More Cowbell

We kicked a$$ this weekend on the boat. David, Sam and I worked on the boat this weekend between parties and got a ton done. Sam and I tackled the refrigeration unit that hasn’t been working in the last 2 months. We got it up and running, but alas, after 25 hours it had stopped again. More brainstorming and maybe even a call to the manufacturer is in the works. David got all of the instruments installed again and after a eureka! moment got the inverter working again. Sam was very pleased with the last success because he can now play Xbox 360 while we are anchored! There is still a lot to be done, but we are moving forward, not backward. We also purchased some stereo equipment, speakers and receiver (XM and iPod ready), but need to figure out where to put the XM antenna prior to installation.

To continue in our quest for preparation, I purchased two books this weekend. The Travelers Guide to the Bahamas and The Well Trained Mind- A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Susan Wise- Bauer and Jesse Wise (2004) W. W. Norton and Co., New York. One is a little more fun to read, but both are essential to the cruise.

David continues to pull out wires that he doesn’t understand which scares the crap out of me. He is right though, the only way to understand the boat is to make it as simple as possible.

Chelsea (our loving daughter) told me yesterday that we are not going to sell the house, we are not leaving in October, and we are not going cruising. How is that for a positive attitude? I really hope to prove her wrong. We have had some interest in the house lately, which brings us hope. Our good friends that are cruising in December have already rented their house and are “house sitting” for a friend. I am so jealous. I am even contemplating buying a St. Joseph statue and burying it upside down in the yard to ensure a sale. If you haven’t heard of that fable, check this site out http://stjosephstatue.com/.

That is all for now.

Andrew and Shanon

Andrew explaing the meaning of life and Shanon calling BS

Family minus Chelsea

My grandfather, Aunt Nancy and Mom

Dad and Chris

chelsea's cap prior to blowing off

We have survived again many adventures. There are some lessons learned.
1. After spending the night on the boat, turn off the air conditioner. (We left it on for 4 days without returning to the boat and the compressor froze up. Everything looks to be ok though, after leaving it off for a while, it blew cold air and peed.)
2. You can’t hear Chris snoring from the forward cabin with the door shut and the air conditioner on.
3. Granddaddy is tougher than he looks, especially if sailing is an option.
4. My family really likes Chelsea’s boyfriend.
5. You can’t eat chips and ice cream every day without gaining weight.

Chelsea is graduating Magna Cum Laude in two weeks. David and I are very proud of her. She is quickly becoming more responsible and independent every day preparing for her new life in Aggieland. As with any typical teenager, she is increasingly absent from the house and difficult when she is home. David and I are angry at her more often and she is lashing back. Needless to say, our relationship has been strained. Last night I had a talk with her and as the tears flowed, we both expressed our love. Something has changed though, something is different, something clicked. She is still my daughter and I cherish her, but if feel like I have let go. She is probably wondering what took me so long. This is probably just the first stage. I really didn’t expect that it would hurt so much.

We had a visit from some friends who knew us in our pre-sailing days, circa 1997-2001. We have all since moved out of the houses that were next to each other, but man, did we have some great times in that neighborhood. I never had to plan what we were going to do during the weekend. We were just going to hang with the neighbors. We started around 6pm on Friday and continued through the weekend. If the garage door was open, it was ok to come over. The kids were of assorted ages, but all got along. It was a very rare time and we are lucky to still have them as friends.

Cheryl, Tommy and Greg (Texas Tech sophomore) came from Midland, TX. Brenda and Marcus came from Kingwood, TX. We took C, T & G to Classic for lunch on Friday, then moved on to the house. B & M got there around 4ish. David and Tommy started the Gin and Tonics after 5 (note pink pitcher on table). Marcus declined participating in the tradition and rightly so. After dinner we went for a night sail. Brenda did the Titanic move at the bow and didn’t fall off the boat (it was a close call). Tommy and Cheryl fell asleep (was it relaxing or did they over imbibe?). We safely docked the boat, not losing any limbs and retired to the house.

Next morning, another sail planned, this time mostly sober, although not for long. We had some time constraints, but decided to go to Redfish Island for a picnic. Marcus got his work out trimming the starboard side jib. Brenda and Cheryl got their ab work out sitting on the low side. I trimmed the port side jib. The wind was up a bit so the anchoring wasn’t so stellar. We ate lunch and carried on down wind back to the club. Then the rest gets a little foggy for me. I will let someone else comment on that if they wish. All in all it was awesome seeing them all again. I will need about a year to recover from it though.

We have had lots of friends ask “can we visit you in the Bahamas?” Of course you can, but we are afraid to make any commitments until we know #1 if we will like it and #2 where we are going. I will try to narrow it down a little. Everyone plan to come to see us in sometime in November-January and maybe February, on one of the islands in the Bahamas. Ok that’s settled, see you there!

We traveled to Redfish Island this weekend with Lizz, Charlie, Dana, Scott (Kaya), Beverly and Walter (Shaken not Stirred). Weather was great (a little windy), food was shared, martinis were very tasty and sleep..not so much. We rafted up to Kaya to eat and relax prior to anchoring our boat. This was a first for Shaken not Stirred (SNS) to anchor, so everyone was happy to give advice. They did a great job. It was very impressive considering that we all had way too many martinis, wine, beer etc.

Sleep, ah to sleep, I wish I could. Our berth is very comfortable, my earplugs fit nicely, but I can only sleep about 1-2 hours at a time. I thought that I had sufficiently imbibed enough vodka to sleep this time, but my darling husband roused me at 0100 asking, “do you hear that?”. I didn’t really, he denies he said go fix it, but that is what I heard, so I got up, went on deck, looked around a little in the dark, went back below, got in bed and tried to go back to the vodka induced coma I was in before. That wasn’t going to happen though. The noise was echoing in my brain now. It sounded like a gong. Did I mention my side of the bed is right next to the mast? I got up again, this time with enough sense to get a flashlight, went on deck, saw the problem (halyard askew and banging on mast in the wind) and fixed it. David came out to watch this time (I guess he worried when I didn’t fix it immediately). Back to bed, back to waking every hour to the anchor alarm, back to fixing my earplugs, tossing and turning. After the anchor alarm went off for the 15th time, David asked what time it was and when I replied 0430, he sighed, “only 3 more hours”, implying only three more hours of this sh!t.

The morning was dry and cool. Walter called and asked, “what’s the plan?” David told him the plan for us was to enjoy the morning, relax, throw paper airplanes at Sam, read a little, do some light boat projects, then pull the anchor up and sail around a bit. In other words, make your own fun. Walter and Beverly decided to head off and do a little sailing. Charlie and co. decided to kayak around the island before they left. That is the beauty of this lifestyle, everyone does what they want.

I attempted my first solo docking maneuver this Sunday. My crew consisted of Sam (11) and Vivian (13). They were instructed not to fend off, but to just kick the fenders over the side at the appropriate time. They did a beautiful job and so did I. No damage. Ego stimulated. All good.

This looks very cool. I wonder how far Sam would go…

The boat has been officially Christened by an ordained minister. We now have had every ceremony imaginable (minus the dead chicken). Here is a picture of the family with our plaque and burgee.

P.S. Sam ran with me in a 5K this weekend and placed 6th overall with a 25:80 (approximate time). He got 1st in his age group. I got 3rd in my age group of 30+ and 13th overall. Yes, Sam kicked my butt.

Lizz just sent me a cool link:

The Hacking Family

This past weekend we worked our butts off on the house. Saturday evening at dinner on the lanai, we contemplated the rest of our evening. It was a beautiful night, wind blowing from the SE around 10kts. Chelsea was probably going out with “the boy”, so David, Sam and I started planning, “Family walk? Family game night? Family game night on the boat? Family game night on the boat anchored out to watch the sunset? Family walk to the boat, anchor out, play games, watch the sunset and sleep on the boat?” Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner! David checked weather, predicted shift to SE and then a dying breeze after that, perfect. We cleaned up, packed a little, threw our bags on our backs and headed out. The guard at HYC said, “where are you hobos going?”

The weather was beautiful; unfortunately we got little or no sleep due to the wind shift to the East. When the wind shifted and increased to 15kts, the protected anchorage was not so protected and it got a bit rolly. We returned to the harbor at 8ish and headed to the club for breakfast. Sam ran 1.5 miles (to get ready for the 5k in two weeks) and David and I walked home lugging our stuff. Back to work on the house. I put a very “ghetto” for sale sign up, just to get us in the mood to sell the house.

We started working on the boat around 4. We put new halyards on the boat (main and jib) with little difficulty. I went up the mast to retrieve the wrap stop from the forestay (I really like it up there). Andrew “the boy” and Chelsea helped out on the boat. We took some pictures. I slept very well that night!

Lessons learned:
-Check weather at 2 different weather sites prior to planning an overnight trip.
-We have to do something to stop the wires in the mast from banging around, drives me crazy, even with earplugs.
-When you are on a boat you get hungrier and sleepier, than when on land.