NEW BLOG SITE

sailblogs.com/member/cricket

Hi all, I have loved this blog site but it does not do remote entries or give long/Lat. so I am switching to sailblogs for  now.

Monday - a tale of two sisters.

Hi ALL!

Monday - a tale of two sisters.

To contrast the lifestyles...  I rolled over in a queen sized bed, got up in my 70 degree room, had a hot shower with plenty of water pressure, brushed my teeth (and rinsed them with fresh water) was able to easily pass by my husband on his way to the bathroom without changing course, style my hair in a rather large picture mirror, watch the news, use the hotel WIFI, and sit at a kitchen table and enjoy the morning.

Pam on the other hand, rolled over in a torpedo tube of a nook that I'm not sure Ben can even sit up straight in; got up in a cabin that is probably about 40 degrees, if she wanted to shower would have to walk around the dock (it is 39 degrees out) up the ramp and around to the non-heated bathroom with barely any water pressure (to the point where you practically have to jump around to get wet); brush her teeth with the water there coming out of a tap encrusted with some sort of green barnacle stuff, brush her hair in a rather tiny mirror mounted too high (it does say "you're pretty" below it); walk back to the boat with cold wet hair, navigate back on board, tip toe around the nav station; down the steep ladder to get to the kitchen nook. (no wifi).

If you can live with that most days, then here is the payoff. A beautiful stroll with your best friend, surround sound picture windows that only God can put together; meeting people that us city dwellers would probably rush past; experiencing  new cultures; living with breathless nature and animals; the freedom to go where you want, when you want without the shackles of society; and love.

Ed and I wish them all the best for a safe, happy, fun, adventurous trip. We will be happy to fly and meet you where ever you land!

This is Nola, signing out!!!

 our view

 Ed sailing

 Ed and Lila

 Ben getting his yearly shorn

Bug nets! much needed so you don't go crazy!

My sister, Nola's perspective (she and Ed are visiting)

We interrupt this blog for a different perspective!!  This blog is being written by Pam's land-loving, city-dwelling sister to give you non-sailing type a picture of what is going on.

While I'm not totally without "rustic" skills (we went camping when we were kids, and the Army was nice enough to provide more outdoor fun and excitement over my  22 year of service) I've decided that my new definition of "roughing it" means that my 5 star hotel's concierge called in sick!

The weather in Georgia today is absolutely perfect!  Pam doesn't give enough props to the weather here. We had beautiful blue sky's all day.  The drive down was country as you have to go cross country to get here.

We picked Pam up at the coffee place where she was spread out working on something.  She had a large ziplock of cables that turned out to be a satellite phone. My husband is over the moon as he's been a tad concerned about them having trouble "in the middle of nowhere".

Off we went to the boat.  We walked by their collapse able bikes locked up on the rail, down the ramp to the dock and around to their boat (the only non-white boat in the place). I was happy to see the solar panels on top as that means electricity!  (electricity good!  Things can be plugged in while on water).

This is the first time I've actually seen Cricket actually in the water...  It looks much smaller with its underbelly hidden. Since they are still in provisioning mode, stuff is everywhere (like the Beverly hill billy truck on water, only much newer!  Not saying that they are hillbillies but at this point they are definitely are hillbilly-esq).

Lila ran to greet us and was happy that we didn't bring our brat Cammi with.  Ben was waving and showed off his new boat pants. They are pretty cute Ben!  He calls them bug and sun protection.

We were starving so we went for lunch. Their boat is right in the thick of the historic district of St Mary's. So we walked to a cute little restaurant. After lunch we went on a golf cart tour of St Mary's. Ed really enjoyed the tour. Our tour guide was very informative without being boring.    Then it was time to get things done.

We went to the boatyard to see where they have been living. I've been to two boat yards do far and this was the third. Because of my past experiences, my expectations were low.  Boat yards have a "junkyard" feel to them. All these sad boats hobbling on crutches, with the boat doctors (and owners) trying to fix them up.  This yard had lots of genuinely nice people just wanting to help. We met all the boat doctors and nurses, and dogs.

To comment on the bugs, while I wasn't as bothered, I could see the buzzing little varmints creating little halos around everyone else. The British couple were sporting matching portable screen tent shirts, quite stylish.  Robin had peeled his zippered full front mask to talk to us.  Pam aspires to have the full body version one day.

Pam mentioned candles and one of the guys starts unloading all these mason jar candles. No lie! About 4 boxes of candles appeared like magic!  With essences like "monkey farts", how could I resist?  I opted for cucumber.

We checked into our "hotel" on the naval base. Not 5 star but not bad. It's transient housing for navy guys. I'm used to roughing it in hotels. Ran by the class 6 (liquor store for you non military) for more important provisioning; and buy the time we finished all this, it was time for dinner.

We ate at seafood and more. Almost everything in St Mary's has "and seafood" at the end of it. I love eating at the coast! Fresh, cheap, great seafood! For $22 total, we had heaping plates of shrimp and scallops. Fat and happy, it was time to get to work.

Back to the boat we walked by the bikes and then came to the really steep ramp...  Wait!!!  It wasn't steep earlier...  Pam explained that this beautiful concrete dock is floating and pointed out the crustations that were now on the cement poles.  Somehow tons of concrete float. Cool.

At night there isn't a lot of difference between the black dock and the black water so thanks to Ed and is handy flashlight app I was doing good.  I'd not want to try it after a few drinks!

"permission to come aboard" said Ed, "granted" chirped Pam, and onto the boat we went. I had been on the boat before only from a ladder on hard. I thought it was tricky then but thought it would be better on the water.  Nope. There is a flimsy rail that I was sure wouldn't hold my entire weight that prohibited you from putting your foot in the area that would make it easy to get on board. So you have to put a foot in this area that is barely wide enough to accommodate said foot, figure out how to get the other foot past the railing, around the boat housing and into the navigation station.  Whew!  I made it!  Being known for some rather artistic falls, I didn't want to add to that string.

There isn't a lot of room for 2 let alone have company. Top that due to provisioning efforts it did sort of look like an episode of hoarders with all the food and stuff everywhere. Pam and Ben seem to move effortlessly around... Ed and I... Not so much.

I felt like we were playing a human version of that little puzzle game with the numbers you have shift till you get them in order. Pam and I went in first with Ed and Ben behind. To get Ed to the bench you put Pam in the kitchen, me by the back, Ed on the bench, Ben off to the side and me back to the kitchen. This was repeated in various routines throughout the night.

Kitchen= enough square footage to turn around. On one side small shelf, next cabinets and nooks ( one that is about 4-5 soup cans deep) , next side is two sinks (one salt water, one fresh) and the last the opening. Pam and I did fit in this space but didn't move around much.

For those of you that have read about "natures head".  This the the toilet that you poop in peat moss. At first descriptions it sounded gross, but it's no worse than an airline toilet and actually smells better!  It smells like potting soil and I equate it to more like kitty litter for humans only you don't do any scooping. It was much cleaner than the airline throne.

Pam and I proceeded to reduce the family sized packages of pancake mix, coffee, wheat thins and various flours into reasonable sized packages. We had my food saver and were sucking the air out (when it worked) and sealed it in thick plastic. It seems that if water gets in you don't want a 5 lb bag of pancake flour to be goo. This way only the opened ones get ruined.

While Pam and I did packaging, Ed made a proper inspection of the helm and other stuff.

We were completely pooped by this time so we exited to the hotel where we promptly passed out into a deep sleep.

From What to You

Most all systems a GO!

Welp today we finally got all of our "emergency" stuff in line.

Back up water Reverse Osmosis - Check
Back up bilge pumps working - Check
Sea Anchor or Parachute Anchor - comes in the mail tuesday - check
Charts electronically and now a paper birds eye view of our path - Check
Too much food - Check
GPS - back up hand held with all charts loaded - Check
SSB - Nope so we bought a Satellite Phone - one can only do so much - We could not see buying a new SSB one more thing on our electronic failure list from the lightening strike in the boatyard - on the other hand now we can actually call you all sometime. Get this.... you can SMS/text us anytime for free! yup!
Sat-phone - Check I will give you our email address and sat-phone once I can figure it out. I'm downloading the software as we speak.
extra Lines - check
extra sails - check
sewing kit - check
Eplirb - Check (that is a mayday long/Lat beacon)
Ditch bag - Check (that is a bag of stuff we throw in if we are to move to our safety raft)
passports - Check
Coast Guard certificate - waiting for the mail to come - close to check
coffee - check
Solar panels - Check
Generator - Check
AIS our new one came in the mail and Phil will help us install on monday - check

We would be never ready if we tried to think of anything and everything that could go wrong.  So sometimes you just have to leave. Write your emergency list and then move along. Ben and I are to that point. We have 90% of what we need or so we think.  we have covered the major bases. We have the boating community with us wherever we go. It's time to go.

My sister and brother in law will be with us this weekend to hang out and help with the last preparing of the boat and stuff. then they will take our car back to their house to store for us and we will be car-less as most boaters are.  It has been a luxury having a car these past few weeks.

we anticipate leaving wednesday or thursday....

depending on the weather

but don't worry we will send out an email of how to get a hold of us and how to text us. that will be fun!
Blessings
Pam

finally progress

Yesterday and today was a day of strides and man do we need a few big strides.

Ben connected our ground plate - he has been working on a copper ground system that runs through out the inside of the hull and connects to a big plate outside the hull, this is all necessary so we can use our SSB.  Yeah! that is done. Now to get into the water to see if the rest works.

Just before we got to the boatyard there was a lightning strike. It hit a boat across from us but many of our neighbors electronics stopped working and of course ours is no different.  So for the past 3 months we have been chasing the cats tail in a circle again! around and around. the lightning seemed to have effected our chart plotter, radar, and now we find out possibly our AIS is not working... Grrrr that is all I can say is grrrr! It might have effected our SSB too but we won't know that until we get in the water.

Oh back to Strides: we fiber glassed the rudder, the front chest lid cover is close to getting done, we sanded and varnished the small chests, the solar panels went in and they work!!! (so far)... i have been cataloging all the extra parts we have for the boat and been collecting a list of things that we still need to buy.  As one boater put it... "There is no way each boater could bring 2 of everything nor could we forecast what things will go wrong and that is why we have a boating community to help each other out."

we have been trying to put things in lockers/cubby holes all around the boat. we have an extra set of sails that are good. Those we just tucked in under the bow birth. they are big so it is nice they actually fit in there out of the way. I have been ziploc-ing most all of our things since last year anything that will get moldy - will And anything that will rust - will, And anything that supposed to stay dry will get wet.

for food we have found a great place (thanks for the tip Ron) for canned meats. We just had canned beef and it was amazing. We have bought many different kinds of sprouts for some fun "fresh" thing to eat while sailing. We have all the charts on our electronics and now we need to pick up paper pilot charts.

well I should go and figure out my taxes before we leave.

that's all for now folks. more updates as we get closer.
blessings
Pam n Ben

getting closer to leaving

Blog 2012

Just Four years ago Ben and I dreamt of sailing far away in 2012. Here it is and we are on "schedule".

I've had many of you ask where is my blog and what are we up to. Living in a boatyard for three months is boring to write about unless you have been here. It is hard to describe. It's hard to explain why we work on the same thing for days and still don't get closer. But we are getting closer now"

We have holes in the rudder to patch and fiberglass. Why.? You ask? Cuz there was a tiny crack in the rudder and it filled with water. We drilled relief holes and out poured a gallon or so of water. Then the weather has been too cold to glass! I'm getting used to living in cold, 35-50 degrees. At night we have a heater till things warm up. Then we turn it off till morning. That is when I don't want to get out of bed in 35 degrees! Baby! I can't wait for warm.

During the day we get slowed down by gnats, no see ems that BITE! What the heck!? You can't hardly see Em and chomp chompnchomp!  I'm so bugged!

We are trying to get all systems go! Emergency stuff like reverse osmosis water back up. We found a water hand pump. It pumps one gallon of water an hour of pumping. So in an emergency we will be pumping. It is small enough to put in our ditch bag.

We have acquiesced to the idea of getting a satellite phone for work. You might get a call from us in the middle of the ocean! Cool eh?

On to our plan or ideas. We think we will be provisioning the last week of January. Then off to sailing east - almost to Bermuda then take a right and go straight south to the virgin islands. (we think that will be 12-15 days). Then we will island hop if time permits all the skipping along to panama. (BVI, San blas islands,Aruba, and on to panama).

The goal is to be in panama the first week in April. Then Galapagos and islandBlog 2012

Just Four years ago Ben and I dreamt of sailing far away in 2012. Here it is and we are on "schedule".

I've had many of you ask where is my blog and what are we up to. Living in a boatyard for three months is boring to write about unless you have been here. It is hard to describe. It's hard to explain why we work on the same thing for days and still don't get closer. But we are getting closer now"

We have holes in the rudder to patch and fiberglass. Why.? You ask? Cuz there was a tiny crack in the rudder and it filled with water. We drilled relief holes and out poured a gallon or so of water. Then the weather has been too cold to glass! I'm getting used to living in cold, 35-50 degrees. At night we have a heater till things warm up. Then we turn it off till morning. That is when I don't want to get out of bed in 35 degrees! Baby! I can't wait for warm.

During the day we get slowed down by gnats, no see ems that BITE! What the heck!? You can't hardly see Em and chomp chompnchomp!  I'm so bugged!

We are trying to get all systems go! Emergency stuff like reverse osmosis water back up. We found a water hand pump. It pumps one gallon of water an hour of pumping. So in an emergency we will be pumping. It is small enough to put in our ditch bag.

We have acquiesced to the idea of getting a satellite phone for work. You might get a call from us in the middle of the ocean! Cool eh?

On to our plan or ideas. We think we will be provisioning the last week of January. Then off to sailing east - almost to Bermuda then take a right and go straight south to the virgin islands. (we think that will be 12-15 days). Then we will island hop if time permits all the skipping along to panama. (BVI, San blas islands,Aruba, and on to panama).

The goal is to be in panama the first week in April. Then Galapagos and island hop to tonga then wait till November or dec to sail to NZ... Ta da...

Now you all know. I will let you know the new website when I get used to it.

Have a great night!

blessings!

getting closer

Blog 2012
Just Four years ago Ben and I dreamt of sailing far away in 2012. Here it is and we are on "schedule".

I've had many of you ask where is my blog and what are we up to. Living in a boatyard for three months is boring to write about unless you have been here. It is hard to describe. It's hard to explain why we work on the same thing for days and still don't get closer. But we are getting closer now"

We have holes in the rudder to patch and fiberglass. Why.? You ask? Cuz there was a tiny crack in the rudder and it filled with water. We drilled relief holes and out poured a gallon or so of water. Then the weather has been too cold to glass! I'm getting used to living in cold, 35-50 degrees. At night we have a heater till things warm up. Then we turn it off till morning. That is when I don't want to get out of bed in 35 degrees! Baby! I can't wait for warm.

During the day we get slowed down by gnats, no see ems that BITE! What the heck!? You can't hardly see Em and chomp chompnchomp!  I'm so bugged!

We are trying to get all systems go! Emergency stuff like reverse osmosis water back up. We found a water hand pump. It pumps one gallon of water an hour of pumping. So in an emergency we will be pumping. It is small enough to put in our ditch bag.

We have acquiesced to the idea of getting a satellite phone for work. You might get a call from us in the middle of the ocean! Cool eh?

On to our plan or ideas. We think we will be provisioning the last week of January. Then off to sailing east - almost to Bermuda then take a right and go straight south to the virgin islands. (we think that will be 12-15 days). Then we will island hop if time permits all the skipping along to panama. (BVI, San blas islands,Aruba, and on to panama).

The goal is to be in panama the first week in April. Then Galapagos and island hop to tonga then wait till November or dec to sail to NZ... Ta da...

Now you all know. I will let you know the new website when I get used to it.

Have a great night!

blessings!

doing the little things

Doing the little things…

Well I said I would blog dec 1 so to those of you that actually read this here you are…

Time passes so quickly! First a quick mention of Karen and Dan wellumson visiting last week.  We have a great time exploring the area. Cumberland island is fun to romp around. Pauly’s has excellent food! St. Augustine FL is such a cute little town. Much fun and fellowship has had been by all.

Back to checking things off our list. Today I was feeling brave in the wood area. Our helm seat is coming apart at the corner so I thought… easy job I can do this.  Once I opened up the teak top to get some glue in there I noticed inside is all rotten! Once again an easy job turning into a pain.  So I have it sitting in the sun to dry out. Tomorrow if it is dry I will continue fixing it.

Ben has been continuing on working to get our ground plane set so our SSB can work. He seems to be making headway!

Oh today was a day of checking off 2 things! The harken furling was put back together and Ben help Bob with that job! Yahoo! Check! And we reseated our safety bar to the floor.  In Deltaville they forgot to turn the foot to the right spot on the bar so as to make it line up with the screw hole that keeps the bar tight and in place.  (details) Everytime someone new comes on the boat and grabs the safety bar Ben and I look at each other hoping it does not get pulled out! Now it is secure.  Fixes that use the word “safety” are always good to pay attention to.  Not to mention it leaked so hopefully we fixed the leaks too!  Check!

We are waiting on new solar panels to come. (Ben found not big and bulky ones but semi flexible that will fit on the dodger.)  He also bought a reverse osmosis hand pump for emergencies.  Normally they are about 2k – 5k! yes they get you with the word “survival”… that word is probably better to notice than the word “safety”. But anyway we are trying to be simple! We don’t want a water system that will need a lot of attend and where do we put it.  So Ben googled many sites to find hand emergency pumps that take out the salt and other things we don’t want to drink.  There on ebay was a hand pump for a total of 700.  Don’t we feel special! It should make 1.2 gallons an hour by continuously pumping it.  I guess in the middle of the ocean if we need that we will be so bored it will be a lifesaver for our boredom. Ha ha ha

We are ending out day with computer silly games, blogging, scrabble with friends and just relaxing.  It is getting cold and yesterday was 37 at night.  I have been happy to note we turned on our heater to make me happy… happy wife happy life… as they say. Getting up in the morning is hard as it is still cold in here… I throw my clothes under the covers to warm them up… then I embark into the cold morning cabin to make coffee.

I hope all the rest of our days are this happy! Check!

Welp, I’ve made you all sleepy I’m sure… so good night from Cricket and her crew.

Back on Cricket

Back from MN. Ben's Brother and sister-in-law are with us for 6 days as we tour around St. Mary's. We are having a great time. (and me being the practical one is a bit nervous about our departure date... but Ben will say, "We'll make it and if we don't. what is the worst that can happen? we stay in the Caribbean."

Our electrical chartplotter, radar units have been sent back under warranty! they all came back to us "new"! our batteries we will be shipping back next thursday.  That means we have replaced our full electronic... chart plotter, radar unit, inverter/charger, and batteries.  Wow I'm so glad they were under warranty other wise I would be sooo sad!

Now we are looking at possible having more solar and or wind-mill generator. We are not sure what to get... or get both? we don't want over kill. We are such a cute boat wthout all that stuff on it... on the other hand it would be nice to be totally self sufficient on wind or sun! Imagine??? not having to use fuel diesel or gas for our gas generator.

well tomorrow we run off to cumberland island. Sunday we are going to hoist Dan or Ben up the mast to put together our radar unit! fun!

peace to you all
Pam

sailing the high seas again

Sailing the high seas again!

Not on our boat but Ben and I helped Ron from DawnTrader sail his boat from GA to west Palm Beach FL. This will be a memorable trip... The head overflowed a little but never pleasant to take care of (poor Ron,), he cut his arm - not bad-, the French press coffee pot fell and shattered and I had a ten minute rough go of my midnight shift.

There were many factors that lead us to going with Ron as opposed to working on the boat. He is an experienced sailor. He knows single side band and weather and sail mail email system from the SSB. It would be a good learning experience for both of us. I was torn... To stay and keep working or to go with and learn.

I did not want to be left behind so away 3 of us went for a short 60 hour sail.

It's amazing how rusty a person gets when you haven't been sailing in a while.

The first day is always exciting as you head "out" to sea.  Leaving the land behind and wondering if the weather report is close or way off.

It was good to sail with someone else being the captain. I could just be told what to do. There was never a time I disagreed with his decision... A few times I might have made a different decision but it was all good.

He set our watches (not the kind on your wrist) but the kind that is also called "taking shifts" every 4hours. Sweet. Imagine what it would be like  to go have 4 hrs on and 8 hrs off! I could not wait. To my surprise I think I was just as tired as when it was just me and Ben but that is because what sleep can one get after three days?

The first night when we go to sleep there is too much noise and movement to actually sleep. One would think you would be lulled to sleep. Not in my case or in either of our situations. We all said the same thing. The first time off our watch we could not sleep! Then you are a zombie for a day, the next night watch you sleep way better when you are off.

My first night I had thoughts of... Oh my how will we make it on long crossings. The wind was normal 10-15k but on our nose and since we had a plane to catch we had to make time so we motor sailed. That means the waves were quite rocking and rolling. Up and down. So on my first night from 8-midnight I was tired from the night before where we packed and got up early. I looked out into the gray sky, dark water, moon full, and a head ache to beat all head aches and pondered... Wow.... Or why?

The second night my watch again from 8-midnight. Was more easterly winds just off the nose! It was a comfortable tack! The auto pilot finally settled down into working! I had the most blissful night sail for two hours! I stood up to stretch, look for boats, and breath deep as the waves smoothly and calmly rolled by our beam. I thought, "how fun is this, what a great night of sailing, the moon is perfectly full, I can move around the deck cuz the auto pilot is working! It will be so fun to sail to New Zealand! I'm ready for the adventure!

Then all of a sudden a boat blipped on the screen. One I had not noticed because I know it was not there. I can see AIS warnings 50 miles out but for some reason this boat waited to show up until It was directly infront of us about 9 miles out. A tug towing a huge barge. He was not going to budge away from his heading it seemed. I yelled down for Ben to just let me know his ideas but he did not hear me. I said out loud.... I can do this on my own... The Tug is 9nm away going at 11 knots I am going at 6 knots we will crash in... Oh I should hail him... But first I made a drastic course change I went 90 degrees to port. At this rate I will be out of his way and cross over his path. I stayed off course for 1 mile then turned back on course we passed each other 1.8 miles from side to side.

Phew! To me it was hard because I don't like his cockpit. No offense Ron. It is not made for someone 5' 1" ! The VHF radio to hail boats is on the starboard. The chart plotter is on the port, the auto pilot is near your feet, he has splash guards up so when I'm standing on the floor of the cockpit (which is full of water a weird quirk of the boat.) I in no way can see right or left unless I stand straddle the opposite seats! When standing in the cockpit I can reach the auto pitot but of course at this exact moment the winds picked up and the auto pilot was swinging 20 degrees port thne swing back to starboard... I'm sure I was confusing the tug watching me zig zag. To make me frustrated even more when walking from the helm to the chart plotter 6feet forward I tripped on 2 lines that span across the seat and then my tether got stuck under the cushion. (note to self , I don't like cushions too easy to trip and I feel bad to step on them with wet boots so just move them below next time.)

Ok imagine the tug looking at me zig zagging... I'm trying to set the auto pilot so I can run up to the chart plotter cuz it keeps beeping, "warning warning dangerously close vessel..." I disengage the auto pilot and think I'll hand steer... I soon find out I can't hand steer his boat backward cuz it is too hard to move with the auto pilot belt on his wheel. I shut off the chart plotter warning so as to not wake people below and so I can see the screen. I put my cursor on the AIS vessel to get the name... A wind blows us off course again. I pull hard on the sluggish wheel finally I get the name of the tug "sea horse" cute name. Now I hustle back to the starboard to grab the radio to hail him... But first grab the wheel again... Shoot... I hop in the water again ... get us on course, try the auto pilot settings again, now grab the radio... "Sssss" beep beep. Arggg that alarm is so loud... Ok turn off the warning but this time I had also changed the chart plotter to head up... (digress .... You can have the view of the chart to always be north facing up so if we are moving south the view is opposite. So if I want to turn right the chart plotter will look like I need to go left. But if I have the view of head up that means whatever I see ahead of me that will be mirrored on the chart plotter. Things on the right will be on the right. Ron likes north up...he is a navy man... It is an easy view switch on the chart... So with all this commotion I changed the view for my watch and was much more calm.) so now I could see his angle better knowing that we will pass each other.

No need to hail him.  All is good. I did the right thing. It was a good drill for me. I know I could have yelled for Ben to wake up but I didn't feel like I was " that close". Still it woke me up. After that the auto pilot did not like much of anything until finally it settled down an hour later.  I like our boat. When I pop the auto pilot I have easy controls for turning the wheel. I can see on both sides. I can reach the chart plotter without leaving the helm, I can use the radio with ease.

It was fun to be on someone's boat. I do have to say I covet his "lazy jacks". The company was good, the food was good, the sailing was good. All in all a good trip. I'd do it again.

We came in to the intercostal waterway ICW. That was fun to see again.  Ben piloted through all that low water excellently we never got stuck on a sand bar!

That night we were all exhausted after getting only 4 hours of solid sleep. I was out at 9pm but at 2am I woke up wide awake ready for my 4 hour watch. Ha ha even the second night I slept hard but woke up after 4 hours feeling refreshed ready for a shift. Funny.

Back home for a week for a funeral. Ben's dad funeral. It will have hard parts and good parts. It will be good to see the family and hard to say goodbye.

No blog till Dec first. 

Blessings

Pam

Chilly in Georgia

Last night it hit 34 degrees. I would not trade my down sleeping bag for anything! I was warm allll night long.  the only problem is getting out of the sleeping bag. brrrr luckily I had a hot flash and I quick jumped up to get dressed during the hot flash. ha ha

this past week we have diligently been working on our list that keeps getting longer not shorter. The electrician is baffled to our "drain" on the batteries. But he is getting closer... we can feel it.  Actually we were thinking of laying hands on the hull to dispel all the electrical gremlins! It can't hurt. ha ha  Our chart plotter stopped working and the radar would not connect.  so we sent both back to the manufacture. it is under warranty! phew

Ben has been working hard on the grounding of our Single Side Band.  our communication that we will use while off shore.  SSB will also allow us for email and for weather faxes.  It is essential that it work!

Not that I am pessimistic but maybe a realist.  Sometimes I think, " we will never get our essential list done in time" and then Ben will say "We will get it done and the worst that can happen is we just sail to the Caribbean and hang out there for most of the year and leave next year." So it will be what it will be.  we are on "sailing" time.

Ben's father passed away and we will be home for a week, then back for thanksgiving when his brother and wife will visit us.  So that is 2 weeks of not working on the boat. we will be in MN for christmas for 2 weeks.  So we have about 15 days to get our list done.  Although we could leave as late as January 20th and we think we could still hit Panama in March but that is cutting it close.  we also could hang out in Panama for a while too.  We have heard it is a great and cheap place to hang out. And fresh fruit and veggies a plenty.

This past week has been days of to-do list after to-do list.  I have finished the painting of the bow sprit! finally I get to check it off my list.  the sea cocks need to be worked but I'm too weak. Ben got them all checked except 2.  so what do we do with that? we will continue to oil them and see if they come loose. One of our surprise was Mabelle, noticed water weeping from the rudder.  She said that means water is getting in the rudder.  Hummm people would walk by and say... just drill a few holes in the rudder.  Easy for them to say.  Sounds like a lot of work to patch the holes if you ask me.  Well Ben got enough gumption to drill.... and it was a good thing cuz he hit one place and out gushed a lot of water! so now that needs to dry and then we need to fill the holes but why was there water in their in the first place? we don't want to put a bandaid on a problem and that is the moment I thought, "ummm maybe we won't make the deadline this year?"

that is the update.  Lila update... she came into our bunk soaking wet again! AND MUDDY! silly girl!

Oh this weekend we will be helping a fellow sailor sail off shore to West Palm.  he is a single handler and wanted someone to help him sail 3 days on the outside.  We thought it be good to sail with an experienced captain.  The seas are 6-8 NW winds... that is fine with me but the temperature is going to be 40 at night BRRRRR! with wind!! Not looking forward to my 4 hour shift.

so will be off shore till Tuesday. no blog... then to MN

miss you all!
Pam

another day in the boatyard

Another day in the boat yard…

I’ll blog about my day and then I might not blog everyday if it is the same kind of thing but different project. So here was my boring day as a news worthy blog. They are all like this – blah-bloggably-boring for most of you but exciting full of learning for me and Ben.

Well today was not typical cuz we were a bit more lazy than normal. I woke up my usual way… thinking about work and how to improve it or what kind of a webinar I want to teach.  I have my full Deaf mentor webinar finished in my head now I just have to video it.

It is cold here so getting out from a warm down sleeping bag is tough… very tough! Especially when your hubby is snoring away in slumber. He stays up later than me and I get up earlier than him.

I got out easier than normal cuz I got a hot flash and then it is easy to get dressed in a cold place. (48 degrees this morning)

I made coffee as usual. Now it is essential to make something warm to drink. Then I perused through the sailing maintenance handbook. Thought I would learn something… seacock’s came to me since they need to be lubed and exercised.  I read 3 pages of how it is important to make sure your seacock’s are in good working order. Blah blah blah but never once did it say what to use? WD40? Grease? Silicone? Vegtable oil? Nothing? But I can tell you it is important.  So I asked the local boatyard guru everyday boater, Ken, and he said just work them and if you need use vegetable oil. All that reading for nothing.

Then I went to bilge pumps a full chapter was on where to put it, how to hook it up but no where is there how to service your “manual” bilge pump. Crazy again! My philosophy in life is… if someone can teach you why read about it!

I next read about diesel fuel polishing. Diesel fuel gets micro bacterial stuff in the fuel and makes it gunky.  So I perused the internet and found a youtube video.

Ben then woke up and I said we can do this. He asked where do we rent a polishing unit? No clue.

I went to the boatyard bathroom which by the way is one shower and one toilet for about 25-30 people! The toilet is often plugged and 50% of the time there is no toilet paper! Annoying! There was Mabel the best character ever! She’s got your back. She is the sister of the person that owns the place. I asked her where to rent a diesel polisher and she points to the shed and says, ‘Oh Rocky (that is her nephew that runs the boatyard) he rents a polisher” SWEET!

So all my researching was for naught! Ben says I could have stayed in bed!

Ben and I biked to Woody’s house, a local sailor that we meet at the st mary’s yacht club. He and his wife are very sweet and made us lunch.

Then Ben worked really hard at hooking up our shore power as we popped the circuit breaker last night. We networked in the yard with people about various items on our list that we don’t know what to do. 

Then it was time to go to the st marys yacht club meeting. Which is on a houseboat on the river. You walk to the public dock and wave your hands and they will come and dinghy you out to the boat.  There we ate brats, and hamburgers and the reason why we went was so Ben could have a brownie. But while there we networked and got a name of a woman who just was at the Galapagos! We will give her a call when we have time or an email. Exciting and we have gathered more important information for our journey. People are our biggest resource! The boating community is so amazing! They are welcoming and knowledgeable, caring and sweet!

Im Back

I’m back! It is good to be here and hard to be away from all the excitement at work.  Kinda weird.

First a Lila story.  Ben and I came back from a short visit with my sister, Nola and hubby, Ed.  Lila was no where to be found in the boat yard and no one had seen her.  Then the next boat said he lost his cat but then found her stuck in a boat that she had crawled into. So that made Ben and I walk through the boatyard yelling, “Lila, kitty kitty, Lila kitty where are you?”  we walked out on a small tug/barge that the boatyard has.  I heard her jingle. I said, “shhh, I hear her”  Then all of a sudden we heard her meow cry meow cry loudly.  We got closer and closer to the sound.  Here was Lila soaked to the bone. (she is so skinny!)

I picked her up and she was shaking.  We think she walked over to the neighbor’s house past this fence.  On low tide you can walk over but high tide you can’t get across without getting wet. So we think she walked over and got stuck.  If only cats could talk.  Since then she has been so happy to be in the cabin with us! She is prrrr-y and cuddly!

Boat stuff…. Well our list keeps getting longer and longer not shorter! I feel good by our accomplishments. Ben is amazing at keep on going with project after project and each project is something he or I has never done before.  All new to us. Like the picture I am showing is Ben successfully hooking up our modem.  This modem will receive emails (fun for us to communicate with you-all AND weather faxes to help us with the weather forecasting.) Well that is if we can get our SSB to work. )which we found out our ground is wrong.  So hopefully that will get fixed too!

He and I were so excited to see the lights turn on the modem! It was like Christmas! Then he finished putting in the natures head today. (you know a composting toilet.) I have to admit I’m a little nervous about the whole composting toilet… like all the normal questions… where do you bring the dirt/poop? Out at sea it can go over board. What if you can’t find peat moss to make it compost? What if it stinks? What if what if…?  All good questions and answers I only know what the advertisement says. But we do know we had so much trouble last year with out head that this has to be an improvement!

We chose a natures head cuz Ben has been reading the book called Humanure and interesting read about our poop and how it should be put back in the soil.  Once it is in the soil the micro organism will “eat” up the poop and make it into the best dirt for growing and putting nutrients back into the dirt – a win-win for all.  So here we go.  Plus you all have heard our awful stories of our head not working over and over again.  I’ll keep you informed.

Our electrical is still bad… we sent out inverter (DC to AC) and it was bad. So they will send us a new one. But who wants a new one if the last one did not work. What will keep us from not having the same problem.  We just can’t get to the root of the electrical gremlin.  I hope Phil in this boat yard will be able to do it!

What have I been doing? Well working some at ASLIS work and I have been categorizing the inventory on the boat.  It is amazing what the previous owner has put on the boat. We had no idea it was all here… well we knew it was but did not know what something were for but now we are smarter and know what most things are. There are a few mysteries.  I’ll have to take pictures and you all can tell me what you think it is used for. Ha ha

I have also been doing stripping and teaking the wood.  I love teak oil instead of varnish.  Is there something I am missing? Teak oil is easy to do, no running, no mess to clean up, drys fast and is no fuss.  So I’d rather teak once a month that strip everything every 2 years. What a pain!

That is all for now.  No excitement.

Oh here is a picture of a pampered cat back home working with Anne at her desk.  How cute is Kiko the house cat. Everyone should have animals at work! Thanks Anne for taking great care of Kiko while I am gone.

No blogs until Nov 1 from me

Hi all, I'll be in MN for 10 days for work. So look at Bens blog for pictures and fun.
I hope to see a few of you while in town.
Smile
Pam

Whole foods makes me happy

Lazy day Friday

We started out our traditional Friday morning ritual with the St. mary's yacht club meeting at the cedar oak cafe. Dad got to meet some more sailors and then play on wifi. Ben gave him a little lesson about iTunes and amazon mp3s while I did emails.

Then we piled in the car to Bens eye dr appt. He is all good.

We went to the west marine store for primer and paint for the bow sprit.

Here was the highlight!!! I love whole food! I can get kombucha, dark yummy chocolate and raw nuts not to mention bunch o other stuff!
So happy! No MSF, no high fructose corn syrup and no caffeine!

Ended the night with taco salads!

See Ben for pictures. 

Much blessings abound

same o same o

no pictures to show so no blog... same o same o
and you guessed it...
I'm tired can you tell?
thanks for the comment Kris!
Pam

Winches to Windlasses

This morning I wrote out a list for the men to pick from.  I looked at the schematics for the windlass and thought... it looks way easier than a winch so that should take about 1 hour or so...

I had to go to town to use wifi. I was gone from 10 - 2pm.  When I came back they were still working on the windlass.  (A windlass is the mechanism/machine that we hand crank to pull up the anchor. Many a times Ben is doing this... it is a lot of work!)

In the pictures...Those guys faces look happy but... i'm not so sure... i've heard a few swear words come out of my dad.

There was one screw that would not come out!  I stood around thinking with them... I was so hot and thirsty... i actually had a pop from the boatyards pop machine... normally water will do it but i'm not so hep on the water here.  I'm sure Ben can explain the details....

... as I went to the pop machine to "think"... Ken said, "How are you Pam?"... I frowned and said... we can't get a screw out of the windlass... we have it half stripped... bob sitting next to him said he knew what to do.

When bob got there he asked, "have you tried this?" yes yes "have you tried that?" yes yes "have you dont this?"  the guys proudly continued, "we have tried all the tricks to getting out a tight screw"  Bob ran away and came back with the funniest tool... Both Ben and Dad had seen them before but not me.

It worked!  Now it was getting to 6ish.  The three-some (dad, Ben and me) cleaned the differential (gear thingies) and put it all back together except that - well - it didn't work so I said, "Let's go out to dinner to cheer you guys up for working so hard on a project all day!" And so we did.... plus I did not feel like cooking!

tomorrow we will take it apart and put it back together.  It was really good we did this so if the windlass falls apart we know how to put it back together.  I love things like that.  I don't like electrical  -  don't get me started on that!  i'll cry my more woes on a different day.

here are pictures.  I love pictures. I'm sure Ben can explain better the day than I can.
peace Pam

Papa Jerry Arrived!

Papa Jerry at Cricket

My dad arrived Sunday late afternoon. We just chatted sunday night and no blog was written.

It has been raining and last night the winds were up to about 50 knot winds or so they say from the river. I believe it.  Our boat on the hard was trembling with the winds and we had one bad-boy halyard clanging which is a naughty thing in the boating etiquette world. It only clanged when the winds piped up and by the time I thought, “Ok ok I’ll go and figure out which one it is.” Then it stopped only to return again. So I did not get enough sleep.

Today we started out with our “Dad” list.  We all had fun cleaning the last 4 winches. We packed bearing and talked about the proper way to pack them.  My dad’s dad taught him one way and Ken in the boat yard taught me a different way.  Then Mabel (the owner’ sister) came up and agreed with my dad… she said her daddy taught her the same way my dad was taught.  With all this pressure to conform to the old ways to pack bearing, I still liked the way Ken backs bearing best.

Not much to talk about really… I made lasagna from the propane oven… I pulled the treasure chests from the deck so I can strip them… I did some work accounting…

So any questions from the viewers? It helps when people ask me what they are interested in me blogging about.  Being on the hard is just like everyday living except that I have to use a go-girl at night to pee standing up to put in a bottle and then empty the cup in the bathroom the next day.  We don’t have a toilet working when we are on the hard.  No one does. I wonder what other women do in the middle of the night?

The bugs are driving me crazy! There are no-see-ems, tiny black flies AND tiny misquitos that are so small that you can’t feel them land on you but you can feel them bit you!!! Grrrr  2 nights ago we were getting eaten alive while in bed by misquitos! Only to find out the next morning it was cuz we left the screen open.

You know anyone should be able to comment on the blog now!  There was a setting that I clicked wrong so now I have allowed anyone to comment. Oh and it should send me an alert in my email that there was a comment.  So try again to comment. Even if it is to say HI.

Oh, I'll try to talk about the Life and times of Lila next time.

That’s all for now,

Peace and love

Pam