July 23-27

The beginning of our week wasn't so exciting with a broken bilge pump and then on Tuesday(the holiday for our friends and family in Utah) our fridge was not working. So we spent the day trying to figure that out with occasional runs to the store to buy ice to keep all of our food from spoiling.  Then we did laundry too.  There was a cute little primary pioneer activity that we went to that evening and we played pioneer games, ate chili and pancakes, and got majorly attacked by gnats.  So a little different from our usual pioneer days in the past.  Definitely unique!

I don't think I've written much about food yet.  Now we do have a lot more options since we have a fridge and microwave.  We use the stove sometimes too but not a lot since it really heats up the boat.  We haven't even tried out our cute little oven yet, just too hot to think about.  A few days ago we tried doing the crockpot for dinner and we plugged it in out in the cockpit so we wouldn't get hot.  That worked out really well and gives us more options.  Our favorite thing though is the little BBQ on the boat.  We made hamburgers and they were heavenly.  What we eat the most these days is cereal, sandwiches, and easy microwave stuff, so homemade hamburgers were a super yummy change.

Just took a picture of our little owl buddy.  This is what Paul got to keep the birds from hanging out on our boat and pooping all over it.  It actually has been helping a lot.  I think we have started a new trend.  A couple of other boats just got some owls and so did the restaurant at the marina. 

We haven't really been able to sail this week because there has not been much wind or breezes.  Bummer.  It has been pretty dang hot too.  Today we decided that since the wind wouldn't cooperate with our sailing wishes we would go practise anchoring.  So we motored down the ICW (intracoastal waterway) about an hour to a little spot called pine island.  The anchoring went really well. 

Once we had the anchoring thing figured out we were about to jump in and swim to the beach/island -30-40 yards away, but as we were looking into the water, a big jellyfish went by.  So we were a little nervous because you can't see much in the water on the ICW and we definitely didn't want to swim with a bunch of jellyfish, so we decided to take the dinghy to the shore.  Here is a picture of our first anchoring job from the little pine island beach.

It was a cute little beach we had all to ourselves.  And it had a tire swing hanging from a tree.  How convenient.  We all had to try it out.  It was a great little beach and we are thinking about coming back soon and staying anchored overnight.  This would be a good place to try that out.

After playing in the water we decided to head back.  Lucy and I got some good practise driving the boat today.  Lucy driving a 20,000 pound boat.  No big deal right? Not too bad when you are only going 5 miles an hour thankfully. :)

This evening we had a treat.  We saw a cute sea turtle here at the marina.  We saw another one yesterday but didn't have the camera nearby.  This one was interesting with his barnacles on his back. They are fun to watch.  They look like they are just relaxing and in no hurry to swim and wander around. Time to go; I want to watch the olympics!!

1 month anniversary

Another week and our 1 month anniversary since leaving on our adventure.  I mentioned that it had been a month to the kids, and we all agreed that it feels like lots longer.  It feels like we haven't been to Utah forever.  I guess just because it has been very busy and full of lots of new events and changes to get used to.  Pretty weird.   Anyway, I didn't take many pictures this past week because though we were doing stuff, it wasn't really the exciting picture taking kind of stuff.  This was fun though, these were taken at the pool at the marina when we practised using the Hooka dive system we got. Instead of having to carry tanks on your back, there is an air compressor (which will sit on the boat) and it has 4 long lines so up to 4 people can go down and explore.  The kids love it and have got the hang of it very quickly.  Can't wait to try it in some pretty water with fish and cool stuff.   

Noah is becoming quite the little fish and loves the flippers and mask.  He would probably sit at the bottom of the pool all day if we let him. 

Some of the not so glamorous things we did this week:
*a shopping trip to Jacksonville -hello costco;
*making a few adjustments with some of our sailing equipment;
*trying out a new sail -a spinaker sail which is easier that the main sail and jib -though we will be practising all of them;
*spending several hours working on Noah and Lucy's home school curriculum/planning out the school year;
*harrassing the upholstery lady who has had a bit of problems getting our seating done right (hopefully done this week)
* frog, crab, and lizard catching, and dolphin and manatee sightings - we love this stuff!
*and of course more boat projects. We are finding that there will always be a list of need to do's and want to do's with having a boat and we just have to pick which ones are important enough to do next.  Today we spent several hours trying to figure out why our starboard bilge pump was not working and that was fun.  (Yes , a little sarcastic, but it's all good.)
 This week will hopefully include some sailing practise and we might go try out anchoring too.

Camping and sailing

Ok. Time to catch up on last week.  So, Lucy and Kate spent Monday-Saturday at girls camp at Camp Glynn in Brunswick Georgia I think.  The camp was on a little island in the middle of a big area of salt marshes.  It was pretty there and we had a lot of fun. It was very hot and humid at times but there were lots of fun things to do and we are starting to get used to feeling hot and wet and sticky all the time.  As used to it as you can I guess.

This is the beautiful group of girls I got assigned to - the level four campers.  They were an amazing group of girls and leaders and I really enjoyed getting to know them and spend time with them. 

Lucy got to help with flag ceremony and did a fabulous job.  She also got to go swimming lots, did crafts, dance, shooting, and the other certification stuff.  It was very busy.

This was Lucy's assigned big sister Cortney.  She was amazing and so awesome to Lucy.  She really helped Lucy to meet people and to have a great time.  All the girls and leaders were so nice.  We are really loving the people here in St. Augustine.

So while Lucy and I had our camping adventure, Paul and the kids stayed busy.  They practised docking and driving the boat around a few times and got really good at it.  They got the engines fixed and running well, dealt with pesky birds who were sitting on our mast and making messes on the boat, practised using the scuba system in the pool, got the boat name painted on the boat (the name is AEGIS if we havent mentioned it before), and got the new upholstery job going on the seating (a nice lady is making new cushions for us). Lucy and I came home to a nice clean boat and it was wonderful to be home.  This is starting to feel like home a little more, instead of just an extended vacation or something.

Apparently we were all pretty worn out from a busy week.  Lucy and I had hammock naps Sunday afternoon since we stayed up too late at camp (esp. Lucy, she is a night owl!)  Then Noah fell asleep in the hammock that night. He always seems to fall asleep somewhere other than his bed every evening.  I guess all this sun and swimming really wears him out.

And now for today. Today's big adventure was taking the boat out of the inlet into the ocean for our first sailing lesson/practise.  Captain Rick and his son Finn came with us.  We first spent a few hours checking all the sails and learning zillions of new terms and how to do all kinds of things (it is all swimming around in my head now) and then we set out.

So...Noah and Lucy loved it. Especially coming out of the narrow inlet that had some really big waves.  Jack and Emily got sick pretty quickly with those big waves. Paul did not get sick at all which is interesting since he gets sick easier than the rest of us on amusement motion rides. And what about Kate?  OK, story.  So I did ok at first, then was feeling just slightly queasy with the big waves.  Then when we got out into the real ocean and it was calmer I was doing ok. Rick was helping me

do all the sail stuff while Paul was driving/steering, and that helped to distract me.  But then, I went in the boat, down in our storage/pantry room to get some anti-nausea medicine for Jack and Em.  That was pretty ironic because while looking for the nausea medicine in that small room I got WAY sick and ran upstairs and out the boat and promptly lost my lunch over the side of the boat.  Yes, Kate is officially the first one to do that on our adventure.  I did feel quite a bit better after at least.  So we learned a lot and all felt better when we got back.  We knew it would probably take some getting used to.  Maybe next time we will take the medicine before we head out.  We are learning as we go.

And we did see a dolphin close by when we were out there so I am trying to focus on the positive. :)
      In the pictures you can see poor Emily laying there not feeling well at all.  It was sad. We came back and swam in the pool and everyone is good now. 

Fourth of July, Manatees, and our first solo boat trip

 

I sure hope this video works.  This is the first time I've tried putting on a video, and this is the coolest.  We came across a huge manatee right next to our boat so we turned on the hose  (one of the marina guys told us they love fresh water) and started videoing.  They are so tame and let Lucy and Noah pet them while they guzzled the hose water.  It was so VERY cool!  This was a moment that reminds us of why we are doing this crazy adventure!

Pretty huge huh?  Just one visited us this time, but we saw a group of 4-5 the day before too. Apparently they hang out at the marina often. 

The fourth of July was a fun day. We got up early and cleaned and scrubbed the whole deck of the boat and made it look pretty. Then we were ready for some fun.  We met 2 families from the St. Augustine ward at the beach and we played there.  We tried out the boogie boards and they were really fun.  The picture is Noah on the left, and Lucy is the one mostly buried in the wave.

After the beach, we went back to the marina for a pot luck pool party and ate lots of yummy food. Then, the missionaries from the new ward came and visited with us and they really liked the boat and we had fun visiting with them.

After that, we just relaxed on the boat and waited for it to get dark for the fireworks.  One of the things I love about this boating thing is how everyone waves when boats go by.  I think it is an unwritten rule or something because everyone does it.  We just sat there and waved as everyone went by to go out on to the water to watch fireworks. 

It finally got dark and we turned on the boat party lights and got ready for the fireworks.

We sat on the top of the boat and we had a great view of the fireworks show.  It was a busy, fun day!

So, we have taken the dinghy out a few times this week and it is really fun.  Last night we even saw a few whales close to us (forget what kind but they look a lot like dolphins but are black- very pretty). But we haven't taken the boat out on our own yet... until today.  We were waiting to get this small starter wire part for the engine that should be replaced this week, but today we decided to practise docking and stuff and then when that went well, we decided to go out in the intracoastal water way for a short ride. (The engine can be started by bypassing the wire and just jumping it, but we didn't want to go far til it is totally fixed)  Anyway, so we went out on our first solo ride on the big boat and it went really quite well.  It felt wonderful!  And though we need a little practise with the docking, we thought we did a pretty good job for our first time.

Captain Paul

Captain Kate?  I don"t think so, but I did spend a while driving/ practising steering while we were on our ride.  Aren"t I so brave?

Just a little FYI.  Lucy and I are going to girls camp tomorrow morning for the week so I probably wont have an entry for awhile.  We will take a boating break for a little camping adventure, and the others will work on some boating practise this week.  Should be fun for all of us.

July 2, 2012

 OK.  I have a little catching up to do.  Let's go back to last weekend.  We checked out of our hotel Sat. morning and moved onto the boat.  It was, to be honest, a VERY hot and somewhat miserable weekend.  Temps were mid 90's here and with crazy humidity and a hot boat not in the water yet and no more hotel pool, it was a bit stifling.  So we took a break from some cleaning and went to the beach and also went to the historic downtown of St. Augustine.  We are really liking this city.  It is very pretty with lots of cool old buildings and history. Plus everyone has been super friendly here.
Saturday was also Jack's birthday so we found a super yummy pizza place to try out for his birthday.

 This is one of the cool old buildings that is now part of Flagler College.

Notice the sign behind, the oldest wood schoolhouse in USA.  We have noticed lots of buildings here that have claims to being the oldest whatever in the US.  So apparently this is a really OLD town.

The beach was heavenly because it is cooler and had a great breeze!

So finally, Monday arrived and it was time to move the boat into the water.  We were excited and nervous.  The move went well, but when we got it in, the sad news was that our port engine would not start.  We had a couple of stressful hours trying to get it figured out but luckily we did get it figured out and it was not a huge expensive thing, just a corroded wire on the starter, so we got it started and got to go out for our ride over to the marina where we will be staying.

We made it to the Camachee Cove Marina around noon and were very excited.  The boat is so much cooler here now that it is in the water and there is usually a nice breeze here too.  Bonus is the pool too!  The kids go to the pool at least a few times a day.  The kids are also loving all of the crabs, lizards, birds, frogs, etc to see all around us.  So overall, things are improving a ton.  We are cooler; we have a fridge and stove and can start eating normal foods again (crackers and muffins and snacks were getting really boring); and our boat is clean and lots of big yucky projects are done.  We still find new projects everyday of course, and we do still need to learn how to sail this boat, but things are coming along and we are having a little time to start enjoying ourselves. 

So, this is something we are learning more about.  The tides.  These were taken at the dock right by our boat at high tide and low tide.  I was surprised by how much the water levels really change.  I think it even dropped more after I took the picture on the right and the water was about gone on the right side of that dock. That is pretty wild I think.  And I learned that the tides are higher and lower with a full or a new moon (which it is full now). And currents and weather affect the tides too.  It will be interesting to watch it more.  More terms for me too- slack tide (the right time we had to move the boat when the current has paused/calmed before it starts moving the other direction).  Fascinating stuff huh?