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!