Free from Deltaville (we still love Deltaville)

Lila feeling a bit under the weather.Ben securing a second line.Pam setting up a new radar reflector, "Hey Tom and Cliffton can I apply for a rigger job?"Maybe not my cup o tea, I'll stick to interpreting!Always something to clean and do!

Ben the photographer!

Lila the great Kayak warrier! Welp before I get to that let me back up to this morning!

Last night we slept out on the deck. It was cool! Yes you heard me cool! I even slept in my sleeping bag all cuddly. Then I got up and made pancakes and eggs! Yumm I been waiting to do that for weeks but it has been too hot to cook anything in the galley. When I came up to the deck Ben did not look so good.  He had a touch of seasickness.  I’m glad we were not out to sea on the 4 day overnight cuz it takes a while for some people to get sea-legs and Ben is one of them. Same thing happened last year. Today It was blowing maybe 15 knots, seas 3-4 feet. Enough to get the boat rocking and Ben’s stomach queezy. (plus Lila looked a bit green under the gills) I have learned in life to follow my gut and that is why I can make a good captain and maybe a better one each year to follow. It is good for us to be in Yorktown to batten everything down, Take our time securing the boat and just looking for possible problems in our life support/home.

After Ben’s tummy took a upturn, he went out on the kayak to tie another line to the mooring, good idea to have two lines.  This would be the first time he kayaked in rough weather getting in and out of the boat. (most people laugh at us when we say, “this year we are kayaking and not dingying.) We don’t even have the dingy inflated. We can inflate it anytime we need, if we need. So I took a video of his first rough attempt and it was uneventful.  I was hoping to get a good splash on video sorry, I was hopin’.

Then we all went kayaking to the dock to pay the man for a mooring ball. Lila is such a pro! She is so adorable. The best cat ever the rode a kayak. She was on the bow in the stern and underside checking it all out.  She hopped from my boat to Ben’s. She hopped on the dock like she does this everyday. People laugh and point at her.

After some civilization and ice cream and Ben showing we traveled back.

I went up the mast (It is way easier for Ben to crank me up the mast than me to crank him up the mast) I went to attach our radar reflector. I hope it stays up there! I zip tied it as tight as I could..

Then we went motoring out to calibrate the autohelm again. We read the manual and we think we did it right. The chartplotter looked good, the gps matched the compass which matched the autohelm’s compass. Our deviation at first try was 25 degrees off. It says if it is more than 15 something is major wrong.  So we calibrated it again with a 9 degree’s off where the computer will calibrate and fix the mis communication. (or so the plan) we went out and drove around. It seemed to be working again in concert with the other components.

Then we picked up a mooring ball and there was a strong enough tide and no wind for the ball to keep hitting out hull.  We looked down and scrappp scrappp it was the ball had barnacles all up and down it! I would not have it so I hoped in the kayak and set out to scrap off those nasty critters and scrape I did!!! Then Ben joined me after he saw what fun it was – grin. Now we have a clean mooring ball to sit here for a few days while we regroup and see Becca Jason VandeWettering !

Oh hey! I just looked up and there is the big dipper and the last star is our anchor light. Cute well that is a good ending to a busy day!

Yorktown & Lila's first big adventure

Yorktown!

We left Deltaville! It took all day for the new display to arrive. We sea tested and calibrated the unit. Once we were done we dropped off Mike on the Deltaville dock in a touch and go fashion then zoom away we go into the sunset.  I hear Ben is blogging right now so I don’t need to give the details just highlights and pictures.

This morning while waiting and again it was hot, we went to Dick and Anne’s place and learned more about our Single Side Band! Finally we can tune to frequencies and hear people! That was amazing and exciting!

Tom saw us still at the dock and said, “when are you going to get a Deltaville Boatyard T-shirt?” Funny tom! I would like one for a memento.

We snuck off without saying goodbye because we have been saying good bye for a few days/weeks/month.

Ok hightlight… It was a beautiful day! Sunny and hot and actually when we left not a breath of wind. We motored and I said to Ben, “I don’t like to be pushed to do things when we are not ready.” I have not played with the new GPS/chartplotter to just go off and sail at night, that would stress me. Interestingly, he just said we can motor. It’s easy to be the captain when he agrees with me… I did not have to whine or complain but just state my case and poof. Then I felt better cuz now we had wind and it would be hard to put up a main sail while windy. Ahhh I felt better.

I played and played with all the equipment. So slick! So easy! I absolutely love AIS! When we are at night or day a triangle will pop on the screen (the triangle looks like an arrow pointing) I can tell the direction. Last year at night I could see the target but not know which way they were moving. I click another screen and a list of all the vessels within 20 miles will pop on my screen! Now for me to see they have to have AIS – it is a law that all big ships and tugs etc.. have to have this equipment. So little boats and other sailboats don’t have it then you have to find them on radar. This radar was amazing! Now I know how big a sailboat looks like on radar. Way Way Better than our last one.  Last year the radar was the old fashion one with streaks and smudges oh my that stressed me out.  But this radar was very cool.  The only thing I didn’t figure out (I’ll look on the manual tomorrow) how do you tell weather? Clouds? We started getting a quick rain shower off in the distance and it looked like a fleet of ships coming at us when it was clouds. Humm I’m glad I didn’t go night sailing today!

Here is the kicker, we are motoring along about an hour and a half away when Ben said, “Hey I’ll water proof the autohelm box like Mike asked us to do.” Sounds like a good idea since we see clouds coming soon. He touched the back of the box and the autohelm went crazy and turned 90 degrees. The picture on the screen when wacky! I turned off the auto helm and was now steering myself following the old fashion bouys. BUT I knew where we were cuz I had been paper charting all day. I also ran down and got the hand held gps back up, turned it on. This is the first time I had used handheld gps Ben has already played with it and knows how it works.  Like he played with the SSB (single side band radio) and he knew some and could help Dick and Anne with a few fun buttons and things. Then we disconnected the autohelm and then the chartplotter worked using the gps – as long as  we are moving the gps will give us a heading but when we stop the gps only give a dot on a screen without “direction” so no heading would be displayed. It was a good drill for us today one I hope to have both of us remember that we need to know where we are at all times on the charts just in case this happens.

We came into Yorktown with a windy day and the tide was rising… here is a nice feature too – it tells me my water speed! Imagine? So now I can drive up slow and I know when I am stopping where before when the engine was in idle there was no information as to how fast on water I was going.  I didn’t tell Ben until we were done mooring.  He said I did and excellent job, the best ever.  I then confessed it was easy when I knew how fast and slow to go.

Well I’m tiried tonight and Ben is blogging for you all so he can tell all the details today.  Smiling big Pam, blessings to you all!

Plan Z or just other ideas of what is next

So hot Lila got sick.  These pictures show it all.

 I bought this dumpy hat to wear as sunscreen when we are out on the water where no one will see me accept for Ben. But it is so hot that I gave in to dumpy-ness and I wear it shyly.  I feel so stupid, but it does help a lot with the heat.

Here is Ben taking care of Lila by bonding in the heat.  Lila threw up and has been laying around. I’m in the AC lounge doing work and just sending out a quick blog on our ideas.  Good thing we don’t have plans cuz we would be on plan Z by now.

Our auto helm display unit is bad. We are fed-ex ing a new one for tomorrow so we can get going.  We thought about not having an electric autohelm and we were just going to decide that when they found a display unit for us and they did test it with a display unit from a different boat. So another day we stay in the heat!

Now our ideas: leave tomorrow – sail all night to Yorktown, visit with Becca and Jason one last time before we shove off,  wait for weather window which looks good actually for the atlantic this next week.. But we are not holding our breathe!

That is the scoop now.

Lila's first Kayak ride

At 7:30pm the temperature read 99 degrees.

I’m not complaining just in awe of heat. I’d rather be too hot than too cold cuz not too many people die of too hot but when you are too cold your mind starts to think crazy… Well last night we might have been on the verge of crazy with heat. It was the hottest day so far without a breath of wind to boot. It was so miserable at times Ben preferred sleeping out on the deck  and getting eaten by no-see-ums than swealtering below.

The first night on a swaying boat always takes a bit to get used to anyway cuz you wake up with any banging of the anchor chain, or sound of halyard banging on the mast from people around you etc… let’s just say that the normal temp was 104 so we took our last ride in Ben’s blue Honda Fit Sport… sniff … We love that car! We don’t need two cars anymore cuz we have a boat to get us around and when we are in town we can share my car. A one car family will have to do.

This morning was lazy getting up after not sleeping much. I actually read a bit of a book. Then It was time to have Lila take her first kayak ride! We were a little apprehensive cuz  with Owen (rest in peace) he was scared and I got a few good claw marks on my arm, legs and any open skin. Lila, nope, she was as sweet and poised as could be! Ben lifted her down to me, she hopped, looked around, and explored the kayak under my feet and around my person.  She poked her head out a few times as if to say, “I approve, now when can we go to my playground on shore?”

Today we went to Becca Jason VandeWettering’s house, they are graciously going to try and sell the car! We hope they do, in the mean time they can drive it all they want! Me-casa-yo-casa  Me-car-yo-car.

We got back around 8:30 and hopped in the pool to cool off and get ready for another hot night. But so far tonight seems cool enough with a tiny breeze and have already gotten cooled by the pool.

Tomorrow is the sea-trail to see if everything works. Hopefully it will be a simple fix!

sorry we did not get a picture of Lila Kayaking! She was a cutie!

Zzzzz

Blessings on you All!

Good news or Bad news first?

Do you want the good or bad first?

The good is we are anchored out in the bay! It was a busy day just getting the last things we need ready. Well we still have to sell our car but I know a used car salesmen! (or sales woman) You will never guess? For those of you church goers at Atonement it is Becca (Steinmeier) Yup she loves her job. Who would have thought it?

So let me tell you of our day. First got up and snuck into the break room in the boatyard.  Well we did not have to sneak too hard cuz now we look like we are workers at the boatyard, we are familiar faces so us walking in caused no alarm. We just walked by a few people and raised no eyebrows. Then we taped up on their wall a picture of each person that had something to do with our boat. From the owner, Keith to the lift operator to the battery checker to the office… 16 in total. I guess one could say we are helping the economy. I hope it cheers up their day cuz their pictures are so good of them in action.

Then we shoved off to the pump out dock where a bunch of boat owners that know us came to grab the bow sprit so I did not touch the pylons … ooppss. It was a grand affair with smiles all around and cheers.  While our short trip from the slip to the dock we noticed that the auto helm (electric one – we have a wind operated one too) did not turn on.  I walked to Keith and he sent out Mike to look at the auto helm. Mike hopped on and did some tinkering and poof on it went.

We topped off the water and proceeded to the anchoring place to find out while driving that the auto helm did not work. It was stuck in Standby mode.

Keith told us to come back in on Monday for a sea trail cuz sometimes you have to set the autohelm while using it.

Whatever so here we are getting ready one – two – three – etc….

It is cooler out here. We are sitting in the cockpit during the sunset with Lila.  OH yes Lila, how is she doing her first time out to water??? Well this morning I did not let her roam for fear we would not find her so we put a leash on her. She was not happy about it so her way a dealing was to just sleep it off.  So off she went in the cabin to find a cooler place and slept. While we moved out she slept through that too.  When we turned off the engine and anchored out she popped! Looking confused but thinking and thinking, you could just see her wheels spinning. She walked around the boat looking over the edge then she looked up at me and meowed as if to say, “What did you do to the dock? Where do I jump off to explore?!” It is hot so she’s not too hyper. Actually she is enjoying being with us, just mellowing out on the boat. She is still sleepy and lazy.  I’m so tired too!!!  zzzzzz

Out to Anchor! AT&T back to Bad again!!!

Finally we will go out of the boatyard and anchor to get ready to go out to sea!
Today was a bit frustrating but it is over... all the long days of waiting and doing nothing and waiting  tearing things out putting them back over and over again etc...
the exciting thing is that on the wheel we now have a chart plotter WITH AIS which means I can see the terrain of the bottom of the sea so we don't go a ground. I can see where to go if we are close to the bottom. Here is the exciting part... while sailing at night we can put on the AIS and big boats will pop up on our screen: we will know the heading, speed and destination, oh the vessel's name and more. In a 12 mile radius we will see a list of all the boats in the vicinity! unlike Radar has those blobs like things (kinda like ultra sound pictures when people say look at my baby and you respond with a smile and say cute even though you don't see anything but blobs) with Radar it is hard to know a buoy from a boat at night. Oh all the buoys are on there too! with numbers! amazing! now I hope it all works.
Well it took a long time to get the electronics to talk with each other and some just plain refused to talk.  On our Single Side Band we don't have our position, but that's ok cuz we have a hand held gps and a gps plotter and we also have iphones with gps. down below we had a monitor that had heading and depth and wind but now nothing which is fine cuz our computer will hook up to the Garmin chart plotter and we will see everything we need to see... that is if the chartplotter will repeat to the computer.  so far they will not talk with each other. we gave up trying. we will try again when we get to NY. It is get out of dodge.  so here are the new plans:
   go to anchor, get the boat in order. Everything is out of cubby holes cuz we pulled everything out to run wires. that should take two days. so by Monday we should be out of jackson creek. Then down to Yorktown to possibly visit Becca and Jason and kids again. Stay a few days? then scoot out to sea where it will take us a few days about 3 depending if we have good favorable winds to Sandy Hook where we will stage to entrance through Hells gate NY through the city. those are the ideas anyway.
I'm so ready to get off the boatyard!!!
   today after Mike finished up. We went swimming and then went out to eat with our New Zealand friends to an excellent restaurant! yumm oh yummm!
Sorry about not calling those people i mentioned yesterday that is because our phones are bad again! they atleast can received text and emails. For Nola about the flags... are about 12 x 16 or so maybe 14x18. they need to have ties on the top and bottom of the leading edge so we can tie them to a line and run them up a flag pole, they don't need to be elaborate and can even be colored with markers although a seamstress that you are I'm sure fabric is your art form media. We won't be going anyplace until Nov or so.
Stay cool
In His arms
Pam

104 degrees in the shade... update on electronics

104 degrees in the shade 110 degrees or more in the cabin. We do have fans cuz we are still hooked up to electricity, which really help but hot is hot.  I think I could officially say it is blistering hot because I heard someone say that today. 

So what is new… well I’ll wait till tomorrow to tell you all the news because right now we have a lot of maybes…. We have old equipment trying to talk with new equipment and the connections and languages are not compatible as it stands. BUT Mike is on it. He has called the manufacturers etc… and he will give us the news at 5:30 in the morning.  He obviously likes to work in the cooler weather and we don’t blame him.  So early to rise again – well that is if we sleep due to the heat, then it will be just waiting until 5:30am.  As it stands I hear and see a good storm trying to brew up over in the west. Beautiful sunset!

So here is the picture for the day… Tom was back on the boat connecting the boom bracket to the mast. Sounds like an easy job… it is if you are Tom and you have the right tools! Like big beefy drills to make bigger holes and set the screws in tightly. I’m sure big beefy arms helps in the process.

Oh today too was a funny mensa puzzle.  We had to get the compass back on but the chartplotter was in the way. Have no fear the person with the smallest hands wins again! I’d like to see Tom do that. Well I like to think I have great value.

Yippy here comes the wind!

Oh hey we have ATT back! So I will be calling a few of you tomorrow and you know who you are… (dad, Rebecca) I posted one more picture of Mike too. By the look of the pictures you would never know it is blistering hot! These guys have the best attitudes. sweet!

too hot! anticipating heat index of 110 for tomorrow

too hot to blog. Here is a picture of stanley. If you could see his face it is drenched with sweat, his arms are shiny with sweat.  Join the club we all look like that just sitting around.

Almost at anchor then out to sea!

Yup today was very productive.  what's all the fuss you say.  look at the picture of the most beautiful chart plotter AND it is at the wheel.  No more running up and down the stairs in and out! No more wondering if I'm close to run aground! there are so many things this thing can do I'll save you the details until later when I learn it all.

I today the heat even got to me! By six I was so miserable! The heat index was 104 degrees, 96 degrees regular, humidity 89% and no wind! We worked alllll day on the boat. We learned how to tune the rigging cables which is super important to have a slight bend aft but still be straight from side to side. There is more to it but I'll save you the lesson.

Ben is right now playing with the new chart plotter; I'm sure he will learn it faster than me. It's a computer essentially. I'll be excited to learn too but I will still keep on the nav-station paper charts and a hand held gps.

tomorrow is supposed to be hotter than today! Maybe I will experience Blistering heat right in the Chesapeake?

To answer yesterday question, bye the way, thanks Jacquie for playing the game... When you come into a new country you have to fly their flag on your spreader support and your home flag in the stern. So each place they travel they make a flag out of cloth and markers.  Most flags are those colors.  We went to town yesterday so we got them markers and in return they have us to blank flags so we can make our own when we start traveling.  Unless my sister wants to sew flags, this winter we hope to be in the bahamas. (hint hint hint)  Iphones are amazing because we have all the flags of the world right here on our iphone!

I'm so tired from days of not sleeping due to the heat (the cabin cools off around 1 or 2) Then the workers knock on our boat at 7am! time for bed for me! there is a wind tonight
zzzzz

Joe & Fran and Provisioning

Provisioning, yes! I think we are close although no one worked on the boat today. That was alright since we were out provisioning for the boat. We got food (mostly non-refrigerating type). wishful thinking I might be doing. We did a whole foods run enough food probably for a month. Last time we went was about a month ago. I got a scuba mask since I lost mine and I think I lost Ben's too. a long mic-cord so we can plug the computer into the speakers or the keyboard (piano) into the speakers.

Here is a question for you all. Some sailboaters asked us to get sharpie markers of the thick kind: Yellow, Red, Blue, Black, Orange, Green and if possible purple.  Ok so you tell me why they needed them? and why these colors.  I will await your answers in the comment section unless you are too embarrassed then send me an email and I will keep your name anonymous.

We went to visit my dad's good friends Joe and Fran. They also let us store some stuff in their barn: 2 big tarps that we use for winterizing the boat, a radar pole that we took off but will put back on if we get wind generator and some bottom paint. When we left Ben had summed up the meeting perfectly by saying...
     What relationship are they to us again? Then he smiled.  They seem like they should be Aunt Fran and Uncle Joe, they feel like family.
    I had to totally agree. Aren't there people in your life where they feel like family and they are not? or they feel closer than family and they are not? Joe and Fran are so welcoming. their house is over 100 years old, they bought it 20 years ago and it was in shambles... a total shambles and they fixed it up so beautifully it was great to get the tour!
   what can I say? it is past bed time 6:50AM comes early for me, but not for the yard workers where some are even here at 6:30!!! no pictures... sorry.. zzzzz

Trying to stay Cool!

look closely into my eyes!

Yesterday 6-19-10 Richmond cemetery… Amazing!

Ben and I got up early as usual these days. We don’t know what day they come to work on our boat. Even when they say they might they don’t. You’ve heard it all. It is frustrating to always be up at 6:50 “just in case” they come… but I’m really not complaining except on Saturdays and Sundays don’t ya think we all can sleep in just one day a week.  They work on both those days. So Saturday we got up early in anticipation… nope not today. Then we were going to drop off some stuff and visit Fran and Joe – Dad’s friends… but we don’t have cell coverage and they were gone when we called so we thought we would wait for a different day to visit and provision. We heard that a cemetery in Richmond is way cool.  Ben and I like cemeteries. Wowza this was the coolest cemetery! Three Presidents are buried there but more than that it is old, on a river, on a bluff, on rolling hills, in a city, near the train, the stones are unique and everywhere you look there is love given to the stones through decorative expressions, flowers, trinkets, etc. we could have spent all day there. We ate – yumm! Went to the civil war museum. (I don’t know why we keep falling upon so much war stuff? When we walked out I had to laugh cuz Ben said, “Have’nt we learned anything yet? Stop-it!” I had to laugh at how he said it. Just stop-it. When we were eating there was a tv playing the world soccer games. We both have thought this… why not have wars played out with games like soccer? Whoever wins – wins. Then we are all winners cuz no one dies.  Ok ok I can hear some of you say… enough with the polly-anna talk. We ended out day by meeting up with our boating friends we met last year, Jen and Maxwell. They just finished sailing to the Bahama’s this winter, we followed their blogs. We saw them walking on the way to the Deltaville baseball game where once again (this is my 3^rd game) They got Trounced!

Today:

Not a breath of wind!! Today 95 with humidity of 88%. Way hot! Right now ben and I are sitting in the stern looking at a heat lightning storm off in the distance. It is so stifling hot! Sweat is pouring down my legs and the no-see-um bugs are feasting on my toes. There is no way I want to go in the cabin. It has to be over 100 tonight in there and getting hotter as the temp rises due to the hot teak deck during the day. I’m risking bugs than heat. Ben is doing his part he is having a pipe to help keep the bugs away! Isn’t that nice of him.  Today for father’s day we went to a movie. (to cool off and we enjoyed toy story 3) how do they do it? I love Pixar! Then we went for ice cream to celebrate Ben’s wonderful parenting. And now we sweat! And sweat. Who needs to have a gym membership to use a sauna when you can have one right here.

The water is glass calm, the music of Peter Ostreuscho (spelt wrong I’m sure) is playing sweetly in the background, peaceful. Yes Im trying to focus on peaceful not hot! Maybe a cold beer is in order?

Still no AT&T

Emails get through on wifi.

Take care, blessings and freedom to you all. All means All! 

just pictures

One of these feet were stuck and caused us pain and hours to get off. Then the boat yard shined up the foot. Wow our whole boat has the potential to be that shiny! (not in my life time. maybe I'll pick one thing a week to shine and admire and by the next week it will look dark green again)

Oh I cant stand how this blogger puts in pictures! I will describe the picture and you just have to figure out what words go with which picture!

One picture shows Ben and Mike checking out the new mount for the chart plotter!

Guy waving is Neil. He worked on our outboard motor.

Grayson (that might be spelled wrong) He has a wealth of knowledge also in many different areas. He plays the guitar, although I have not heard him yet. Him and Ben were going to jam but it's too busy here.

Here is our little Lila in my cubby hole near my bed (V birth) she is trying to stay cool. I've given up butting my clothes in there neatly. She hops in there and digs to make a cute little bed, things fly out at me. She has made quite a few friends in the boat yard with many of the kids that hang out here. at night she makes her rounds to the screened in porch where kids are ready to pick her up and cuddle with her.

Moving forward!

Today we got the safety bar off which was quite a big deal. balh blah blah blah... i'm not feelin' the blog tonight so I am just showing pictures. a pictures worth a lot.  I hope Ben blogs enough for us both. no pressure there, I just told him what I said in my blog ha ha ha ha....

I love this duck picture taken by Ben (all these were taken by Ben)... Is the duck fluffing? shakin' out the water from its ear? tipsy from the water? or just plain dancing for joy for being a duck? what do  you all think?

I also love the osprey around here! look at the wings on this picture!

next this is the Cricket's home for now. We made progress again! Mike showed up and did a lot of the wiring except for the cockpit unit cuz we are a bit stuck... the safety bar is the thing you hang on to when you are at the wheel and need a hold... that is where the chart plotter is going and we need to pull it up off the floor. ha ha ha easier said than done! one side came right up and the other side is totally stuck. not good... we shall wake up in the morning with a new day a dawning on us and the foot piece will come off so sweetly!

Remember last year with the electrical ... meaning the batteries were bad.  Welp they are still bad. we were thinking just go and buy two new big honkin batteries and install them, finally a plug and play operation that Ben and I can do successfully! right? until Mike says, "your AC converter is old... does it still work?"  "ahhh yes but the batteries are bad."  "The old inverter probably caused the batteries to be bad"  "WHAT?" we would have bought new batteries and them fail again within one year.  So we are going to budget next year for "power" put the solar panels up, maybe a wind generator and new batteries but for this year like last year we will go without refrigeration again.  All the more reason to get ice cream when we are in port! yumm!

I been thinkin' lately... welp we are in the boat yard and we hear about all the trouble boats have. how is it anyone gets anywhere. I had omitted an event that had taken me by surprise a few weeks ago when we were all on a boat anchored in the bay When All-of-a-sudden the thunder boomed and crack a boat in the yard was hit by lightning! it was on the hard and next to our boat, luckily we did not have a mast at that time. (good thing or God thing). In the BWCA we know to come ashore or don't touch metal etc... but here this boat that got hit... the lightning made a hole clear through the hull!!! yikes I can't tell you all this. yup one other boater said they onetime were in an anchorage and the boat next to them got hit... they called the coast guard cuz no one was on the boat, the coast guard was the wrong people to call... I think... but the next morning the only thing showing was the mast. oh my! sure enough here we saw a boat with a spider crack hole about 6 inchs spread out like a spiderweb.  then my mind went to... hummm how will we make it around the world? crazy! most people tell me we are crazy but those people have never done it before. Plus everything we do on the boat is for our lifes well being... or so it seems... so making little decisions on the boat seem so big sometimes. But then I was looking at the many boats on the hook/anchored... they raise their country flag... French, New Zealand, Austraila, etc... just right here.  How did they get here? by boat.... a sailboat.  Thor (a sailor in the 50's made it on a raft for miles and miles and months.... amazing) When I take a deep breath and look around me... I get inspired. We can do this one day at a time. one trip at a time. one decision at a time.  I have to admit We have a lot to learn, but learn it we can. We just met a man - he and his wife spent 7 years in Hawaii and around in that area and sailed the boat back to here.  there are many cute adorable couples that are way older than we are that seem to get around. they all say, sail safe, watch the weather as best you can, think twice. With that I will leave you with inspiration... God is good! And we are well blessed! amen

Two days in a row!

7:30am knock knock knock on the hull! Hello! It’s Mike again! Surprise again! It seems that when you least expect it… good things happen! For sure we thought we would be lowered on the list because one of their electronics guy did something to his leg where the Doctor said don’t work for a week. Oh my he was back in the yard.  I have to say all the guys are so committed. That must say something for the owners  of the yard that the guys are that dedicated and they care about their jobs so much as to come in when they’re not supposed to. .. well it says something.  Anyway…

So today we worked on more wires. Mike is a fast worker, and a guy that can multi task. (a rare find) Here are some more pictures of some of the other guys. The guy on the trackor is Joe. He is a buff’um and shine’um guy and a sand-it and varnish-it guy. He is many times next to our boat making other boats look like a million bucks and who knows I think many of those are a million or more!

Then there is Cliffton which I have not had a good picture of him up close, so here is the rigging guy doing what he does best… rig.

We ended our day with a late potluck supper. I’m so bad at food things especially cuz we have not gone to the grocery store for a long time. (close to a month) We are down to can food and chips – for some reason we stocked up on chips or they were on sale and Ben bought them. I had some cabbage left over (we have stopped at the local farm for some fresh stuff) I made cabbage, green peppers, onions and sausage.  All amazing if you ask me but not very good looking cuz no one ate it. Oh well how can I compete with people that bring steak, alfredo sauce, grilled veggies, and chocolate dessert. On the other hand I still have sardines (cuz they keep for a long time) pasta but I knew someone was making alfredo sauce stuff. Now if we would have had a potluck a few weeks ago it would have been better. Ha ha!

Lila found the boat last night just fine.  She left at night and came back a few hours later. Phew! She is getting the hand of the boat moving to different places.  Although she still looks like she wants to climb down a ladder and there is no ladder. Her confused little face is so cute and her brain is spinning you can sense her thinking! Even tonight when we finished the potluck the boat had been blown at it furthest point away from the dock (one thing I hate is trying to jump far – I’m afraid I’m going to miss it – or my back is going to pull out during the jump – I try to think positively.)… and Lila just hopped on without problems and she did not even jump from the closest point. Amazing! She is such a kitten, full of energy and loves to play! What a great companion. Right now she is helping Ben untie the halyards and pull those “ropes” from the mast so they don’t Clang clang all night! It is not polite to leave your lines banging!

Our cabin is such a mess!!! It is driving me crazy!!! On a boat everything has a place it if does not have a place it can’t come on the trip cuz you will be tripping over it. That thing will get in the way. We have our lockers cleared out so we can run wires. We have the sails in bags in the cabin. (they take up a lot of room). We have a big box we are going to send home of things we don’t need.  WE have stuff in the car we are going to sell. (the old Radar and Chart plotter) We have a pole we are going to store at my dad’s friends house. Wow for a short blogggg I’m getting quite windy!

AT&T still down! I miss texting my kids! All is well! Sleep well! Blessings to you all!

Yesterday when we talked with Sean he told us definitely nothing will happen today and they might start maybe Wednesday or thursday. We knew what that meant we've heard it all too much. So Since it's been so hot we decided to do the last spots of bottom paint in the early morning so as to avoid most of the heat. Well luckily we were up by 7am and eating breakfast (eggs and salami) when we heard a knock knock knock on the hull...?... Mike came up the stairs to say, "Hey I'm going to be working on your boat for 2 hours this morning!" Exciting!!! Come aboard! then John came by to say, "Hey when do you want to go in the water today!"  TODAY?!!! Yippy.  we scurried around getting everything ready for the water. Paint - check! ready! The big lift came and plopped us in the water. John I have talked about before. He is a very hard worker... He is the most visible.  The other workers are hard workers too but he happens to be the most visible. He is running here and putting big expensive boats in the water... running there and power washing the bottoms. He set the stands for the boats to rest on.  All this is on his shoulders. He is fast yet slow and meticulous all at the same time. He has a one year old boy named Trenton, and one on the way. His wife's brother just got in an accident and will need two years of rehab! A truck ran over him as he was walking down the road! So his wife is going to be with him for a while and John now is holding down the home fort.  He pretty much works 6 days a week 10 hrs a day like most of the guys and some guys work on Sunday too!!! Here are some fun pictures of our day.  Don't worry about Lila during the day she goes and hides in the cool forest areas or under the ladies deck near the bathroom.  At night she comes home.  So we will go looking for her before dark so we can train her were the boat is.  last time we moved from the North to the front she was confused for the first day. She went back to the old place and one boater back there brought her to us.  Then ben walked with her 3 or 4 times to the boat and away from the boat.  We moved the ladder from one side to the other and she looked confused for a minute then followed along. so we will do the same thing tonight.  She has been so hot with us. She just lays there and looks at us as if to say, "Why do you stay in here when it is so hot?" 

After all the excitement.  AFter we made sure the boat thru holes where all holding out the water, after the engine was good, oil checked, we then decided to seek a little refuge and find wifi where we can also call the office and have a conference call.  This was our third one of this nature and I think we have gotten the hang of conference calls.  the first one  was hard for me to connect since I could not "see" everyone, plus the connection was bad. the second one was better and this one I felt like I was in the office with everyone.  Hi everyone! I miss you all.  It was good to hear your voices and your conversations! thanks Anne, Erin, Jacquie, Katie, and Melissa (written in abc order) for all you do holding down the fort at ASLIS/Dycom! Smile Pam!!!

I wish I was more like the Lion

Lions tell everyone what they want and when and how high to jump. It is monday and time for the "walk of Sean" ... go to the office and ask them what is going on and when will they think we might be in the water! I am woman hear me Roarrrr! Maybe not so much. I can be assertive when I need to and today was assertive day. the only thing is, "a relationship is only as healthy as the least healthy person" so no matter how healthy and assertive I am, I can only do so much to change this situation. Welp Ben and I in solidarity and fortitude we walked up the stairs and stated, "We would like to be in the water this weekend". that sounded good to me and Ben... He responded with, I'll talk with the owner and get back to you.

So Ben and I went to get more things on our list: more bottom paint (we ran out ... so sad we had to buy another gallon!), ordered a radar Reflector, Maptech Charts, more screws, motor safety key, gas tank for our outboard dinghy, and gas, sealant chalk for chain plates, more bottom paint, paint for the bow sprit, and ice cream. We might have stopped at the best hole in the wall Rib place too! Ben put in a ground fault outlet (He's so handy that Ben! He's coming in to his own)

Now the day is gone it is 4:55pm we ran up to see Sean and ask.... welp?... He said he talked with Jim and he will be our electrician and Jim can "start" this week. We looked at him and both Ben and I thought "start - don't you mean finish"? of course we kept our comments to ourselves. he said once Jim "starts" we will know better when we can get it done. we left feeling sad again.

On the bright side, we love Deltaville and we are getting to know the people too. We had to stop by to Keaton and see if she was ok after she fell off a ladder yesterday. She is ok and has to go see a Dr and have surgery and etc.... poor Keaton. We will be glad to swim at her beach while she is away if we get a chance.

that is all of today. What about you all? I think a few emails or comments are in order don't you all think so? I do.

Have a nice night... Oh I stopped talking about the heat cuz it just keeps getting hotter and now I feel like I "smell" heat. In the winter your nose hairs freeze and in super hot the air coming in your nose - smell like hot. yes I'm weird.

I stopped talking about my cell phone cuz the tower is down and that is that. AT&T "gotcha" marketing. they Got us! I won't say it again. but I will say grrrr and I mean grrrr.

I love you all. Blessings!

Pam