Hard at Work

Well, here we are.  Still in Seattle.  I had thought we would be long gone by now but a few little things have kept us tied to the dock.  Brenda has been suckered into working part time for one more month and while she has been hard at work, I have been busy with last minute boat projects. 

Some of those projects have been crappy, like replacing all of the plumbing from the toilet to the tank where the waste goes...again its a crappy job (literally...pun intended). 

Some projects are much more important and very difficult...like making sure our new inflatable paddle boards work properly.  We have had stand up paddle boards for quite a few years now and have put quite a few miles on them.  Around here we have stored them on rack that ties them to the outside of the boat, but once we leave and are sailing out in the big ocean, anything that is on the outside of the boat is a target for a big wave.  We didn't like the idea of having the boards and railing and rack all ripped off by a wave so we have gotten rid of our old boards and gone to inflatables that we can store in a compartment inside the boat.  Here is a quick video of one of the new boards in action...its kind of a dorky video but what else am I supposed to do with my time???



We also have a couple of medical procedures that we probably both should have taken care of years ago but since we are both pretty wimpy, here we are, last minute, only because we have to.  I have to forcibly have my wisdom teeth ripped from my whimpering mouth (I have been putting this off for 20 years) and Brenda has to have her eye balls cut out (lasik...she's blind as a bat and doesn't want to deal with contacts or glasses in third world countries).  So here we sit, crying ourselves to sleep at night, in fear of horrendous procedures (to us anyway).  In reality they both should be quick and relatively painless and then we will both be at the top or our game...100% ready and in tip-top shape.

So for those of you wondering where we may be...here we are.  Our adventure hasn't really started yet.  We will be in Seattle till the end of May and then its bye-bye hometown and off to the great white north. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Double Birthday and the Italian Connection

Image
There is an interesting thing that happens on this side of the world. When we left Seattle, we crossed the international date line which puts us one whole day ahead of where we came from. Basically, we lost a day. Because we lost a day, Brenda turned the ripe old age of 40 one day sooner than she would have if we were in Seattle. On September the 12 th in Vanuatu, we got to celebrate her big day. But since she says her home is in Seattle, we also got to celebrate her 40 th birthday when September 12 th happened on that side of the world. Basically, she got the longest birthday known to mankind...2 big days long. There is another interesting thing that happens when you are cruising the world on a sailboat. You run into other cruisers that come from all parts of the world and all backgrounds. Where we are currently moored on Aore Island in Vanuatu, there are 4 boats that are from 4 different countries. It's an international coalition. Our newest neighbors jus
Read more

Balls Hot

Image
If you don't know by now, I'm from a little town called Seattle. You may have heard of the place - it's nice. But coming from Seattle, where 11 ½ months of the year has the city covered in a cool, thick layer of clouds, and the sunshine we receive is in liquid form (rain), I've never had to become accustomed to heat of any kind. Sure, the 2 weeks of summer we get are heavenly and worth the wait, but when the temperature reaches a whopping 60 degrees, everyone starts running around in shorts and flip-flops and turning their skin that has been covered for the past 11 ½ months a blistering shade of red. And a Seattle heat wave? That's about 75 degrees. It's also when everyone who was begging for summer for the last 11 ½ months starts complaining about the heat and wishing they would have sprung for an air conditioner. Before we came to Mexico, we had heard from other friends and sailors who had spent the summer in the Sea of Cortez, riding out hurrica
Read more

The Garnet Ghost Town

Image
For years before we left, I had always told people that we were going to sail around the world. Now that we've been out for a few years, I still tell people the same thing. It's a concept that makes sense to the average Joe – a circle around the globe. A start and an end. One complete lap. When a random stranger we meet on the road asks what we are doing, I still answer with, “we are sailing around the world.” But that explanation is and has always been just a quick way to put into words a concept that still doesn't make sense to most people. Because in reality, we aren't going to sail around the world. One big lap of the globe doesn't really have any appeal to us. Although we aren't realistically going to make a big giant loop – with a beginning and an end – we are doing our best to see the world, and we'll be doing it for as long as it takes. So, I think the proper way to explain what we are doing, is to just say that we are out here to see the
Read more