Moving Aboard

Current Position: 33° 55' 18" N  78° 3' 40" W

Here we are nearly two weeks into our life aboard and I'm just getting around to writing about it.  A good friend put a bug in my ear that it was time to write.  Good to know someone is listening to me ramble.  Thanks, Mark!

Where to start? We were able to move a one load aboard the night before we took possession easing our move in day as we had to return the rental car that day as well as buying groceries.  The final closing took forever because the prior owner couldn't believe the inspectors found so many things wrong with his beloved boat!  He did admit that he would like to use our inspectors on the next boat he buys as they were so thorough!  He is a dear and has been over a few times to go over systems with us so we learn all the little tricks.  Because of the holidays the repairs and renovations are delayed so we are anxiously waiting to hear back for appointment times to get the work completed. We won't "take her out" until the work on the engines is done so meanwhile...

We have stocked the pantry, tools, dishes, spare parts, new fenders (those bumper thingies that hang on the side of the boat so you don't hit the dock or the boat next to you)...etc.  As we have returned the rental car and are several miles from the nearest store, we are shopping Amazon.  How wonderful to have such a convenience.  I am still amazed at how much room there is to store things. Some of it is in awkward places....but we are on a boat after all!  My "pantry" is in the master stateroom (our bedroom).  Bob's tool chest is under the settee in the saloon (pronounced salon which is our living room/dining room).  He would like to move it to somewhere more accessible but that spot hasn't announced itself yet.  I'm using the forward "head" (bathroom) for some pantry items that I used more frequently than what is in the stateroom as the head is next to the galley (kitchen).  

There are so many new noises to learn.  The nights are much quieter now that Bob figured out how to disable the wind generator.  It will be so handy when we anchor out but is just noisy at the dock.  The water pump, the small waves slapping up against the hull, the smoke alarm that goes off every time I cook bacon, and noises we just don't know what they are.

Every day we learn something new about the boat.  Bob is busy mapping wiring, plumbing, etc. while I'm learning to cook on a tiny stove/oven.  We miss our family and friends so much but are adapting to live aboard and anxious to continue the adventure...

Thanks for listening!

The Wait

Current Position: 33° 56' 13" N  78° 1' 39" W

Please read all the way to the end for the updated news!

A dear friend suggested I write about the difficulties of waiting....
I told her I hesitated because it was so difficult but here goes.  I'm sure you've heard "patience is a virtue".  Boat buying is not for the impatient, I think it's God's way of ensuring we develop patience.  Even our boat broker said he's never seen one move SOOOO slow!  I guess we need lots of education on patience.  The key is to stay busy and trust God with the rest.
We have used the time to:
1. I am updating my recipe files. I have collected "saved" recipes on facebook so I've sorted through them, tossed the more complicated ones that I know I'll never make and saved the possibles into Evernote.  This is my notebook system I am using instead of a pad and paper.  Ideas for anything go into this system.  All my boat measurements are written here, books I want to read, gift ideas....it has been a life saver - and no more little scraps of paper to lose!  I also scanned all my recipes from my recipe files at home so I am organizing those as well.
2. I am also learning more about Photoshop since I will hopefully be posting lots of pictures here.  Bob bought me a new camcorder so I am learning to compile videos too!
3. We are both reading more boat articles and watching You Tube videos on how to....  There is SOOO much to learn.  My favorite site is The Boat Galley. There are articles on nearly every aspect of supplying and maintaining your boat. A lot of my Amazon shopping list originated from her recommendations. Which leads to #4...
4. Build our shopping list on Amazon for things we will need on the boat - it's adding up quickly.  Everything is needed from dishes to tools.  Of course there is always the "need" and "want" lists!  Priorities is always critical to remember.  We did pick up a really nice set of flatware at a local thrift shop for $5 - score!  The hardest part is we can't actually order these until we know for sure the boat is ours.  If this one falls through, we will have to start the search over and the boat we end up with won't necessarily need the same items. 
5. And talk about shopping lists!  You should see the boat yard list of needs and wants for the boat! We will be in conference with the boat yard people next week (if all goes well - har har) deciding what needs to be done, what can wait and what we can do ourselves.
6. Sight Seeing...we haven't done a lot here in North Carolina as there's not a lot around here.  We have seen lots of beautiful homes as I'll post later in the blogpost. 
7. Spending time together. One of the questions we get after "do you know anything about boats?" is "can you stand being around each other 24/7"? I can happily report that we have now spend nearly 3 months solely in each others presence and are still holding hands and loving our time together.  God has blessed us with two different personalities and we realize that these complement each other.  For example: Bob's strengths complement my weakness (planning, organizing) and my strengths complement his weakness (relationships).

So all in all waiting is hard but exciting at the same time.  What ever boat we end up with will be home and we look forward so much to making it that! Here's hoping we'll be on her by Christmas as I already have my wreath for the transom (back of the boat) and a nativity set to stick up in the window!

Here are some the beautiful homes in Southport:

From very small....

....to very LARGE

One the front porch was this adorable baby buggy!

I love the apartment on the bottom floor!  Let the Mother-In-Law worry about flooding?

 The drive through the trees!  I've got to ask what kind they are!

 The favored Christmas wreath in town:

 And on the beach each house has a name:

My favorite - owned by a judge you think?

 For David & Ian

 (Beach Walkers) - sorry the picture wasn't very good.

An older smaller house on the beach.  Most all the beach houses were on stilts for storm damage.

 A newer LARGER house on the beach.

 A beach house wanna be - there is no view from that tall deck!

 The name on this one is D&D Keep - a lighthouse wish!  Perfect for Diane & Dan!

Now for the news update!  The waiting has paid off and we will close on our boat either this afternoon or tomorrow morning!!!  We are moving :)  Thanks for all your prayers.  Watch for my next post: Moving Day!!

Learning about Menhaden

Current Position: 37° 51' 45" N  76° 17' 30" W

Another catch up blogpost from a few weeks ago.

Have you figured out where we were yet?  Still waiting for OUR boat so we decided to take a short trip down the Virginia coast.  We were on what is called the "Northern Neck" of Virginia in a tiny town called Reedville.  We spent the day exploring some civil war battlefields in and around Fredericksburg, and then wine tasting (note the LARGE corkscrew. there were two of these at the entrance to the winery because the city wouldn't let them have a sign larger than small - LOL!) with Mike and Shannon Finnegan - friends we hadn't seen for twenty + years!  They graciously hosted us in their marvelous home that night, took us to church with them in the morning and fed us again before sending us on our way.  We visited the Reedville Fishermen's museum (www.rfmuseum.org) and learned so much about the area and a type of fishing we had never heard of before.  Reedville was and still is home to the fishing industry for Atlantic menhaden, a very small oily fish found in the coastal waters here. They have no teeth! They travel in HUGE schools making it very easy to catch as long as you work fast before the schools break apart. They process it for the fish oil and the remainder of the fish becomes additives for many animal foods due to it's high protein content.  Reedville is a tiny town with beautiful old homes along Cockrell Creek on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay.

We also learned how Soy Beans grow!  We kept seeing huge fields of some plant that had never been harvested.  Shannon told us it was soy beans.  I learned that they use the beans to feed the livestock so they are harvested dry like the corn that is used for feed.  Never too old to learn.  Love it!!

It was a lovely get away weekend.  

Meanwhile - our future boat (where-ever you are) will be named "The Good Life".  Dana Blanchard is the winner.  For those who don't know the show - check out "Good Neighbors" with Felicity Kendall.  A favorite show from the BBC AND a great name for our boat :)  Thanks Dana for wonderful memories.

The Beginning of the USA

Current Position: 42° 5' 48" N  79° 14' 8" W

We are taking a few side adventures as we search for "Our Boat" hence forth to be referred to as "The Good Life".  Credit goes to Dana Blanchard for the name.  Thanks, Dana, for the fond memories that name brings.  As I am writing this we are traveling the east coast looking for her.  

We stopped here for a wonderful day of exploration:

We were amazed to discover the wonderful opportunities to learn about Jamestown and the first settlement in America.  There are actually two sites to explore.  The first one we toured is near the original site and is a living history site with the docents dressed in period costumes.  They are all very knowledgeable on many different aspects of colonial life.  Before we entered the "living history" area we spent nearing 2 hours in the museum area watching videos, reading plaque after plaque and walking through mock ups of buildings. It was all very interesting but was a little overwhelming. 

Outside we toured a partial Powhatan Indian village.  These indians were the tribe that both helped and fought the new colonists.  Their homes were quite permanent - not like the "Teepee's" of the plains Indians. These pictures are the homes of families.  There is evidence of larger structures that had halls and rooms for the their "government". The women built the homes, farmed, and cooked.  The men hunted, fished, and fought.

This young man was greeting all the visitors.  He had just killed and skinned a rattlesnake and was preparing to cook it!

Next we toured one of the boats the first settlers came over in.  This was the route they took.

On this tiny ship - and this was the biggest of the three!!

 This is style of dress of the sailors!

This is the tiller and cannons below deck where part of the crew slept as well as the passengers.  This ship sailed before the Dutch invented the wheel to steer ships by.  The tiller was controlled by a sailor below decks and an officer on the quarter deck shouting instructions down to him. The sailor steering couldn't see outside!

I think I would have liked to be on deck with this view rather than stuffed below.  How it must have STUNK down there! In the single main room about the size of a large living room, 54 passengers slept and lived with their livestock!!

Here are the specifics about the boat - can you imagine what life was like?

Lastly we toured the re-creation of the fort.

The buildings were mostly thatched roofs.  There were no women at first.  One of the docents said to imagine a fire department where the best cook is nominated to cook.  Sounds like they ate a lot of stew.

 What a soldier looked like - he fired his gun for us twice.  Not the quickest thing in the world to fire!

This gentleman was in the weapons storage.  He is wearing a bandolier.  It is comprised of single shot canisters of gunpowder.  In the pouch at his waist was the firing powder and the "slow match".  A length of rope chemically treated to slow it's burning rate.  It lasts about an hour and is used to light the firing powder. Needless to say this young man is a walking powder keg and when the paper cartridge was invented the bandolier was thankfully retired. 

Lastly we went to the actual site of Jamestown.  It has been long believed that the settlement land had been reclaimed by the James River.  Due to the diligence of one man who didn't believe that, the last 23 years have been spent recovering the artifacts that have been buried for the last 400 years.

 This is the barracks where they lived.  The section in the middle was the fireplace.

 Our guide was one of the archeologists on the "dig".  This is a section being excavated currently and she explained how slowly and carefully this 10x10 ft site is explored with just a small trowel and a brush so as not to destroy any artifact.

This is a picture of the excavation where the soil colors show where wood deteriorated.  The wood is gone but the changes in color tell the story.  The large uneven dark area is a cellar that was filled with trash after the cellar was no longer used for its original purpose.  To the left you can see a trench that had been dug to build the walls of the fort.  Within these trenches were found the square shape of each post of the wall.

 Fish was a staple of the indians and settlers diets.  Specifically Sturgeon.  The bottom scale is from a modern day Sturgeon but the top on is the size found in the "garbage cellars" of the dig.  They calculate the fish averaged 600 pounds and were 16 ft long!  During the drought ("the starving time") that nearly killed the entire settlement the Sturgeon couldn't survive in the river due to the high salt content and the settlers didn't have nets small enough to catch the smaller fish! Jamestown nearly didn't survive this drought and had literally packed up and were headed back to England when a supply ship arrived and turned them back to the settlement.

 This is the original shape of the fort.  It was later enlarged to a pentagon shape - the first pentagon :)

Pocahontas has been romanticized a lot but she was a key piece in the development of our country.  After her marriage to John Rolf, a peaceful time developed between the settlers and indians as she was the daughter of the chief.  

More and more is being discovered - some tragic with the discovery that cannibalism existed during the starving time - but most uncovering the true story of our country's beginning in the struggles and successes of our countrymen.

A Mini Adventure (while we wait)

Let's go back in time to before we flew out to the east coast.  We had time on our hands and itchy feet so we took a trip to Canada. We'd never been to Banff or Jasper and heard so many wonderful things about them, so off we went.  I started writing this blog before we left so unexpectedly to the east coast and have been so busy since that it was never finished.  Let me fix that now!

I want to share, I want to share, I want to share…such are my thoughts as I see the wonders God has wrought in this exquisite corner of the world.  The beauty is everywhere you look, from the mountainous rock formations, the colorful trees as they don their fall colors (mostly gold), and the variety of wild life (including homo sapiens!).  I think of family and friends I would love to have here with us, so since you all can’t come, here are some things I know you would enjoy!

Mom (Barb) and Samantha – Flowers galore at the hotels, castles and towns. I didn’t get a lot of pictures but they were beautiful! 

Sammy – there was the cutest bunny on one of our hikes but he hopped away before I got his picture.

Jaimie – I had a wonderful coffee at a local coffee shop.  The barista didn’t look like she was doing anything special when she was pouring in the milk – but look at the results! 
Sorry it’s not a clear picture.

Daddy – There were birds everywhere but always hard to get them to hold still.  Here is a Magpie and something for you to identify.

Mommy – The beauty everywhere, waterfalls, mountains, trees, rivers.  I know you’ve been here before and could feel you with me enjoying it all.

Jacob – Rocks, rocks, and more rocks!  Such interesting formations!

Joey – Future rock climber – this is where your dreams will take you!

Carina, Cassie and Lila –Shopping!  There are so many wonderful stores with local goods.  You would have loved it!

Joni – Thought of you seeing this pool at the hotel.  The original was the oval shape that is now the deck.

Judi and Miriam – the numerous Aspens everywhere!  This must be the Aspen capital of the world!  The golden color is rampant.  We learned the Aspen rarely grows from seed, instead “suckers” grow from the roots – therefore the thick clusters of trees in pockets on all the hillsides. Judi – I know you would have appreciated all the history as well!  Every place we went had the history of how it was developed.  The road we drove on was originally built during the depression by unemployed men.  The Canadian government paid them 20 cents a day!

Janan – Again the Aspen – after our painting party I was constantly looking for just the right view of the Aspen with the sky behind.  I did see several but never at a time we could stop for a picture. This is the best I could do.

Randy – All the wonderful

 people we met along the way made me think of you and your friendly manner you have wherever you go.  They came from all over as a few of these license plates attest to!

David, Ian, Jonathon, Mike – animals everywhere.  Never did see a bear tho.

Christa, April and Elizabeth - The remoteness of some of the areas – once we got away from the Disneyland areas!

Dyllon – I’m so sorry I didn’t get a picture of all the camo up here!  We even saw a custom painted camo truck with matching canoe on top!

Bryan –To my boy on the move, I picture you bicycling with the best of them!

Sara – Dogs are way more accepted up here.  On the Indian reservations they don’t even have leash laws evidently.  Dogs roam free.  We had a very polite one that shared our picnic with us one day.  He sat and kept us company and we rewarded him with some turkey before we left.

The trip was awesome and we enjoyed it so much.  If you go be prepared for crowds and give yourself time.  We were on the move too much to fully enjoy the entire area.

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