Monthly Archives: August 2014

Liebster Award… We’d Like to Thank YOU

Posted on by

Little Cunning Plan was recently nominated for the Liebster Award for bloggers by bloggers. Will this make us rich and famous? Probably not. Does this mean that ‘we’ve arrived’? Well, I don’t know but it kind of feels that way. It is a very nice way to be recognized for our efforts and to connect with other bloggers and we’d like to give a shout out to Mark and Cindy aboard S/V Creampuff for nominating us. Thanks, you guys on the beautiful Amel sailboat!

Liebster-Award-featured-384x288-300x225

Cindy has described this as a kind of chain letter, like we used to send back in the day. I refuse to say how long ago that ‘day’ was but the idea is sound. Bloggers nominate other bloggers whose work they enjoy, then give them a list of questions to answer. Then nominated bloggers get to tag other bloggers and so it goes. In the end we will have woven a huge network of bloggers who know each other, at least in virtual space. It makes for a long post, but still, pretty cool!

So here are the questions they asked of us and our answers.

1.  Meet the crew. Who are you? Each share something about the other (not on the blog).

Melissa: Ooohhh. We have to talk about each other on the blog! Mike is the smartest man I know and that makes him dead sexy. He has an unlimited amount of space in his brain for information that lies dormant until the day it is needed when it pops seemingly out of nowhere. I have been in awe of that for 33 years. Sometimes I am amazed that Mike is a sailor. He is from land bound Tennessee and had never been on a sailboat in his life until 11 years ago.

Michael: Geez. No pressure, Boyte. This is probably obvious to Little Cunning Plan regulars but Melissa has an emotional awareness that can be a little intimidating to most people (including me) and it is what makes our blog so readable. I guess being a therapist for 25 years will do that.

Mike in the cockpit of Moonrise.

2.  What advice would you give to a wannabe traveler just starting out?

Melissa: Don’t look at the big picture too much. Just look at ‘today’ and the future will take care of itself in terms of your learning. Sure, there needs to be some kind of cunning plan, but if you think about all the things you have to learn and do to make it happen, it will be overwhelming.  It always helps me to remember that we are not the first people or the last people to travel by sailboat. If other people can do it, so can we. And so can you.

Michael: Momento Mori. Most of us struggle with beginning anything approaching epic because it feels like life is constantly getting in the way.  But remember, you don’t have a lot of time on  this earth. None of us do. Worrying about how to meet the expectations of a culture that values stuff over experience is for chumps. Disentangling yourself from those expectations is hard but the rewards are immeasurable.

And also, Goethe: Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.  Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

3.  Can you roll your tongue or wiggle the end?

Melissa: I can do both.

Michael: I can hold my tongue; usually.

4.  What is your favorite restaurant in the whole world?

Melissa:   Oh my God, such an unfair question! My first thought is the little taco stand at the beach in La Paz. I love fish tacos. That was the best one I’ve ever had. But maybe it was the view or the sunshine. No, I’m pretty sure that was literally the best fish taco ever.

Michael: My current favorite is the Spice King in Renton, Washington. Right between the Asian Market and the eyebrow threading salon.  Great Indian food.

In the Strait of Juan de Fuca aboard Moonrise.

5. If you sail as a couple, who is really, and I mean really, the captain?

Melissa: Hmm, well I guess that depends on whether the shit is hitting the fan. If that happens it’s going to be Mike, although it will probably take me a minute to realize it. On Moonrise we used to get in each other’s way when something needed to happen fast. That’s because we have years of keeping thoughts inside our heads rather than saying them out loud. We can both be introverted much of the time. (Which is wierd, believe me.) We are also both pretty independent minded. On Moonrise, we used to kind of take turns being the captain.  Whoever was at the wheel was ‘in charge’. The auto pilot changed that. Our whole marriage has been almost Quaker in terms of consensus, which sometimes doesn’t work that well on a boat. Sailing on Galapagos is raising this whole subject to a new level of intensity. We’ve had a couple of lively little ‘discussions’ about communication on board and about expectations. I imagine that will settle down after awhile. So far we haven’t killed each other.

Michael: I am the captain. Heed Me, Wench!

Melissa: As if.

6.  What are your favorite meals to cook while sailing?

Melissa: I make a mean chicken salad that is satisfying and yummy. I serve it with fruit, rice crackers, and perhaps a good cheese. It’s going to be a challenge to stay away from rice/bean/wheat based meals when we do the long trip.

Michael: I really enjoy making a nice breakfast of sausage, eggs and lots of coffee in the morning. Eating a nice hot meal in the cockpit and watching the world come to life is a little slice of heaven.

From the Christening day. Just a sip. The rest was given to the gods of the sea and wind.

7.  Who’s idea was it to buy a boat and how did they convince the other person?

Originally it was Mike’s idea to buy a sailboat. We started sailing because our son got seriously injured when he was 12, and we needed something to help our family focus on healing. Mike’s co-worker was a sailor and he raced his Catalina 27 on Wednesday nights in Commencement Bay. He talked it up quite a bit and Mike got interested. When his friend wanted to sell his boat, he approached Mike. It was almost a done deal before I even knew it was happening. We were completely uneducated about sailboats at that point and never even looked around before buying the Saucy Sue. Mike knew the boat had been cared for, and he would be continuing to work with the guy so if anything came up he’d have someone to consult. I went to see the boat and, all other things being equal, said ‘sure’. We’ve each always encouraged the other in personal endeavors, and this was no different. Mike wanted the boat. That is all. At that point in my life, I was heavily into gardening and it was hard for me to tear myself away from my yard to go to the boat. My how things change!

Andrew in his youth aboard the Saucy Sue. We learn by doing.

Andrew in his youth aboard the Saucy Sue. We learn by doing.

8.  Where is your dream destination?

Melissa: Well, our boat name is Galapagos. Does that give a clue? Also the fjords of Chile. We’d like that, too. One step at a time is our mantra.

Michael: Wherever Melissa is.

9.  Why did you pick sailing as a form of transportation or hobby (over an RV/camper for instance)?

At first, sailing was not chosen as a form of transportation. In fact, even now, I would recommend that people not see it that way. If you can’t enjoy just being on the boat, then don’t buy one because you will simply be frustrated. We chose sailing because we wanted to be on the water to heal the hurt in our souls from our son’s accident. With a small boat like the Catalina, there isn’t much place to go around here if you want to do things like anchor out and you have only a weekend to get away. It takes too long to get anywhere in a small boat like that. So it was all about the sailing, and less about the ‘getting somewhere’ back then. Now, of course, it is both. But there is this thing about being on the water. It gives you some privacy, away from other people. Even though there are thousands of other boats up here, we can usually find a place that is not crowded. We like having a little ‘home’ on the water that we take around with us. I know an RV is like that, too, but we never even considered it. It literally never even crossed our minds. There’s no water under an RV. And other cars want you to go fast. No thanks. Not right now. But maybe later.

10.  Would you please describe your best sailing day ever? (or a link to it)

Melissa: Also a hard question because there have been plenty of amazing sailing days depending on how you define it. Two days come to mind. First, there is a day we had on Moonrise probably 5 or so years ago. We were off the west coast of San Juan Island. We had only the genoa out and were surrounded by Orcas. We sailed up and down that part of the coast, just watching the Orcas feeding.  Other people were watching from commercial whale watching boats, but we were on our own private sailboat. I remember thinking I was probably the luckiest woman alive just then and feeling overwhelmed with gratitude.The second day was one we had recently when bringing Galapagos home. We were in the Strait of Juan de Fuca as the sun was going down. Lucinda Williams was playing in the cockpit, a gentle breeze blew, it was warm, and we had just seen Humpback Whales. The sunset was beautiful. I wanted time to stand still just in that moment.

Michael: I will second Melissa’s nomination of our day bringing Galapagos home. I remember telling her that I was the luckiest man alive to be on that boat at that moment with this woman.

Melissa: And we will close the curtain on that little interlude.

Sunset over Vancouver Island

So now we get to nominate some other blogs for the Liebster Award and this is the hard part.  There are a lot of interesting blogs out there so there had to be a way of narrowing down the field because we get to nominate only 10. At least one of our favorites has already been nominated. Others we like don’t post with regularity or they are very new. Still others we read are already wildly popular, so they are already recognized in the larger blog sphere.  In the end, I chose blogs that we’ve been following regularly, who post frequently, who have been around awhile, and who we think deserve a larger audience. It was harder than I thought because we seriously read a lot of blogs. I hope none of these have already been nominated. Here is our list:

1. Bettie Del Mar
2. Latitude 43
3. Our Life with Ceol Mor
4. The Yoders Afloat
5. The Third Quarter
6. San Juan Sufficiency
7. Nor’Sea 27 Rhapsody
8. The Cynical Sailor & His Salty Sidekick
9. Mid Life Cruising
10. S/V The Red Thread

So if you are on this list your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to create a blog post where you answer the following questions. Then nominate 10 blogs that you enjoy, make up your own questions,  and pass it on. Here are your secret questions meant to make you bare your soul to the world:

1. What is the worst mistake you’ve ever made with your boat?
2. What is your secret fear about living/cruising on a sailboat?
3. What do you like and dislike most about being a blogger?
4. If you could tell a sailboat shopper the most important thing to look for in a boat,  what would it be? Yes, you get to pick only one thing.
5. What thing do other boaters do that irritates you?
6. Journey or Destination?
7. Which sailboat reference book would you recommend someone absolutely have on board? Which sailing adventure book?
8.  What is the most important piece of gear you carry on your person or keep handy in your cockpit?
9. How slow will you go before you turn on your engine?
10.  If money were no object, what boat would you choose?

May the Force be with you as you write up your posts! We look forward to interesting reading in the days ahead. And now…..we prepare for our two weeks on the water! Woo hoo!

Her Mysterious Ways

Posted on by

The boat is a demanding mistress. We’ve been taking a break from working hard on her, preferring to spend weekends sailing. Still, that list of boat chores isn’t getting shorter so we’ve started knocking a few small things out. Doing these kinds of things makes us feel like we’re really in charge around here. Then there’s the whole law of physics about an object at rest tending to stay at rest…well you get it I’m sure. If we totally stop all boat work, we might never get back to it.

All the rest of the photos are dead boring so I'm putting this mermaid here. She graces the salon.

All the rest of the photos are dead boring so I’m putting this mermaid here. I made her a couple of years ago. Now she graces the salon.

One of the little projects we’ve been involved with of late is chasing down small leaks that put water in our clean bilge. This drives me nuts. Our young friends down in Louisiana, Tate and Dani of Sundowner Sails Again, recently posted about their bone dry bilge. Now, to be fair, they have worked their hind ends off getting the bilge to be water free, but that little fact was lost on me as I read their post about dust bunnies in the bilge and felt a white hot rage of envy flood my being. I felt a little temper tantrum coming on motivated purely by petty jealousy. I really want a dry bilge like theirs. But whining won’t make it so. You have to earn it. So it begins. Time to chase down mysterious leaks.

As boats go, Galapagos is really pretty dry. But there are a few little ones here and there that keep me up at night. We had been hearing the bilge pump come on intermittently, and recently another sound had been added to Galapagos’ repertoire: the fresh water pump would come on for no apparent reason. Except there is always a reason. This one turned out to be easy once it was located: vibration had wiggled loose a hose clamp in the aft head and it was steadily dripping water. That was a dead easy fix but don’t get your hopes up about any of the others. This easy fix was created just to lead us on. We already know that game and we refuse to play it.

Another mermaid, because you need something to rest your eyes from these pictures of the engine room.

Locating leaks on Galapagos is not for the faint of heart. Under her sole are cavernous spaces that are dark and dank; medieval catacombs where water drips unseen and collects in small fetid pools. Each time I pull up the sole to look under it I expect to see the mummified remains of ancestors lurking in the corner. I know that rather than face the torture that is our bilge areas, many people would just shrug and wait for the leaks to get worse before bothering with them, not worrying about those little pools and what may be breeding in them.  But it just doesn’t seem right to ignore these seemingly insignificant leaks because who knows what havoc they are creating in the dark of night as I lay sleeping peacefully in the aft cabin, wrapped in a warm cocoon of denial?

 

In Hiram’s engine room, way in the forward recess to the left of the starting battery, there is such a pool of water. I needed to know this water better in order to make it disappear. It is too far to reach back there with my hand so, using a metal probe, I reached back with a paper towel to suck up this water and give it the ‘taste test’.

Way in the back, past the forest of hoses and wires, is a small pool of water.

Yes, that is right. To find a leak you have to know: do we have salt water or fresh water? Fresh water comes from our water tank and hoses, or from rain (this falls from the sky, but not lately). Salt water comes from the sea and is a more serious issue. The only way we know to get this information is to completely trust our immune systems, dip a finger in the water, and place it gently on the tongue. Then rinse vigorously with clean water. It is quite disgusting. Damn. This is salt water collecting quietly in the corner of Hiram’s room. So that means something is weeping somewhere, But where???

We go into Sherlock mode and I began emptying the compartment under the sole by the engine room. It’s filled with hoses of all shapes and sizes and is filthy underneath. I find water standing next to the drain from that compartment; the drain that flows water into the same area of the engine room where no hand can reach. You’d think that we would be getting closer to a solution but not so. We see no way for water to be collecting there, much less salt water. There is only one thru hull anywhere near this area and that thru hull has recently been tended to and is completely dry. Not even a tiny drip of seawater emerges from its freshly greased surfaces. Foiled again.

The adjacent compartment, which I am drying out with a fan. Yes, it’s ugly. No, I am not going to paint it right now. Maybe later. I believe this is number 104 on my list of priorities.

So I leave you with a cliff hanger. I wiped the compartment out, then we left a fan going so it would be really dry, allowing us to see any tiny trickle of water that might enter and give us a clue. Stay tuned for the solution, if we ever find it. Today I am down at the boat and that little compartment is still not dry. No standing water, but I’d think it would be bone dry by now. (You know, it occurs to me that I can ‘work’ on the boat all day long and never accomplish a thing.) We are one for two in the ‘solving of the waterworks mysteries’ department.

The better part of Hiram’s engine room. Water on the floor sort of in the middle of the photo.

There is other unsolved water on the other side of the engine room. We wipe it up, it comes back. This has been going on for months now. We’ve both stared at it for what seems like centuries, pleading for it to give up its secrets, shining lights at angles hoping for a glisten of moisture, running fingers and paper towels along hoses and connectors. I know astute readers see that thru hull in the photo and think ‘Aha!’ but don’t get too excited. This is fresh water and, anyway, that thru hull doesn’t leak a bit. Our staring and shining lights hither and yon turned up no clues. I stuck a few paper towels around to see if we could determine which direction the water was flowing from. Then I tightened all the connections in the fresh water line in that area just because why not? I have nothing to lose.  It’s all we could do. We are now one for three and the water is definitely in the lead. Recall I said this stuff makes us feel like we are really in charge, but I didn’t say we accomplished anything specifically.

In other news, we’ve bought our mistress a few gifts lately.  Mike climbed the mast and gave Galapagos a new wind vane. The old one was frozen to itself and the metal was bonded to the mast, requiring a hack saw to remove it. But Mike made short work of it and now we have a wind vane that actually works. Small pleasures. Damn that’s a tall mast and we’re grateful there are mast steps to help.

Mike bought another little gift for Galapagos this week: a 12 volt battery charger. Boy howdy, we were excited about that! It matches his new little hand held vacuum for his man cave, and also will charge the flashlight and drill. This will be so useful when we are at anchor and he wants to whip out a boat project or two rather than relax. An inverter would not come amiss at this point.

Mike is so excited about this 12 volt charger and vacuum for the man cave.

Mike is so excited about this 12 volt charger and vacuum for the man cave.

The new stuff is by way of preparing for a 2 week cruise up north. We plan to leave next weekend, all other things being equal. Our plans are flexible because we don’t want to overtax the exhaust system, which is still holding. And as an aside, if you are looking for a second career, please consider being a diesel mechanic since they are always completely booked up and have no time for small things like exhaust systems. Mike will be emailing a photo to Broomfield’s in Ballard. If we can get anyone there interested in this we may take a couple of days from our busy vacation schedule to have them take a look at our exhaust system.

So we’ll be heading north. If you are up Seattle way keep a lookout for a big blue boat and give us a shout.

 

 

 

Travel Ninja

Posted on by

What are parents to do when their adult children decide that working 9-5 for someone else isn’t the way they want to spend the best years of their lives and the traveling thing is the right thing for them; eschewing all previous conventions and throwing caution to the wind? Especially what are parents who are currently planning their own grand adventure and wishing they had known they could have done this years ago, possibly taking the kids with them, supposed to do? (Did you follow that?)

There are lots of blogs written by young people who have made a life out of traveling and becoming world citizens. Here’s one, and here’s another one and even another one and if you are so inclined you, too, can do the Google and find more blogs that will claim to teach you how to be a travel ninja.  Some travel on sailboats, some travel on land. And probably all of them had parents who had minor melt downs when they decided to take the plunge. WhhhAAATTT? You aren’t going to have some sort of ‘stable’ career in a system that will treat you like a number and steal your youth out the top of your head? Are you crazy? We ARE those parents. So instead of wringing our hands in despair because our oldest child, Claire, has embraced the traveling lifestyle rather than a boring desk job in some soul-sucking environment we decided to throw her a party instead. Complete with pony show.

This is not a new decision Claire has made. Oh no. She got the travel bug early when she studied and traveled in France. That was her first trip. Then there was the additional trip to France where she got certified in Business French and then stuck around for a few more months. She’s good with languages. Then she graduated from college and ‘real life’ settled on her like a curse. With it came the crushing realization that traveling was either for the independently wealthy or for some lucky people who found jobs that allowed their creativity to flow as they traveled. She went to work for Nordstrom as a personal shopper. It’s not as fun as it sounds. Oh, she could tell you stories…

Enter the ‘head hunter’ and a job for an insurance agency in Tacoma. Let the soul sucking begin. On a vacation for two weeks, she went to Ireland and fell in love with traveling again, coming back with many stories about people she had met, places she had seen, castles she had explored. We hope she kept notes because she is a good writer and some day she will need them. Memories fade.

Claire sees pony and knows it is really happening for the first time.

Not moving up fast enough in that agency, she landed “THE JOB” in Seattle and moved from sleepy Tacoma and her little Victorian house apartment to the big city and a beautiful apartment overlooking Elliot Bay. She had ‘arrived’.  She worked her ASS off. But time was passing and her best hours and years were being given over to someone else; someone for whom she was simply an employee. The good money she made wasn’t enough. She took a vacation to Scotland and came back a changed woman. That’s when the planning began. Money began being saved. Designer clothes were left on the racks at Nordstrom. Dreams began to be plotted. Then a one way ticket to Edinburgh was bought.

Claire’s apartment building in Seattle. The trappings of success.

She let her apartment go, had a huge garage sale and sold almost everything she owned. She moved home with us, back in Tacoma, where she could save more money. She stockpiled travel ninja skills, left the job-of-death,  and then took off for Scotland. That was last December. Alas, post-911 no one wants people from other countries staying too long, so she had to leave Edinburgh behind for awhile, but she already has her return ticket.

To welcome Claire home, we had a gathering at our home and invited her good friends from Seattle and beyond. It was a dandy group and made me look forward to the days when we will be able to entertain people from all walks of life in our own cockpit on Galapagos. And yes, there was a pony, too, because our family has a running joke when either of the kids are off traveling. The joke is that we bought a pony while they were gone and everyone is having fun with it except them. It’s one of those ‘inside’ jokes that mean ‘we miss you, but we’re having fun with our lives, too’. But when planning this shindig, I thought it would be brilliant to have a pony show up at the party for snuggles and photo ops. Fortunately, Andrew’s girlfriend, Jill, has ‘connections’ in the horse and pony world. And so it came to pass that a cute pony named ‘Norm’ made a grande entrance in our backyard just as the festivities were getting started. A good time was had by all and Claire  was completely surprised in the best possible way!

It was like a Pier One advertisement.

It was like a Pier One advertisement.

So now that the party is over she has to replenish her ‘cruising kitty’.  Just like cruisers who have to stop and replenish their bank accounts, no matter how cunning a ninja you are, traveling takes some money.  So, aside from skyping the main squeeze boyfriend back in Edinburgh (who will be coming to visit us in September!) she will be spending considerable time and energy figuring out how to find temporary jobs, or creating a way to keep this gig going. She would like to find some kind of employment that would allow her to work virtually. College educated, excellent customer service skills, great people skills, National Merit Scholar; quick learner and that internalized sense of responsibility that most employers wish they could find, we take the leap of faith with her that the world will offer up a way for her to follow her heart. How can we do any less? I mean, that’s what we’ve been teaching our kids all along. So it better work! Come on Universe! We’re counting on you!