Sailing With Friends.

This past weekend we were blessed with a beautiful sailing day to take our friends out for their first time on our boat. This wonderful family were our neighbours at the log house and we are so grateful for their friendship and the only thing we miss about living in the log house is not being close to them anymore, the kids were so excited to spend a whole afternoon on the water with their friends.

On our way out of the harbour, there was no wind at all and we took a small detour to pull up the crab pot we had out soaking, unfortunately not a single crab, so we tossed it back.

Mac and his best buddy playing pirates on the high seas.

There is nothing like boys imaginations on a boat.

Unfortunately we had two overboard retrievals this trip but thankfully nothing living this time.

Mark in the dinghy after a blown overboard baby hat.  

Everyone watching the retrieval, Mac jumped right into his role of pointing the direction of the lost item with the broom.

We had picked up some wind just after lunch and were cruising at a pretty decent speed and it took a while for Mark to catch back up with us, we didn't drop sail but turned farther off the wind to slow from 5 knots to 1.

Soon we were overrun with buccaneers. We had a total of eight kids onboard and they were all awesome, a great bunch!

Notice the dog tied up, she wasn't impressed and spent the majority of the trip whining, but after her escape attempt last time there was no trusting her now.

The youngest crew member.

Every boat should have one of these... Mark doesn't agree.

The pirates lashing their prisoner to the mast to await their punishment of walking the plank.

We had a great day out with good friends and a beautiful day on the water, this is what boat living is all about, I'm lovin' it.

(MacDonalds anyone?)

Reaching Great Heights.

After weeks of hoisting Mark up and down the mast, he finally made it to the top. We've installed mast steps up to the top, lazy jacks in between the spreaders and the radar just under the top spreaders but now we had to go all the way up to investigate installing the wind system and VHF antenna.

Once we got a look at the top of the mast we were faced with mounting problems. Put aside the huge hassle of running wires down through the mast we found there was no room to mount the wind system or the VHF antenna up there. The universal mount on the VHF doesn't account for the 1/2 inch overhang around the top and would need to be modified somehow, we had hoped that the old antenna had just snapped off and all the wiring and mounting would still be up there, no such luck.

There is an old wire up there which we assume was for a VHF and we can see where it comes out of the bottom of the mast but have no clue where it connects inside the cabin or if it even still works.

We are still enjoying the lazy hot days as summer comes to a close.

Nap time.

First time using the ironing board, not for clothes though, for perler bead crafts.

I love seeing what people end up using to prop up hatches, we use spice bottles. I've seen a number of blocks of wood, a cork screw, chop sticks, books, remotes...

Mark finally got around to installing the vents in the amas. The outer hulls were always musty and damp because there was no air flow, we now have two on each end of each ama.

Hopefully this will help.

How to apply silicone without a calking gun? Squeeze silicone into a cup and spread it with finger. The things we do to save ourselves another trip to the hardware store.

My little minion coiling lines.

Our resident goofball, every boat needs one.

Quit Complaining.

It's been pointed out to me that I have been complaining a bit in my last few posts, less than exciting ball games and noisy boats disturbing my serenity, well that's just the way it goes, life on a boat is still life and a bit of complaining from a chronic complainer such as myself doesn't mean I am unhappy with boat living, not at all. 

I love our boat, even on rainy days when I have it draped with tarps and pots catching leaks around the cabin, I love our marina and our location, tucked away at the end of the dock, a view of the mountains out my rear hatch. But stuff happens. A life afloat isn't a recipe for constant bliss, if anything it has all the ingredients to make the opposite true, cramped space, constant repairs, other boaters, etc... But a house is no different, more space to clean, yards to maintain, neighbours...

Whatever your situation it comes down to attitude and how you will handle the annoyances that come along and because we love our boat and think this is the best life for our family right now it helps us put up with the odd inconveniences like finicky water heaters, leaky hatches and wake from motor boaters. But there are still those times when the kids are in fractious moods and all the GFCI outlets trip and won't reset and my tiny fridge is so stuffed that all the eggs fall out and break all over the floor when I open the door, that I'm still going to get a bit cranky.

You can feel summer slipping away, the mornings are cold and cloudy but it burns off by lunchtime. I can't say I'm not concerned about the impending weather shift, wind storms and rain everyday, we have commissioned the only canvas man in Oak Harbor to make us a cockpit enclosure but he is so busy that he can't get to it until the end of September. Hoping the weather holds off.

A saggy dinghy is not something we are ever pleased to see. After hundreds of dollars spent on patches and the sealant that you put inside the tube and completely painting the outside of it we had hoped we had fixed the leak, unfortunately not so. Weeks later and we have a flaccid dinghy again. 

Mark put more coats over the patch and we are holding air again, but we all know it is temporary, currently making plans for another option, inflatable anything does not work with us.

Mark is tickled pink to finally have his radar installed up the mast, of course once he went through the nerve wracking task of dangling 25 feet in the air trying not to drop the $$$$ radar, he goes to run the wires down the mast to get power and the wire is too short. So the radar is up but we are waiting for a longer cord to arrive.

The stubborn tooth finally came out!

Hydroplane Pain

This past weekend had the marina in an uproar again as they hosted some hydroplane races. Apparently this used to be a yearly thing here in Oak Harbor on the Fourth of July but stopped some years ago and they decided this year to start it up again, I really wish they hadn't.

The calm before the storm.

Mark scrounging up fenders.

Doubling up on fenders.

For those who don't know what a hydroplane is (don't feel bad, I didn't know either) they are these small little boats made out of balsa wood and fiberglass with what sounds like a jet engine on the back. They skim across the water at crazy speeds, kicking up a huge roostertail behind them and sink when they stop moving.

Of course we happen to be docked right by the loading ramp where they set up the pit for these things. The marina shut down all public access to the marina and no one was allowed to leave the marina via water while the races were going on, nor were we allowed to anchor in the bay so we were stuck, no way to get away from these things. 

They had around 50 boats partaking in the races and they were all parked on the loading ramp and since they can't stay in the water long without moving or they sink, they required this giant crane to put them in the water for their races and then remove them again, this process went on all day long.

And here in this picture you can see the reason for our extra fenders, it's not like they have a slow setting, no it's immediate take off at full speed, so for two days these loud, jet engined boats blast off about ten feet from our starboard hull, tossing their wake at us and we bounced and bobbed all day agains the dock.

I will admit I took perverse pleasure in the times one would randomly die and someone would have to go tow it back in before they sank.

We didn't want to leave the boat while these things were flying past us just incase the wake became too much and we needed to intervene, so we couldn't actually see them racing, the boys sat on the boom and got to see a little bit of it. I just grit my teeth and prayed for the weekend to be over.

The noise and motion didn't phase this one too much.

The boys loved having all the action right outside our door.

Mac has decided he is going to race hydroplanes when he grows up, he is going to build himself a big sailboat to live in; big, because ours is too small; a sailboat, because motor boats can get stuck at sea if their engine dies but sailboats can always sail and he's going to build it himself because he wants it done right, then he is going to have his hydroplane docked next to it.

He got started on building his hydroplane prototype, complete with a paper helmet.

These were just the small ones, the large ones were completely enclosed and rattled your teeth when they started up.

Speaking of rattling teeth, Aislinn has had a loose front tooth for over a month now and we are all getting pretty sick of it being in there. But as much as we all try to wiggle, poke, prod, beg or plead, it refuses to come out. We resorted to the old string trick, however that didn't work either and we are still waiting.

Managed to get in some baking for our church's conference this week, I am always amazed how well I can work in this small space. 

Thankfully the hydroplanes were only here for two days and I am back to enjoying my peaceful marina again, the weather continues to be beautiful, and we are plugging away at working on radar and rear tramloline installation and have some friends coming this weekend of a sail, hoping to avoid any catastrophese this time.

Don't Take Me Out To The Ball Game.

Marks 34th birthday is coming up at the end of the month and for a present he asked if we could all go to a Mariners baseball game. The Canadian detachment here on Whidbey Island had some tickets bought for the Mariners, Blue Jay game which we could buy at a discounted price and they arranged a bus for transportation to Safeco field and back again. I agreed to this but knew better and shouldn't have gone, I don't like watching any sport other than the occasional tennis game back in the day but even that I haven't watched in years, and baseball is about a kin to watching paint dry but Mark assured me it was better live.

After an long bus ride into the city, I reaffirmed my misgivings about going, especially on a bus, I hate buses, I hate not being able to come and go as I please regardless of how much gas money it costs me. We were all in a decent mood when we arrived, still holding on to some hope that this would be fun and the kids and I might enjoy ourselves.

We got there an hour early so while everyone else headed downtown to a pub we wandered around the concourse looking for some food. We found the Mariner moose and got a picture.

We found a stand that sold gluten free food, bonus! And Ash had a hot dog. The rest of us had disgusting greasy pizza and my face broke out literally within minutes of finishing the slice.

Cotton candy is always a hit.

The game started at 7pm, it was a very long night.

We were in the lower bowl in foul ball territory but we couldn't see a thing, I could barely see what was happening and there was no way the kids could see either.

Half the stadium were Blue Jays fans but what's a ball game without some foam fingers, even if it is for the opposite team you are cheering for?

I knew it was a bad sign when the boys started whining to leave in the second inning, by the fifth I was just trying to get them to sleep, no such luck.

Ash was a good sport about it all.

Conked out on the bus on the way back.

Unfortunately Mark learned what I already knew, I do not do sports in any way shape or form, especially when it involves long bus rides and three kids who are too young to even know what is going on. It would have been better if Mark had gone alone, he would have enjoyed himself a lot more without us party poopers there. 

Well, it is, what it is and if one good thing came out of it, I don't expect Mark will ask me to ever go to another sporting event again.

Boat related news, we are in the middle of a rainy week, our month straight of hot sunshine is over and we are enduring our second day of rain on Sweets, I didn't think it was possible but we have sprung even more leaks than the last time, we are up to nine now, which bugs me, I only need one more to make it an even ten.

I am quickly becoming resigned to the fact that it is impossible to fix leaks in a boat, which does seem strange to me, they make the bottom of the boat watertight why can't the top be too? 

So instead of chasing leaks and re re-sealing the areas we have been trying to fix since we bought the boat I think it would be more prudent to arrange a tarp canopy I can hang over the boat when it rains, so that is my next project. 

When the sun comes back again Mark will carry on with fixing the rotten wood around the rear trampoline frames and installing the instruments up the mast, radar, wind system and a new VHF antenna.