Blue Turtle is a 1974 40' DeFever Trawler and our permanent home in southwest Florida. This blog is about our journey of living aboard, working full time and raising a boy—while still finding time to cruise. Get to know us—Kim, Randy, Corey and Sophie—and follow our adventure!
As I mentioned in my previous post, the day after Thanksgiving we finally got off the dock for the first time in 6 months. That was quite a long spell for us to be docked since we typically cruise a lot more often even if only getting out for the weekend. We’ve been so busy with work and traveling that cruising took a back seat for a while. With red tide still being in the...
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Hi there. Remember me? I used to post quite regularly here about cruising and living aboard. I have to say that you really haven’t miss much since my last post back in May. Where has the time gone? It seems like life sometimes just gets in the way of our cruising and posting regularly. With a teenage boy, we’ve come to realize now that sometimes his schedule doesn’t always coincide with our cruising plans. That,...
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Seven years ago on Mother’s Day weekend, Randy, his father (John), my father (Steve), and I brought Blue Turtle home from Long Boat Key, FL. It was a whirlwind weekend trip filled with excitement and maybe a few thoughts of, “oh dear, what have we gotten ourselves into?” At the time, we really had no idea how it would change our life and our perspective of it. All we knew is that we loved being...
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This May marks our 7th year living aboard Blue Turtle. During this time, Randy and I have both worked full time. While Randy works for a company as a regional sales rep, I have been running my business, Blue Turtle Graphics, from the boat. Last year, my company celebrated its 10 year anniversary and it’s hard to believe that 7 of those years were while living aboard. Our little home office It’s not always easy...
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As you might have heard from our last post about our recent repairs on Blue Turtle, we are finally cruising again! And what better way to test the steering and engine repairs made by Randy than cruising to Keewadin Island? Beach time! Keewaydin Island is typically on our cruise-to list whenever we have more than a weekend to get off the dock. Since it typically takes 5-6 hours to get there, we usually reserve trips...
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You might have noticed that we haven’t been off the dock in while. Typically this time of year we cruise often to take advantage of the cool winter weather. Unfortunately, we’ve had some down time due to a few issues with Blue Turtle that Randy has been troubleshooting and resolving. One was with our 185hp Perkins engine and the other was with our steering. During a previous trip, Randy noticed the oil pressure on the...
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Another TrawlerFest is in the books! Two weeks ago, Randy and I drove to the east coast of Florida to participate in our third TrawlerFest in Stuart, Florida. Unfortunately, this year we didn’t have Corey with us. Being a teenager now, we’ve realized that we just aren’t cool enough for him to hang out with anymore 🙁 Maybe he’ll come with us again in the future. The show was held at the Hutchinson Island Marrott...
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This post contains affiliate links through Amazon. Please read our Disclosure for more info. One thing you will hear across marinas in Southwest Florida is a collective groan when bringing up the subject of bottom cleaning. Our water here is some of the most aggressive, high growth seawater around. It is dark, high in nutrients and it appears that the stronger the current your boat is in, the higher the growth rate. I’ve been diving my...
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Blue Turtle Crew has once again been invited to give our presentation on Cruising to the Dry Tortugas at Trawlerfest in Stuart, Fl. This March will mark our third year presenting on the Dry Tortugas to seminar attendees where we share our experiences of provisioning, getting there and anchoring to snorkeling, diving and fishing this beautiful oasis. Below are some details of this upcoming Trawlerfest and we hope to see you there! TrawlerFest 2019: Stuart,...
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With the Christmas holiday over, it was time for Blue Turtle crew to get off the dock. The holidays have always been a great time for us to get off the dock. With work slowing down for Randy and I, and Corey out of school it’s always been a great time for us to cruise a little further than our neighboring spots. In the past, we’ve cruised to Palm Island Marina in Cape Haze, Pelican...
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