From Cubanna With Love

2009-09-14T13:57:00.000-07:00

Well I wish I was writing of some grand adventure full of crazy excitement, but instead I am writing to fill everyone in on our further transition from the summer.

We are super glad to be home and visiting with family and friends, even though we would love to have spent more time exploring the beauty of the North.

Since we've been back though, life has felt like a bit of a whirlwind. From the tons of boat projects, to the preparation for Burning Man, my back surgery, and getting the children ready for school... the last month flew circles around us.

The weekend after getting back I took the day detaching our sewage system from our beloved Coqui and throwing it out. This left our boat smelling 95% better, but without a holding tank which has been a little inconvenient.

We have had many other things preoccupying or thoughts however, firstly getting ready for Burning Man (a week long festival in the desert we have gone to for the past three years). We built a yurt made out of canvas and framed using bamboo poles, and pine slats. It was really awesome and worked super well.

The Burn was a blast as always, but we are glad it's over and are equally glad to not be going next year. Four years in a row is good for now and we are looking forward to going somewhere next year for our honeymoon that requires very little planning and even less preparation. I'm thinking like the tropics in seclusion, with a small backpack, a cook stove, a tent and a sleeping bag. With no agenda other than to melt into each others lives and to get lost exploring a beautiful island we have never been to.

Anyway, I'd better not get to ahead of myself right now. There is going to be a lot happening between now and then. And as it stands I'm laying on a couch right now recovering from having had back surgery last Wednesday for two pesky herniated discs in my low back that have been afflicting me off and on for the past 10 years. Although I was anticipating having the surgery it came a little sooner than I had thought. I called to make the appointment on Tuesday after returning from the Burn and the soonest they could see me was October 20th. That seemed really inconvenient since I would just be waiting for surgery at that point. So I asked the receptionist if she could call me if there were any cancellations. Well she called me back about 20 minutes later and asked me if I could go in the next day. Although that put us in a bit of a rush it really worked out better in the end. I had very little time to think about it and it all happened so fast that I'm just glad it's over.

The procedure consisted of the surgeon going in and removing a small amount of bone and scraped away the portion of the disc that was bulging. Our hope is that the surgery will relieve the pressure from my sciatic nerve and therefore stop the pain and muscle spasms that have been bothering me forever.

I'm recovering well so far and am a lot more mobile than I anticipated. I am however not capable of getting in and out of the boat right now. So once again our amazing, supportive community is here for us and has been very generous in providing places for us to stay and houses to watch while in recovery. Thank you all again we are truly blessed and thankfully I should be in normal function within a couple of weeks.

We got the kids signed up for a new school which we were really excited about since the last school they were going to had major problems with the kids being under challenged and a principal that wasn't involved enough to respond to a letter. I have to say that I was thoroughly impressed in how brave the kids were to start a new school. Not only did they have to go to a new school, but they are for the first time ever not in the same building. For some strange reason the Hollywood district has separated their campuses between 1st and 2nd graders not between 5th and 6th graders so they can't even visit for lunch and recess. They were both a little distressed about this and I was sure there was going to be some kind of meltdown over it, but when the time came they both marched right on in and and came home telling us how much they liked their new schools!

Cuba and I were so proud of them both, but especially Asher. He has grown up so much this summer. For the longest time he's been so deathly afraid of change that his anxiety would consume him and constantly get the better of him. We would have to watch a totally different creature come out because of his fears. Leaving us the struggle of how to help him recognize, acknowledge, and overcome his fears while not allowing his bad behavior at the same time.

It has felt really great and amazing as parents to watch this new strength emerge in our son. I have to say that I am totally convinced that a great deal of this newly found courage and strength has been the product of a loving, stable father and a summer of facing the challenges of the unknown.

Before we set off on this endeavor I held a small family meeting (very informal) where I asked Asher and Liberty to tell me their fears, hopes, anxieties, anticipations, and everything they were excited or nervous about in terms of living on the boat and sailing. What I got in response was a wide variety of baffling honesty with everything from them being anxious about falling out when the boat tips over, to feeling like they might not be safe in the dinghy, and being nervous that they would feel stuck in too small of a space and get bored... to being excited at the opportunity to see lots of animals they have already learned about. I was amazed at how easy it was for them to tell us all the things they were feeling. I thanked them for their honesty and tried one by one to offer a little bit of reassurance, but not to over do it.

Instead I mostly just took inventory in my head of their concerns. About a month into our trip when I was noticing how well they had truly adjusted I asked them very casually how they felt about the various issues they had been previously concerned with. The great thing about this was that I already knew what their answers were going to be. I watched with joy as they both were in amazement with themselves realizing that the things they had been previously afraid of they hadn't given a second thought to. I felt really blessed to watch their sparkling little faces look at each other with a new sense of self empowerment. Too cool!

Thank you all for your support and love. We will keep you posted with upcoming events and can't wait to see those of you who we have not seen yet.

Love you all.

Finally Home!

2009-08-07T10:48:00.000-07:00

As I'm in the living room of a house that we are dog sitting for I'm a little bewildered that we are already back. And a little stunned that we went, we did it, we sailed the ocean on our own, and we are finally living on a boat? It's funny I've been asked upon returning if it feels strange to come back to Portland and not have a house and, well, i honestly hadn't thought about it till i was asked. We have made that boat so much our home that I will need a huge reason to ever leave it. All summer the feelings of relief and finality rushed over me as it set in that we were at last on our journey.
We got back a couple of days ago and our trip didn't see the sun for three days. With the 100 degree weather everybody else was having I'm sure that sounds great, but for us being on the ocean, miles from any visible land(or anything) it was despairing, gloomy and empty. We had only the aid of our GPS and radar due to the extremely pour visibility we had from all the fog. I would have taken pictures of the transit except there was nothing to see besides 3-4 different shades of gray. Only now that we are home and its all like a dream I wish I had.
Bob and i took a bus from Portland on Friday morning and met up with Cuba 8 hours later in Port Angeles. It was really great to spend that time with him and connect on an even deeper level. I am so extremely grateful for the love and support in my new family. They have all been super amazing.
Saying goodbye to the kids after spending every day together all summer was super hard, it didn't help that they were balling in the car with Lynn as I hugged them. But I do have to say I was a tiny bit relieved that they missed me that much after being stuck with me for so long.
While we are talking about aching to see someone!
Cuba Said it well, but i feel the need to say it also. I was surprised to be with him every day in super tight quarters for months and then to spend a night apart and not be even the slightest bit looking forward to it. I got very little sleep that night, it was lonely and restless.
Bob, Cuba and I started out of Port Angeles at 3:30a.m. to catch a good outgoing tide(to Bob's disbelief that Cuba and I were capable of rising at that hour). The fog was thicker than we had expected so we tried to hook our radar up and it wasn't working. Hmmm. Well the waves were also little larger than we had thought they would be and as sea sickness started to kick in I handed out the Dramamine. I have only used Dramamine twice but both times i am bashed with the most useless wave of drowsiness. I'm talking the kind of drowsiness that you have no control over where your eyes start rolling back and you are nodding off while you are feeling confused and slurring your speech. I was USELESS. It felt horrible because the other two were feeling sick enough to be struggling also. Thank god for Cuba, once again my love, my hero, my knight in shinning armor and my sunshine on a very cloudy and dreary day. He over ruled his disabling seasickness and mustered the strength to be at the helm for a few hours while sending me off to sleep. God i love you!
Since it was just Cuba, his dad and I on the trip home. It meant that Cuba and i would have to take continual 3 hour shifts because none of us felt comfortable leaving Bob alone at the helm with his limited experience. Having him there was a huge benefit though as that we would often find ourselves taking ten minuet cat naps on watch while using auto pilot if he was up with us.
It is really awesome to me that our summer was so full of experience and familiarity with Coqui. When we left to go up to the San Juan's earlier this summer i demanded(with pleases as always) that we have someone experienced go up with us, even if it meant that I wasn't able to go because of schedule conflict. And i am every bit as glad now as i was then that we did. However, on the trip coming back i felt very different. I was content to only have the two of us if no one else could make it. I knew it wasn't ideal, but i wasn't concerned.
The ocean, like i said was gray and cloudy. for three days we were cold and damp from all the fog, like bone damp. Even in taking naps i would wake up cold and still damp. It was unbelievable, and we saw very little the entire time. Sleep was taken in 3 hour very restless shifts. I woke up every hour and wanted to know where we were. The only confirmation was the GPS and our hourly course plotting on the map as back up.
We had the current in our favor for the first time all summer but no wind so once again we motored the entire time with a couple short exceptions. At least we were making awesome time(in boat life) like 6-7 knots per hour so we had the ability to get off the coast a day early. And at the rate things were going i wasn't interested in spending another hour unnecessarily on the depressing gray ocean. So we sped things up a little to take advantage of time.
We were never so excited to see the bar at the Columbia River entrance at 2:30p.m. on Sunday instead of Monday. But we had made it there a little too early. We had two hours to kill waiting for the tide to change so we could go in. Cuba went to take a nap and then Bob followed. So as we were just drifting around in wait I decided to turn the engine off and pull out a sail. I had more fun than you would think just tooling around in circles killing time. smelling the sea for the last time maybe this year.Once it came time I woke Cuba up and we headed in. The Columbia Bar is world renowned for it's drop of the dime weather change and grisly seas, so although our other two crossings had been a piece of cake there was a mild ere of anxiety looming as we approached. The current was strong and the seas got a little boisterous for a while. We almost considered turning back and my small amount of anxiety definitely increased, but only for a short time. Then things smoothed out and calmed down. I have to say it felt really good to be in total trust of my partners capability as well as his judgments, which in times like that its super important to feel safe and of one mind.
Thank God we made it to Astoria!!!!! things only got better from there. The days of lingering queasiness that Bob felt finally started to go away. We were off the friggin ocean, and we almost saw our first patch of blue sky off in the distance. We arrived in Astoria at around 7:30p.m. and with the time we were making it was hard to stop so we motored on till 11p.m. and then slept for the night. I have to say that we all finally got great sleep that night. Not to mention that Cuba and i finally got to cuddle for the first time the whole trip :)
We woke up with the plan to get fuel at the marina around the corner. The charts showed the depth into the marina being 7ft and the depth in the marina itself being 10ft. since we draw 7ft we knew we were pushing it, but we didn't really have a choice. Going into the marina was ridiculous, not only was it shallow but it was extremely narrow. We approached going as slow as possible and as we rounded the corner to go in we could see the fuel doc. We got about 30ft from it and bottomed out. Hmmm.....Well? Luckily for us we were in there at the low, low tide and it was just on the rise, but in the mean time we had to get to the fuel dock. With a little effort we backed off and went around the shallow spot, but as we got closer to the fuel dock we realized we weren't going to make it all the way there. We got about 3ft from it and I jumped off, followed by Bob and we pulled Cuba over as far as we could. Thankfully the fuel hose is really long.
Fueled up and ready to go Bob and I swiveled Coqui's bow over and hopped on that way. The tide had come up a little while we were getting fuel so getting out was quiet a bit easier than going in but still narrow as all hell. Once out we were excited! The sun came out, there was a good breeze and we didn't have far to go from there!!!! We had been motoring so much I was determined to sail. I threw the Jib out the first chance i got and had a blast tacking it back and forth convincing myself that it was giving us extra speed, but when I convinced Cuba that we needed to fly the spinnaker that's when the fun really started. (The spinnaker is a huge parachute like sail that is good for when the wind is behind you). We have been nervous to fly it since we got the boat because of its ability to capsize if used improperly, ignorantly or in too strong of winds. But this was the most perfect of all opportunities to try it. The kids weren't with us, we had perfect wind, we were on the river 50ft from shore and we had three people on board to help.
We were a little edgy when we first put it up but as we gained familiarity with it we gained confidence in ourselves about using it. We gained so much speed that we were able to turn the engine off and sail the rest of the way home up the river!!! We even got home hours earlier than we thought we would. Arriving in Portland at 8:30p.m. we were able to be picked up by Lynn and the kids and taken back to their house for the night. We were all so happy to see each other.
It's really amazing how fast our time up there really was. We felt like we had just got there when the day actually came to be on our way home. If it wasn't for all the amazing people that we miss it would have been impossible to get me to come back. The fast pasted congested city has very little allure on the quiet ports of the San Juans. Its crazy how much slower I feel than the world around me right now, but that's a good thing I guess. People keep asking HOW I feel about all the change... Well, I feel amazingly blessed and fulfilled with life, love and family right now and that's more than I could have ever asked for.
Love you all and can't wait to see you!

That had me worried for a minute

2009-07-30T22:27:00.000-07:00

The forecast has been inaccurate up here so often that when I saw a Small Craft Advisory with 20-30 knots for today I decided to go to Port Angeles anyway. But after bashing hard into waves for a couple of hours I decided to divert South to Dungeness so I wasn't taking them on the nose and to give myself the option of escaping open water if I needed to, especially since I was alone (see my sudden turn South in Google Earth).

That was a wise decision. By the time I passed the spit into Dungeness Bay the wind was 25-30kts and the 4-5ft waves were having their whitecaps blown off in gusts while I was soaked from spray and starting to get cold as the sun set. The video doesn't capture how big the waves felt, but the motion might give you some idea.

Kinda fun. Kinda scary.

Coming home with mixed emotions

2009-07-29T09:45:00.000-07:00

My mood is melancholy because I just waved goodbye to Anna, the kids and my brother as their ferry slipped away. Liberty and Asher clung to me, crying, while I tried my best to console them but they nearly caused me to tear up as well since that's about the warmest feeling a father can experience. Anna and I ourselves need very little space and consequently spend almost no time apart. One would think that the few times we do would at the least feel like a refreshing change, but I find instead that those things that aren't made more difficult by her absence are made so much less enjoyable.

And so begins our return to Portland from a summer of magic, surprises and natural beauty. Anna's brother Bryan was, to everyone's disappointment, unable to come but having my brother here has been nothing short of extraordinary, though how we miss you Cloud! Tonight I will set out - with appropriate gusto and derring-do - on a seven-hour, singlehanded sail across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Port Angeles where I will await the arrival of Anna and my father tomorrow. On Saturday morning we begin the return transit and should arrive in Portland on Tuesday.

As inviting as the San Juans are, the highlights of the summer were certainly the visits from our people and we dearly miss those that didn't make it up. So it is with some sadness but even more excitement that we close out our first sailing adventure and return to Portland and those we love. We'll see you soon!

XOXO

Love from Portland

2009-07-18T20:57:00.001-07:00

Wow. It seems like a long time since I have written. It really is amazing how much can happen in a two week period. It seems like there is so much to tell.

Friday harbor was really a great little town. It was every bit as amazing as Cuba made it out to be. The amount of wild life hanging around the marina for the kids to see on a daily basis was phenomenal! They were constantly entertained and intrigued. The floating planes flying in and out right in front of our boat all day long never got old either.

I took the kids to the Whale Museum which was small, but pretty cool. The entire entrance to the museum is a staircase that has been painted in such a way that you ascend from the ocean floor to the sky above the waters’ surface. From the bull kelp and the crabs to the orcas jumping and the birds flying overhead. It was really well done and has made me consider doing something similar to Asher’s room since he was especially impressed with it.

When you walked into the main room there were skeletal systems from several large marine mammals. They had sound waves, pictures, charts, teeth, sculls and brains. It was a little sad though because of how many whales and other mammals have been hunted and put in danger. After we left Asher was in tears over the extinction of a particular species of gray whale. Luckily he didn’t stay heartbroken for too long. I do love how sensitive and thoughtful he is. He is so easily moved with compassion it blesses me, but I really hate to see my children cry.

On the third of July the town was having a little function down at the water front where the kids’ beloved stone seal is. We had gone up there because there are some public outlets and picnic tables where Cuba could finish up a little work and the kids could play. We had no idea there was going to be a gathering there. We found a table off to the side and sat down. At first it was pleasant Native singing, but at some point this woman started up an open mic and during the slots where no one was singing proceeded to sing herself. It was a train wreck if I have ever heard one and it went on and on. She even sang some songs more than once. It was absolutely redonkulous!

It was so bad that I paid Liberty $1.00 to go and sing a song just to get her off the stage. Well I got what I paid for. She went to go sing all right, but what came out was “um… Hi my name is Liberty and I’m going to sing you a song…. You’re a grand old flag. You’re a high flying flag…um” hands on mouth.

Next thing I know the woman who is running this open mic looks around and says,” Who’s your mother?” With a point and a smile I was compelled to help her out. I couldn’t just abandon her. So I sat in the only chair on stage with her on my lap and sang a song that I barely knew all the words to since she had learned it in her Kindergarten class (thanks Miss Ann). But at least I didn’t have to hear The Saints Go Marching In one more time.

That night we were fiddling around with our sewage holding tank system trying to fix something and a component that we suspected would break sometime finally did. Really bad timing. We were expecting our first visitors the next morning. This was going to require an early morning trip to town to buy a connector to splice our hose together with, then to come rushing back to fix it in time to get our friends from the ferry.

We were awoken the next morning at 6am, too early, by the sound of fireworks being tested on the water. The noise echoed back in such a way that we thought something had hit us, not to mention the boat doing the testing was no more than 300 feet away from us. It was a completely shocking and terrifying way to wake up.

On to the toilet repair, lets talk about gross!!! This was one of the grosses jobs I think I’ve ever done. There is nothing more real than the smell of raw stagnant sewage that has been sitting in the pipes for god knows how long. Our need for a proper holding tank and sewage grade hosing just got bumped to the top of the list of priorities. And I’m talking immediately!!!

Nevertheless we managed to temporarily fix the leak and splice the two hoses together in a very short amount of time. And rush back over to the ferry terminal and have a little time to spare. And as much of a hassle as these little problems and inconveniences have been they have bonded us closer and inspired us in our amazing capabilities to accomplish, problem solve and work together to do anything. We really make an awesome team.

After that whole debacle was over the day was great! We picked up our good friends Cate and Earl for the weekend. Our first visitors!!! They could not have come at a better time. Fourth of July weekend spent on a boat hanging out and watching the fireworks. We got ourselves stocked with groceries for dinner, ice cream and beer. We were blessed with the first really warm day we’d had since arriving in the Islands and great company. It was phenomenal.

After a delicious meal of grilled hamburgers and corn with salad followed by ice cream, we were ready and excited to watch the fireworks, not to mention very full. We were a little distracted however by the 165ft Westport yacht, named Katya, which had pulled in earlier that morning to block our view with her magnificent and tantalizing ways. She was like the devil incarnate, gleaming with brilliance and taunting us with a bad case of boat envy. Not to mention reminding us of all the egregious amounts of wealth that we were surrounded by. Ahhhh Katya, with your underwater glowing lights illuminating the way between me and you, and your streamlined hull with your shiny million dollar glossy coat that I could almost see my reflection in… Anyway the fireworks were awesome. They lasted a really long time and the sounds of thunder that accompanied them from the water were incredible. I think I could honestly say that they were the best display we had seen yet.

The next morning we wanted to take them to a state park and go explore so we pulled anchor and headed out. We ended up at the world's smallest state park. Although the entire island was indeed a park it was only about 500 feet across. We sat on top of the hill for 20-30 minutes and decided we should probably keep searching. So back into the dinghy, onto our boat, and off to find a place to explore.

We found our way up to Jones Island which was great. We tied to a mooring buoy and ventured out. The kids, Cate and I went swimming and ran on the beach. We hiked to the other side of the island and saw deer, built a campfire cooking stew and toasted bread for dinner. Then we rowed back to the boat for the night and slept. We saw them off on the ferry the next morning to everyone’s dismay and spent the next day getting ready for Bob and Lynn (Cuba’s parents) to come in the morning.

They arrived the next day at around noon and we showed them around town a bit before going back to the boat. While they were here we went on a tour around the island on a bus and saw some of the beautiful countryside, an alpaca farm, one of the other towns and a pod of whales off the coast at one of the state parks. It was pretty cool.

While they were here Bob helped me get our dinghy situation straightened out. Shortly after arriving in the San Juan’s we noticed that our dinghy was not holding air in the right side of the floor. We bought the dinghy a year ago and had only inflated it two or three times to mostly try it out. Then it landed itself on the top of our boat all folded up waiting for this summer to finally fly free.

I went to the West Marine in Friday Harbor earlier that week and talked to the guys down there about it and all four of them were more than obliged to help. The manager even had one of the employees drive me and the kids back down to the docks to check it out (every once in a while it really does pay off to be the woman).

They determined that it had to be sent away for repair and they were going to give us a loaner till it was fixed. Oh my god was I glad that Bob was with me that day. The manager brought down our loaner in a box and laughingly said, “Well have fun with that.” Only there was nothing fun about it. We sat on that dock for probably an hour in the rain trying to figure how that piece of crap was supposed to be constructed. Once we were done I still had the task of rowing in back to the boat in the rain. I really wouldn’t have minded this had the dinghy been really rowable. It tracks horribly and is way smaller than ours making any company require two trips now instead of one. In the long run we are a tiny bit glad this happened because ours is so big and hard to move that we were having a few second thoughts about whether we had outdone ourselves.

The last couple of days we took them to Jones Island as well. We liked it so much we really wanted to explore it more and show them how beautiful it was. We pulled up rocks and combed the beaches for hours. We turned over this one rock that must have had under it more than 300 crabs. It almost made my hair stand up to see them all scurry for safety after we disturbed their peace. The kids went crazy. They thought it was the coolest thing ever. Later while hunting for life on the beach Liberty found the smallest sea star I have ever seen in real life. It was so cute.

We built a fire and made sugar bears. If you don’t know what a sugar bear is you need to! They are the most delicious campfire treat I have ever had. You take a can of premade biscuit dough wrap it on the sticks and roast them. Then you roll them in butter and dip them in sugar. Yummmm are they good.

After we made the children crazy on sugar we made them burn it all off by playing hide and seek for a while. Once they were ready to crash Cuba rowed them all back to the boat and came back with some wine and a blanket and we cuddled up by the fire and hung out for hours. So beautiful. The night sky was perfect with the full moon, the stars and each other's company.

Saying goodbye to Bob and Lynn the next day was really hard. Having them here was loaded with fun.

We took the whole next day to get ready to go to Bainbridge Island where Cuba's company main office is (showers, shopping and laundry). I decided to try and save the $20 dollars it would take to do laundry at the mat and did it by hand. I used salt water for the wash and first rinse and fresh for the final. This worked out pretty well and I did about three loads in an hour and a half. But I failed to give the clothes enough time to dry before it was dark. They stopped dripping just in time for the rain and gale force winds to set in that night. We no sooner brought all the lines inside when we saw the lightning strike not terribly far from us.

I’m pretty sure I was told like a million times growing up as a child that the last place you ever want to be in the middle of a storm was either on the water or in the middle of a field. What the hell was I doing on a boat?! I had a flash panic thought to jump into the dinghy and row to shore. But after I realized just how ridiculous that was I calmed down. Paying out more scope with Cuba and adding a second snubber to the anchor chain was also a great deal more reassuring.

With very little sleep, from constantly waking to check on our holding, we woke up early and got ready for our 13 hour sail. The wind that morning was incredible, but unfortunately not usable. It was head on and only seeming to push us back, slowing us down and making us extremely cold. We spent the next 12 and a half hours taking turns motoring our way there. The kids did amazingly well. And just as I detected the first bit of boredom in them I let them watch two movies in a row. They loved that because our television watching all summer has been next to nothing.

At about 10 miles to go we finally got wind in a good enough position that we decided to raise both sails and turn the engine off. Finally, I was so excited. Ironically with not more than ten minutes worth of sailing it started to pour rain and we heard the huge crash of thunder. There was no way that either one of us were going to be up there straddling the mast when that come our way so without hesitation both sails were dropped. Total bummer. I am looking forward to sailing just for the fun of it while we are here. When you are trying to make any distance in the daylight it is really hard to always sail.

Since we have been in Bainbridge it has been really great. Cuba has been working in the office and getting to know the people he works with up here better. They are really great. The kids and I have been able to visit him at work for lunch and explore the surrounding areas. We walked down the main street and met a woman in a candle shop that was so impressed with the kids and their story that she gave them each a little sailboat candle. The kids thought that was really cool. Then we spent the next day roaming to Seattle on the ferry and exploring the science center. That was a day well spent. And we were all well spent at the end of it.

Being here has been really fun but we are getting excited to come back to Portland in a few weeks and see all of our beloved friends and family. To those of you who have been able to make it up here we greatly thank you, we really couldn’t have done this without a wave of love and familiarity being brought to us to help us with our home sickness. To those of you who were not able to make it up we are getting really excited to see you all soon.

Friday Harbor

2009-07-02T18:27:00.000-07:00

For a full week now, we've been voluntarily stuck in our San Juan home-away-from-home, Friday Harbor. Never before have we seen such fascinating sea life within a marina and we gaze at it until we almost fall into the clear water chock full of jellyfish, shrimp, anemones, leafy seaweed, crabs and lord-knows-what-those-things-are. The marina even has a resident seal named Popeye who's been here since she was a pup, taking expensive fish from marks like us who happily buy it for her from the seafood stand.

In our smooth, glorious style, we announced our arrival with a botched docking maneuver that didn't do any damage but left me wondering what our powerboat neighbor thought of us. His name is George and it turns out I shouldn't have worried because even though he and his family are living aboard for the summer, he knows next to nothing about boats and has never driven his, as far as I know. He just bought one because he wanted to, and I love that.

Before long, our kids became fast friends with his son George (Jr.?) and they invited us out on a whale watching tour for which they'd hired a captain. I'm sure they wouldn't have died, but it was fortunate for all involved that we accepted. The first hours were uneventful and while we didn't spot any whales, we saw lots of beer. About half-way through the trip we pulled into Roche Harbor for appetizers and while hunting for dock space, Skipper Ryan discovered that the controls weren't responding quite right so he scrubbed the attempt and headed for deeper water to figure out the problem which turned out to be the port propeller stuck in gear. We were afraid to turn the boat off in case it didn't come back on so we helped him anchor while the boat did slow circles in front of folks who surely thought us idiots. After a full day, we arrived back in Friday Harbor having circumnavigated the island so that Anna and I could prepare for everyone an exquisite meal of hot dogs and mac & cheese aboard Coqui. I adore having eight people crowded around the table down below; it feels like home.

We've spent loads of time wandering around town petting any canine that will let us get near because we're stricken with an acute case of pet envy. It seems every boat has a dog aboard and though barely a day goes by that I don't long for my beloved Jackie, I'm ready for a new pup in my life and we're confident we can handle a fifth creature aboard.

In shop news, I've gotten used to working from the boat during the day while Anna takes the kids on endless errands and a few adventures, which I don't begrudge because I have a superb floating office. In contrast to air conditioning and sealed windows, I just witnessed a seal catch a fish in front of towering Mt. Baker. It's all idyllically perfect, except for how much we miss our people. We love it here, but for that reason we'll be glad to come home.

XOXO

***Nerd Alert***: You can now view our position and tracks in Google Earth. The link is on the right side of the page and will be updated regularly.

Here at last and loving every minute of it!

2009-06-24T23:40:00.000-07:00

Let me just start by saying that Cuba is by far the most amazing man I have ever met!!!! To have been blessed with his presence for one single day would have been life’s most precious gift. But no, somehow I got him forever as my best friend, lover and the father of my children. Life doesn’t get any better than this.

How then can he top this off? By giving me the San Juans as my very own private backyard!! The man is ingenious (happy day for me), and just doesn’t know when to stop (good thing he knows to stop at buying me a gaudy diamond ring to show me he wants to spend the rest of our lives together. The world as my playground and a promise of forever is all I need).

I have him to thank for so many things, among them this happens to be the first summer ever as a mother that I have been given the ability to spend with my children without the stress of school or work and it is truly amazing. I am loving the quality time that I have with them right now. They are the sparkle of the earth and my warmth on a cold winters’ day.

So just what have we been doing with all our time? That’s easy. We have hunted for so many crabs that I am seeing them in my sleep (let me just say that I have seen more species of crabs than I ever thought possible), we have chased our dinghy too many times to count (I am beginning to think it is hell bent to strand us somewhere), we have wrestled elbow deep in the sand for our dinner (large clams are about the most stubborn non-thinking creatures ever), we have climbed to the top of sand hills and slid down so many times that Liberty was convinced she was going to sleep as good as a “lazy pig”, we have rowed around in circles looking for starfish and anything else living under the sea, we have explored the driftwood structures previously constructed and we even had a close encounter with a deer.

The simplicity of this life is really a breath of fresh air. No crying at the store because the toy car is being left, no fighting about which movie to watch, there isn’t anything but what we have. We have taken walks on the beach as a family with big campfires, played games together after dinner and cuddled up on the couch to read books. It seems that the time spent together is fuller and richer than before. I have been waiting a long time to have life slow down for us.

There isn’t anything better than being able to step out onto the deck of your boat cuddled up with a blanket, your lover and a glass of wine to watch the sunset. With the children in bed and just the two of us mesmerized by the ripples of water glistening in the evening sunlight. The subtle sound of the waves beating on the distant shore are so calm and so peaceful I could almost fall asleep (now only if it was 10 or 20 degrees warmer, with palm trees blowing gently in the breeze and the smell of plumeria blossoms floating by… oh wait. Wrong island).

It’s hard to say what is more serene; the quieting down of the evening or the stillness and silence of the morning. The water like a lake without movement except for the distant heads of a seal family popping up to get air while out for their early morning fishing expedition. The sunlight now turning to silver instead of the gold and pink of the night. Hmmm… hard to choose.

San Juans

2009-06-22T11:44:00.000-07:00

Position: 48° 32' 27.3", -122° 51' 24.9"

This is the start of our third day in the San Juan Islands and as expected, it's gorgeous. We spent half a day on Sunday crossing the Strait of Juan de Fuca under power (engine fixed!) and anchored in a cute little cove where we inflated our monstrous dinghy and gave Asher some rowing lessons. The winds that first night were strong enough for a gale warning at up to 30 knots which made for a fitful sleep but our anchor held fast, even in the grassy bottom.

This morning we moved to Spencer Spit State Park where the wireless signal is better and it's warm and sunny. We're loving this.

Transit north and life on a boat

2009-06-19T21:51:00.000-07:00

Hi there everyone!

I’m sure you are all wondering how things with us are, how our journey north went, whether the kids are enjoying themselves or not, and if boating life everything we thought that it would be? Or if we are we kicking ourselves in the tail about the fact that we just traded in our home for a fiberglass container that someone assured us would float? :) Hmmmm.

Well we had a very interesting and exciting journey up the coast. I met up with the boys in Astoria at around 4pm and we left promptly as to catch a good tide out the bar. Although lacking my fake mustache to assure that I would fit in, I was still super excited to be on this journey. Thanks to our amazing community who pulled together at the last minute to see this happen. Thank you all again.

We safely crossed the bar at around 7pm to both our mothers’ relief. And as we were keeping watch with our binoculars we started to see the most massive flock of birds about half a mile out. They were both on the water and swarming around in the sky in a clockwise fashion. As we approached them we were almost left breathless with the magnitude of the flock we were about to sail through. And if that wasn’t enough of a sight to behold, we were joined by a pod of hungry dolphins eager to be a part in the feeding frenzy. I don’t know who was more excited, me or Lloyd, but between the two of us jumping back and forth from side to side trying to see everything we had the others spinning in circles. With as many nature documentaries we have seen there is really nothing that can prepare you to actually experience nature in the first hand. It was truly a great way for me to start off the trip.

We sailed all that night through heavy wind and waves taking 6 hour shifts. We were in opposition to both the wind and the current causing a rather rough ride through the night. It is amazing to think of the pounding that this little boat is capable of taking. There were definitely a few moments that made me wonder what our boat was really made of, and who declared it water worthy. We are harnessing two of the most powerful natural forces on earth and asking them to work for us. It’s pretty mind blowing.

The next day at around 3pm we decided to turn the engine on for a while and make up some of the ground we had lost. Due to the head wind and strong current we had fallen a little behind on our schedule. We set the auto pilot and sat back. For the next three hours we all just kicked it, checking occasionally for other ships and such and having a few laughs while trying to stay dry from the random sneaker waves that were determined to drench me. Shockingly I started to smell what seemed to be smoke, like from an engine… Our engine!!! That’s not what you want to smell while motoring 20miles off the coast being 100 miles south of your departure from the ocean. All I could do was yell “Engine! Engine! Our engine! Its smoking!” by the time Cuba ran downstairs to see what was happening there was a thick billow of smoke coming from the inside of our boat. As I turned the engine off I realized that we had to pull sails immediately. We had lost all our steering ability with the engine and were beginning to be sideswiped by 5ft swells that weren’t up for reasoning.

Diagnosis: a burst coolant hose and antifreeze everywhere!!! Hmmm….. There was no way to go get a new one. So we tried to get creative with some gasket maker, gasket material, a roll of duct tape and about 6 hose clamps, but all we managed to do was give ourselves an additional 60sec. worth of engine. Total bummer. The only thing to do was to continue sailing. So we continued on all night. We had good wind but because it was coming from the wrong direction we were forced to sail far to the west and come back. After sailing all night and most of the morning we were still on the ocean. Now two days behind schedule.

3pm on Saturday. We lost so much wind that we were struggling to keep the sail from luffing no matter which way we were turned. We were drifting in the current with the tip of the peninsula only 5miles to the northeast of us. I must say that drifting along the Oregon coast with no wind and no engine is not the most reassuring place to be, especially with cove names like Destruction Island, and Deception Pass… There were way too many huge rocks within view of our naked eyes making us feel uncomfortable, but it wasn’t till we drifted close enough to clearly see the white crest of waves crashing onto them that we became concerned.

8pm on Saturday. We made a Pan Pan call to the coast guard. This was new to us and new to Chris who told us about it. It’s a non emergency call to inform the coast guard of our situation and ask their recommendation. We informed them of our situation and told them that we were not requesting assistance at the time, but wanted them to know our location and situation… They were on it. Within 15min. they had a vessel deployed and en route to get us.

9:15pm. The US coast guard arrived with a ship FULL of young trainees in uniform!!! Hmmm, now I see why Lloyd disabled our engine. It was everything we could do to keep him from rushing to the bow of the boat in his underwear so he could impress them while washing the deck (alright I guess that’s not really fair. The other boys were just as excited to see them as he was).

By 10:45pm we were safely docked in Neah Bay for the night. Being extremely relived to be out of the ocean and completely bushed we went straight to bed (it was like a bear den nothing but heavy sleepers and loud snoring stuffed into a 40ft cave). In the morning Cuba and I went to find a spare hose that his dad had picked up in Forks and drove all the way out to hide at the dock for us to find (I really don’t know what we would have done without his parents. They were amazingly supportive and helpful). They found us on the way to the hose. They were driving up with our kids. We were originally supposed to meet them in Bainbridge Island and swap crew for kids, but due to the unforeseen events that transpired on the coast we were going to have to do it in Neah Bay instead. While Cuba and his dad were replacing the 20year old burst hose in our engine the rest of us decided that it was as good a time as any to send Lloyd up the mast to rerun a line (the topping lift for our boom) that somehow got loose.

All set and ready to go (at least so he had been convinced for the moment). He still whined plenty while we were hoisting him up, but I shouldn’t say anything because I got out of it by convincing him that he really wanted to do it. Thanks Lloyd! :) I’ll stop teasing you now. Once he was at the top he started feeding it down the mast. I was sitting on top of the boom peeking into a hole no bigger than a quarter waiting for it to come into sight. We realized quickly that there wasn’t a set track for it to come out of so I was going to have to fish it out. Well, the only thing we could think of that we had on hand that might work in a pinch was the underwire from my bra. So I dissected my bra and fished the underwire out and with uneven boobs sat on top of the boom for 45min. retrieving the topping lift. All the while there was a huge sea lion devouring a fish right next to our boat.

Finally!!!! We got it out and brought Lloyd down.

Bob and Cuba finished installing the hose that burst just to notice that all of our hoses looked original and in not too good of condition. Only there wasn’t any place in Neah Bay to get replacements. In fact there wasn’t anything in Neah Bay. Ahhh Neah Bay, there is only really one thing to say about Neah Bay and that is Grizzle!!! I was a minority being one of the only women on the docks and non-native in town. And the locals don’t smile much, if at all. We couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

Monday morning we went limping off out of Neah Bay with an engine that had one hose with a slight leak and another one that looked so swollen it was ready to burst, but we had to get to Port Angeles where there would be the ability to get replacements. We had said goodbye to Chad, Lloyd and Chris the day before and were sad to be without them. They were a great crew. Happily enduring being cold, sleep deprived and off and on with sea sickness (poor Lloyd got it the worst. I tried to tell him that pooping of the stern of the boat would make him feel sick, but he didn’t believe me). They helped us with the ocean and didn’t get to take part in the strait, which is much more fun and they would have really liked. We were really glad to have our kids back though. We had missed them a lot, but were a little nervous how they were going to do with a whole day of sail. Our goal was to break them in slow. And we had a long day ahead of us.

We checked our weather window carefully and set off at around 7:30am running our engine just long enough to get out of the marina and into the strait. The wind was very light but predicted to pick up by mid morning and then more in the afternoon. Just as we were getting into the channel we spotted two Orca whales. The kids were crazy with excitement. They could hardly sit still. It was really cool.

Our wind was pretty light for the morning and we had to do a wing on wing configuration with our sails to make any ground, but once we did we actually did really well. This leg of the journey was much more fun. We got to just hang out, play games and sight see. The sun even came out and it wasn’t too cold. We really enjoyed the trip.

At around 3pm. The wind picked up quite a lot and we decided to take down our mainsail to have better control of the boat. Boy was I glad we did because along with the wind was a nice assortment of 3-5 foot swells. They were pulling the boat everywhere. Once we figured out how to steer them we did pretty well. Cuba is so my hero. He steered through them for hours because with the kids on board I didn’t want to take the learning curve. I did eventually get behind the wheel and have him walk me through them. After the initial nervous feeling subsided it was really quite fun.

I was most amazed at how the kids did. This was a long day and they had never been on water like that and we were really hoping that it wouldn’t scare them or make them sick. They loved every minute of it. They kept wanting bigger waves and then cheered when they came. We were super happy because this could have been the breaking trip if they had hated it. Asher had a moment of feeling a little sick but after he took some Dramamine and had a nap he was as perky as ever.

Getting into Port Angeles was its own adventure. We knew that we only had about 20-30min. worth of engine left and really didn’t want to have any issues with the kids on board. As we rounded the corner to come into the harbor there was a huge ship that was coming towards us. We had to get out of the channel and make room for it, but the wind was ridiculously strong and not in our favor. We ended up heaving-to so that they could get by, but then they just pulled ahead and anchored right in the middle of the harbor. Conserving our engine and sailing past wasn’t looking like much of an option. So we pulled the sails in and turned on the engine.

It was up to our trusty little broken engine now. Watching depth and engine temp like crazy we managed to find the transient moorage as our engine was hissing all the antifreeze out of the not-yet-replaced coolant hose. We were so concerned about just getting there that when it came time to dock I hadn’t untied all of our dock lines yet so that was another minor fiasco. Oops.
Let’s just say that we are happily and safely in Port Angeles, more in love than ever and feel like we have learned a bunch. We had to special order the parts that we need, but our salvation just arrived in a box in the form of new engine parts (salvation sure is pricey around here). But the people have been nothing shy of awesome, super friendly and eager to help. The kids and I have had a great time. We ate the biggest cinnamon roll ever and roamed around to the marine center where we looked in microscopes for a long time. Asher and I hunted for all the phytoplankton in the petri dish, while liberty (miss social) found an instant friend to play with.

The kids are adjusting to boat life better than we thought, and they love having their own rooms. It was really adorable to watch their first exchange realizing that they have to ask permission to enter each others’ rooms and asking if the other wants to play. We gave them their own tiny digital camera that they have been filling up daily and they are writing in their journals. They want me to write a blog for them from their journals so I will be doing that next.

More to come later that’s enough for now thanks for your support and love we couldn’t have done it without you all.

A few small repairs

2009-06-18T08:21:00.000-07:00

When we arrived in Port Angeles a few days ago to make repairs to some coolant hoses, we looked around at a few of the other yachts and thought we needed more space. And as long as we're adding decks, wouldn't a helicopter and speedboat garage be convenient, we said? Behold the new Coqui...

On our way

2009-06-10T22:39:00.000-07:00

I'm currently sitting peacefully at anchor a few miles from Astoria, OR and enjoying every minute of it except for a missing Anna. She was supposed to be here today but the day before our scheduled departure, something happened that landed my poor dad in the ER. He's doing great and we made sure of that before continuing with this trip, but because of the pains that our crew took to make this transit plus the excellent weather forecast, we very much wanted to proceed on schedule. It made for a crazy hectic day, but thanks to our utterly amazing community of friends and relatives, we were able - in the span of a few hours - to make other arrangements for four days of babysitting and kid delivery to Seattle. Incredible, you people are. We love you.

But, Anna had to be with the kids tonight and couldn't make the river transit today, even though I thought she should go and leave me with the kids. Luckily she's able to meet us in Astoria tomorrow when we pick up Chris, which will complete our crew for the rest of the passage.

Today we had a fun glide down the river and got in with plenty of daylight and enough time to take care of a few small projects. After all of the work that was done, the engine is running great and the boat feels excellent. Chad and Lloyd were awesome and tired by the time we anchored and they've been asleep for an hour. Sissies. Listening to the sound of water lap at the hull has me feeling especially grateful. A lot of thank yous are in order to the people that made this new lifestyle possible.

First, thanks to Cathy & John, Cater & Earl, Erin and Diane who helped us with the kids on such short notice and also to the others that would have done so if called upon.

Props to our crew members helping us out with this transit: Lloyd, Chad and Chris. You're a rare breed of competent party monsters.

Infinite thanks to Anna, Asher and Liberty for sharing this dream with me and enduring the hardships required to make it happen. My life is so much richer because of you.

Super thanks to all of those that support us in any way we need: my brother and Cloud, Paul & Liz, Jasper & Kristin and others. We're really, really lucky to have a community like you.

But mostly, I couldn't possibly thank my parents enough. Hardly a day goes by that they don't help us with something: babysitting, dinner, advice, anything. My dad has spent hours and hours helping us with boat work and while my mom is a little bit nervous about life on the water, she's awesomely supportive. I can't imagine a life in Oregon without you anymore.

And now I'll go before I cry or make you sick, if I can sleep with all this snoring. I love you all!

XOXO

(No, we didn't take the picture, but my cameramen are asleep so shut up.)

Moving aboard

2009-05-16T16:19:00.000-07:00

1 year after acquiring the boat, 1 1/2 years after meeting Anna and 2 1/2 years after my original vision we're moving on board and going sailing.

After a month in the yard, Coqui was finally put back into the water two days ago and we've returned her to her slip to start packing for the summer. What was supposed to be a routine bottom paint job and rigging inspection turned into a month-long engine project that involved a broken motor mount, a leaking shaft seal, severe engine misalignment, a new cutlass bearing, a new transmission coupling and some broken prop blades. All of which strikes me as ironic since this is supposedly a sailboat. Fortunately boaters never tire of complaining about expensive maintenance so we weren't caught financially unawares and in truth, we're happy to have fixed the problems prior to our summer departure because the boat motors much more smoothly and we have newfound confidence in her drivetrain.

Moving on is the next big - and probably challenging - step. We've given notice on our apartment, rented a small storage unit and in less than 3 weeks will call Coqui our one and only home. We fret the appropriate amount about how the kids will adjust but we're optimistic that our little naturalists will find the outdoor life full of wonder and magic. They've seen enough documentaries to make David Attenborough proud but it's time to show them the beauty of the world without the TV.

We've chosen to sail Puget Sound for our shakedown cruise for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it's close. Second, it's easy to sail for novices such as us. Since it consists of deep water protected from the ocean it mostly lacks big, scary waves and presents few dangers as long as one pays close attention to commercial traffic and tides. It's also populated enough that help is never far away if something goes awry. Third, it provides an abundance of wildlife, beauty, and exploration opportunity. We expect to spend a large amount of time romping about on shore building campfires, gazing at starfish and engaging in that favorite pastime of kids everywhere, collecting detritus. On any beach in America Asher alone can collect enough rocks in two hours to make us list to starboard. As a bonus, my company's main office is located in the Sound on Bainbridge Island so we'll get to visit and make everyone jealous.

The current plan is to leave Portland on June 12 and return in early August. The transit up to the Sound will take 3-4 days and end when we rendezvous with my parents, who will deliver the kids to us. We'll spend a little bit of time near Bainbridge and Seattle but the bulk of our trip will entail cruising the San Juan Islands and the Southwest side of Vancouver Island.

When we return, we'll go back temporarily to our usual and utterly satisfying Portland life except that Anna will be licensed and free to practice massage while the kids will change districts to the much-better Irvington school. Come Summer '10 we think we'll head South to Mexico for an unknown amount of time and Japan remains our Holy Grail.

While we're traveling this summer isolated from our ever-so-supportive social circle, these posts will become much more frequent. The majority of the time we'll have access to both cell phones and the Internet so more to come soon.

With huge love, Onward and Upward!

Coqui is safe in Portland, requiring only a few acts of derring-do

2008-06-06T14:59:00.000-07:00

At the end of May, we successfully delivered Coqui from Everett, WA to Portland with only three mishaps. Our route was 360 nautical miles and took us through Puget Sound to the Strait of Juan de Fuca then down the Washington coast to the Columbia River.

Our crew consisted of my dad (Bob), Anna, Heather and Chris, our captain for the delivery and the most experienced among us. The latter two were in fact required by the insurance company since Anna and I have little sailing experience. They also required us to rent an EPIRB (emergency beacon) and have onboard a life raft and GPS. Whatever happened to old-fashioned trust?

We started the trip by packing five adults and tons of gear into a rental car and driving to Everett. We arrived at the boat in the middle of the night and surely annoyed our liveaboard neighbors with our preparations which included loading 20 days worth of food onto the boat for the four-day trip.

The next morning we started out with Tom, the former owner, taking video of our departure and making us feel special. We had decent wind for a while but winds are fickle in the Sound and we soon had to motor to maintain our desired minimum speed of six knots. Nobody threw up, but the rough chop the first day made most of us feel at least a little nauseous. No matter, the scenery was gorgeous. We motored through the night taking shifts in pairs and when Anna and I woke up it was morning on the second day and we were 12 miles out into the ocean, which was glassy smooth without even a slight breeze. The calm was interrupted once by a small pod of what we think were humpback whales, with calf. At one point they surfaced 30ft from us before diving under the boat, making me ponder the article I had just read about a male whale ramming and sinking a sailboat off of Hawaii. Being able to tell a story like that would almost be worth it I thought, proving that I have no business sailing.

Since leaving the Strait of Juan de Fuca we had been continuously recalculating our fuel range because of the amount we had to motor. We wanted to avoid a stop in Westport since it would put us off-schedule and weren’t able to determine their fuel dock hours since they never answered the phone. So we sailed part of the day under spinnaker and made as much progress that night as we could in the very light winds. By morning we calculated that we were just inside of our fuel window to reach Astoria if we used our 5 gallon reserve.

At around noon on the third day we began our crossing of the Columbia River Bar. The bar is so dangerous because it’s a huge area of shallow water where the powerful flow of the Columbia slams into the incoming tides, or creates very fast currents if the tide is ebbing. Add to that lots of commercial traffic and light winds and it’s not difficult to imagine how bad it would be to lose our engine from running out of fuel.

The waves weren’t high during our crossing but we had to motor hard to make progress against the ebbing tide and we were burning fuel at an alarming rate while carefully navigating near the channel. Our gauge was reading zero when we approached the charted marina entrance, only to find that what we thought was the entrance was just a bank. We had to motor around to find the actual entrance cut into a massive steel floodwall, nearly invisible from our direction. I’ll forever hate the Port of Astoria for thinking it’s a good idea to leave a marina entrance entirely unmarked. When we filled up we found we had something like 45 minutes worth of fuel left after motoring for the better part of three days. Yikes.

From Astoria on, river navigation supplanted open water navigation, requiring far more concentration. We had to share the river with giant commercial ships while fighting a very strong current and watching for debris. Our first impact occurred during the night in a shallow channel with a large, submerged log. With no moon it was quite impossible to see, even with a bow watch. Since it was flowing with the current we hit it at 5 or 6 knots and jammed it into the bottom since the water was so shallow. We reversed off of it while checking for damage and found none but it’s nerve-wracking to hear the sound of an impact on the hull, which your irrational brain wants to imagine is about as strong as an egg shell. We anchored for the remainder of the night so that we could see objects in daylight.

The next day, during my navigation shift, we hit a submerged wingdam. The mistake I made was to follow a depth contour without accounting for the actual depth of the river, which was much higher than charted. Oops. Again, no apparent damage done but it’s hard to tell without hauling the boat out of the water. We had a smooth motor the remainder of the trip, finally arriving in Portland at 6pm on day four. If you happened to be driving over the I-5 interstate bridge that Sunday evening, you might have been one of the hundreds of cars cursing the sailboat that glided underneath and made you 10 minutes late.

Super-special thanks to Chris, Heather and my dad for helping us out on this mini-adventure! Complete pictures are here, except that there are none of my dad since all of them with him turned out blurry. He's part Sasquatch.

Stage 2...complete

2008-05-05T16:28:00.000-07:00

It feels slightly weird to refer to a boat as "her" seeing that she's really an "it", but I'll stick with tradition, no matter how politically insensitive, because it makes me feel manly.

We found our boat last month in Everett, WA and we closed yesterday! She's a 1983 Beneteau First 38, built in France and in excellent shape. She's currently in Everett but in two weeks we'll be sailing her down the Washington coast and up the Columbia to Hayden Island.

The buying process was similar to purchasing a house except that we had to put 10% down before we were even allowed to take her out. Didn't matter; the instant we saw her we were in love and we backed up our emotions with the knowledge that multiple First 38s have circumnavigated the world and at least one did it with a family of five. Beneteau is also one of the highest volume yacht-builders in the world which is extremely helpful when having repairs done and locating parts abroad.

Her previous owners named her Coqui, which we're keeping for now, and more pics are here. I'll post details of our 4-day trip from Everett in a couple of weeks.

XOXOX

Progress report

2008-01-07T23:40:00.001-08:00

Yeah yeah yeah, I know I fed everyone visions of grand adventures and I still don't own a boat but come on, the Portland real estate market is LAME. I'm even disappointing those who hoped I would leave the country for a while so they wouldn't have to listen to me (sorry mom).

Even so, there is good news to report. The sale of my house is now pending and should close in late February, barring any problem with the semi-weird deal. As soon as we have the (much-friggin-smaller-than-originally-anticipated) check in hand, Anna and I will shop 24hrs/day until a boat is had. We considered putting an offer on a local Catalina that we love while still in possession of the house, but what good are toys if you're too in debt to enjoy them? So we're watching...and waiting. Baby steps sir, baby steps. With any luck, we'll be sailing by summer, which we tentatively plan to spend part of near Vancouver Island to earn our legs.

Thanks for all of the support and encouragement, we love you all!

How to keep up

2008-01-07T22:00:00.000-08:00

Greetings peoples! To follow our travels online you have a few choices, which I envy because they are all cheaper and safer than ours.

The least-nerdy option is to get updates via email. Those who sent me email addresses will be automatically added to the mailing list but if you'd like to remove yourself from it or change your settings just follow the instructions at the bottom of any update message.
Subscribe to the blog using any blog reader like Outlook, Google Reader or one of many others. Just go to the site and click the 'Subscribe' link.
Simply check the site whenever you feel like it. If you hate email and don't read blogs, you can just visit the site to catch up but you won't get any reminders for new posts. If you like the sound of that, just unsubscribe from the email list.

Any of these choices will get you the same content since posts are sent to the blog and mailing list simultaneously. Also, we won't post that often so don't fear for a flood of useless crap from us. Let us know if you need any help, we want you with us!

The crew without a clue

2008-01-07T20:56:00.000-08:00

Asher
Ship's Boatswain and Chief Paper Snowflake Maker
Age 6

This strapping young lad is Asher and if you claim to have seen a more thoughtful and stoic countenance I will be forced to call you a liar, dear sir. Asher's artistic and organizational aptitude will no doubt come in quite handy to plan passages and entertain the crew once underway. He is moderately excited and a little bit skeptical about life on a sailboat but as parents, Anna and Cuba doggedly educate him on the wonders of life at sea with nary a mention of cramped quarters, upset stomachs or gale force winds, much like those Navy commercials. Such is the privilege of parenthood.

Liberty
Liaison and translator to dolphins
Age 4

As fearless as any salty-dog sailor on the sea, Liberty is ready for absolutely anything, anytime, anywhere, save sleep. That would be a highly valued quality if she were old enough to stand watch at 4am, but as it is she'd better learn to make a bloody good cup of coffee. Her entertainment capital and cheery disposition more than make up for any deficiency contrived by youth however, and the crew looks forward to the embellished and best-selling memoir of our travels that is sure to come from her hand.

Anna
Wanna-be pirate queen and Ship's Flogger
Age 28

A gregarious mother-of-two and excellent dancer, Anna is everything one could hope for in a mate, ship or otherwise. Anna and Cuba met in September of '07 and as is their way, took time to reflect on their future, exhibiting patience and prudence. By mid-September of '07 they had finally decided to live together, sail together and start working towards a life on a boat. The general feeling among their friends is that Anna will quickly become the skipper while Cuba is relegated to the galley which is, after all, a man's place.

Cuba (okay, "Ron" to his mother)
Wanna-be pirate queen wanna-be
Age 30

Once widely regarded amid the Midwest as the person who could eat the most fried rice in one sitting, Cuba's slow descent into obscurity eventually brought him to Portland and provided him with friends, family and a girl he couldn't possibly deserve, so does he embrace contentment and settle down? No. Instead, he talks this woman and her two kids into moving onto a sailboat to spend years at sea in the Pacific. As his wise father once said, "The only person dumber than an Alsobrook is someone who marries one."