A Welcomed Rain

Today I finally got into the swing of being on a boat…in water. I put my indoor jobs on hold and got myself out on the deck to do some work. I finally shed the layer of clothes over my bathing suit and spent part of the day (re)sanding the hand rails and cleaning up the decks. It felt so good have the sun shining down, taking a swim when I got hot and seeing Mike get the windlass wired and working! And just this morning when I woke up I thought to myself “Blue skies again!”. At this point it would be so nice to wake up to gray skies and rain one morning (Seattle people, don’t hate me). Well, I didn’t get to wake up to it but in the late afternoon the clouds did start to roll in with thunder and lightening in the distance. And then the rain came. After we quickly closed the hatches and zipped up our spray hood, we took the opportunity to sit in our (mostly) dry cockpit, drink a beer and enjoy the first rain in over a month. And I think the pine trees enjoyed it as well because they gave off the most delicious sweet scent that filled the air for the rest of the evening. The clouds then helped give the sun a most spectacular setting to the west. And to the east the darkening skies and mist settling in the pine laden valleys behind the bay almost had us believing that we were in Alaska instead of Turkey.

Mike=hungover

...but surprisingly productive. And he's allowed to go swimming today.

Drinks on Chinook

Thank goodness we got a social invite for tonight so I don’t have to write an entire blog about our dinghy ride to the bathroom this morning! Instead, the biggest excitement of the day was being invited by Deborah and Brian from ‘Chinook of Canada’ for a drink on board. We spent a couple of months being neighbors while hauled out and always wanted to get to know them better. Unfortunately, haul out really doesn’t lend itself to being too social. So we were happy to run into them and looking forward to seeing their boat in the water. We had a great evening with them as well as with John and Vanessa from ‘Meander’ and Tudor and Barbara from ‘Youanmee’ and a handful of other folk. The evening flew by as we all sat cozily in their cockpit filled with laughter sharing lots of drink and food. We finally bid our hosts good night (again, last guests standing) and made our walk back home in the breezy night air. And thankfully I was able to keep Mike on the dock, as he was a bit wobbly on his feet and kept threatening to go for a swim (despite the waves breaking over the dock), which in his condition probably wouldn’t have been the best idea.

Fast and Easy

Since we went to bed at 8pm we were up pretty early this morning. And we are finally starting to jones for good coffee again. This Maxwell House ‘Bogaty Smack’ stuff (we at least have fun saying Bogaty Smack!) just isn’t cutting it anymore. We have even made a switch to tea but will see how long that lasts.
Mike spent the morning trying to figure out how to wire the solar panels and wind generator from the roll bar to the main cabin. The first idea was to wire it down through the lazerette, through the aft cabin and to the batteries. But after taking down some head liners in the aft cabin, he realized that he would have to drill a dozen holes through centimeter thick steel in awkward positions in hard to get to places. So instead…we decided to just run the wiring on the outside of the boat. Not ideal but ‘fast and easy’ is our motto these days! And the work on the sails and rigging continues. The other day when Mike hoisted the mizzen he found out that it is in need of some repair and also discovered that our brand new main sail has two of the reefing blocks placed on the wrong side. Finally this morning, the sail guys came by to take them to the shop and hopefully they will be repaired shortly. After those chores were done, we both headed into town where we stopped for some lunch and then went our separate ways. My mission of the day was buying a shower curtain, a trash can, and sheets and blankets for our guests. Mike went to the ‘Sanai’ and had some old stainless steel piping from our pulpit welded into a meter and a half rod to support our wind generator. He also bought a shit ton of new line for our rigging! After hauling all of our goods back home, we cooled off with a swim. And I am happy to say that the stress seems to have lifted. The atmosphere feels lighter and we seem to be enjoying ourselves… and each other again.

Mundo de Plastico

I went on a plastic shopping spree today. I took measurements of our shelves and little nooks and crannies to try and find plastic bins that would fit snugly and keep our stuff safely in place. And I think the staff, in one store in particular, thought I was a bit crazy with my constant measuring to try and figure out what would work best. Mike started his morning off with a swim (hey, that’s a good idea…) and then continued working on the electronics and got more needed lines from the nav station up to the cockpit. And we both were pretty wiped by early evening and found ourselves reading in bed with the sun still shining.

A False Summit

My energy was mostly back today so continued on with my cleaning and tackled the galley. In addition to cleaning, I tried to come up with ways to lash items down so they don’t go flying off shelves and counters while we are under way. Mike spent a frustrating day stringing cable lines for the new electronics. When they built this boat they must have installed all of the wiring and then built everything around it, tightly. Because there isn’t a lot of room to add new cables/wires or get them where you want them. After a lot of sweat and swearing, Mike had success with getting the radar cable from the cockpit, to the navigation station, through the bilge and engine room and up to the mizzen mast! Good work Krausser!

My views of Mike today...

And I have to share that there has been a feeling of stress in the air since getting in the water. Mike described our feelings well, “It feels like we have reached a false summit.”. You climb and climb and tell yourself ‘only a few more steps’ and by the time you think you can’t take another breathe you make it! But then only to realize that you haven’t, you can see the true summit in the distance and it is going to a lot more energy to reach it. And you don’t have time to sit down and take a break. At least our path to the true summit isn’t as long or as steep as before. And friends await us at the top! We just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other until we make it out of this marina.
And in celebration of our friend’s Heidi and Aaron wedding, we made a nice dinner and gave a toast to their love and happiness! Happy Wedding Day Heidi and Aaron!

Mike Having Too Much Fun

2nd attempt...