House Preparation

Today finds us working around the house, as usual. We are finishing up the baseboards and door casings, along with touch-up painting. Plans for the addition are almost done and we will submit them after energy calcs are completed. If all goes well, it should be a quick turn-around so we can begin construction in a few weeks.

The kids are off playing outside with the neighborhood kids and if I can just keep Sunshine, our golden retriever, away from the wet paint, all will be well. Although, fur does add a little texture to the walls (just kidding). =)
Here she is earlier this morning helping me out at Home Depot.



We are going to have a gigantic yard sale in a couple of weeks and clear everything out of storage. What we want to keep will go to our storage container on my parent's property. Anything not sold will be donated. We have been filling the garbage can each week with items that can't be sold. I still can't believe how much stuff we have, after moving last year. I thought we had really pared down our belongings then!

There is still a lot of sorting to do before now and then.

~Stef

Painting                             Adding trim pieces              Jared hard at work


**I have aligned these photos several times and each time I "update" they revert back to the old position. Added to the to-do list: learn more about blogging and format.**

Taking Precautions

Jared and I have read a lot of books on sailing, blogs about sailing, and hit up our yacht club members and our race crew on The Soggy Dollar (our Erickson 9ll). There are so many stories out there of incidents occurring while on passage, far away from land and immediate medical help. While we will have the ability to make contact with our doctors back on land, we feel we need to do a bit more preparation in this area. OK, a lot more!

There are so many variables out at sea, that we feel we need to do all we can to be prepared for the worst. This morning, we finally began the search for EMT level medical training. This includes refreshing the basics to moderate procedures such as stitching up a wound or administering fluids via an IV. Our medical kit is going to be huge.

Volunteering for a local Search and Rescue provided some experience, however, this was back when we lived in the Motherlode region and it has been a few years... We both are signing up for the Wilderness First Responder training to take this summer. The kids will all take a basic first aid course. The school district I teach for provides training over the summer in the areas of basic first aid and CPR. Those courses will also go on our summer list.

~Stef

The Plan

As sailors know to be true, plans are written in the sand at low tide. They can change at any time! Here is our general plan so far:


Year 1:
Purchase boat in Europe
Sail the Med / explore Europe
Atlantic passage to Bermuda, Bahamas, then on to the BVI.

Year 2:
Sail to Panama to transit the Canal
Galapagos Islands
French Polynesia / South Pacific
New Zealand / Australia
Sell boat and return home (or possibly sail a 3rd year and go North to Hawaii)


This is just an outline; we don't have it down to the month just yet. =)

Here is our world map where the kids have made notations on where they would like to go. Cadence made this whale in Kindergarten and she is holding it up to show that she hopes we see a lot of wildlife on our adventure!

The List (grows by the day):

Land/Home:

Home construction: complete the addition and either list to sell or rent.

Inventory items to keep, sell, donate, or toss.

Sell off all the unnecessary stuff (already in progress--slowly but surely).

Clear out storage unit and begin moving all "keep" items into container and move out of current storage unit: IN PROGRESS MAY 2016-JUNE 2016 (that will save $200 per month).

Setting up all electronics, movies, music, apps downloaded, etc.

Schooling materials, supplies, curriculum, etc.

Computer/electronics set up for work and school

Medical / Emergency Preparedness: 

Register for emergency medical courses (hoping to find one for the kids, as well).

Medical checkups, vaccinations, medicine cabinet supplies. 

Copies of our medical files scanned into computer.

Last ASA sailing course for blue water. 

Register for a severe weather course. 

Kid take a formal sailing class summer of 2016 (the  boys are registered even though they have been learning from us since they were little, C will have to wait until she is older, so for now, she will learn from us).

Sea:

Find our new floating home and refit for our adventure!

Get Captain's license

Completed:

2011: DeLorme gps tracker purchased and in use (we've owned this for a few years, so we either keep using this one or upgrade before we leave). We now can get weather with it, so this is a handy little device!

April 2016 Procure insulated and secure shipping container for storage (already moved to parents' property)

June 2016 Storage unit emptied and account closed!

August 2, 2016: Renew first aid, CPR, and first responder courses.

The family that visits goes sailing!

April 1st, 2016  Family visit!

Visiting family members are usually treated to a visit to one of our favorite beaches and a bonfire. This time, however, it was my mom and sister who came out for the day. This meant that instead of sitting around a bonfire on the beach, we would go for a day sail around the bay.

Mom and Jen arrived a little before lunch, so after packing up some food and drinks, we headed out to the boat. Sea lions posed for my sister's camera and the kids loved showing Grandma and Auntie Jen the ropes on how to sail. While Grandma had been out sailing a few times before, this was Jen's first time. She loved it! Now I know we can definitely count on her as crew in the future for a passage or two!

The day was beautiful and calm (such a difference from yesterday afternoon), yet the wildlife we had seen the day before were not to be found. We did find a lot of crab pot buoys, though. The kids thought it would be fun to practice a "man overboard drill" on one.

Since they had to get on the road in a couple of hours, we soon headed back to the slip. All in all, we got in a good few hours!

Passports!

We have a long, long list of to-do's to cross off before we untie the dock lines and head out on this journey. Passports are at the top of this list. We visited our local Costco and had all of our passport photos taken and printed in under 30 minutes. Not too bad! Next was to get the applications for the kids, along with renewals for mine and Jared's. We made an appointment back in March and couldn't get in until a month later. The guy on the phone mentioned we could go try another nearby town but that they were walk-in only. Not something I wanted to risk doing with kids--the wait could be hours! Since we aren't in a hurry, we were fine with waiting.

We set off one day after school and were in and out of the post office in about an hour. Again, not too shabby considering we had three bored kids to deal with. They occupied their time by asking questions of the lady assisting us and then playing I-Spy until we were walking out of there.
We celebrated crossing off this item on our list by going out to dinner. Hey, baby steps...

About a month later, we all received our passports in the mail.

Passage across the Monterey Bay

March 31st, 2016

We've sailed all over this bay and today we decided to take the kids over to Moss Landing for lunch at Phil's before they closed (MBARI owns the building and are expanding). Phil's is a local hangout and was featured on one of those food network TV shows. We go there because the kids can eat all the fish, crab, and shrimp they want and Phil's offers that all in one place! The prices aren't too bad either, so feeding this family of 5 won't break the budget there.

We started out around 10 am and had the laziest and warmest sail ever. We didn't even have to tack once! Wildlife abounded! Whales and dolphins were all around us! Sea lions darted playfully around the stern. It was a fun and relaxing couple of hours. Matt even took over as skipper! He did a great job. The sail back was quite the opposite, but I'll get to that later.
Cadence blowing the conch shell as we exit Monterey Harbor.




We radioed ahead to inquire about a slip and secured one pretty close to the entrance to the marina. The kids helped to tie up the boat and within a few minutes, we were off on our adventure. The walk to Phil's is about 10 minutes from the marina and there is lots to see on your way. MBARI is on your right with its research vessels and interesting equipment, tourist shops and restaurants, and general dock traffic. We must have had luck on our side, because no sooner had we stepped up to order, a huge line had formed behind us! Talk about timing!

After lunch, we walked over to the beach to let the kids burn off some energy and then headed back along the marina to the boat. By this time, the wind had picked up and we noticed that things would not be as calm a sail as they were earlier.

After exiting the harbor, the swell was on the beam and we were close-hauled. Not a fun ride. It was bumpy and wet! Zach and Cadence went down below and fell asleep--their way of avoiding sea sickness. Matthew hung out with Jared and I huddled under his dad's jacket. He wasn't spooked though and even asked if he could take over the tiller. We decided that it would be better if he just watched how his dad handled things so he could learn. We left Moss Landing around 2:30 pm and arrived back in Monterey Harbor around 4:45pm. While not as enjoyable, it was a good experience for all of us. We've been in larger swells and a few squalls, but this one was just a different angle and altogether a different experience.

Zach and Cadence napping through the rough ride.

Back home safe and sound!

Research: Strictly Sail Pacific April 8, 2016

April 8th, 2016: Strictly Sail Pacific.

Jared and I attended the Strictly Sail Pacific boat show in Richmond, CA.  Our goal was to check out the boat to finalize our boat type. I am all for a catamaran and Jared was still wanting to check out a few mono-hulls to see if I could be persuaded. With 5 of us aboard, I know the space will come in handy. We currently own a Erickson 911 30 foot mono-hull, which is fine for day sailing, however, I know we will need a lot more space when it comes time for cruising.

Being a Friday, there wasn't too much of a crowd yet. We scoped out the vendor area and then headed over to the marina after grabbing a quick bite at a local pub. The walk over from the vendor area to the marina was about 5 minutes. There are historical references along the way and "stand in the footsteps" interactive activities. The port of Richmond is located along the city's southern coast and ranks number one in San Francisco's ports. Constructed in the 1980s, the majority of traffic is oil and petroleum products, with imported foreign cars coming in second.

Not all of the boats had made it in time for the show, so there weren't many cats available to check out. There were actually only two. We toured a few mono-hulls in the 50 foot range and then two of the Lagoon 39 and 40 footers.

 

It was a quick stop for us and we are looking forward to the San Diego International boat show in June and then possibly Miami in February 2017.