Even God took a break. So I guess we shouldn’t feel too awkward about taking one this weekend. Truly, Mike has trundled down to Astoria every weekend since Christmas to work on getting that new engine installed. It’s the better part of wisdom to take a break before burnout hits rather than waiting for the inevitable crash. This weekend Astoria is having winds of better than 40 knots, we’re waiting for the prop and the shaft to be delivered, and we’ve decided a weekend of hunkering down would not go amiss.

Still, I’ll bet even God, resting on His laurels as He observed all of creation, fidgeted Mightily on that seventh day. I wonder how must actual ‘resting’ He did? I’ll bet His mind was busy working on all the projects left undone. We know how He must have felt. Yesterday Mike came home with this in the back of the truck:

More work.

This is engine room insulation from Sound Down. It’s heavy, it’s expensive, and it’s beautiful. He was going to install it this weekend but somehow he didn’t get the wall fasteners he wanted to use. Because this stuff is so pricey, we want to do it right, including how it’s fastened to the wall. And it’s going to be a two person job, so I need to go down there, too.

I know you’ve all been wondering why I haven’t been going to Astoria, right? I know you lie awake at night perseverating on just how Melissa is getting out of making those long drives and why she doesn’t have to work in freezing temperatures. Two reasons. First, there is nothing I can do to move the engine process along. I mean, I can stand there and cheerlead, but I’m not very good at waving pompoms and my days of jumping high in the air are way over.  I could throw up, which I likely would have felt like doing when this happened:

Nauseated just looking at the photo.

Nope. No thanks. While I did begin to quietly shed a tear or two when Mike texted me the photo of the engine going into the boat, that little pity party was short lived. The fact is that things are going to go better if Mike doesn’t have to stop and explain things to me along the way during this process. This is called ‘trusting my husband to get it right’. It is also called denial. It’s just better if I don’t know some things.

But the real reason why I’ve been reprieved from duty is this:

Guilty of making mom stay home.

Our dog sitter, who is also our daughter, has gone to Scotland. We have a professional dog sitter, too, but she has been booked solid, and we’ve had little luck so far finding a new one. Dog sitters and diesel mechanics. They are both in high demand, I guess. We’ll work it out, but meanwhile, Skippy needs someone at home. He’s not allowed in the boat yard per their rules, and with the boat on the hard, it would be pretty hard to have him there anyway. So it’s been the path of least resistance for me to stay with him.

Ready to take Scotland and the world by storm!

So resting and relaxing it is! Although those 40 knot winds they predicted? They are here. At our house. Moving our big trees around and making things fly through the air. With wind like this, I feel safer on a boat. Better get this posted before we lose power.  [vsw id=”oE1zr88_YX4″ source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

Now that Christmas Day is over, I have time for indulging in a little holiday spirit.   In the build-up to Christmas Day, there is such a flurry of activity that I can’t keep track of things. Even though I work to reduce the number of gifts I buy, the number of social obligations I have, the amount of decorating I do, it doesn’t seem to matter in terms of the amount of stress that registers in my body this time of year. Perhaps I am affected by the hoopla of the general population at large. But I fear it’s more a matter of how that one day requires so much advance planning. And I’m not very good at that.

We enjoyed Zoolights this year with fellow sailors Cherry and Alec Yarrow, and Diane and Ed Elliot. This was completely unplanned, which I loved.

All I know is that I always look forward to this week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. The rush is over, the nights are long and cold, and I do a lot of sleeping and hanging around in my pajamas all day long.  This is the week where I can sit back and appreciate the true spirit of the holiday time of year; a time of reflecting back on the year and on what is ahead and all the changes we have planned; a time of doing nothing in particular.

I appreciate one more year of all of us being together at the family home, because those days are numbered. I am grateful for my warm and inviting home, even though it’s messy just now. It’s the mess of a family being together, so who cares? I look out at my yard and realize that it’s lovely, even in winter. The birds come to the stream and drink, Mike keeps the hummingbird feeders full, and flocks of small birds make our bird feeder their go-to station. My bed is large, warm, and ever ready for napping. I have a big, deep, soaking tub. Life is good and filled with comforts. And these are things I will truly miss when we transition to a cruising lifestyle. I’m trying to fully appreciate them now.

Our Christmas corner this year, with a small tree, and focusing on making pretty wrappings.

This year just underneath the veneer of peaceful reflection there is anticipation of huge changes  and big projects. Our oldest, Claire, is leaving for her own grand adventure on Saturday. She has been planning this trip for almost a year now, and living at home for the last five months to save more money for her trip. She is going to Scotland, the U.K, and beyond to travel for as long as she can. She is going with her future completely wide open, and by herself. I would never have had that kind of courage when I was in my 20’s, or even now, for that matter. We have watched as she sold or gave away almost all of her possessions, all of her beautiful designer clothes, most of her furnishings. Today she is having a party in Seattle to say good bye to her friends.

We are excited for her and terrified at the same time, which I guess is kind of a normal reaction. And we will miss her terribly and likely lose a lot of sleep until we get used to her being gone. Saying goodbye to her will be a small foreshadowing of the goodbyes we will say to others when we set sail on Andromeda. Do I really want to do this? There are some days when I’m not sure at all. But I guess that, too, is normal.

We are also hoping to get the engine installed in Andromeda this week. While that is exciting, I really wish we could not be worried about this project during the week we are helping Claire prepare to leave and trying to appreciate as much time with her as possible. But life does not like such neat and simple solutions to problems. Mike has the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day off so it makes sense to get this done. But we shall see.

Santa brought this gift for Andromeda, for those times when we’d like to use a simpler approach to lighting in the main cabin. Puts out a reasonable amount of heat as well.

Christmas Day was a low key affair, for which I am grateful. Santa brought Andromeda a new hanging lantern for times when we don’t want to rely on battery power to provide light. There is already a place to hang this, and, in fact, older photos of the boat show a lantern like this in the salon. Wonder where that went?

But what rocked the day was a gift from our son of a completely manual espresso maker by Rok Kitchen Tools; complete with a way to foam the milk without using electricity. This tool is the perfect combination of art and function. We are excited to think we will be able to have the luxury of lattes and cappuccinos in remote locations, even if we have to use tinned milk. Plus, it’s made of aircraft grade aluminum and has a 10 year warranty. This thing is built like a tank. We love it and can’t wait to put it to use on the boat. Until then, more research must be done on how to make that most perfect espresso at home! Cheers! And continue to enjoy the season.

Our new Rok Espresso maker. It’s the coolest design ever!

This week I got a wild hair and starting ripping my gardens apart. Yep. It’s that time of year and, tired of feeling completely overwhelmed at the prospect of these gardens, I decided to take advantage of this part of the season and commence to ripping and shredding. The goal: SIMPLIFY!  Once I gave myself permission to simply toss out plants that were no longer serving the space well, things moved along rapidly. I was energized! Man, it does feel good when gardens go from junglefevergonemad to well-groomed in just a few short days. But the body doth protest loudly and I needed a break from all my good work.

See all the space between plants? That didn’t used to be there. Next year this will look awesome.

So it’s a good thing Tacoma’s Maritime Fest was this weekend because it gave us a good reason to get down to the docks, take Moonrise for a little spin, and then eat junk food while gazing at pirate ships. Tacoma always feels a bit like the unwanted stepchild of her bigger, fancier Seattle sister so it’s pretty darned awesome that she is living her own version of the Cinderella story down on the Foss Waterway. There’s a large group of folks who are working to make Tacoma’s maritime history come alive again and bring boat building and appreciation of all things ‘nautical’ back to the collective consciousness in T Town.

The plan was to take Moonrise down to the park at the end of the public dock, anchor there, and row to shore. We could enjoy the festival, then go sailing. But the currents and boat wakes had other plans for us and the holding was terrible. We couldn’t leave Moonrise safely, so the sailing came first. And that gave us the opportunity to sail alongside this:

The Lady Washington

and this:

The Hawaiian Chieftain

There’s nothing quite like sailing a Cal 34 next to a buxom and beautiful Tall Ship to make a girl feel inadequate. Not to mention their cannons. It’s quite a sight to see two ships like this firing at each other across the water, cannons smoking. That’s some good clean fun!

The star of the water, though, is the Sparkman and Stephens sailing yacht SSS Odyssey, sailed by Tacoma’s own Sea Scouts and berthed just across the Foss Waterway from us at the Tacoma Youth Marine Center. We love the beautiful lines of this 90 foot yawl and feel lucky to get to sail on the same home waters. I’ve written a review of this boat and hopefully we’ll see it on Three Sheets NW soon.

By the way, Sea Scouts is a worthy non-profit organization. As the tax year closes, if you have any extra money you could throw their way, they’d appreciate it and you’d get a tax deduction. Donations to support SSS Odyssey’s programs are gratefully accepted through the Tacoma Youth Marine Center. You don’t have to be a rich kid to get to train on a boat like Odyssey. That’s because people donate. Right?

SSS Odyssey. Is it possible for a boat to be any more lovely?

So we had a fine sail with the last of the summer wind, feeling beautiful by association with those bigger, taller, lovelier boats. Then we sailed back to our slip and walked down the water to enjoy the festivities and eat completely unhealthy food.

This year’s festival was organized by our own Sue Schaeffer of Capital City Yachts. Her goals for the year were to bring in more kids and families, offer more classes and educational opportunities, and bring in more exhibits related to the marine trades. Looks like this year’s festival was a success in all three areas. Here are some of the photos from our day at the docks.

A ‘Helicat’.  No, it doesn’t fly. But you can buy one of your very own here. 

No maritime festival is complete without Disneyesque pirates.

One of the vendors sold reclaimed architectural stuff for houses, but I thought this goat would make a good figurehead for the bow of a ship. I wanted that goat bad.

Inside the museum they had an exhibit of recreational boats from past decades. This beauty is from the 1950’s, a fine decade.

And you can read more about this non profit organization here. These folks remind me very much of Tristan Jones, who wanted to show handicapped children that they, too, could do cool things. 

Next year I hope I get to see the ‘quick and dirty’ boat building contest. That does sound like good fun. Here’s one of the boats a team built for the race.

Pretty good for just a few hours, some plywood, and some ‘mystery items’.