© Will McLendon
Melanie Neale grew up on the water, living aboard her parent's sailboat as it navigated up and down the US East Coast, and around the islands of the Bahamas. She "grew up," married a Virginia farm boy, bought a used 19'' Starwind, and taught him to sail. Melanie's column, Boat Makes Three, recounts the ups and downs of that tumultuous first year on and off the water.
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by Melanie Neale on July 24, 2010 at 02:17AM
More than a year after buying Annabel Lee, our lives are still in a constant state of change. We're moving forward with buying a house in St. Augustine, which is huge for me – I only started living on land a few ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on July 17, 2010 at 03:11AM
With a few weekends of work and several hundred dollars invested in Annabel Lee’s rigging, it was time to put the mast back up. But with our trailer still busted, we couldn’t pull her out of the water and do things the ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on July 10, 2010 at 05:09AM
The house we’re renting in St. Augustine is kind of creepy – creepy in the way that you can imagine all kinds of strange things having gone on there in the past. Since we’ve been there, we’ve had several odd occurrences ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on July 03, 2010 at 03:01AM
As we limped back to the marina, our mast perched across the deck and sails crumpled around it, the whole thing lashed to the boat with various bungee cords, I felt my heart sinking into my belly. All the work that we’d put ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on June 26, 2010 at 01:57AM
For a few minutes, there was nothing I could do but crouch on the bow of the boat, and stare with utter shock at the scene before me. The mast was lying at an odd angle on top of the cabin. The sails were all crumpled on the ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on June 19, 2010 at 02:17AM
Things between us and Annabel Lee couldn’t have been going better. She was permanently in the water, and it looked good on her. Will and I would walk down to the dock at Camachee Cove marina to see her sitting peacefully ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on June 12, 2010 at 04:27AM
Getting up on a Saturday morning and being able to head down to the boat and simply go sailing is a novel thing. It’s so different from what we had gotten used to in Fort Lauderdale, where going sailing involved hooking up the ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on June 05, 2010 at 02:47AM
With Annabel Lee finally in the water, tucked away in a corner of Camachee Cove Yacht Harbor, it was easy to forget that we now had an unusable trailer. After all, we planned on keeping her in the water for a long time. The ... More »
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by Melanie Neal on May 29, 2010 at 03:08AM
As Will (along with Casey and Wes, the super-star crew from Camachee Cove Yacht Harbor) crouched underneath Annabel Lee’s trailer and tried to figure out exactly what had happened, my dad and I jumped in the Honda and ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on May 22, 2010 at 03:35AM
It was Easter Sunday and Annabel Lee looked her best, donned in a fresh coat of bottom paint and polished to perfection. And my hair was looking better too, as I had found a salon whose expert stylists managed to get ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on May 15, 2010 at 02:31AM
Back in St. Augustine, Spring was finally beginning to show. It was a new thing for me – the concept of flowers blooming and new leaves growing on the trees, the concept of an actual season. I was so excited about ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on May 08, 2010 at 02:19AM
Other people’s boats are great, but they are susceptible to the same kinds of problems as your own. And the bigger the boat, the bigger the problem. This is something that I repeatedly explain to Will each time he starts ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on May 01, 2010 at 02:44AM
There’s nothing quite like sailing on other peoples’ boats, especially when your own is sitting in hibernation beneath a layer of frost and dead leaves. As Annabel Lee rested, saving her energy up for Spring, Will and I ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on April 24, 2010 at 02:53AM
We had never seen ourselves living in South Florida permanently. For one thing, sailing in Fort Lauderdale was kind of a pain. Marinas were too expensive (dockage had tripled during the five years that I lived aboard my 28’ ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on April 17, 2010 at 02:10AM
The first time I drove the 4Runner with Annabel Lee in tow was the five-hour drive from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, up to our new home in St. Augustine. We hadn’t had the boat in the water since August, and it was a ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on November 21, 2009 at 01:50AM
The day was almost perfect. The only thing keeping it from being completely perfect was a small navigational miscalculation (on Will's part) toward the end of the day, challenging us to figure out exactly where we were ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on November 14, 2009 at 02:28AM
Leaving Boot Key Harbor, we were both starting to feel sad that this was the last full day of our cruise. Will snapped photos while I maneuvered the boat out the narrow channel toward the Seven Mile Bridge. I felt a little ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on November 07, 2009 at 01:24AM
We had the first good night of sleep aboard the boat that night. It was probably because a.) we were in a marina, where we didn't have to worry about the anchor dragging in a thunderstorm, and b.) we ran the little cabin fan all ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on October 31, 2009 at 01:32AM
Join us each week as we follow Melanie and Will and their quest for freedom on the high seas in Boat Makes Three...
Civilization can be a beautiful thing. When you’ve spent ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on October 24, 2009 at 04:33AM
Join us each week as we follow Melanie and Will and their quest for freedom on the high seas in Boat Makes Three...
After the second night in a row of not getting any sleep, Will and I began the next leg of our ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on October 17, 2009 at 04:17AM
Join us each week as we follow Melanie and Will and their quest for freedom on the high seas in Boat Makes Three...
After a tumultuous few nights off the lower Keys, it was a welcome feeling to drop anchor in ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on October 10, 2009 at 02:22AM
Join us each week as we follow Melanie and Will and their quest for freedom on the high seas in Boat Makes Three...
As we motored out of our anchorage at Long Key Bight, I wondered whether the day would bring any ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on October 03, 2009 at 06:50AM
Join us each week as we follow Melanie and Will and their quest for freedom on the high seas in Boat Makes Three...
I woke up around midnight to an electric flash that not only lit up the inside of Annabel Lee's ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on September 26, 2009 at 01:28AM
Join us each week as we follow Melanie and Will and their quest for freedom on the high seas in Boat Makes Three...
As Annabel Lee slipped off her trailer and into the water at Sea Bird Marine on Long Key, ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on September 19, 2009 at 09:02AM
Join us each week as we follow Melanie and Will and their quest for freedom on the high seas in Boat Makes Three...
I have a love/hate relationship with our new boat. As much as I would love to say that our time ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on September 12, 2009 at 04:19AM
Join us each week as we follow Melanie and Will and their quest for freedom on the high seas in Boat Makes Three...
It was now apparent that we were going to need to do something about Will's seasickness. After a ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on September 05, 2009 at 12:05AM
Join us each week as we follow Melanie and Will and their quest for freedom on the high seas in Boat Makes Three...
After a fitful first night of sleep aboard Annabel Lee, Will and I awoke to a ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on August 28, 2009 at 10:37PM
Join us each week as we follow Melanie and Will and their quest for freedom on the high seas in Boat Makes Three...
After about a month of weekends spent sanding and painting and adding various creature-comforts ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on August 21, 2009 at 05:33AM
Join us each week as we follow Melanie and Will and their quest for freedom on the high seas in Boat Makes Three...
Painting and caulking and fixing leaks is all part of boat ownership (and, when you consider the ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on August 15, 2009 at 02:59AM
Join us each week as we follow Melanie and Will and their quest for freedom on the high seas in Boat Makes Three...
I've never painted a boat before. I mean, I've painted dinghies and boat bottoms and ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on August 08, 2009 at 12:22PM
Join us each week as we follow Melanie and Will and their quest for freedom on the high seas in Boat Makes Three...
"That looks like crap," was the first thing Will said when he looked up from what he was doing ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on August 01, 2009 at 01:52AM
Join us each week as we follow Melanie and Will and their quest for freedom on the high seas in Boat Makes Three...
Two weeks after we bought our boat, now named Annabel Lee, we launched her for the first ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on July 25, 2009 at 01:00AM
Join us each week as we follow Melanie and Will and their quest for freedom on the high seas in Boat Makes Three...
The day had finally come! Our “new” sailboat, the 1986 Starwind 19 was ready for her maiden ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on July 18, 2009 at 12:00AM
Join us each week as we follow Melanie and Will and their quest for freedom on the high seas in Boat Makes Three...
I have never owned a trailerable sailboat, nor have I driven a vehicle with a trailer in tow. I ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on July 11, 2009 at 12:00AM
Join us each week as we follow Melanie and Will and their quest for freedom on the high seas in Boat Makes Three...
We made an offer on the Starwind 19 the day after we looked at it, and were surprised when the ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on July 05, 2009 at 03:07PM
Join us each week as we follow Melanie and Will and their quest for freedom on the high seas in Boat Makes Three...
The dealer from Wholesale Marine seemed baffled by the fact that I was the one crawling around ... More »
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by Melanie Neale on June 27, 2009 at 12:00AM
Join us each week as we follow Melanie and Will and their quest for freedom on the high seas in Boat Makes Three...
My husband, Will, and I have kind of an unusual story. We met at a marina on the eastern ... More »
