for cruising the Keys because it doesn't draw all that much and it gets around quick, however we did have pretty minimal living space. While we were in the Keys, we looked at a lot of other boats to determine what the "ideal" cruising boat might be. We know there are trade offs in every boat but we aren't even sure if a monohull would make more sense or another multihull. I think the trick is to try and charter one of each to see which works better for us.

We did not use as much freshwater as we initially thought we would. We had about 10 gallons for washing dishes, and showering and we might have used 6 gallons the whole trip. I suppose we didn't shower all that much when we were anchored, either. We were also in and out of the marinas a lot so it was easy to refill if we had to, but we never really needed to. On the other hand, we definitely drank more fresh water than we thought.

We stayed in marinas more often than we thought we would. So we spent more money in that area, than we had planned. But I think that was because we didn't know the prime anchorages and it was just easier to know you would be safely tied up at night. We did find some excellent places that we would like to anchor next time in the ICW.

We learned a lot about what places we wanted to go back to. We loved Bahia Honda State Park, but we definitely missed some prime places too. We would really like to go to John Pennecamp for snorkeling. We found out a lot from other cruisers as well; places they liked and places to avoid. Newfound Harbor turned out to not be the greatest anchorage.

We ate out a lot more than we thought we would. Cooking on the boat became a hassle after the first two weeks. It was a little annoying to get everything out and essentially set up the entire kitchen and then everything you need for cooking.....just to have to break it all down again when you were finished. We also ran out of quick and easy meals so we ate hot dogs and tuna sandwiches pretty frequently which wore me out.

We also decided that this compatibility test was a success so we're going to keep each other, for now anyway.

Lauren & Scott