Now that I have that out of my system...

We're cleaning up the inside of Epiphany today. I did laundry too. Miles cleaned out and organized the drawers and I bought paper plates, bowls, and plastic utensils to avoid doing dishes. I really need to get a windsock for the fore deck hatch and a canopy to lay across the boom. We aren't facing E/W so I don't get the wonderful breeze we had last time we were here. It gets so stuffy in here. I put a fan in the cockpit near the main hatch and have it blowing in for some simulated breeze. Tonight we are going to a concert to hear the 1812 overture. I need to remember to pack snacks.

One of the joys of living out here is watching all the people sailing in and out, try to dock and attempt to teach their friends how to cast off. I saw a lady nearly fall in the water trying to jump from the dock onto a moving boat. It was slightly hilarious... but not as much as the guy that killed the engine before raising the sails and drifted into the back of a few boats. I couldn't help but laugh.

I've noticed that when I talk to people about living aboard there tend to be varying degrees of opinions.

Some people love the idea, dream of it as a lifestyle and wish like mad they could do it too.  They ask questions out the wazu and some get rather silly with them. "Where do you use the bathroom?" or my favorite "Where do you sleep? Like, on the deck or something?"

There are those who live aboard and think it is great.
Some actually have central heat and air, hot water, dishwashers, washers and dryers and couldn't imagine how anyone lived without them. 
They usually gawk at our "very small" boat and refuse to live on anything smaller than a 45 footer.

A few only did it because they HAD to. One lady talked about having to row to shore all the time and how horrible it was to live aboard. I thought her perspective was interesting. She said the kitchen was too small to cook so they ate out all the time.

There are the people that wouldn't even think of living on a boat with kids, much less living on a boat at all.

There are the people that wouldn't think of living on a boat at all, much less with kids. One lady compared it to child abuse and said I was horrible for forcing my children to live such awful lives. She also hates grass, sand, children that run, walk, breath too loudly, blink too often, or are within 1000 feet of her. So I didn't really pay much attention to her. But some actually have honest concerns about boat living. Like, is it harder to make a meal on board? No, not really.

Anyway, I wanted to hear your concerns. You can post them in the comments section which will come straight to my email. I am going to start a FAQ and a LFAQ (less Frequently asked) label on the blog. Eventually I will work out these labels and get them organized too. 

Until then, ask me questions on what you want to know about living aboard or whatever.

Til then,
Happy sailing!
Dotchi

"B" Skipper

I am now a "B" Skipper! I passed my sailing class! WOOHOO! The written test was VERY hard! I need to work on trimming my sails too. But I am a "B" Skipper now! WOOHOO!

Splenda

I cut all splenda out of my diet. My memory is coming back now. I feel better too. My life isn't lived in the "here and now" and everything else is "yesterday". I can actually tell that there is time and it is passing. I don't sit there at night going "What did I do today? Where did today go? What happened?" I actually feel like I am living through a day again. I swayer I thought I was getting alzheimers disease or something. It was that bad. At times I would be driving and totally forget where I was, what road I was on, where I was going, why I was there. It's downright terrifying. It's like living a nightmare. And the best part... my joint pains have stopped. Not completely, but it doesn't feel like my joints are breaking. It doesn't feel like my bones are cracking when I walk. My gut doesn't feel like it's crawling off without me and backaches are going away. I feel alive again! No more splenda for me!!!

Live aboard waiting list

And now onto something fun... we're about 8 from the top of the live aboard slip list at one marina and the other will be opening up soon! We're so excited! It's getting close!!! I can't wait until we are living aboard ALL the time!

Mail Call! Tight living quarters question

That looks like a pretty closed in area. I hope you all have enough room.

It isn't that bad! Our Monday - Thursday RV is smaller (pictures later today!) but the main thing is to get rid of what you REALLY do NOT need. And you figure that out quickly. I found I don't need 50 outfits. I do need clothes.

I found I could get rid of a lot of clothes... I have:

- three pairs of pants (grungy, cool and nice)
- a pair of dressy black pants (for something other than grungy, cool pr nice)
- 3 tank tops
- 3 pair of shorts
- 3 skirts
- 5 pair of shoes (flip flops, dressy, walking, boat and grungy)
- 2 bras
- 2 pajamas. Actually, they aren't REALLY pajamas, they are 2 "something to sleep in".
- A light wind breaker and a heavier jacket. The jacket is going to storage right now.
- AND 3 over shirts. 1 I throw on for cleaning. 1 has long sleeves for when the windbreaker is too much and the other I keep with me when I am wearing a tank top in case I need something a little nicer to go in somewhere while I am out and about.

Really I could do with fewer shoes, but I tend to over kill with shoes anyway. I mostly wear flip flops or walk barefoot (despite all the warnings about splinters and glass)

In the kitchen I got rid of a LOT of dishes. I didn't need 4 drawers of utensils ready to take over the kitchen. I didn't need fifty kajillion tupperware containers (with or without lids), 9 styles of spatula, how ever many pots I had in various shapes and sizes or enough complete dinner plate/ saucer/ bowl sets that would have left some left over if I served the entire US ARMY 3 meals a day. I really had too much!

I DO need:

- enough cups for each person (4) plus a couple spares in case we have guests. (plastic cups work for that)
- enough dinner plates for each person plus a pack of paper plates for guests.
- A large skillet and a small skillet.
- A spatula
- A FEW serving utensils.
- 1 fork, 1 knife, 1 spoon for each person plus a box of plastic utensils for guests.
- 1 serving platter (for large meats)
- a coffee percalator
- 2 pots

So you see. I managed to trim down everything to what we NEEDED. Not all the bells and whistles. If I need to cut food, I get a knife and cutting board. I no longer reach for the heafty duty uber food chopper, the blades, the top, the sliding piece, the measure top pusher downer thingy and all the other stuff. I just cut it myself... except for onions. I don't like cutting onions. I do have a SMALL food processor/ blend in a cup thing that I use for onions. I guess I could get really lazy and buy them already chopped, but what's the fun of that?

In the bedroom (Vee-berth), we trimmed down also. Instead of ten blankets in various sizes and thicknesses, we have 2 sleeping bags and a sheet. Instead of 5 pillows each, we have 2 per person. Instead of a box of hobbies I'll never finish, I have put them in storage or tossed them. I only keep what I am ACTIVELY working on (that would be nothing) and leave the rest out.

It doesn't take a lot to get sized down. But it DOES take a lot a learning. Half the stuff I brought on the boat, came right back off. When you have to sleep with your possessions, you learn FAST what is most important.

And it's not THAT cramped. We each have our own sleeping space. The boys have their own berth and we have ours. Plus there is the ENTIRE upper deck if we get sick of each other... or just get sick. I am NOT cleaning THAT off the lower decks!

Until next time

Four New Pictures!

Here is a picture of the galley side of the boat and one of the sailors. And that is all the pictures I am loading for today. So enjoy! I'll try to get the camera and USB cord together in one spot soon so I can upload more current photos.

This is a picture of inside the Vee-berth looking out into the main cabin. Excuse the mess, this is the day we moved in.

Here is a picture of the marina at night. WOW! You can't see our boat in this picture though. I had walked up to the shore (on the dock) and took this picture.

Sing with me!

Row Row Row the dinghy
Row it to the shore!
No you can not beat the kids
For what you've done before!

Well, this morning the boys had to go potty. Miles ran up the dock to the marina bathrooms and came back, then Lil Mendel went up the dock.

Sidenote: Now the dock we are tied to is at a military base so we have a gate that locks. If you don't have a key, you can't get in or out of the dock. It's security issues y'know.

SO, Mendel runs off to the bathroom with my ONLY set of keys that were with us. I made coffee, checked emails, got dressed... then it dawned on me, where is he? So I peep out and see him standing at the gate staring down to the boat. I already knew. I walked up the dock and he sniffled "I locked the keys in the bathroom." So Miles and I went to blow up the dinghy so we could row to the second dock and get some attention. The pump broke and Miles started blowing it up by mouth. I wasn't waiting all day! So I walked back to the boat and got my ID and drivers license, a pad of paper and a pencil.

On one side I wrote:

My son has locked the keys in the bathroom. I would sign out a key but, I am locked on the other side of the gate. Could you please give him a key to get the keys out of the bathroom with. I promise to bring it back and you can keep my license as collatoral. Thanks...

Then I left our slip # and my cell phone #.

On the back I wrote:

Base Police,

Please read the front. Then take him to the Sailing Center. Thank you.

He came back with the keys (both sets) and we all walked back to the Sailing Center. Turns out this isn't the first time. Many people do this, even the dock cleaning crew. LMAO. At least we aren't the only one's. But I had the cell phone with me when I did it. I just called him and asked him to come to the bathrooms and let me in :)

Ah, the life of a wharf rat!

I hate spring cleaning

With spring just around the corner, this is the time of year that I do spring cleaning. In the house, I would start and work my way through in an unorganized way. Clean my room, get everything out that doesn't belong and hid it somewhere else if I just COULDN'T bare to part with it. Then I worked my way through the house shoving everything back into the bedroom little by little until the rest of the house was spotless and the master bedroom was impassable. It worked. I never moved since 1999 so I never really had a reason to get rid of stuff before we moved to California.

But now that we are here, we learned our lesson and we are weeding out our stuff. Living between the yacht and the RV, I realized that I need less stuff. We learned our lesson! We only have enough stuff to fill the boat and RV now... and 2 storage units... and the back of the van... and half my mother in law's garage. But we're getting it!

Well, today I started Spring Cleaning today! This weekend is the yacht and this week will be the RV. Next weekend I'll finish the Yacht... I think the name will be Precious. I hated spring cleaning before, but I REALLY hate it now!

The boat moves! So let me draw a picture for you. Imagine you are sleeping on a bed that is shaped like a V and under underneath the bed are doors that open into empty space. In that empty space is where you store all your stuff. These are called lockers. Now imagine me opening the lockers to clean them out. No, don't imagine the nervous breakdown. Let's pretend everything goes smoothly... I get to the bottom of the locker. This is the point where I have practically have to crawl in headfirst to reach the last of the stuff that has fallen out of whatever container it was in. Of course, this is the point where a large ships comes by and the yacht shifts quickly and violently side to side. Now imagine the echo's I hear when I start screaming and cussing b/c I've managed to hit my head not once... not twice... but THREE times. Once when the boat went sideways and I lost balance and slipped into the locker (or at least my top half), once when I jumped back to right myself and one more time when I took my head out and forgot how low the overhead really is at that end of the Veeberth. I now have 3 good cases of "boat bite" and a legit reason to not like spring cleaning!

I can honestly say I hate it! The RV should go easier. I am getting better at throwing stuff away though. And I don't have too many more places left that I can shove stuff into and ignore it all b/c I REALLY NEED all the space I have now.

I'll update you all later if I manage not to knock myself into a coma whilst cleaning the wet locker.

Dotchi (the achy)