Category Archives: Preparing to cruise

One Giant Leap

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Well, the time is here, folks. After years of planning, downsizing, wondering and envisioning, the time arrived this week. We put our house on the short term rental market. I’m writing this post by way of recording what, for us, is the biggest leap of faith we’ve taken. Even bigger than buying Galapagos without having a test sail. Even bigger than getting pregnant. Well, maybe not. But still. It’s big. No, it’s HUGE.

Just want to remember all this.

Just want to remember all this.

Long term readers will know that we have really struggled with the decision about the house. Do we sell? Do we rent long term?  My desire all along was that we somehow find a way to rent this house as a furnished home. That would solve a lot of issues in the short term. We could store things in the attic in a locked space, and if we got ‘out there’ and decided the life isn’t for us (fat chance, I know, but anything can happen) we’d have a place to come home to.

Added to that is the fact that we are 15 years into a 30 year mortgage so we can see the house being paid off someday. It seems like this house should be a good financial investment in the long run, in spite of things like housing bubbles and economic downturns. I have visions of this house providing part of our income, as well as a hedge against our tax burden by continuing to own ‘real’ property. Is it worth it to try to hang on to it at this point? Could my visions become reality? Sometimes I really wish I could foretell the future. But alas, this is where the leaping into faith comes in handy. A certain amount of denial is also helpful.

Really comfy beds. I hope to make the beds on Galapagos comfortable, too.

We feel as though we are in a good position in our location to make this work: close to large military bases where people moving to the area frequently need short term housing that isn’t a hotel. Maybe they have kids and pets. Our house would be perfect for them, and they get a travel allowance that would help them defray the costs of the stay.  We have a good friend who is an experienced property manager and will rent to good people and help protect our investment. The numbers look good on paper and at this point, there is no competition for a rental such as this in our area. Having a good and trusted manager is literally the only way we would even consider doing this.

Other things have fallen into place at the right time. We secured a storage unit with a workshop space at the marina this month. We’d been on the waiting list, crossing fingers that one would become available. My worries about the landscape and gardens have been relieved by my friend Rachel accepting the job of caring for them while I’m away. It’s a win/win because I’ve known Rachel for a long time and she is an excellent gardener. She will also do the housekeeping between guests. This relieves my mind quite a bit because we already know and trust Rachel. She’ll make some extra money, and we’ll be free of worry about those details.

In addition we were able to work with a local insurance agent to update our homeowner’s insurance to reflect this use of the house. Amazingly, we are actually saving hundreds of dollars per year for even better coverage. I was incredulous, but it was true.

Soon the world will be my garden, I hope.

So now the advertisements are in place. Our manager, Edwin, has been talking up this property to all his considerable numbers of contacts in the area. This is the true testing time. So much hinges on it that I cannot yet get excited. No way. We’ve done our part, now the Universe must do its part and get the rental calender on this place filled. We have between now and Spring 2017 to see if this will work. We sit with all of this as though gestating.  Please spit and spin three times, pray, think, focus, imagine, intend, face east, or whatever you do that is meaningful to you to add to the energy of this forward movement of our cunning plan.  We appreciate it!

Will kind of miss that big tub.

 

Ho Ho Hoist the Sail!

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Christmas is coming. For most people, December 25 is a good enough day to celebrate gift giving in whatever form. At our house, Christmas has come early. That’s right, Mike and I already have opened our Christmas present to each other because Santa surprised us early this year. He came to our house from his house in Minnesota. He came in his truck with eight tiny horses under the hood and a truck bed full of spinnaker. Here’s how that happened.

Deploying the spinnaker from the forward berth. A dream come true for this man.

Once upon a time, a long time ago, the previous owner of the boat, with whom we are friends, had in his possession a beautifully made spinnaker. It had been made for our boat by a mystery previous owner (Our boat has had a number of owners.), and came stowed cozily in its magnificent sail bag. The sail was practically new and when times grew hard, he sold the sail to his brother, who sails a boat of similar size in Bellingham. Or rather, he owns a boat of similar size in Bellingham. I understand there isn’t a lot of actual sailing going on.  So when we bought Galapagos, she had not seen this sail for a few years. Like a family heirloom, it had been stored safely away from the light of day, probably in the marine equivalent of the brother’s attic.

We’ve been talking about wanting a light air sail, but, you  know, $$$$. We sure could have used a nice cruising spinnaker this summer when  light airs were all the rage along the coast of Vancouver Island. Little did we know Santa John was listening.

It’s like a large larval organism. Or perhaps a tape worm.

A couple of weeks ago John (the PO) traveled from his home in Minnesota to the Bellingham area. He repossessed this sail from his brother and brought it down to us, offering us a great deal on this excellent sail that has hardly seen the light of day. This thing looks brand new. It has a beautiful sail bag that fits exactly between the rails at the bow, and a sock that makes it dead easy to deploy. We took the sail with the understanding that we’d look it over, deploy it on the boat and then make a decision about whether we wanted to buy it from him. He left it with us and tootled on along his route. Ho ho ho, Mike and Melissa! MEEERRRYY Christmas!spinnaker fitting

When Mike came home and looked at the construction of the sailbag, he began fingering the sail, a glazed look coming over his face. It was the gaze of lust. And this time, I was not the target. This was sail lust. I knew right then Christmas was upon us. This sail would have to be complete crap to avoid becoming stored in our forward berth. And I knew that this sail was not a piece of crap. Visions of our checking account balances danced in my head. Sometimes, you just have to go with a great deal, especially when it would break someone’s heart to pass it up.

This past weekend we had sun and very light wind. We decided we’d tape those hatches, and then for dessert we’d play with this spinnaker and see what it was like before the sun went down.

So if you read our previous post and looked at the photos, you’ll notice who was doing all the work. That’s right. I was. This is because I cut a straighter line than Mike does. I am the tape installer.  So Mike played the role of ‘warm body’ whereby he cleaned the lenses and the hatch frames, readying them for the taping. Needless to say, he got restless and bored. Cleaning the lenses and frames and policing the deck for garbage from the project just wasn’t enough stimulation for his large mammalian brain, and pretty soon I realized that he was no longer looking over my shoulder. Then, I heard the sound of a halyard being surreptitiously raised.

“What the heck do you think you’re doing?”, I asked, hands on hips, knowingly. Yes, knowingly, as the larval sail was already halfway raised.

Caught red handed, he could only look sheepish (and GUILTY)  as I laid out my thoughts on people who started playing with new toys that are mutual property while other people are on hands and knees wielding a sharp cutting wheel and shiny tape. I was dealing with flashbacks of Christmases past whereby Santa left toys meant to be shared with my siblings. Ugh. Bad Santa!

This was NOT the plan. Tape first. Playing with new sail second so we could both enjoy it. And no, I cannot ‘tape faster’. This has to look decent or we’ll both hate it. Simmer down, my friend, simmer down.

I submit to you that this position is much less fun than raising a new sail.

“Put that sail back in the bag, Boyte. You don’t get to see what it looks like and have all the fun while my knees are killing me. What are you thinking? What unmitigated gall!”  Justly chastised, he put the sail back in the bag. Sometimes this guy just kills me with his cuteness over things like new sails. I have to be strong like Badger, even justifiably indignant. Someone has to have some discipline around here.

Having never owned a spinnaker sock, our previous experience with spinnakers has not been exactly delightful. We cruised with our spinnaker on Moonrise on a number of occasions, but it was always a lot of effort to get the sail up correctly and tacking was probably a pretty good show for anyone sailing close by. Raising the spinnaker was one of the occasions on that boat when I might have been heard sighing in acceptance of my fate, secretly asking in my head, “My God. Why can’t we just sit here and go .5 knots and be happy? Maybe there will be whales to watch.”. This spinnaker is much different!

Beautiful! We can’t wait to fly her on the water.

Up went this sail, and we both were delighted not only with how easy it was, but how beautiful it is as well. Wind was only about 2 knots and the sail was filling easily, tugging Galapagos in her slip. Sadly, late fall offers only short days and the sun was already dipping below the buildings in Tacoma.

We’re using red as our trim color for Galapagos and the sail is red and white, just lovely really. We plan to replace the lifelines with soft lines and I’ve been thinking red to match the lettering on the stern. Yeah, I know. I’m already decorating with this sail. Still, nothing like being a pretty boat out on the water and red is such a holiday color. Happy Christmas to us!

Want to see how easy this is to douse?  (Sorry about the sound. A train came just as we were filming. Our marina is very noisy.)  [vsw id=”giSmx7UQ86M” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

We hope we use this sail more than any of the previous owners did. It’s a bit of a mystery where this sail came from, but we’ve been in touch Derek, another previous owner, and he’s never seen it. We think that leaves only the owners who sailed her to Mexico. We’ve contacted North Sails to see if they can look it up by sail number, but no response yet.

It’s a lovely thing, and we have visions of a beautiful downwind sail with it. How that plays out in reality we shall see. What do you think? Will we use this sail? When a piece of equipment this nice practically drops into your lap for literally a small fraction of what you’d pay to have one made, you don’t turn Santa down.

 

Some Accessory ‘Wins’ on Galapagos

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During our month long cruise aboard Galapagos Mike and I paid a lot of attention to how we lived aboard. We noticed things about our habits on board, our routines, what we enjoyed, and what had yet to be settled. We knew that this month away would give us a lot of time to collect data; really get down to some details about how to make Galapagos into the home we want her to be.

Tzartus Island

Tzartus Island

As the time to move aboard begins to get closer, we become increasingly interested in what other people use on their boats. What do they like? What works and what is too much trouble? We’re not talking about things like sail systems or radar here, we’re talking about  day to day living on a floating object. I mean, think about it. Even if you don’t know much about boats, you probably realize that something like my Kitchenaid Mixer is both too large and too power-hungry to be a good choice on a sailboat.   We pay a lot of attention to other people’s blogs for that kind of content.

So I was thrilled when a few weeks before we left  Brittany over at Windtraveler.net blogged about her top ten simple and inexpensive items they use on their boat all the time. Woo hoo! Jackpot! See, Brittany and Scott live on a small sailboat with three tiny tots. (!!) Small sailboat + 3 tiny tots = one busy set of parents where easier is better when it comes to using stuff on a daily basis. I figured if a busy mom thought these things were good, who was I to argue? So I read, I clicked through on some of her links, and I purchased some things on her list.

Here is our own list of ‘wins’ in the accessory category. Thanks, Brittany, for turning us on to some of these.

That’s right. I have wasted most of my life using other, less worthy towels.

1. Turkish Towels – Who knew? These towels really ARE better and I am wondering how come we don’t use these at home? Do not be fooled by how thin the fabric is. They actually are super absorbant and we used them, like Brittany, for so many things. They do dry in a flash, too. Good for wrapping around your body, for shading the overhead window in the hard dodger, and for keeping hot skin from sticking to the surface of the cockpit cushions.

I always try to get the green one. It’s my favorite.

2. Copco To-Go Coffee Mug – Our Thermos brand mugs somehow developed a rounded bottom so I bought a couple of these based on Brittany’s recommendation. I have to say we really do like them. Lightweight, easy to hold onto with their grippy middle, easy to open and close, and they keep the coffee nice and hot in the cockpit. Plus, they do not rattle in the cabinet when we’re sailing.  Pretty good for the price.

After using it for a month, well, pretty disgusting actually. The one on the right is new.

3.  Wet-it! Cleaning Cloths – I had mixed feelings about these. I wanted to try them because when we are at home we use a lot of paper towels and that’s very wasteful. I also use a lot of dishcloths, but on the boat those get stinky and are hard to wash. Needless to say, we won’t be using many paper towels when we are traveling because, I mean, they create trash. These Swedish cleaning cloths were recommended by Brittany, who has those three kids, after all, so they were worth a try.I think she had better luck with hers than I had with ours; or maybe we’re just dirtier than three toddlers. That could be true… I used one the entire month we were gone. The result is as you see in the photo. This was used to clean the counters and the stove in the galley, and to wipe up any food-related spills. The absorption is great, and these dry pretty fast. But they get grungy fast as well and the photo above was taken after soaking this cloth in a bleach solution. I’m not very impressed with that. I’m a little persnickety about wanting things that are clean to actually LOOK clean. Still, it’s on the list because it is a good substitute for wasteful paper towels. Maybe I’ll just hide it underneath the sink where I don’t have to look at it between wipes.

No, I’m not kidding, actually.

4. Sunny Portable Stepper – That’s right, I brought this on the boat. And it’s actually a great little unit. It’s very well made, adjustable, and it is easy to store either underneath the salon table or under the seat in the v-berth. This is one of those things I used several times when stuck on the boat due to rain, or just because we were underway a lot with the engine running. I was determined that I was not going to come home from our last cruise wearing larger clothes and this little unit helped me reach that goal. As a bonus, if you use this underway, you’re going to be giving your core muscles a very nice workout, and you will certainly break a sweat. I find the arm bands to be pretty useless, but maybe I just haven’t found my groove with them yet.

The face of a man at peace.

5. Chillax Hammock – I bought one of these for $14.99 at Costco as an impulse buy for Mike’s birthday. Does he like it? Oh yes, he really does. This is strong, yet light weight and very easy to deploy on the boat. I still have my heavy, cotton hammock that I used on Moonrise, but if Costco gets these again this year, I’m getting another one of these. With our ketch rig, we can have dualing hammocks. They take up no space and would be comfortable to sleep in. I’m thinking we could even hang one of these in the quarter berth cabin to use for sleeping while underway. No problems with heeling when you are hanging in a hammock! The other thing I like about this hammock is that there is enough fabric that you can completely wrap yourself up, as though in a cocoon, which protects from the sun. But the fabric is lightweight enough that air flows through easily. A total win.

Getting a little sun protection.

6. Bodum Milk Frother – As a Pacific Northwest coffee lover, it is my secret shame that I really do like Nescafe instant coffee. Blame it on Scotland. I learned to love it there. Not only that, but I make a latte with my Nescafe every morning using my dandy, cheap and easy Bodum frother. Heat a little milk, froth it into a dense and creamy foam, add your instant coffee granules just on the edge of the cup and gently pour in the hot water directly on top of the granuals, disturbing the top of the foam as little as possible.

Just yummy!

Just yummy!

It’s just about perfect. For my birthday, Mike bought me a really nice stainless steel rechargeable unit. Unfortunately, it’s so powerful that it actually doesn’t make very good foam and I end up splattering milk all over the kitchen. I like my foam to be very dense and hold up for the entire latte experience. On the other hand, the rechargeable unit makes terrific scrambled eggs. I recommend getting rechargeable batteries for your cheaper, easier to use Bodum.

Vegetables lasted at least two weeks stored in these vacuum bags.

7. Food Saver Vacuum Sealer– In terms of provisioning for our trip, this was a spectacular win. Not only is it fun to use, but it really does allow things like fresh vegetables and fruits to last much longer. Before we left, I made sausage and egg breakfast muffins, small meat loafs, and greek spinach and cheese ‘loafs’, vacuum sealed them, and then froze them.  I also bought meat, divided it into servings, and vacuum sealed it in bags to freeze. I did the same thing with produce and stored that in the refrigerator.  We were able to go for a long time without provisioning. In addition, the bags can be washed and re-used, reducing the amount of trash you have to deal with. We plan to use this tool to store and protect small parts, hardware, tools and other things in addition to food. We bought ours at Costco, which has a better price and frequently puts them on sale.  

8. DryCase Basin backpack – I got tired of worrying that my camera or phone, etc, would get wet on the dinghy ride to shore, and I didn’t have a backpack. I wanted a waterproof one. As a member of Women Who Sail on Facebook, I took advantage of a great discount on this backpack when it was first manufactured. It’s turned out to be a great pack. It’s versatile, has pockets on the outside for water bottle, etc, and even has suction cups so you can attach it to your SUP, if you use one of those. I am happy with how it fits, and with the mesh back that keeps the sweat at bay. I also like that it is basically one big open compartment that you can easily stuff things into. Too many little compartments only make me lose things. You can carry a lot of groceries in this pack. I know this well.

Notice the wide, padded straps.

Do you have some favorite little things you find to be useful on your boat? Please tell us about them!

Guess what? This is not out latest post. To see our most recent post, go here. And thanks for reading!