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

storm tactics handbook study

Storm Tactics Handbook

Yelp today was predicted to be rainy and windy.  We got up and went to the farmers market for fresh food.  There was only one stand for produce and one lady that sold cookies and pies. We did not get skunked, no sirrie.  WE got all our produce from this vendor AND we got fresh shrimp.  This guy, Rick was so funny… he said, “This shrimp does not get any fresher! Look behind me… there is the boat… we go and pull up the shrimp… shovel them in the hole where the ice is…. They wiggle for 2 minutes and they are frozen.”  Who could say no to that?

We bought our produce, shrimp and cookies. We drove back to the boat where rain influenced my decision to do indoor preparations.  I surfed for manual bilge pumps online. They cost from 28 to 1000 dollars – no kidding! All depends on how much you want to pump and how fast the water comes out.  I’m still deciding on which brand.

Then I read a little of “Storm Tactics” which Ben has pretty much read the full book and has highlighted important areas for me to know.  It was time for me to crack open the book.  The couple, Lin and Larry have sailed 189,000 miles in 30 years!  They have lived through 2% of storms.  They are very comforting sounding when Ben reads the book to me outloud at night.  I wonder if Ben has been softening the book and picking certain places to read.

He has read all about hove-to a maneuver that we will be so skilled at once we get out and practice more. There have been some big storms that have blown over the years where there have been significant people out sailing.  The people that hoved-to all lived, the people that did not do that didn’t have such a 100% happy ending.

I opened the book to read a bit about our drogue anchor. (A sea anchor that keeps you from sliding down big waves and turtling or tumbling or rolling over.) Ben has been researching which anchor to get and how to use them.  So I like lists, I went right to the list area…

With pen and paper in hand I wrote what they wrote in big letters on my paper…

            “Everything WILL get wet!” then proceeded to read on.

This exercise is to prepare us for a roll over or a rogue wave hitting us unexpectedly. Let me say that if we follow the hove-to we will not roll! But we might get a wave to slap us and pour down the hatch.  We want to be prepared as possible. 1 % is not that big of an amount but it could be a longggg 1% while in the mix of it all.

So I made more of a list of things to batten and prepare.  Things like keep your batteries in a waterproof case (easy I can do that), put one set of clothes in a double Ziploc (easy again), prepare for no electronics and engine failure (not so easy). I need to download all the celestrial navigation charts for a sextant (which we do have, and both Ben and I have sighted stars, moon, land, sun but need the chart and the mathematical equation for success.)

Enough of that for now. I went out on deck to continue stripping wood. That will be a full time 3 month project.  The rain just never poured like it was supposed to do so out I went to get in a few hours stripping wood.

Back in the boat now in the dark to study more things to do. I am trying to bake banana bread for the second time… no promises. The oven is weird! It has no temperature control so now I know you have to watch it closely.

After one full week being here I feel like we are on schedule. I’m not holding my breath.

I love Winches!

There is a quiz once it is apart.  Looks easy until you have to put it back together again.

It is like doing a craft,  a Mensa puzzle and getting my hands dirty.  Reminds me of my father and fun times in the garage.  I call cleaning winches, Man-Knitting. Packing Bearings is always fun.

Now you can call me the Winch Lady.  I have a few more to do.  Ben has a picture of the winches totally apart.

Back to girl-knitting after I finish balancing my work checkbook. argh.

Peace Pam