Whale farts would be faster

09.24.2010

The chop and indecisive wind turned into glass and less wind, so we gave up and went to sleep. See that darker patch near the horizon? Yeah, that's right, a little bit of wind... but nooOoooo not where we are. Maybe this is what the Captain wanted all those beans for... in any case, he still couldn't convince the engine to resume duties.

It's so calm, I think we've found the secret Northern Doldrums... had some 'time' to take more pictures though, and I promised someone I'd take pictures of everything. So here's a self tailing winch... pretty fantastic piece of equipment actually!

Coolest thing evar

(well until the next coolest thing evar... seem to be a lot of 'coolest's' these days)

As if to make up for an entire day of frustration... we just saw a whole bunch of porpoises, they must have been eating something, because at one point they were right under the boat! But they were jumping out of the water chasing stuff and doing all kinds of cool aerobatics!

Like all the way. Out of the water!

Note to self

The only thing harder than peeing in a bouncing boat at 20 degrees of pitch... is trying to unwrap saran wrapped toilet paper.

Seems to me zippy bags would be better in this scenario too hmmmm?

*glares at Mr. Saran Wrap*

*shakes fist*

Well shortly after my post that we were having engine troubles... the engine resigned from its duties and from being part the crew. It just up and quit, no black smoke, no sputtering just stopped. There was too much chop causing the autohelm to bounce back and forth between 'nyarfing' and then freaking out that we were too far off course to correct for... thus forcing us to steer by hand. We do have a wind vane steering thingee on board too... but despite the exciting amounts of chop, there wasn't enough wind for it to work either.

To make matters more frustrating, the wind was having a cereal moment... (you know when you're standing in the cereal aisle at the grocery store, and even though you will probably get the same kind you usually do, it takes you like 15 mins to look at all the options before you go with your tried tested and true brand?) In short, it was changing direction as fast as a kid you're trying to potty train that's running around with no pants on.

Random Trivia

This criss cross contraption across the arch serves the sole (and very important) purpose of preventing the Captain from falling off the back of the boat.

No seriously.

More Captains have fallen off the backs of their boats whilst uh 'inspecting the backstay' than anything else in the middle of the night ocean.

Apologies...

For the last cryptic post I made, I am attempting to compose something understandable out of the whole adventure.

As Aaren said, blame the diesel fumes ;o)

HUGE Thanks to Aaren for some much needed changes on the blog!

Greetings from the new guy

Hello to Sam's family, friends, and followers. With Sam's permission I've been added as an intern junior assistant co-editor to this blog. I'll be assisting Sam in keeping it up to date with the best experience possible for everyone following her grand adventure. You won't see or hear from me much (I'll be behind the scenes), but if you need to reach me I'll be reading the blog daily and I'll jump in if needed.

First things first, Sam and her dad are safe in Eureka California getting some repairs and restocking. It sounds like another great adventure but I'll let Sam tell the story herself. If you can't figure out her post from earlier today blame the diesel fumes.

I hope you like my quick update of the page. Here are the cliff notes on the changes...

• Links to tracking maps in the top left corner (see where they are in the world).
• Comments down the right side, read other readers comments and participate yourself.
• A touch more color, photos, and sprucing up.
  

Like Flash from the Incredibles!

omgthatwassofreakingawesome!!!!!!

*crashes out sleeping*

Like Flash from the Incredibles!

omgthatwassofreakingawesome!!!!!!

*crashes out sleeping*

Five more minutes

09.22.2010

Good morning sunshine! These are the five minute lyrics that popped into my head after being woken up for the 'just before dawn watch'

Give me five more minutes...
I don't wanna get up
Five more minutes...
Could you grab me a cup
Of five more minutes...
I'm so nice and warm
Five more minutes...
don't wanna face the dawn.

My blankets are warm, the air is so cold
Just give me five minutes, I'll love you forever?
There's no motivation, let me finish this dream...

Five more minutes...
I swear I'll get up
Five more minutes...
only one eye's still shut
Five more minutes...
I'm almost awake
Okay, okay!
I'm up for goodness sake!

Now that I'm up, I'm glad I was here
I've seen the sunrise for another year
There's only one thing that this doesn't change...

I'm afraid that tomorrow will be much the same ;o)

It's around 7am and we're at N 43.30.211 and W 127.28.401

Excuse me while I kiss this can of beans

So much for our grandiose plans of really good dinners with all the spices we brought. We've regressed to warming up beans out of a can...

I'll say one thing for the open ocean air though... that was the bestest tasting can of brown beans *EVAR*! <-- that is super extra emphasis on the evar.

Come to think of it, the only thing that hasn't tasted like the bestest evar... is the oatmeal, it still just tastes like, well oatmeal. *shrugs*

Scenic Route to California

09.21.2010

Well true to form, and making life interesting, we've got crud and water in our spare keel diesel tank... So we emptied out the back lazarette and topped up the main tank with our spares. Yeah that's right, the ones at the *bottom* of the lazarette of course ;o)

Now you would think that since people have been sailing the iron main (diesel engine) for many many years before my time, someone would have devised a clever way to easily separate the cack out... well there are a couple ways, but none that we have implemented.

The Captains initial idea is to break the line 'somewhere' and pump fuel into one of our now empty jerry cans... let it settle, and then pour it back into the tank minus the cack. The Admiral is a little leary of this idea, as it sounds suspiciously like we'll end up with diesel all over the inside of the boat... and that smell just never goes away.

Therefore the Admiral has proposed draining the tank through the filter bit a cup at a time, where the line is already broken, and you can *see* the cack. Don't you fret my pet, I'll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime we're heading towards California, hopefully pull into Eureka clean the tanks out, fuel up again... maybe do some laundry *fingers crossed*

Around 1:20pm were at
N 45.16.608
W 128.05.877

Phew

09.21.2010
I think I found my sea-legs. I was beginning to worry that I'd forgotten to pack them!

Now that I'm not *arfing* everything within an hour of eating/drinking it's really quite pretty out here! It definitely makes me feel small, every direction you look there is ocean all the way to the horizon, it's pretty crazy too some of the swells are so big that for a second they stick up *past* the horizon!

Yesterday while I was on watch about 5 porpoises came by to check us out... I say about 5 because they are so quick they were hard to count. They were zipping back and forth in the bow wave, I mean if they were kids, they'd totally be the kids that played in traffic. It was amazing that they never ran into the boat or each other!

It's about 8am... and we're sitting at N 45.16.889 and W 128.06298 the Captain just let me have a fabulous 10 hour sleep, and other than being stiff all over I feel fantastic!

Lats and Longs

I think this is where we were yesterday... (09.21.2010)
46 05.705N 127 36.442W

We survived

Made it out the straight just fine, and were greeted and sent on our way by 4 or 5 pairs of whales! Blowing and tail waving and even one breeched :)

After that it got dark and there was nothing to orient on, it was pretty weird, you mostly had to look at the compass and trust it was working.

We turned South this morning, from around N 48.27.587 and W 126.54.898 we were doing doughnuts in the lack of wind... nobody really cares if you do doughnuts in the middle of the Pacific :)

Bleary eyed and little nauseous we survived our first couple nights out in the open ocean. The last couple days have been a complete blur, even with the Scopolamine patch I'm just starting to feel human again.

My core muscles sure have been getting a work out though, as we amble our way south in the general direction of Hawaii, it feels kind of like trying to sit on a mechanical bull. Lots of fun once your stomach and your eyes agree that everything is where it should be.

Its around 1pm and we've made some progress though as we're now, N 47.35.349 and 127.12.942

I have a joke

What do seasick pirates say?

...

"Nyaa" *ARF*

Yep I won the booby prize, dry toast and diluted gatorade water. I don't feel so bad though, even the Captain was a little green around the gills, I'm not sure he'd admit it if he chucked his cookies...

Put me in coach... I'm ready!

I'd like to thank M&M the previous owners of Marimba 2 for all their help, words of encouragement, and lending us their car. It made everything that much smoother and less of an ordeal, as I'm sure you've seen we don't need any help with causing or finding excitement :)

Here she is at the fuel dock... fully loaded and ready to go. There's a catch in my voice and excitement in mah belly.



Even got a whoop out of the Captain as we pulled out into the straight!

Holed up

We have slowly motored our way down the inside passage, and already seen some really cool things. We live in a beautiful place, and it's hard not to think maybe we're a little crazy not to take the time to explore our own back yard a little more.

It has been a little damp... and it's been more than wonderful to have foul weather gear. Best. purchase. Evar!





I'm not sure how much my camera will take before it resigns from the crew... but until it does hopefully I'll get some more wicked pictures!



This is uhh "Burial Point" I assure you it would be a little hard to bury anyone there, unless you brought your own material. This is also where we saw a couple pods of porpoises, but they're shy... by the time you'd seen them, blinked and tried to point them out they were gone again.



So the weather has changed, and we're sitting in the last hole short of the open ocean in Sooke. Waiting for this front to blow through, as currently all the wind is going the wrong way...

"You can't direct the wind, but you can adjust the sails" ~Unknown

This wait provided an opportunity to catch up with some old friends of ours, we had a wonderful dinner with them and the bestest most awesomest dessert ever. The last fresh peaches of the season with custard and whipping cream and a baked yum on top. I'd like to thank T&K for the visit, but more importantly for the reminder that you *can* do a little bit of everything. You don't have to be one thing in life, it's okay to dabble ;o)

In the meantime we are taking the opportunity to storm lash everything. I'm sure our shake down cruise will teach us differently. Hmmm that's probably why it's called a shake down cruise eh?

Keep your fingers crossed, I think we're going to take our best guess at the weather shaking through! The Captain is understandably nervous.

BOOYAH!

Coming to you live aboard Marimba 2, we're just off Little Zero Rock and I literally just got the HAM radio to email working *happy dance* I'm such a nerd ;o)

It's official, we're on our way. Over.

No arguing with the propane sensor

Of course there is a propane leak alarm when the pilot in the oven is turned on and not lit. *doh!*

Still working on it...

Gahhhh we're hopefully leaving Victoria tomorrow... just waiting on some spare halyard parts, which with any luck will be ready this afternoon.

I'm sure there's a t-shirt in this somewhere... I just haven't thought of the right wording yet ;o)

Got the stinky egg smell pinned down to overcharging the battery, I don't recommend it, it stinks. Basically what was happening is the charger was taking the signal from one battery and charging a different one, so it was never reading full... and overcharging the other one.

It's been super cool so far though, wore my foul weather gear all the way down. The misty grey fog spitting rain never stopped so everything was damp, but I'm a wet coast girl anyways ;o) Saw a couple pods of porpoises, and a bunch of otters!

Got the radar reflector half up today, and I just want to say that I make climbing the mast look better...

*grins*

OmgIthinkwemightactuallyleavetonight!

In other news, we've determined that none of us can understand Doppler... you know when someone is walking away from you and talking.

Free beer tomorrow...

We're also leaving tomorrow... again...

Those last few loose ends are the hardest to grasp, and even harder to tie into any knot that holds.

The funny for the day though, was the realization that not only were we crazy to try and leave today... but completely delusional. So Dad broached the subject by asking how I felt about leaving on Friday the 13th. I shrugged with a nonchalant "Sure, sounds good to me"... until Mom pointed out "Isn't the next Friday the 13th in July or something?" upon which I, the Admiral, immediately retracted her support.

Slackers unite! ...tomorrow...

I'm procrastinating and checking my email, and I have to say it has been truly overwhelming the amount of support and well wishes I have received in leaving on this trip. I've gotten more hugs, and blessings and good thoughts sent my way... it's just incredible. The last couple days have been a roller-coaster of emotion (cause I'm sensitive like that), and its heartwarming to know that I will be missed while I'm gone.

I should be packing clothes... I think I'm putting it off because I have so many clothes that I *want* to bring, but I know I don't have room for them all. Especially with all the other important things I'm bringing, like my guitar... and my art stuff... and my camera... and books... and a football... you know necessities ;o)

*shhh* I'm hoping the Captain doesn't notice how much lower in the water we're sitting after I get all my stuff stashed away on board *grins*

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did so. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. ~Mark Twain

Oh right, and travel plans right now are to do our shakedown cruise on the way down to Victoria, where we will check out of customs. Then down past Cape Flattery, WA, United States and "turn left"... at which point we will head to Hawaii. This will be the second leg of the shakedown cruise and the longest period of open ocean for the rest of the voyage. See most people do a few weeks shakedown cruise *before* they go somewhere, but if we don't leave now we may never leave.

Last shopping...

Mom totally helped me with the last big shopping trip, it was so great, because honestly it would have taken me like 8 hours... I would have had to wander up and down every single aisle, and then back to the first aisle because I missed something... it would have sucked.

Between that and my ADD kicking in, it was perfect though, Mom took the list and was all "LEFT!"... okay grab two of those... "RIGHT!"... down here, "Hey! That's not on the list!", and "Well get this at the other store"

We even went to a few different stores, where I would have ended up trying to buy it all at one place and probably would've spent several hundred more dollars in the process...

Thanks Mom, what started out as a very daunting task turned out to be not so bad after all. It's comforting to know we're not going to starve or get scurvy, at least for the first bit of the trip.

Nyarrr

Ha! I was just telling Mom I just had to enter the stuff I just stowed... and she said "What?!!? Stole?!?!" No Mom 'stowed' as in put away.

Maybe we are descended from pirates ;o)

Fuzzy on the inside

Sometimes cats let their self absorbed reputations slip a little, when they know you need a warm kitteh in your lap for a few moments. But they try not to let on by purring and pretending they need scritches.

My brain terminal reads...

> Segmentation fault. Core dump

Don't ask me to remember anything right now, because if I do something else will fall off my stack, and I don't want to forget to hide my stash of zip-locked toilet paper.

Putting the *boom* in the kitchen

We are in the process of assembling our spices for the trip, and raiding Mom's supply... when just as she was pointing out the bay leaves, she said "Up there behind the black powder"

*chuckles* "I didn't know you kept black powder in the house Mom, can we take that to trade with the pirates?"

"Yes" she responded with a dry roll of the eyes.

Breath

The smell of a freshly washed hoodie that my brother gave me because "It looks better on my than you"

Stressed? Who me?!?

You could cut the tension around here with a knife. We're dervishly running around trying to sort some order out of the piles of chaos... bring this, leave that... are we ever going to need it? How bad will it be if we don't bring and *do* need it? What else are we forgetting?

Out of all the chaos though, I'm getting excited. This is the really for real go time!

The Epic Bridge Modification

I don't know if I can handle any more family bonding...



Dad said this would be an all day job, he wasn't making it up. The morning started out perfectly normally. I followed around after him with my cup of tea waiting for him to give me directions, got the car loaded up, picked up my little brother... and the two of us slept most of the way up Island to Campbell River. At which point the truck finally said "Forget it, it's labour day... I no workee!"

... and we awoke pulling into the gas station to "oh $#!*&... I've got no clutch", so we did the drowsy to awake "which way are you trying to go, we're ready to push!". Well all I can say is thank goodness the truck had been cleaned out because it's still bloody heavy!

I would like to take this moment to thank all the people who *do* work on labour day, even if it should be called 'no labour' day. We regrouped over breakfast and were able to rent a 4x truck, have them pick us up at the gas station, and have the clutchless truck towed somewhere.

We made it up to the job site with little ado and as we started... so did the rain. This is where I grew up hiking, how can you not fall in love with the place?



By the time we were done we'd broken a 1/2" drill bit, bruised a couple knuckles, were covered in mud and dirt... and wet enough, that well our panties were wet. I know that might be a little bit of an overshare... but you're really not that wet unless your underwear is.



I was wringing water out of my sweatshirt by the time we got back to the truck... and not just a little bit of water, it looked like I'd fallen into the creek or something! It just goes to show that true to our upbringing, and lessons learned over the years my little brother and I had *both* brought a full change of clothes that were nice and dry in the truck.

There is nothing better than putting on dry clothes at the end of a very, very, very wet day.

I think for the first time in history Dad didn't have spare clothes, so Mr. Nopants got to sit in the back of the truck and borrow my sweatshirt. I'm sorry Dad I really shouldn't laugh, the number of times you've lent me your spare fuzz or even the one you were wearing when I was cold... well it was nice to finally be able to return the favor. Even if we're going to give you a hard time about it forever ;o)

We ended up in Walmart buying pants, somehow we picked the right size, and the girl didn't check that I wasn't 'David Vincent'... and that the signature D... something scribbles... Vin ... scribble didn't match the one on the back. *phew*



What you call a woman on a shining steed? Mom! She drove the Vangina all the way up to Campbell River to pick us up. We stopped for dinner before everyone wasted away and I had the best burger and beer special, curled up in the back and proceeded to sleep the rest of the way home.

My Mom has this thing with numbers... like how many of the same ones show up on the odometer. Well lets just say, rather than take the car home when we picked it up, and get away from the generator fumes in the trunk... she drove the Vangina just so she could see octuple sevens. I'm not even kidding you.

Weathers changing, it's time to go ready or not. I think tomorrow is the last big shopping trip, fresh food, maybe pack some clothes... try to find somewhere to cram everything. *shakes head* here we go, I'll try to keep you posted!

Found this at the trailhead... my little brother was most disgusted with me ;o)

Family Bonding

Today I realized that our family isn't like other families. Yes I've realized this before, this is not a new idea for me, but today maybe more than any other it was very apparent.

I was excited today because my little brother was coming over to 'visit' ie: we needed him to help mix cement for Mom's radio tower. We spent the entire afternoon together (the two least experienced cement mixers doing the mixture) shoveling, clanking shovels, poking, prying, dumping, wheelbarrowing and dumping.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

As if that wasn't enough excitement, we cut down a tree that was close to the house because it will interfere with the radio antenna. So back to that 'safety first' thing... this time we had my little brother spotting, I was driving the truck with a cable attached through a block and back to the tree that was being cut down, and Dad was operating the chainsaw.

Despite some trouble with the chainsaw... again, and it being the longest amount of time its ever taken to cut a tree down in the entire history of tree cutting. Everything went as planned. Even if someone almost set the clutch on fire... it was definitely stinky and smoking. In my defense I was supposed to keep tension on the wire and then drive when it fell, but honestly it took for.ev.ar.

Sorry about your clutch Dad, I guess you can blame part of this one on me too.

Now you can't leave a perfectly good tree on the ground! So we began the well rehearsed process of turning said tree into firewood. Everything just clicked, we've done this so many times before, and at one point when I was throwing firewood at my little brother, we had to stop and laugh. This is our family bonding at its finest.

Some of the best times we've shared together have involved being wet, dirty, sweaty, sticky with pitch, tired, full of slivers, sore and in fear of incurring an injury.

It was the best 'Welcome Home' I could have imagined, I forgot how much I like the smell of chainsaw.

You like boat, yah?

We got one window put on the boat... and assorted other randomness, but the big job of the day was hauling 'The Other Boat' and putting her up on blocks in the front yard.

Interjection - if you know anyone who wants to buy a 27' Vega... "I give them good deal, yeah!" :)

It was cool watching the whole process, Don, the guy who was driving the trailer was great. Its a good thing he's a professional though... cause I still thought it was a little sketchy at this one point. The only thing holding the front of the boat was this one little piece of wood. Right there. Yes that one that doesn't have anything attached to it, and is straight up and down... and its a blustery day!



But that's how you do it so you can get the trailer out from underneath. And obviously he'd done this once or twice before because it worked like a charm. Here they are being supermen and holding the boat up while they put the blocks in. I held it up by myself, but *someone* had to take the pictures and provide moral support.



Here she is, all supported... the trailer is out, and we only put one new pot-hole in the driveway. We were pleasantly surprised when due to luck or circumstance all the lengths of board we used fit as though someone had measured them. Thank you, it was muchly appreciated.



It's pretty crazy having a boat in the front yard... especially where it is, off to the side of the driveway. On the way out of the house, you feel a little like you're on a collision course. On the way back in though, it feels like you're about to be run down!



I tried to convince Mom and Dad that they should get a motion sensor attached to an air horn put on it... so when you drive by the running lights come on and it honks at you.

I thought it was hilarious... they didn't think it was that funny.

Safety first

Started the morning clearing the tree branches back from above the road, so there was a little mis-communication, and a little yelling but we got it all sorted out. See I was under the impression we were clearing the trees for 'the truck' as in the yellow bomber (the Xterra)... somewhere along the line through my zombie-like-haze I was supposed to have telepathetically figured out that it was for the truck hauling 'The Other Boat' out here... *lightbulb*

So picture this, the Captain was up at the top of an extended ladder trying to get a chainsaw to start, sidenote: it might have had water in the fuel. Now our family is all about safety first, so I was the 'spotter'. The spotters job is *not* at the base holding the ladder... no, I was safely out of the way of any falling debris, be it the tree branch, the ladder, the chainsaw or even the Captain himself.

The spotters job is to watch the ensuing chaos and yell really loudly if anything happens or *looks* like it might cause bodily harm. As you might imagine this is a pretty tough job in our family, since you have to adjust the point at which you yell to a higher danger level than 'standing at the top of a ladder with a running chainsaw cutting branches'.

Basically someone has got to be leaking before you start to holler, but it's okay I know first aid.

Not morning people

So I was telling Dad that I woke up with a leg cramp this morning...

He said "What about your latest crap?"

I'll give him credit for most of the letters being in most of the right places. Sometimes its just better not to talk to your family in the morning ;o)

So much for sleeping in...

Its like the committee that runs my body stayed up partying and then someone got the bright idea that they should pull the fire alarm... but being unable to *find* the fire alarm instead settled on pulling muscles. "Everyone grab a muscle and pull! Yeah that one over there too!" and the ones on the side lines cheered them on yelling "SEIZE! SEIZE! SEIZE!"

At which point my entire left calf muscle seized. In my irrational semi-comatose state with no one manning the bridge, it felt a lot more like "Noooooooo! Opposite muscle, opposite muscle, stretch it out, touch your toes to your knees... don't let it cramp all the way because you'll never get it unstuck!"

"Yesss! She's waking up! Quick pretend you're asleep, and act like nothing happened!" *giggles* "Shhhhh!"

Knackered

It seems like a million years ago and another lifetime that I was working in Vernon, the change from work life to getting a sailboat ready for blue water cruising life has be so drastic and so complete. The two are not even comparable. I've been spending 12 hour days running around getting parts, crammed into holes trying to get bolts onto nuts with my eyes closed whilst every second you spend only makes it hotter, and yet I've been loving every second... well except when the vaccine I took kicked my butt today, but then I had a little nappy-poo on the sails and felt much better ;o)

Every job we finish crosses one more thing off the list and gets us one step closer to sailing. All of this right now, the final preparations, the last minute running around and drop ship ordering things is hard work, but the light at the end of the tunnel is sailing off and having everything stowed neatly where it should be. I really really really really for real hope we don't forget anything important. I do have a secret stash of chocolate and rum though, just in case ;o)

I thought I was tired yesterday. I'm now more tired all over than I thought possible. I feel a little bit like I did the first week of treeplanting, each day you think your body hurts all over... more than it has ever hurt before. You think that it hurts 'the most', that it can't possibly hurt anymore, that is until you do another day.

Our bodies are incredible things, they get tired and they hurt... but they keep going long after your mind has decided that it can't possibly do anything else. At some point, you switch over to some ancestral subroutine and finish doing what has to be done. Yeah you're exhausted when you're done, but you're still done, you didn't actually fall over and die the way your mind had convinced itself that it would.

I'm so knackered, its exhausting to type... like I'm not even kidding you. But, I will finish this post for you Internet, because I'm swell like that.

It was a good day! I hauled things in and out of the back lazarette again, and installed a shelf. We got a couple crates to store 300 feet each of anchor rode, which are now neatly coiled inside and fit perfectly. Dad got the wire bit for the boom-vang re-crimped (because it exploded yesterday) so that's done as well!

OOOhhh yeah and the big job for today was putting the manifold back in! I'm confident that octopus-slave-labour was used to install it in the first place, and I'm thinking of writing a strongly worded letter, and attaching a petition against the use of octopi in engine work.

After some interesting maneuvers (I had no idea my arm, elbow and wrist could bend like that AND still work a wrench), oil, water, grease, gunk and a little dropsy we got everything back where it should be. We also discovered that the damn alarm that has been plaguing us was the temperature sensor - NOT the oil pressure. *yippeeee!* Luckily for us we were able to scroung one from the motor graveyard inside the mechanics as nobody in town stocks isuzu parts.

We de-masted 'The Other Boat' to get it ready for storage. This is the Captain showing off his huge muscles by manhandling it into place.



It was neat taking the mast off, but a little scary, basically you have it hanging from a crane on the dock... but the boat is still moving while you're undoing forestays etc. to add to the sphincter-factor there was no handle for the winch so I was using the large screw driver. It took this moment (the one just after I took the picture below) to abandon its station and jumped into the chuck. I heard it, saw it on the dock as. it. was. rolling... managed a "$#!*&..." and got there just in time to watch it execute dive sideways and *sploosh* into the gloomy depths below.



What with this being the long weekend and all, we should be able to get our final shopping list together and under control as there will be little movement of parts due to the long weekend. Cross your fingers, we should be heading out next week...

Pushin' dates and buttons

Well the Captain and I were hoping to set sail tomorrow. However we are not remotely ready for that... and 'The Other Boat' is getting hauled on Saturday. So we have pushed the launch date till either Monday or Tuesday.

I guess this means I should figure out which clothes I'm taking.

I should also nail down our menu and bring back some of those cans of beans... I mean honestly we have enough beans on board to have them for one meal a day until we get to New Zealand. I think that might be a little excessive.

I have also started 'the daily hair picture' which will be compiled at the end of the trip into a time warp slide show of my short all the way to surfer hair.

In other news the back lazarette has been washed, and had some loving touches of paint applied. It lovingly applied some of the paint back on me, I think this means we're bonding? We also have spare diesel tanks filled and stowed, along with spare water, and 45 rolls of toilet paper wrapped in saran wrap. I always want to spell it 'seran wrap' the way everyone says it, but I had a wonderful argument with a roommate of mine once... where we couldn't just agree to disagree, he had to prove to me that I was wrong *smiles* It was so much fun, he nearly had a cardiac.

In any case back to the toilet paper. I'm not entirely comfortable shrink wrapping the toilet paper. I know it shouldn't ever get wet, but I mean shrink/saran spare parts, or anything else... but TP? That is like the only thing that doesn't work when damp or wet... like you can't even dry it out and use it again. So I'm going to stash some TP in zippy bags, and if it ever does get wet the Captain can use the wet stuff and I'll use the dry stuff.

We're definitely getting tired and stressed, and down to the wire everything that doesn't work the first time is way more frustrating than it should be. We had to laugh today though when I tried to stow the diesel in the lazarette. The jerrycan does not fit through the opening at the same time as me... I got it part way in, and got stuck. The Captain meanwhile had moved on to other things, heard "hey... technical difficulties... Dad I'm stuck!" (that's definitely a note to self)

Large double double morning

Dad unexpectedly bought me Timmy's this morning when we ended up having to drive home again after getting in to town.

:)

Odds and ends and the engine

Okay so we didn't do everything we set out to do today... but we made another dent in the list!

We took the couch to the dump, picked up some engine filters from the courier...
Worked on the engine, checked oil pressure and then ended up taking engine exhaust apart cause it was smokin' on the inside. In amongst this I polished the stainless whilst handing Dad tools. We still have an alarm going off, but it's looking more and more like a broken sensor. I mean at least it starts now, and doesn't sound like an old guy with smokers cough!

At this point Dad left me to do the oil change on "The Other Boat" while he went running around for the engine. Well the oil change, including cleanup and running it to make sure the filter didn't explode didn't take very long.

Left to my own devices, and completely unsupervised (with no standing requests). I strung up a large sheet of plastic to dry using the main halyard, then emptied and vacuumed the lazarette... no minor feat as Dad thought it would take the efforts of ten humanoids plus two! This is most of the crap from out of the lazarette... excluding the dive tanks, the propane tanks and all the spare water jugs!



By the time Dad got back I was a little tuckered, so after we'd drilled, and tapped I watched the Captain try to mount the plastic bit on the boom for the boom vang. I found a couple good places to lie down on the foredeck and be morally supportive :)

"Isabelle was heavily into frills, even the dressing table seemed to be wearing a petticoat. The whole room wasn't so much furnished as lingeried ~Terry Pratchett"

Kind of makes you want to ask the couch if it really does want to slip into something more comfortable?

Gotta get a move on

The weather has changed, there is a chill in the air that doesn't quite jive with the sunshine filtering in through the trees. A little extra deterrent to dragging your butt out of bed. I hate having to get up when your cheeks are cold and the rest of you is all warm...

Gotta go, sunlight's burning!

The Cedar Sachet

If you ever find yourself in Cedar, there is something you should know. The Cedar Stop signs are actually slow down signs. Here's how they work:

After a cursory mirror check for police vehicles...

i) If you are the only car, slow down and take the corner.
ii) If there is another car approaching at the same time check their blinker light... if your paths do not cross, you should both carry on at reduced speed.
iii) If there is another car approaching at the same time and your paths cross, the later person should allow the first person to proceed through the intersection, most times this can be accomplished without either party actually having to stop.
iv) If at any time there is any confusion all parties involved should stop, and wave each other through.
v) It is acceptable to follow the car in front of you through if you do not interfere with any vehicles which approached the intersection first (as in point iii)

If you've never witnessed this tiny shining example of good grace, well all I can tell you is its the most interesting dance in the world. Everyone seems to bow and curtsy their way through. It's all very polite and well mannered. It makes me smile every time I observe the standing phenomenon of the Cedar Sachet.

Canning machines!

It's pretty cool, Mom and I have a standing tradition of canning peaches together. I peel, move things around, and fill the syrup and knife the jar... she slices, and does all the math and timing to figure out exactly how many peaches fit in how many jars, and how much syrup we need to make for the next batch. She tries to double check with me, even though she knows better than that because I can't follow someone elses arithmetic out loud... okay lets be honest I can barely follow my own ;)

Anyways, Mom and I have been canning peaches over the last week or so, and some nectarines because I can't read. Okay but seriously it was the same box as the one the peaches came in and they checked the boxes in yellow! No... I didn't use my Nona eyes.

Now I took an interface course once, and as useless as it was they did say "Don't use yellow text on a white background..." Well no really? I kind of thought that should fall under 'Common Sense' but they don't teach that any more... Put it this way, if you can hardly read something, chances are fairly good that nobody else can read it either.

But here's the thing with canning peaches... they gots to smell like peaches. Like when you walk through that section in the grocery store, it should smell like you're inside a peach.



And just in case you were wondering, yes those are orange cupboards in the background. There are no pictures of me peeling, because I peel peaches... like a ninja!

I'd like to introduce you to baby peach jar number 2... This was the cutest one! I figured I'd save you the time, besides I didn't think you'd want to meet all 41 of her brothers and sisters.

Sooo many todo lists...

Luckily for me most of them have the same 'todo' items on them... now I just have to compile another "Master List" duhnn duhnn duhnnnnnnn.

Currently in progress...

Eggs are good for you!

I'm a little ashamed to admit this... but I just fried my first egg. Mom asked how I could have never done this before, well see the thing is I always make scrambled eggs... or someone else makes them, like my loving brother. ;o)

It made me smile

I was awoken at some ungodly hour by a slightly damp, slightly stressed cat. She was yowwing at the window... in my haze of "what!!?" I managed to open the screen while she stood there looking at me like I was retarded. She did a quick hop over to the door, and her yowwing increased when she realized it was mostly closed... with it being a sliding door I dragged myself out of bed and opened the door with precise zombie-like movements.

30 seconds later there was a damp tousled kitteh curled up on my hip... But it doesn't matter how windy and rainy it is when you wake up with a warm fuzzy purring kitteh in your arm pit.

Status report.

Batshit crazy.

My pressure cooker is in Vernon... cause you know that's totally where we're setting sail from.

My statement, since I don't have anything nice to say about the London Drugs pharmacy... Unmentionable curses.

And to top it all off a friend of mine sent me a parcel, shipped it overnight... and I think it's been sent to Newfoundland for sorting.

Forecast today: Excited with a high chance of sporadic periods of stress.

On a positive note, I've vacuumed and there is some semblance of order. I single-handedly returned most of the cabin to a livable state, while the Captain dove to measure the propeller. I think I got the longer stick ;)

The whole process of visiting everyone important in my life before sailing off into the sunset has been wonderful, eye opening and inspiring. I'm so lucky to be sent off with so many hugs, thoughts and well wishes. *whispers* I've also enjoyed the send off heckling, although I wouldn't usually tell anyone so shhhhhh!

Tomorrows projected weather forecast: Windy and raining. Sub-optimal for removing masts and other fun things atop a tower... guess what we're going to be doing?!?!

Don't sweat it...

Life is a journey, and sometimes you get separated from your luggage. ~ Grey

You have got to be kidding me...

London Drugs just called, they *lost* the 5 prescriptions I brought in to fill...

Guy: "So do you have them written down anywhere?"
Me: "Uhh yeah, on the prescription paper you guys have"

I mean really, I can't pronounce any of them let alone remember what they were for!?!? That's why I gave them to you. Grrrrrr.

Guy: "If you could take it to your doctor..."
Me: "I'm from Vernon, I don't have a doctor here..."
Guy: "Apologizing profusely, well if you could come down with the list and then take it into a walk in clinic and get it approved by a doctor"

As unladylike as I know it is, but whoever told you I was a lady was lying... I just want to run down to London Drugs punch him in the junk and yell "You know why! You know what that's for!!!"

I also just remembered there's no friggin' ketchup for my grilled cheese sandwich. Booooo urns.

Virtual Chinese water torture

I think my head is going to explode.

The clock in this room, is half a tick off from the clock in the kitchen... in the near future I see one of these clocks mysteriously having a battery pop out?

Me to Mom: *shrugs* I dunno how that happened.

Taking a break from all the nothing I accomplished today

For all that I was on the boat all day, except for the bit where we went for lunch... I hardly got anything done. I think if we had added tighten hose clamp around bilge hose, that would be the only thing I could check off.

The morning started out fine, I dropped Dad off for a meeting, grabbed a large double double (Gods I'm going to miss those) and headed for the boat with the intention of accomplishing a *short* list of things that needed to be done.

1) Vacuum the fiberglass dust off of all surfaces
2) Chisel clean the pretty part of the backing for the chain plates, re-caulk, and put them back the way they were
3) Finish running the copper tape to be used as a grounding strip, which has to go over the pretty part of the backing
4) Put a hose clamp on the bilge pipe <-- I only discovered it was missing when I accidentally pulled it off *oops* (but a good oops)
5) Pull the random coax cable that has a plug on one end (that doesn't fit the radio) and is just chopped off at the other end... we can't figure out what it's for anyways lol

Now, this looks like a fairly reasonable list. I mean I should be able to get all of this done and still be home in time for supper. You would think. But NoooOOooo. This turned into one of the typical days that Dad has had so many of while working on the boat, where you are busy all day but don't actually feel like you got anything done.

To start with the electrical system and I, well I must not have been holding my mouth right because no matter what switches I switched I couldn't get the vacuum to turn on. Soooo I put all the tools away, and wiped the dust out of the kitchen. Dad came by, jiggled all the plugs, held his mouth right and got the vacuum working.

Great. So I figure I'll start with the fine fiberglass powder outside, at least that will keep us from tracking it in. I am so glad that I closed everything up before I started vacuuming, because it appeared that it was just sucking the dust up and spitting it out the back end... found out later Dad had been using it as a wet-vac and taken the filter out so that's exactly what it was doing DOH!

I'll let you know if I ever get the fiberglass slivers out from between my fingers ;o)

Fine the vacuum still doesn't work, no big deal I'll put the pretty covers on the backs of the chain plates. Then at least I can finish running the copper ground tape. Well that wasn't so bad, I cleaned them off, figured out the Silkaflex did one, two, three... then I got to the ones that have to go on *before* the copper tape. Yeah. Two of the bolts were too long, and the dremel was at home. Awesome.

In any case, here are the things I have learned about Silkaflex
1) No matter how much paper towel you have it wont be enough
2) Even when you *think* you've got the extra surrounded by paper towel you don't
3) Whatever you do, you will still end up with it on your hands
4) When you are done, there will be Silkaflex on surfaces you weren't anywhere near
5) You will not have a good angle all the way around whatever you are working on
6) Acetone should be used in well ventilated areas
7) You have used too much acetone when simple tasks like folding paper towel become difficult
8) Ummm I can't remember...

Well I figured the last possible thing on my list that I could accomplish was pulling the random coax cable. I chased it almost to the end, and couldn't get the pretty cover off. Grrrrrrr. Dad stopped by and pointed out that they had installed the lamp protector *after* and had screwed it on through the pretty cover, and that it didn't matter because the coax came out the other side of the wall. *mutters* stupid random cable that we don't know what it's for. But with his help we stripped it of it's protective zip ties, and pulled it the rest of the way out without having to remove the pretty cover. So there!

OOohh I did get the radio working too, but that doesn't really count... I just had to flip it from 'CD' to 'FM', so at least I had some tunes :)

Introducing "The New Hotness"

I just spent a fair number of dinars on "The New Hotness" the Nikon D90, but when I held it the skies opened up and the angels sang. I'm not even kidding you!



I'm so happy, it sounds like a "real camera" and when you push the button it takes the picture... not 3 seconds later when the cute kid moment has turned into them picking their nose, or the moment has passed as though it was never there *grins*

With any luck I will have some decent pictures to post here for you, I will only post the good ones though I promise.

I should know better...

But I found myself with a little 'down time' (I jest I know) so I took The New Hotness for a hike down to the old lighthouse. And by hike I mean hour and a half bushwack... I had regained my senses for the way back though so I took the well established trail, and that only took a half an hour ;o)

Ooooh look a froggy! This was my first live specimen. Have I mentioned how much I am in love with this camera even though I don't know how to do much more than turn it on?!?! Just LOOK how cute he is!



After re-acquainting myself with the unforgiving ways of the back 40, I found myself moderatey misplaced. I wasn't lost per-se as I knew more or less where I was, and I was never anywhere that I couldn't have gotten home from... I just wasn't quite where I *wanted* to be.

So a few scrapes, bruises, slides and some seaweed later I made it to the old light house. It was so overgrown that I didn't even bother taking a picture. But I got a couple of other cool ones along the way.



This is where I grew up, this was my back yard. I can't believe I never got really for real lost.

Good morning sunshine

Woke up smiling today.

There are a bazillion old world forestry scents to smell outside this morning, they're all just mixed together perfectly. Between that and the sun shining through the trees, well it's a beautiful morning. ;)

Does it hurt when you do that? Then don't do that!

So today I spent a ridiculous amount of time and money on drugs... and that doesn't even include the prescription ones cause the pharmacist couldn't read the doctors handwriting either.

It was pointed out that, getting drugs in Nanaimo shouldn't take two hours, you just have to walk up to the corner... Ha ha ha... thanks for that.

But in all seriousness I'm just glad I got out of there without setting off some kind of warning that I'd bought all the ingredients for meth or something... whatever they are... maybe I should have paid cash...

Happy Easter!

I was sitting here telling my Mom what I was going to do today, when I got distracted and found a yellow Easter jelly bean in the chimney stones!

Now we didn't do Easter this year, apparently they did it last year for my little brother... but when I blew of the dust and tried to bite it I nearly broke my dentures. So I'm guessing it's at least 3 years old. Ewwwww

First aid kit

So after much deliberation, and looking up the same drug name for the umptillionth time we decided that complicated drugs wouldn't do us any good if we can't remember what they're for. *whispers* Since we wont have access to Google (*shhhh!* I'm still in denile), we've opted in favor of a simplified pioneer first aid kit.

I present to you the bandaid and the bullet. Yes those are gold plated bullets, nothing but the best. They also make an excellent double backup as plan "Zed" in case of catastrophic Zombie attack.

If the bandaid doesn't fix it... the bullet will.

Done! check, almost done... *curses* add another thing to the list

So, I have to admit... I'm wondering if we'll ever get all the right pieces in all the right places, or if we'll reach that "t'hell with it, it's close enough!" stage first.

Here she is with the "Burgundy Barf" bottom paint, I'm pleasantly surprised that it doesn't look so bad really!



Today, well today... we re-drilled the solar panel holes and flipped the panel around so we could access the wiring bit, cause we didn't have the part for it, then we mounted the solar panels on the solar panel bracket after a trip to the Chandlers. We did some creative 3 dimensional thought exercises trying to figure out how the wind-vane steering was going to fit in roughly the same place as the solar panel... Dad was ready to hack off the top bit until I realized we could just use a hose clamp, and get rid of all the 'optional' parts.

I'm a genius I know, I'm just misunderstood sometimes. But I would like to know why my father always sounds so surprised when he says "You're right?!?!" *grins* okay it doesn't happen that often, but of late it's been a little more frequent than usual ;o)

Here I am drilling the bracket to match up with the holes on the panels. TC, just for you I cropped the part that shows how high up I'm standing ;o)



Getting the offending part off was interesting, we exploded 4 dremel disks in a row trying to get part of it off, until Dad gave in and put the bigger one on... then he stepped on that one so technically we broke 5, that's lucky in Japan right? Here's where I was starting to wonder, how many times do you try something that doesn't work... because I generally go with third time lucky, and if that doesn't pan out move on. I'll let you know when I figure out Dad's philosophy.

We also did the wire run for the solar panels. There is no way to say how much of an understatement that is... I just can't describe the small spaces, and screws in ridiculous corners, and odd angles... One of them Dad had to hold the screw driver and I had to turn it! Somewhere along the line we managed to un-wire the antenna for the am/fm radio... Dad was trying to figure out what the coax was for, I think that happened *after* he cut it Doh! but I felt it was wiser not to ask. His professional opinion was "It's buggered".

Then we needed some more parts... and the Chandler was closed. What is this CLOSED on Sunday afternoon business, didn't you hear? We leave soon, and there is no rest for the wicked!?!

So we stopped that project, and proceeded to remove the bolts for the chain plates. Dad removed one, with much ado and decided that if "The Guy" - Toby says they're okay then we'll just put them back together, shine 'em up and get him to fiberglass it in all nice-like and call 'er done. Sounds good to me!

Oh right, and while I cataloged and foam protected our 'full meal' canning in the storage lockers Dad broke four bits trying to drill into one of our three rudders which has been dripping rusty water since we hauled. *adding to list*



We also managed to change one of the diesel filters, but still need to prime it... we were in search of the luser manual for that, and I think Dad was hungry so we came home.

Time passes... but some things stay the same

T: Its like nothing changes...just time in between

me: I think that's how you tell the difference between friends and acquaintances

I have angry ears on

It might have something to do with chocolate, but I was mad enough to bite my own ass today, so I did my best to refrain from saying anything that could be taken the wrong way. In fact I did my best to say as little as possible.

Today wasn't bad, don't get me wrong we got some more boat stuff done... I am just tired. Got together with an old friend of mine and saw Aaron Pritchett at the VIEX last night, he was awesome, but it turned into a late night, I hauled myself out of bed early thinking we were going to Victoria which we didn't... *shrugs* nothing really went as planned.

We did buy tupperware though. I'm adding it to the list right now so I can check it off... *check*

The fair was cool, we saw an Alpaca while we were wandering around the VIEX who also had his angry ears on. We stared each other down, and it made me smile that he looked about as ticked off with the world as I felt.

We looked at DSLR's, I'm eyeing up the Nikon D90 it seems to be a good entry into mucking around with the manual settings which is what I'd like to learn... and we sketched out where all the holes should go to mount the solar panels... but we left all the drill bits at home so it was a short stop at the boat today doing that and dropping off the canned spaghetti sauce.

I can't believe it...

Dad lost the 'to-do' list... now how are we supposed to get anything done?!?

Ok I lied. I'm really not that surprised, it doesn't really matter anyways... we were just going to add things we'd actually done to it so we could cross 'em off. I just love that feeling when you get to cross something off the list *grins*

Luckily I had a copy in my Dropbox folder, thanks baby!

Yiyiyiyiyiyiyiyi

Omg I'm not even making this up a lady named "Xena" just called from Telus to talk to my Dad.

"Hey Dad, Xena called... she wanted to know if your phone service was still kicking butt"

I don't want to brag...

Or make anyone feel jealous or anything, but I can still fit into the earrings I wore in high-school!

I am le tired

So we had our haul scheduled for this morning, Dad was like a Jack Russel wired into 220 Volts bouncing between excited and nervous. I was more like those 'energy saver' light bulbs... you know the ones that take 10 minutes to warm up before they start to flicker. Yeah.

So we tried to get out of the marina, got the throttle stuck in reverse, bounced off a pier, (Dad did this Tarzan swing from the radar arch, and pushed us off the pier and then cut the engine. It was really quite spectacular actually!) We... ended up four slips down again. But, and this is a big but... we only needed help from *two* people this time, and we got out faster and completely unassisted so that means we're getting better! Right? Right.

On our way out of the marina, after I'd taken a deep breath and mentally calculated that we should be okay for the remaining turns out... I heard a *rattle*... *rattle*... *sploosh*

Well I figure the anchor must noticed that there was a lull, and decided that it was an ideal moment to abandon ship... I must have kicked into overdrive because my first thought was "Are you effin' kidding me?!?" followed closely by "@$%&!!! If that anchor sticks we're gonna spin around and take out every boat in a 35 foot radius!"

I grabbed the fore-stay with my left hand and dove over the safety rail while also thinking that I didn't want to grab on to the anchor and rip my arm off... ran a handful of chain over my right hand, was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't too heavy, grabbed it and proceeded to haul the damn anchor back onto the boat by its scruff, at which point we had 'words'.

All of this must have happened darn near simultaneously because there was only about 6 feet of chain that had been let out, and by the time Dad figured out that something was amiss, it had happened and it was already over.

So we made it to the haul out uneventfully despite our imaginings of what else might not go as planned, and got the boat hauled. Its pretty cool the way they do it! The guys at the boat yard managed just fine despite our unique bottom. But somebody forgot to bring the camera... so we'll have to take pictures putting it back in *sigh*

We have a unique bottom with three rudders, two bilge keels and a prop... which is now painted a unique shade of ugly, it was supposed to be purple, but wound up "Burgundy Barf". My programming muscles pressure washed, and then my reserve tree planting muscles and mental training took over, painted and continued to paint long after I thought I was done.

In electronic news, we got Mike the electronic guy from the Chandler's to look at our Depth Sounder - AIS - GPS - Radio - Antenna connections, and he figures we've got 3 out of 3 faulty units... on a huge plus plus they're manufacturer faulty. Dad didn't think it was so lucky, but I think it was, that we got him to go yep it's broken rather than me mucking around with it!

I don't think anything else of consequence happened today, nothing you'd be interested in anyways. We ordered more parts, measured more parts to be fabricated, I ninja sliced more foam, and put a few more things where they 'belong'... I'm not going to lie, I'm exhausted, I've got more unidentified bruises than I've ever had from UDI's, and I lost count of how many times I uttered curses and death threats under my breath that I had no intention of following through with. Some at Dad and some at the boat... but all in all it was a great day! Especially when we finished it off with a cold A&W root beer :)

"Dead Shexy" the way Sean Connery says it

I think I look hot in Budweiser hat, hockey hair and a white tank top with matching tan lines... Yeah. We don't wonder why I'm single anymore either.

Accolades and Ack

I'm sure you will be proud to hear I have achieved the rank of foam cutting ninja. I cannot begin to describe how many pieces of foam in what weird dimensions I've cut... but so help me if anything rattles in the bilge I'm gluing it down!

I've also started to work on hooking up the Winlink system which should keep our position updated, and us in contact with text based email for the duration of the trip.

First we tried to walk the boat out and spin it around? I don't know, it sounded better in our heads... anyways that didn't work, there was a moment of *oh shit* but then we were fine. Then we had the bright idea to just turn the engine on, since it was fixed and all...

In other news, we fired up the engine to turn the boat around... and with much ado caught the wind broadside, nearly kissing multiple boats on the way down to the fourth slip away from ours. To say it was mildly exciting would be an understatement of great proportions. In the middle of running down and around the dock barefoot, with my scraggly hockey hair (I probably looked a bit like one of the lost boys from Peter Pan... sure could've used some of that fairy dust Tink!) I managed with the help of another old fellow to get Dad out in the middle again... only to have the engine shut off. By this point we just parked it in the nearest slip, which happened to be four downwind, and took a deep breath.

A nice couple came by and offered to help us hand walk it back to our slip, and so between them, another fellow on his boat, much line tossing, hollering back and forth, and the use of body parts to fend off with we were back in our slip, arse end first the way we were trying to get it in the first place... I guess that's one way to meet everyone in the yatch club, and I'm counting that as my stretching for the day... you should have seen some of the leg fenders I managed! ;o)

Keep your fingers crossed for us, we're supposed to haul tomorrow... we're gonna need all the luck we can get to get out of the yacht club and haul the boat *phew*

Ze gas doth floweth

Famous words of our mechanic dude Toby "There's something basic wrong here...", 'somewhere' along ze way a gas shut-off valve got shut-off... *cough* *cough* as in ze gas she does not flow, as in ze engine should *not* work when ze gas doth not flow.

Once Toby monkeyed around with things, and turned said shut-off valve to the "on" position ze engine she started w00t w00t!

*happy dance* <--- zis needs it's own line, it's that HUGE!

Zis means, what wif all de other awesomeness ve ackomplished today dat ve're practickally back on track... I almost wrote zat all mushed togezer I'm so excited! Zis means ve can haul and bottom paint, and do somesink with ze mast... I tink pull it out and check everyting yah?

Ze boat, she is comink along nicely me tinks.

On exercising...

Many of you have asked what I'm going to do for exercise while on this long journey. Well, we've installed a pole-dancing pole in a place of honor... right in the middle of everything! I've heard it can be quite a good work out, although I think the potential for injury is much higher in the confines of a boat, here it is... Ta-da!



Just kidding, it's actually there to hold the table up, it might even be structural but I don't really want to know *all* the details... my Dad's an engineer and the answer would likely be longer than I'm interested in right now, we'll have plenty of time to talk about structural supports later.

I'll leave you with my personal favorite exercise quote:

"I gave up exercising because my things kept rubbing together and setting my pantyhose on fire!"

The things I do...

So I tell my Mom that I'm going upstairs to flip my laundry to the dryer, she does her best to convince me that it's entirely too hot to use the dryer and that I should hang it to dry... "Everything but the jeans should be dry by morning"

So I head upstairs, out onto the balcony, don't quite close the door because I remember it's kind of weird... and there are no clothes pins. I go to go back into the house, the door is closed... no wait, the door is locked. Awesome. I half heartedly holler for my Dad knowing he's got his headphones on and can't hear you when you holler at him in the same room. Great. I'm stuck out here on the balcony with a load of wet laundry.

*sigh*

I start evaluating my options, I could wait until somebody notices I'm missing? No good, Mom is usually up late, Dad figures I went to bed already... I could attempt to climb down the new portion of the house, probably possible but this would be the initial attempt in the dark *wrinkles nose* we'll leave that as a plan b or c... Nuts, that leaves climbing out onto the roof in the dark remember, up onto the roof on the addition, down the mossy bit and either in the window in the spare room, or stomping on the roof over the TV room... and falling off in the dark, well that's the lowest section of roof to fall off of.

Back downstairs...

Me: Thanks Mom! I just had to break into the house... IN THE DARK! Didn't you hear me? The deer out back sure did...
Her: Yeah, I thought that was just you crashing around in the spare room.

Nice, good to know you're watching out for me *thwibbit* ;o)

Attack of the drogues!

Help! Help! The drogues have taken over our living room!



Hahaha just kidding... so this piece of safety equipment, which was made by my Dad, pretty impressive eh? Consists of 107 little parachute type things, 48 of which are attached to 1/2" diameter rope, and 59 of which are attached to 5/8" diameter rope, with a 70' leader attached to a bridal consisting of 2 50' 5/8 diameter bits that attach to the aft end of the boat that you toss off in the event of a severe storm... okay well not quite:

1) Take the two ends of the bridal around the outside of the radar arch, through the fairlead, and cleat at the 10 foot mark (indicated by wrapping)

2) Get small anchor or any other 20 lb weight available and attach to end of drogue

3) Ensure that the area is clear (similar to using an AED "You're clear, I'm clear everybody's clear")

4) Toss small anchor overboard, cross your fingers and pray that nothing gets stuck

In the event that everything works correctly, the mini-drogue-chutes should provide enough drag to slow you down so you can steer even when tired, and not hit a wave broadside... that's really bad, you have a huge potential to be rolled when that happens. That would suck even more than being rick rolled ;o)

Currently we haven't determined how to secure the carrying bag, I pointed out that I'm sure as hell not hanging onto it when there is the force of any number of parachutey things trying to pull it into the sea, so for now the carrying bag will serve as an offering to King Neptune... although it's broken, that might not be a very good sacrifice.

*wrinkles nose*

We'll have to think on this...

Rise and shine...

"I'll rise, but I refuse to shine" ~Gabrielle XWP

Gratitude to all who had a hand in the scientific advancements that allow me to have a hot shower... especially in the morning.

There's red blood cells in your caffeine system

A few years ago, when we were still in University I was talking to my friend Mitts over Christmas vacation, I asked how her visit was going and she replied "Great except that I've had this headache for the last few days that just wont go away..." I asked if she'd had any coffee since she'd been home, there was a pause... and then she replied "No, my Mom doesn't drink it, I don't think there is any in the house." To which I said "Oh my goodness! You're poor body is going through caffeine withdrawals, go downtown and buy some coffee! No seriously, right now, I'll let you go."

Well I'm moderately ashamed to admit, I just pulled a Mitts. I've had a headache the last couple of days, and not surprisingly really, I'd been consuming about a cup a day till now. Thank the Gods for Timmy's!

Famous last words

Teach me to splice I say...

*muttering* Splicing is easy he says... just follow the directions he says... *kablooeee* I've never seen one do that before he says!...

Guess we have to cut off $3 worth of rope... and you'll have to try it with the other set of instructions, glad I didn't get shown up by my daughter though. *thwibbit*

*curses under my breath* I says...

It was definitely easier the second time, or perhaps it was the easier set of instructions hmmmm? *evil glare at Dad* the first one was prettier, until it exploded that is, but I still think it turned out alright.

If the shoe fits... I turn into a princess?

My life right now is an off-key version of "Cinderelly, cinderelly, wash the dishes, scrub the galley!" which really wouldn't be so bad except that I've been working a desk job... translation: my everything is tired.

So cleaning this boat, well it's a little like painting a room with two doors, and two windows and an electrical box - it's all edges... well picture that, and add a helluv a lot more edges, and some bendy bits, and piping with pokey bits on it... that you have to clean in behind, only you don't know there are pokey bits on it until you find them the hard way. Seriously though, I've got more scrapes and bruises from this week, nothing major or picture worthy but still!

I think technically I'm about half done, but just so we're all clear A.D.D is way worse on a small boat, you can see all the distracting things AT THE SAME TIME.

Not enough hours in the day

I have to apologize I haven't written about all of my visiting shenanagins yet because I just haven't had time, but don't you worry that circus circus comic hasn't got nuthin' on me!

I'm off to the boat again this morning, there is some cleaning and scrubbing, and probably a whole bunch of elbow grease in my future. At least I will know it was clean when we started right?

Just 10 more mins...

I just got up earlier than I had to because some latent alarm on my watch was never reset or turned off.

We just had words.

Especially since I'm on autopilot in the morning and can't tell the difference between my watch alarm and my cell phone 'get your ass out of bed' alarm. Once at University I tried to turn my alarm clock off repeatedly, and was thoroughly confused as to why it wasn't working... until I realized it was the phone ringing.

It's okay I guess, I'm up now...

Bill of sale - The Fit

Dear Dan,

I'm so lucky to be able to sell you your first car for $1.05 (GST included), I know that you will take care of it, and I hope you know that you really don't have to wash it *every* week (I certainly didn't). I know it will always hold a special place in your heart.

Here are the keys.

I think it's cool that you are so proud of the fact that you have your fraternity plate on the front, and I really don't care if you put a transformers sticker on it, or get flames painted on the side, really, it's your car now.

It's not your driving I'm worried about, it's everyone else's.

Please be careful.

Love your favouritest sister ever,

Sam

PS I really don't care if you wreck it, as long as you're okay. For serious.

Once a year you should watch the sunrise... check

Watching the sunrise over the mist filled plains of Alberta, they looked completely deserted making me feel like the only living witness in a fairy tale land. It wouldn't have surprised me if upon first light a herd of unicorns had arisen out of the long grass and galloped off. It was absolutely breathtaking, and of course I didn't have my camera, not that any picture I could have taken would have done it justice...

Mmmmm bacon

I got up early this morning so that my brother would make me breakfast before he went to work.

The unconscious conversing with... well the unconscious

I can hardly believe it's almost been a week since my last day of work. It has been super awesome visiting my bro, and we've gotten a tonne of stuff done and organized for the upcoming adventure... but I think we both might be a little tired. While it cannot be confirmed by outside sources, I'm pretty sure we were talking to each other in our sleep last night... I briefly woke up to an incoherent mumble, giggled, and crashed out again.

We might be related.

The reason self checkout is soooo slow...

Last night we went shopping for bacon and toilet paper...

Time it takes to grab few random items: 10 mins
Time it takes to scan few random items at self checkout: 5 mins
*note this is probably 4 mins longer than the empty checkout lines
Number of Frat boys it takes to try to enter the AIR MILES number *after* the AIR MILES screen: 3
Getting the girl on duty to cancel the whole thing so you can swipe it all through again, because *at least* one of them missed the AIR MILES number screen?

Priceless... for everything else there's MasterCard

Did I mention they graduated recently?

Mr. President says FML

So a little background, my brother, The President (he's kind of a big deal Mom) - vote for Pedro he offers you his protection, borrowed a Park pass to go camping like two weeks from now... in the meantime the owner of said Park pass decided to go camping, tomorrow. She stopped by to pick it up only to find my brother tearing around his room like a tornado, which by the way isn't really big enough for that, and one of his frat brothers we'll call him Frat boy #3 walking around like a zombie flipping through the first few layers of the various piles of crap on all the crap worthy surfaces. Enter Frat by #2...

Frat boy #3: Hey the president lost a parking pass have you seen it anywhere

Frat boy #2: Nope

... little while later ...

Yeah we're looking for that Park pass...

Frat boy #2: Ohhh! Park Pass! I thought you were looking for a parking pass...

Frat boy #3: That's what I asked you earlier!

Frat boy #2: No, no you most definitely said 'parking pass'

Frat boy #3: *throws hands up in the air* park, parking same difference!

Frat boy #2: No they're totally different, one's for parking... and the other uh...

C: is for parking in a park?

... more head shaking, some expletives, and begging of forgiveness... luckily she is not a vengeful God...

Frat boy #2: HaHA! I found it!

*happy dancing* and *high fiving* all around!

Mr. President: Omg where did you find it?!?!?!

Frat boy #2: *glowing* In your food cupboard *smiles*

Mr. President: WTF?!?! How did you find it in there?

Frat boy #2: Well, I said to myself... self if I was the President... where would I put it? And there it was, next to the peanut butter.

The way I figure it, he probably had it in his hand, was hungry and put it down... in order to pick up the peanut butter.

Whirwind!

The 'Bon Voyage Tour' continues, I've driven nearly 1500km's since Friday night made some great memories with wonderful friends and familly and am looking forward to a few more... The cemetary is the place to rest ;o)

I promise I'll update more soon, but you don't want to hear about how bad I am at pictionary... although we did have a couple gooders in charades, I'll leave you with this, how do you act out 'Donkey' and 'Buffalo' to an 8 and a 14 year old? *raises eyebrow* we might've got stuck on those for a little while...

*winces* wait for it...

It felt pretty awesome when Granny said "You look wonderful!" instead of the usual "You're getting fat." Even when it's the truth, served straight up... what can you say really? Its Granny, don't argue with her about *anything* she's always right.

I'm just not going to tell anyone she didn't even have her glasses on ;o)