Pertaining to Thought

It's been a week know since we have done anything on the boat, I'm starting to go crazy. Marks work schedule last week was midnight to 8am and I hate that shift. He works all night, sleeps all day, seems like such an incredible waste of time.
With all this time on my hands, stuck in the house I did school with the kids and that's pretty much it. I cannot stand having work to do and not being able to do it. Feeling completely hand tied and house tied we began ordering things we will need to tackle the next projects on the boat.
So far we are now waiting for massive deliveries from all over the country...

• A natures head composting toilet
• 3 solar panels
• A/c inverter
• 4 batteries
• Battery boxes
• Wiring
• Fresh water tank
• Cushion foam
• Sea anchor
• Bilge paint

And a bunch of other stuff I can't even remember right now. So we are in the waiting game now for all this equipment to arrive. We managed to track down some marine grade plywood which is easier said than done here on Whidbey Island and got some cabin paint. We figured while we waited for the fun stuff to arrive we'd get some of the construction work done and get started on the interior painting but as luck would have it Mac, our five year old came down with a fever and was out of commission for the beginning of the week and no sooner does he get better then Finn our little one gets sick. I
really wish everyone would get sick at once instead of dragging it out for weeks with each of us taking our turn at it, such another big waste of time.

Unfortunately with all this annoying time on my hands I've had a lot of time to think and worry and stress about stuff. Since our last sailing excursion with the kids being such a disaster I couldn't help feeling that we had made a big mistake. Here we have sunk most of our savings into a dream we've
been fostering for years but now I've been struck with the reality that it's not going to be as awesome as we've always dreamed. Deep down we always know our dreams are never as great as we think, usually a lot of hard work and disappointing outcomes, but you have to try anyway or else you'll always wonder.

We read all the sailing blogs and read about everyone's great adventures, sailing the world with their kids, pictures of smiling happy families, snorkelling in the Bahamas but they neglect to mention the brutal days which I assume is almost everyday considering they usually only update their posts maybe once a week, often less. But that's okay too, I've always said the memories are what we do this for, every camping trip we have ever gone on has been a nightmare but we keep packing up that tent every year anyway. When we look back on the dirt, the cold and dampness and inevitable downpour of rain, the bug bites and disgusting outhouses, we forget how miserable we were and idealize it in our minds, suddenly all the hardships are funny, how we handled it, the stories we have to tell and that we survived to do it again next year.

I have no disillusions that sailing with the kids will be all sunshine and lollipops, it's going to be a long, dredging march through hell but that one day out of twenty that we manage to have perfect
weather and the perfect anchorage, where all stars align and that one amazing day will outshine all those other hard ones. It's no different if you're on a boat or in a giant log house, not everyday is going to be awesome, but it's that rare awesome day that we live all the others for.

I had hoped the kids would take to sailing easily, I know I was fooling myself that that was even a possibility, knowing my kids who freak out if you hold them upside down, they are not the adventurous sort but that needs to stop. We should have had them out sailing from the minute they were born but circumstances prevented that. I refuse to believe that they are too old to adjust and come to enjoy it, it's just going to be harder than we'd hoped. We have a lot of hardships facing us, Marks work schedule, meaning I need to get very comfortable and knowledgeable about sailing since I will have to do it solo a lot of the time, our boat being all we could afford is not very live-aboard friendly, family members who think we are crazy and ruining our kids lives and wasting our money, and so on and so on. But there will be those awesome days and all we can hope is that the positive will be enough to make the negative worth while.

Breather

After a week of non stop working on the boat, two days away from her feels strange. I've actually gotten antsy. I have this feeling that if we stop we'll get stalled and not end up finishing everything that needs to be done and really we haven't even started yet. That's the scary thought.
A few panicked moments today and Mark keeps trying to reassure me that everything will be fine, everything will be done, as it is we are moving at light speed, the title hasn't even been transferred to our name yet and already we have done quite a bit.

Last we heard from the brokers was that the bill of sale had been drawn up and been sent to the seller to get signed and sent back, not sure where he is with all that but our part is done and since we already legally have possession of the boat, I'm not concerned, he'll get the title transferred if we wants his money, the bank holds it until we get that title.

After our big sailing adventure on Sunday we've pretty much been taking it easy, going about our somewhat regular routine. Mark is on the midnight watch at work this week so he's gone all night and sleeps in the day, not a schedule conducive to getting work done on the boat. The kids and I are plugging away at school, still haven't gotten into a groove there yet but it's coming.

We finally had rain the last few days. I say finally, not to imply that I want rain or enjoy it in anyway, actually I loathe it, I'd have snow over rain any day but since we resealed all the hatches and windows on Sweets we've been waiting for some rain to see how they took. After school was done today and Mark got some rest we all went in to town a little early for the kids Tae Kwon Do lessons and swung by the boat to see how she faired. The kids were kind of concerned that be would be going sailing again, but once we assured them that we weren't today they raced to the boat. They love being on it, they run all around the deck, jumping through hatches, ringing the bell, pretend fishing with the boat hook and make believing that we are sinking which is all very dramatic. Now we need to get them to love being on her while she's moving. Baby steps.

When we walked down below, the dehumidifier was running but had only an inch of water in the bucket from two days of rain, the inside felt dry and actually smelled decent. All the hatches we fixed and resealed were dry, only the two hatches above the cabins leaked slightly, we didn't actually do much to them though, so we'll try some silicone around the edges and some new weather stripping and see of that does the trick. But I think we are well on our way to having a dry boat.

Leeway for Incompetence.

Fall is upon us and so is the windy season here on Whidbey Island. This being our first fall here in the island we are going by what people have told us. This past weekend at the marina it's been beautiful and sunny and busy. Other boaters were down at their boats, some going for their last sail of the season and others stowing and getting their boats ready for winter. 

 Halloween is just around the corner. This little prop gave me a good jolt before I realized it was fake.
  We are in the Pacific Northwest after all, spiders that size are not uncommon.

So while everyone else around us is packing up for the season we are shaking our heads a bit thinking, "what season?" There aren't any seasons here. It's consistently chilly, and constantly rainy, maybe a slight fluctuation in temperature from summer to fall and winter but nothing like what I would call a season change. Back in Nova Scotia (home) winter is winter, summer is summer, spring is spring and fall is fall, no doubt about it. So in our mind (and remember our minds are the the minds of people who haven't sailed really at all) we plan on sailing all through fall and winter too, of course not even knowing if this is practical I guess we will see if we actually can.

So we carry on fixing up the boat, above picture is of me cleaning out the engine room.

 My Dad brought the kids home from their week in Victoria BC and he stayed over for a few nights. Seeing how we had the extra hand and the weather has been so great we decided to go out and see if we could actually get to sail on Sweets and take the kids for their very first time on any sailboat.

At first it was all good. They loved the boat... While it was tied to the dock.

Mr. Finnegan found the bell.

Goofing around in the Bimini

Rides in the dock cart.

The weather was gorgeous and hot and the water smooth and clear, we thought it would be a good day to go out sailing with everyone and it was nice while we were motoring out of the marina and out into the straight beyond. We could feel a bit of breeze so we shut down the engine and hoisted the jib, it puffed and then luffed and we really didn't have any wind, just at a stand still bobbing in the harbour. So we looked around and could see about five other sailboats sailing just a bit farther out, we could see the line where the wind started blowing, the water went from crystal smooth to slightly choppy, so we furled up the jib and headed that way. 

Once we hit the rough water we could feel the wind and what looked like a bit of chop from a fifty feet back now seemed much larger and white capped little waves. We hoisted the mainsail this time, which immediately filled with air and we took off like a scalded gander.

A few things were learned very quickly...

1. The kids do not like the motion of the ocean. The rocking, the bobbing, the back and forth and up and down. Once we hit the choppy water we were bashing around pretty good. Immediately we were met with shrieks and screams of terror from down below where the boys were huddled in the starboard cabin on a pile of coats crying.

2. Twenty knot winds are rough.

3. Trimarans are fast.

And

4. We really have no clue what we're doing.

I don't know what I was expecting conditions to be out there, I guess I was going from my previous references of riding the ferry to Victoria, I see sailboats all the time and the seas are never sloppy and when we drove the boat up two weeks ago those seas were calm as glass and a day very similar to this one. I can see now how weather and wind is fickle and forecasts should be regarded closely. I'm not saying we were in any kind of really rough seas and certainly no danger, it was actually a perfect sailing day, I just wasn't mentally prepared for this much wind and wave.

We had no heading or destination, we were just looking for wind to fill our sails and we found it. Our trimaran certainly lives up to the hype that trimarans are fast, fast boats. We were booking it, skipping along at 8-10 knots with only one sail up in the heavy wind, that's amazing to me. Especially when you consider we have no clue what we are doing. Three of us fumbling around on deck, trying to trace lines back to their origin, trying figure out what does what how to use the inhibitors, and the winches and jam cleats. If Sweets had eyes I can imagine her rolling them and saying, "just point me off the wind guys and I'll take over." Which she pretty much did.

 

 Poor Finn finally conked out from sheer terror I think, the body can only sustain that level of stress before it shuts down, poor baby, but not that I can blame him, riding the stern sea back into the harbour had me freaking out a few times as I watched the starboard ama dip under the water. Like I said, a rough day for first experiences.

Once we got back beyond the edge of the island, the land mass slowed the wind considerably and everything seemed to be going better, we were still under sail, getting a brisk 5 knots, smooth ride in, the kids started to unclench and move about the deck again, until we were coming up to the entrance to the marina, things got stressful again.

We figured it was time to drop the sail so we packed the kids back into the cockpit with Mark at the helm and my Dad and I went, untied the halyard, lifted up the jam cleat and... Nothing. The sail should have just started to drop but it didn't. We pulled and jerked and jiggled things a bit but the jam cleat really was jammed and wasn't going to let that sail go. Looking around us, four other boats were heading in under power, the channel getting narrower and us getting pushed closer and closer to the marina and this sail wasn't coming down. Panic! Okay no, Dad was here so somewhat calmer minds prevailed. We told Mark to come about, we tacked into the wind, which had picked up closer to shore now, me ducking as the giant boom swings violently over my head to the starboard side. Now all sheets are loose, we are heading back out in to the straight and the choppy water and heavy wind has followed us in and we are being tossed around again. 

Trying to ignore the kids yowling again, Dad and I try to figure out what was going on with this cleat. If it had just been myself there I'm sure I would have ended up just cutting the halyard and then that would have been a $400 fix so thankfully Dad figured out that we needed to winch up the sail tighter to release the tension on the cleat which enabled up to push up a lever and slide the line smoothly through. Whew!

The sail came rumbling down and we got the engine up again and headed into the marina. End of story... Um not quite. 

Docking is very difficult in this boat, because it is tiller steered and has a hard, enclosed cockpit which limits your visibility and the engine throttle and gear shift are two identical, unmarked levers attached at the same point so it's difficult to remember which one is which and you also have to bend down to shift them and thus can't drive and watch where you are going. Unfortunately today we had the strong wind pushing us in towards the dock so we came in fast and Mark couldn't remember which lever did what and which way was reverse, we managed to slide in to the dock but kept going and overshot. Dad jumped off the boat and put his shoulder into the bow to try and push us off from sliding right into the expensive yacht parked parallel to us. Thankfully catastrophe was averted and we got her lashed down in her slip.

We need to learn by doing and, Lord willing not destroy other peoples property at the same time. Every time we are out in her we see things that need fixing or replacing, like a window put in the top of the Bimini roof so we can see the set of our sails while we are sailing and the engine controls moved up to a place where we can shift and see out the window at the same time, one of the forestays needs to be moved so we have room to move the jib from one side to another without getting caught, etc... But mostly we just need experience with sailing and with sailing this particular boat, learning her rigging and how she handles.

Tired and wind blown we went to Dairy Queen for supper and ice cream, home for hair cuts, baths and bed. The weary sailors returned safe and sound, thanking The Lord for his care.

Too Many Options

Amazingly enough we have had three days of great weather and managed to get a lot of the exterior work done on the boat. We've enjoyed just being down at the boat, blue skies and some of the clearest  days we've seen since we've moved here and could actually see all the mountains off in the distance. 

 A flock of Canadian geese in the marina, pit stop on their way south for the winter.

We managed to seal most of the hatches that were leaking, (of course it hasn't rained yet to see if they stay dry) and replace the cockpit windows with clear plexiglass and sealed the leaky anchor locker.

It so nice to have the clear windows, now when we are sailing we will actually be able to tell red markers from green and it's the first thing we have done on the boat that is actually noticeable, after all the hard work we've done, cleaning and resealing the boat still pretty much looks the same, a mess, but at least now we can look at the windows and feel like we actually accomplished something.

While our days have been spent on the boat, at night we drag our sore, feeling-our-age bodies home, stuff some unhealthy food in our mouth and start looking up things we need to buy for the boat. We pretty much have to buy everything, head, holding tanks, plumbing, sink, shower, batteries, solar panels, inverter, stove, heater, electronics... And the list goes on.

With the list so long it's hard to know where to start and what to get, there is so many options, ranging from expensive to outrageously expensive.

But faced with an intimidating task, Mark and I decided to divide and conquer, his job was to investigate electronics and come up with the best system for the money we can afford and I looked into stoves, cabin heaters, cooking stoves, barbecues, etc. 

I didn't figure this would be too hard but once I'd scoured every website and online marine retailer I couldn't come any closer to a decision but just had more questions. Cooking stoves, do we go with propane or diesel? Do we want to minimize the types of fuels on the boat? Diesel is difficult to get going and maintain, propane is heavier than air and poses a risk explosion. Safety? Cost? Convenience? BTUs? Too many options, which is best?

Seeing as I couldn't decide on a galley stove I figured I'd move on to cabin heaters, and the two do overlap, we could get a galley stove and oven with a built in diesel heater, nice to have it all in one and since we have a diesel tank for our engine anyway seems like the best plan and diesel does pump out the BTUs, but from reviews I've read diesel stoves are complicated to operate and maintain. There was one more option I had dismissed from the start and didn't even bother to look up was a solid fuel stove, it seemed impractical to burn wood on a boat, how would you store the wood? How would you chop it? But being thoroughly unimpressed by propane and diesel options I looked up marine wood stoves and absolutely fell in love. Through some cruiser chat threads I was turned on to shipmate cast iron stoves.

 Aren't they beautiful?

Growing up watching shows like Road to Avonlea I always loved the idea of the old fashion wood cooking stove and here I am presented with a miniature version made just for boats, thats awesome! I'm pretty much sold on these stoves but the cost might be a bit too much, we'll have to see if we can swing it, now to check with Mark and see what he come up with for electrical systems.

Fortune

It was a fortunate day today. By noon the sun came out and was warm, even could take my coat off, which is saying something considering I wore my winter coat all summer here.
We got a bit of a later start today then we would have liked, hard not to sleep in when you don't have three monkeys pouncing on you at 6:30 every morning. When we finally got down to the boat after a quick stop at Home Depot for some more supplies, I got back to cleaning and scrubbing. I think all the mold is gone now, I don't know for how long, I assume mold and mildew will be an ongoing battle to be waged, but such is life on a boat I guess.
After a few more hours of cleaning I stood back to survey my lovely clean boat, enjoy the fruits of my labour but honestly if a stranger walked into Sweets right now, they'd say, "oh, well she'll look better after a good cleaning."
There is still so much dirt and staining and grim caught in the million corners that even though I've sent 2 days cleaning and it smells good now, it still looks dirty.
That realization was very deflating, a lot of work and water logged hands, but really the boat won't look clean and fresh until it has been repainted.
I've been trying to get the interior up to the point where we need to remove shoes to go in but I think that state is a long way off.

Seeing that we had sunshine today Mark got to work on the outside, resealing hatches and windows. Once he'd peeled the first one off and started scraping the mountain of old, mildewed, caulking from around the opening all that lovely mess came floating down into my freshly cleaned cabin. So I gave up inside and went topside to help make more mess.

Sandwiches on the fly.

Little missy is getting to be quit comfy, she thinks she owns the marina now.

Re sealed and silicone on the hatches.

Beautiful sunny day, wish we could have been out sailing.

Lazy seals snoozing all day, except once two of them who had been lying face to face started having an altercation, howling at each other in their funny way and flippers flapping at each other until one gave up and turned around to face the other way before they both flopped back down to sleep again.

Swarms of birds fly in the marina in the afternoons, the liveaboards here all proceed to come out from their boats and walk up and down the docks clapping to chase them away. Doesn't seem very effective though.

Starboard window removed, waiting for epoxy to dry before sealing it all back up again.

Fiberglassing inside the port ama.

Mark installed a new solar powered vent, tomorrow another one will be put in on the other side to create a intake and output of air flow through the cabin.

Mark got this fortune in his fortune cookie today.

Let's hope so.

Work Day 1

Day one without the kids when we could get some work done on the boat. We got an early start, but the day was just atrocious, cold and windy and pouring rain, the walk down the docks from the car to the boat had me soaked through my coat.

Penelope's first visit to SweetHaven, such a cutie patooty in her little life jacket.

We pumped out the water in the bilges and figured out we had accidentally pumped the sea water in there when we were sailing up last week. There is a foot pump under the galley sink which when we pushed, didn't seem to do anything, but we eventually discovered two hoses in the bilge which were not connected to anything except the pump.

Our first of many trips to West Marine, picked up some epoxy and hardener, repair kit for the dinghy, two solar vents, sand paper, paint brushes, dehumidifier buckets and refills. Total came to $800. I almost choked. Walking out o that store with two small bags, it's unbelievable, even now I am trying to think how on earth that little bit could cost so much.

Mark got the motor on the dinghy but it won't work yet, found a gas line for it so that might help, you know, once we get some gas in it. 

Spent the rest of the day cleaning and scrubbing every inch of the inside of the vaka,vacuuming up the dirt and saw dust left over from the previous owners renovations. We discovered more gifts, the boat just keeps on giving. We found a sonar already in the thru hull and the wire leading aft to the cockpit, just need an adapter to hook it up to the chart plotter and we found two clear plexiglass windows, already pre cut to the seize and shape of the cockpit windows. Perfect! Hopefully mount those tomorrow and next time we sail her we'll actually be able to see where we're going.

Off to rest my tired bones in the hot tub with some tea before hitting the sack, got get rested for another day at it tomorrow. 

Tomorrow's goals are to fiberglass the port ama, replace the cockpit windows, remove shelves in salon, seal all hatches and windows and if it's sunny sand off the stern and re paint so we can put get those ridiculous kid handprints off her and give Sweets her proper decals with her new moniker. Here's hoping for some sunshine. (I won't hold my breath though)

Where To Start?

A lot of preparation and travel spent on the ferry between Anacortes WA to Sydney BC to drop the kids off at Nan and Pops for the week so that Mark and I could get something done on the boat.

Ash holding up her regular ferry treats, gummy bears as we pass through Friday Habor, sailboats galore.

 Nanny loading up the crew...

... As I turn around and head back on the same ferry I just got off.

Welcome to fall in the Pacific Northwest, October 1 and everyone is in winter coats and toques and mittens, freezing here.

I got back in to Anacortes by 3:00pm, spent an hour driving around the town trying to find the West Marine store that I was told was somewhere around there but couldn't find it so headed back in to Oak Harbor and went to the boat. Mark had gone in this morning and dealt with the huge 90lb anchor we left sitting up on the bow from when we brought her in and managed to get the outboard motor onto the dinghy, it won't turn over yet but there is some life in it.

The above pictures are showing the state Sweets is in right now, pretty tragic isn't it? There is just so much work to do it seems impossible to know where to start. Unfortunately the weather being what it is in Whidbey Island, mainly wet, the boat is pretty wet too. I guess the first order of business is to get the inside of the boat dried out. We discovered the hatch and anchor locker in the forward cabin is leaking and when I lifted up the floor boards in the main cabin discovered the bilge had about 5 inches of water in it, so we'll have to figure out where that is coming from, but who knows how long that's been in there?

Well it seems like I am just thinking out loud right now, off to bed and figure out where to start tomorrow.

Sweets in her new home.