We made it. We arrived in Brunswick December 28th at 0200. We were beat, had a decent sleep then welcomed friends from South Dakota aboard at 1100. We have been here a week and a day, now, it feels like longer and I want to get out of the marina. The boat work continues and we still need to provision.
I’ve been reading Sailing Totem (veteran sailors that have been cruising with their kids for over 10 years) posts on provisioning and feeling a little less anxious. She really tries to buy fresh food where they are, but takes into account the high cost of destinations. The Bahamas are a high cost destination. All produce is imported, as well as everything else. Since the thought of doing without “fresh” produce almost consumes me, this has been a good blog to be reading.
Ok~ enough~ what have we been doing?
Getting “stuff” put away, organizing, changing our minds and reorganizing, Mike has gotten the solar up and wired, but now finds that our old panels from Summer Breeze are working marvelously, while the 4 new panels are barely working at all. He has fixed a leak in our hanging locker and gotten the dingy outboard running smoothly. I got the safety net put up and feel like it looks pretty good (I was skeptical). Have bagged up dog food and made a few decisions on how to stow that (huge endeavor with 2 large dogs on board), made lists and more lists.
Matthew has made 2 friends, Max is 15, Wyatt is 9. The younger one and Matthew seem to have really hit it off. We hope to see this family in the Bahamas later. Based on the current outlook, they could be behind us a couple weeks.
So, what’s left to do? The lists is as follows:
-fix the diesel leaks, there are 2
-finish the solar
-install the refinished handrail on the aft deck
-put trim pieces on the kitchen sink counter
-provision
-replace boom lift block
-Replace the traveler block
-jerry can boards
-install closet shelves
-investigate DC power for the fridge
-install a pvc pipe to house the small propane bottles for the grill
Still a list…. granted several of these can be sorted in a day, but the big items have taken over and demanded more time than expected. Add to this that I have had a cold and have now shared it with my Dad and maybe Mike this has slowed us down somewhat. Matthew has not succumbed and has kept busy with his video games and toys when not working on school work. We have taken the kayaks out some and he has fished off the dock with Max and we went down to the Yacht Club on New Years Eve. We aren’t the social butterflies most cruisers are, so the New Years Eve celebrations were fun, for about an hour, then we went home and played Phase 10. I’m sure we will make more trips to the club events before we leave. They have an exercise class most mornings at 0900. I’d like to take part in that, but can’t seem to get myself moving with this cold to be in public by that time. Yesterday, after we finished up school in the library in the club house, I visited with a gentleman about the benefits and draw backs to homeschooling and how well (or not) homeschooled kids do as adults. He shared some statistics I hadn’t known. It was an insightful conversation. I appreciate meeting these people from so many walks of life, their views and experiences are always interesting. I also had a great homeschooling conversation with Wyatt’s mom. She is using a curriculum we considered (ABEKA) and loves it. I’m storing all this information for when we make curriculum decisions next year.
Right~ so, while I am getting whiny about sitting here not sailing, we are networking and making friends and learning from other sailors. We have made acquaintance with 2 separate people because of the dogs, alone. Weimaraners stand out and draw attention. Something we have learned with the dogs on board, is that not all stowage areas are dog proof…… Hard lesson learned.
So~ until next time~
Slainte’
SV Voyager/The Preys Project 