I tript on Daddys tawl wiyul dooing londree and fel on the lifelines.
This was before the waves got big.
I went on my first sail yesterday! I liked some of the giant waves. My favourites were the ones that went slowly up and then fast down and Nathans favourites were fast up and slowly down and then smooth.
It turns out there was a sushi place at the marina. We are on our way to get sushi. There was a lizard and it was on a spiky tree. Nathan got pricked by one of the spikes. It left a tiny cut. He was probably trying to catch the lizard.
This is Pumpkin and Syrup. We visited them already. We had to leave Pumpkin and Syrup when we set sail. It was hard.
This is a Millie size royal palm tree.
This is me jumping off the boat. My belly kind of hurt.
ASIDE: Before I get started, I just wanted to apologize for any difficulties you may have had in posting comments in previous blog posts and in the lag between getting replies. The glitch is on my side. I’m still very new at this blogging thing and it appears that I have to approve all comments before they will show up. This has been done now so any comments should be on the webpage and the kids will read them shortly. Thank you all so much for your comments. Please keep them coming, the kids (and Neil and I) love hearing from you.
Okay, on to this week’s post…
Happy Canada Day all!! I hope your day was filled with good weather, fun activities and friend and family time. Even though we are thousands of miles away, we are still feeling the Canada Day love. Today, we decided to show our patriotism by changing over our boat from being Australian registered (previous owners) to being a Canadian registered boat. Woohoo!!…now we are legal…almost. I still have to put the Victoria, BC stickers on.
We are settling in well here on Trismic even though there has been no shortage of setbacks…well, I shouldn’t say setbacks, challenges…hmm, still too negative, projects! Yes, that is what we will call them, ‘projects’. It seems that every system that does not seem to be working properly is, well, broken and needs new parts. We have been on board for five days and so far our water pump accumulator needs replacing, we don’t know how to switch from the port to starboard water tank and the port one has run dry (luckily we have water from shore while we are at the dock), we have electrical problems which is causing our navigation system to drain our batteries way too quickly, the steering on our dingy was seized, the BBQ doesn’t work and our freezer won’t freeze anything. You should see all of the things that DO work on the boat though!! I’ll let you know when I find them. Just kidding.
Fortunately, there is a company on the marina grounds called Island Dreams Yacht Services (www.islandreamsgrenada.com) who can fix all of our problems…I mean projects…ahem. Unfortunately, Grenada is a small island and, well, there isn’t a single accumulator pump on the island. It wouldn’t be surprising to find that many of the other parts we need have to be shipped from somewhere else as well which may take a while. I’ve heard stories of things being shipped to Grenada, Spain instead of here and of other things going to Wisconsin (WI) instead of the West Indies (WI). So, we had only been planning to stay at the dock for six days but now we are waiting for parts which will likely take an additional week or so. As far as places to be ‘stuck’ go, this one is pretty sweet.
Taken from the Grenada Yacht Club looking back at Port Louis Marina where Trismic is docked.
On our first day on board, Nathan sat up in the fly bridge for a long, long, long time, alone and totally contented. When I went to sit beside him to ask what was on his mind he said, “It feels really good to be home.” We had left our family home over a month before and had been floating, living temporarily with family and then at various hotels in a few cities. He was ready to have a place of his own again, to sleep in his own bed and at that moment, I knew he approved of our new home. On our first night sleeping on board, after the sun went down and everything was dark and new, the kids got a bit apprehensive. Millie was afraid of just about everything (sinking, tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, you name it). Nathan commented that he liked the boat a lot better during daylight. Since that first night, though, Nathan has been in his element, always finding fish and is loving any responsibility we throw his way. Millie, well, she is a character and since it is usually just the four of us, she feels comfortable enough to just let loose. The day we moved on board, Neil let the kids know that from that moment henceforth, he kids were to reply to his requests with an “Aye aye captain!”. Millie, knowing her Dad was being silly, came up with her own response which was, “AYE aye AYE aye AYE captain!!” I don’t know where she comes up with these things but she sure keeps us entertained.
Nathan peeking down at me through a hatch. His face says it all.
On another note, I met my first ‘Live Aboard Mom’ yesterday!! She is an American who has been traveling the Caribbean with her husband and two kids for the past two years. Oh the wisdom she must have!! I swear the whole time we were talking I was just gazing at her starry eyed. How had she done it? What were the biggest challenges? How did she home school? Did she take summer holidays? Did she feel safe most of the time? How many band-aids, stitches, slings, antibiotics, etc. did she have to administer? The questions were racing but I kept my cool and held up my end of the conversation…I think. If she steers clear of me the next time she sees me, I’ll know why.
The one Golden Nugget I got from my first Live Aboard Mom (LAM) thought, was about a cruiser’s itinerary. It is the answer to a question I have had a hard time asking and one that everyone asks when they find out we are going sailing for two years which is, “What is your itinerary?”. Thanks to my fellow LAM, I now have an answer…
“A cruiser’s itinerary
is written in sand,
on a rising tide.”
I am ready to embrace this laid back lifestyle. To all those who would like to join us somewhere along the way, you’re going to love it.
Meanwhile, back at the boat, here is what happens with zero screen time…
We went to the Miami Seaquarium. The first thing we did was train a dolphin. The trainer told us how to do it.
This is an orca. Some people call it a killer whale. It was a breaching whale. He got me drenched.
This is me after I got splashed…
and I kind of liked it but I kind of didn’t because I had to wear those clothes but it was fun getting splashed. And also the second time I hid behind Daddy and I did not get wet but Daddy did. Tee…hee…hee.
After more than three years of planning and a year of executing and three months of solid cramming, we have finally managed to fit all of our belongings for the next two years into just eight small suitcases (each weighing exactly 49lbs). It seemed like a monumental task at the time but after three weeks of living out of those suitcases, I think we probably could have condensed the eight into three or four. It is amazing how little one really “needs”. I truly admire the people (Katie Jacobson-Lang) who do round-the-world trips for months or years at a time with only what will fit on their back. Kudos.
In the parking lot if the Victoria Airport with our eight suitcases…okay, and five carry-ons and a car seat but who is counting?.
Anyway, this was so exciting. We were finally done and the moment had finally come to leave the house for the last time. So, every time I leave the house, I go through the usual checklist which goes something like this – “Got my phone, got my wallet, got my keys”. It is just habit. This last time, as we left the house for the airport, my checklist went something like this…”Got my phone…wait a minute, my phone plan is cancelled, the phone no longer works. Okay…hmmm…got my keys. Wait, what keys? Keys for the house? No, I don’t have a house, or an apartment or condo or any other dwelling that would require a key – huh. Car keys? No, don’t have one of those either. No house, no car, no phone…okay, I guess I’m ready!!”. I had to chuckle at how liberating and, at the same time, how scary that felt.
The kids were fantastic through it all and took everything in stride. It all seemed to be fairly normal to them because really, they are far too young to know that not all, or even many, nine and six year olds go live on a boat for two years. They do recognize that it is pretty special,though, which is evident when people ask us where we are travelling and they proudly announce that they are going to Grenada to live on a boat for two years. They seem to get a kick out of people’s reactions which is anywhere from, “Of course you are!!” to “You’re what?!!!” at which point the people look at Neil and I as if to say: “Are they for real?!!” Anyway, these kids were born to travel. See for yourself…
This is Millie after, oh, I don’t know, maybe ten minutes at the Victoria Airport, feeling totally at home…and Nathan at about the same time.Here are Nathan and Millie (and all of the luggage) patiently waiting for our rental car at the Miami Airport at about 5:30am after a red-eye flight and about four hours of sleep. They really are superstars.
Luckily, all of the luggage fit into our rental van and we headed to the hotel for a nice long nap.
Wait, that would have been way too easy, here is the alternate and true ending…
Yes, all of the luggage fit into the van but it was only 8 am and check-in wasn’t for another eight hours!! Well, I don’t know about you but to me, this sounded like the perfect opportunity to grab some dim sum. Aside from the extreme heat, that was pretty straight forward since Neil and I had basically paved the way to our favourite dim sum place the last time we lived in Miami. It was the next part that, if I had written the book, would have gone a little differently.
You see, what better thing to do after travelling for 24 hours on two hours sleep than to take a walk in the close to 100 degree heat along a long boardwalk to a beach with zero shade?!! Well, the kids had fun anyway. Once again they were superstars.
Kid’s first arriving at Miami Beach
Always smiling at the beach
Suffice it to say, that night, for the first time in my life, I slept for fourteen and a half solid hours – no more thinking, no more planning, no more lists. I woke up the next morning thinking that this was the first night of what is sure to be something amazing.
I think Millie summed it up best, though, as we were snuggling next to each other somewhere en route. I asked if she enjoyed the long flight and she looked up at me and said, “Yeah, but we took that airplane ride so we could be free,right?” When I asked her what we would be free from she simply said, “Everything.” I was so moved that such a little person could come up with such a big idea that all I could say was, “Yes, Millie, we took that airplane ride so we can be free.”.
Well, here we are, we’ve hired a manager to take care of our business while we are away and we have sold our home and replaced it with a boat almost 7000 km away. Gasp…this is really happening!
I suppose it shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise. Just months after Neil and I started dating, we were living together on a 50′ Beneteau in Miami Beach with grandiose plans of cruising the Caribbean. For whatever reason, the boat had other plans and we never left the dock (at least not on our boat). Our next vacation was chartering a 42′ Jeanneau in the Grenadines. Then, after a princess-like marriage proposal, the very next morning we were up at 5:00am en route to Vancouver to help a friend sail his boat back to Victoria. The writing was on the wall from the very beginning!! The funny thing is, it wasn’t until a couple of days ago while I was flipping through past sailing photos that I put it all together – it was just a matter of time.
Sailing Trismic 