Boatschool with a 4th grader and a preschooler

Boatschool with a 4th grader and a preschooler

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This year we are homeschooling or boatschooling Deirdre who is in 4th grade and Osiris who is preschool age. We have been homeschooling since Deirdre was preschool age and have tried various different styles over the years but have primarily been relaxed homeschoolers or unschoolers.
We provide an environment rich in books, games and toys that inspire our kids imagination. They learn from everyday experiences and interactions. We spend a lot of time reading together and visiting libraries. We haven’t had formal lessons though we do sit down together to explore topics that some or all of us find interesting.
This style has worked really well for our kids at their young ages. With no regular or formal lessons Deirdre has learned most if not all of the standards through 3rd grade. She learned to read and reads voraciously. She has learned basic math up to multiplication. She makes up stories, poems, and songs. She enjoys hearing stories from history. She creates art on an almost daily basis and enjoys programming with Scratch and Scratch Jr.
We will continue to learn in this very relaxed style with Osiris for the next few years. We believe free play and self directed learning are the best means for brain growth and developing a love of learning, especially at early elementary ages. So what has changed with Deirdre?
Nothing. I find it very easy to organically interact and incorporate early elementary learning into everyday life. Over the past year or so I have struggled to interact with Deirdre as much as either of us would like (can you say toddler?) I have also struggled to incorporate higher levels of learning into everyday living.
At the end of last year we did an annual evaluation of 3rd grade, as required by local homeschool law. In preparing for the evaluation I could see that our learning typically bounces all over the place but it tends to revolve around certain regular subjects.
I identified 7 subjects; History & Cultures, Writing, Math, Science, Spanish, Art, and Coding. We will continue with these subjects and I think we will introduce Music this year.
To build on the themes we already like in a deeper way we are trying to add a bit more structure and intention to our learning, while still maintaining a playful learning environment.
For this year Deirdre and I sat down and discussed what her goals are related to each subject. She decided she would like to learn about; Europe, writing a fiction story, more math, chemistry experiments, art on her own, and she wants to do more programming with Daddy. Deirdre has no goals for Spanish or Music and so we will mostly explore them at Osiris’ level because she enjoys them.
Based on her goals I have set up a more structured linear way for us to work through the year. We already sit down and have some ‘school time’ after breakfast until about lunch time where we work together. We added this in third grade to try to add more structure to our days.
Building on that existing structure we have decided that we will do Math on Mondays. For Math we will be using Beast Academy Level 3 as our framework and adding games and math picture books that are relevant to each Chapter. When we get through level 3 we will work on Level 4. The Beast Academy guide books are one of the only curriculum’s we purchase. The presentation is fun and engaging and the math is presented in intuitive ways rather than by rote memorization. Even outside of “school” Deirdre and Osiris enjoy reading them for fun.
On Tuesdays we will work on story writing. Since I have learned a lot about story writing myself I have created a year long program for us to work through the stages of creating, writing, and revising a story. To supplement this framework we will use story dice and some pages from the Brain Quest 4th Grade workbook.
On Wednesday we will explore cultures and stories from Europe. We are starting with the United Kingdom because we have some friends who just moved to England. We will use picture books, the Atlas, and an Orboot globe to explore the countries. We read Story of the World and other chapter books from around the world at bedtime. We will watch the Spanish immersion show Salsa by Georgia Public Broadcasting. It is available for free online and provides an early introduction to Spanish with fairy tale characters. We will add Spanish books as they are relevant.
Thursdays are when we will explore Chemistry. This is the subject that has been most difficult for me to get my head around. I considered buying a subscription to Mel Chemistry because it is a monthly box with real Chemistry experiments already to use. It is some pretty serious science which is awesome but it is also expensive and we aren’t sure if Deirdre is ready for that level of learning yet. Right now she says she just likes mixing things to see what happens. So I have done a lot of research online and came across the website thehomeschoolscientist.com she has a page with links to Chemistry experiments at progressing levels of difficulty and so I am using that as our framework for the year. We are going to try to do one of those experiments most weeks (assuming I remember to get the supplies). We also have games like Chemistry Fluxx and Valence Plus to explore some more ideas.
Deirdre has one more goal for the year; that we should go to more fun places this year. We regularly visit the library and the park in the afternoons but this year we are going to add Field Trip Friday. In the morning on Friday we will play games. In the afternoon we will visit local museums, children’s museums, trampoline parks, and indoor playgrounds, or parks.
Hopefully this added structure and planning will help us add more depth to our learning. Our goal is always to make learning fun and meaningful.
These are our goals for the year and we have started to implement them as best we can. Homeschool is awesome because of it’s flexibility. So far this school year we have had: a hurricane, a business trip (we went with Jason) and have been sick for almost 2 weeks twice already…
Luckily even when school gets away from our plan for the year the kids always have a fun and educational environment to play in. They learn so much from self directed play and the planned structure for the year lets us know exactly where to pick up from when we get back to school!
Dorian

Dorian

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There is something about boat life that forces you to slow down no matter how much of a hurry you are in. We often rush along trying to get ready for whatever we have defined as the next thing we need to do only to be slowed down or stopped completely by missing parts, non-existent parts, work obligations, other boat related issues, or weather.

We had a guest on board Rána this week and we had hoped to take her out sailing. We got everything ready. The weather was going to be great, and even the tide was going to be ideal. It seemed like nothing could get in our way. Enter Dorian to slow everything down.

As soon as we heard about Hurricane Dorian we started thinking about how it might affect us here in our little hurricane hole. It is hard to image much damage can happen here since it rarely does. This season has been especially mild on the weather front so it was almost a surprise to see this one sneak up. It shouldn’t have been.

Dorian slowly developed and the possible paths came into focus. At first it was going to be a smaller tropical storm and would barely come near us. Then it worked its way into a much into a larger problem. It slowly creeped up to higher and higher speeds as it became a category 2, then 3, then 4, then it became the largest hurricane to ever hit the Bahamas at a massive category 5. Even though the news made efforts to sensationalize the storm and we typically avoid that sort of thing, it was hard to deny that it was looking very intimidating.

As Dorian crossed through the Atlantic toward our home we watched it hit the Bahamas, first at Abaco then Grand Bahama islands. It was devastating to these islands and the people living on them. They had prepared but they did not know it would be as large as it became. Dorian tore through houses and flipped over vehicles. People were left with only bits of their lives still in place. It was horrible to watch on the news the things that happened to these people and our hearts go out to them.

Unfortunately, the hurricane stalled just over Grand Bahama Island and just off its coast. This meant for us that things were changing and the path was becoming more unclear again. Some paths looked as if it would hit us straight on and be devastating and others suggested it would pass by us like a mild summer weather pattern.

We were meant to start our first day of homeschooling for the year but instead of learning what we had planned we refocused on learning about hurricanes. Deirdre supplied us with her very own spaghetti model to show what she had learned.

In the darkness of uncertainty, we decided to start our hurricane preparations for the boat and our family no matter what was going to happen. Everyone, even people living in large comfortable well built homes, should have a plan for disaster. They do not happen all that often and some areas are more prone then others but they do happen. The people with even a minimal plan in place are the ones who survive and come out okay.

Our plan started off with getting all windage off the top of the boat. This meant we had to take down or tie down anything that could catch wind. Our mainsail is a furling main meaning it rolls up and in our case, it rolls up inside our mast. This is a pretty protected place for it to be so we rolled it up as far as it would go then tied it down to make sure it couldn’t unroll. We pulled down our headsail and tightened all of our halyards and sheets (ropes).

We spent time getting our solar panels secured and removing our brand-new canvas. We also added several extra dock lines including lines between our boat and the boat next to us to help protect each of us from hitting the dock. 

We used zip ties to make the ends of rope and other things secure in places where they could whip around. Someone may have gone a little crazy with them…

Once we felt like we had fully prepared Rána for the possibility of a storm we started working on the plan for the living things on our boat. We are very fortunate to have a good friend that lives nearby. Her and her family graciously offered to let us come stay with them during the storm so we would have a safer place to be. 

As the storm moved closer and closer to us it started to slowly push further out into the Atlantic. We still couldn’t tell how far out it would pass us so in the interest of safety we took our friend up on staying with her.

When Dorian finally came it was not much more than some minor rain and medium wind. We left our instruments on in the boat to record the weather during the storm. This showed that we had maximum wind speeds of 49 knots or about 56 miles per hour but the average was down around 22 knots or 25 miles per hour. We realized we could have stayed on the boat but in the end it worked out pretty well. Staying with our friend was a welcomed change from our normal routine. We all got the chance to hang out. The adults did puzzles while the kids played various games.

What Kind of Life is This for Kids?

What Kind of Life is This for Kids?

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Boat work has felt all consuming lately. We have been working on the boat a lot. As I was looking at pictures for our last several blog posts it made me wonder, what kind of life is this for kids? Actually it is one that teaches competence and hard work… but that is another point. It is a different kind of life than we had in a house but it feels better.
The kids help with work on the boat sometimes but only because they want to help. We haven’t asked them to do any boat work, other than basic cleaning up after themselves, but we always try to make room for them to be involved when they want to be. They have seen how much we have been doing and sometimes it sparks their curiosity so they come over and want to help.
Though we have done a lot of it, boat work isn’t all we have been doing… In the same time period as all the work, the kids have learned a lot! Not just math and English but life skills.
Deirdre has learned how to swim, and swing across monkey bars. She has become more confident in who she is and what she can do. Osiris has learned how to swing. We have played in the ocean and cleaned up trash from the beaches. Osiris likes to save the world anytime she sees plastic on the ground or in the water now!
We’ve gone to parties. Met kittens. Made friends. Made friends with kittens 🙂 Both kids are a bit obsessed with cats. So we have been learning all about cats and kittens over the summer!
We have gone to children’s museums, parks and the zoo. We regularly visit libraries. The kids enjoy making friends with the librarians and participating in art programs and other activities like summer reading program. We have read LOTS of books! Though the kids do play on tablets and watch shows, we don’t make them readily available so when the kids are bored they either play or read books.
We have fed lettuce to the geese that live nearby and we have watched their goslings grow up. We have investigated ladybugs, snails, other water birds, frogs, lizards and so much more!
Virtually none of these learning moments came from a curriculum or even from stuff. Much of our learning grows organically from the things we do not the things we own. Don’t get me wrong the kids still have plenty of toys to play with but even the things we own are used differently on the boat.
We have had to narrow down the possessions in our lives by quite a lot to move onto the boat. The kids had to pick just their favorite toys to bring and they regularly go through what they have to decide what is worth taking up their limited space. This is teaching them to find what is most important to them and to weed out the clutter.
The kids have picked their favorite toys and now they often play with them for long periods of time. It helps that we mostly kept open ended toys like Lego, play food, dress up, and stuffed animals. These toys all allow the kids to imagine their own story. Imagination fuels play. Too many toys acts as a distraction and rather than engaging the imagination they shut it down.
While we have been busy getting the boat ready to sail the kids have learned to play happily with each other, sometimes for hours at a time. They have become much closer and really enjoy doing things together. They play with each other a lot more, even when we aren’t working on the boat. In fact as I was writing this post they were happily working together making fake poop out of mud…
I believe that having a small home is forcing us to do something that we never needed to in a house. We have to put thought and intention into everything we have and how we use it. If it doesn’t add value to our life or bring us joy we get rid of it. This is an ongoing process but it is one that the kids are learning to do also!
So what kind of life is this for kids? One that allows childhood to be simple and free from distractions. It is a life where we can engage in and enjoy life in more meaningful ways. You don’t have to live on a sailboat to live this kind of life but the smaller space has really helped us to see what really benefits our lives and what doesn’t. What activities or things in your life are causing unnecessary clutter and stress? Try getting rid of them!
Finally Sailing…

Finally Sailing…

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With the wind in your hair, the horizon in the distance, the sea in the air, and no resistance, you’re sailing. As nice as that sounds, it’s almost what we’re doing. We finally got to go out sailing. How can we have spent so much time not just owning but living on a sailboat and almost never go sailing?
Prior to buying Rána the last time we had sailed was on our 14’ Vagabond, Blue Horizon. She was a fun little daysailer. She was rigged as a fractional sloop with main sail and foresail so she had all of the same basic controls and surfaces as Rána. It was a little different with Blue Horizon since she also had a dagger board instead of a keel but all in all she was just about as complicated. Aside from size, which seems like the most obvious difference between the two, the fact that Rána is also our home plays a large roll in how we use her.
Since Rána has the added benefit of holding just about everything we own as well as all of us living things, it is a little more daunting to decide to take her out for a day sail. We have to stow everything we can in a safe place, get everyone ready and in sailing mindset, prepare the animals, remove our sunshades, disconnect shore power, checkout and start the engine, do a last minute doublecheck of lines and wires, close thru-hulls, shutoff our air conditioning, untie our lines, then set off. To add to all of this we can only get in and out of our slip between about 2 hours before and 2 hours after high tide which is always changing times on us.
Once we finally get completely ready and the tide is playing in our favor we can go out. That’s the point at which we always seem to get stuck. We know we want to. We know we love being on the water but somehow, we seem to stop ourselves. Often the excuse is another boat project. Since there is always another boat project this seems to be an easy way out.
Finally, after months and months of not sailing while living on our sailboat, Carolyn found a quote on the internet that said, “Sailing should always be at the top of the to do list.” This obviously hit both of us like a ton of bricks. We both asked ourselves why we were living on a sailboat if we weren’t doing any sailing. We quickly realized that we had to make a change so we decided to take her out sailing the next possible time. For us, based on the tide was the following weekend. We got Rána prepared and set off. This time Carolyn even got us out of the marina and drove us to the nearby bridge.
Once we were in the open area of the larger river we opened the mainsail. Since this was the first time we had done this since our sea-trial before buying the boat, and we had just put up new rigging, we went slowly and overly cautiously. I think we both kept waiting for it to jump out and bite us or something.
The wind was mild (7-10 knots) and the current was slow (~1-2 knots) so it was very easy. Once the main was open we both thought why not open the Genoa as well. With Carolyn on the helm, I pulled the Genoa out and filled it up with air. The boat heeled over maybe 5-8 degrees and suddenly we were really sailing our home.
We had been concerned that the kids would not like being heeled over at all but once we were they seemed to enjoy it. The water was a little choppy so the boat was bouncing a bit which also seemed to be fun for both of them.
We didn’t get to sail for too long since we only had about a 4 hour window before we wouldn’t be able to get back to our slip but every single minute of it was fun. As much as we tried we mostly forgot just about all of the things we thought we knew about sailing so we weren’t trimming the sails perfectly and we were fighting the boats weather helm but it didn’t matter. We were sailing. Now the top of our To-Do list is always sailing first.
What’s Stopping You?

What’s Stopping You?

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Over a year ago we sold everything; our house, our cars, toys, books and furniture to follow a dream of living on a boat and travelling the world. That was a monumentally big thing to do. We completely uprooted our lives and that added a lot of pressure to succeed. In a year and a half of owning the boat and a year of living on board we have barely moved it. Why?
It’s weird because I have been onboard with the idea of living on a boat from the beginning. In fact I was the one who pointed out we don’t have to wait for retirement to make it a reality.
Jason loves to sail. I have never sailed before but I love to travel. There really isn’t anywhere I wouldn’t like to visit. I want to go back to Ireland, visit uninhabited islands, experience the cultures of the South Pacific, see the cherry blossoms in Kyoto and the tulips blooming in the Netherlands, I want to see the Parthenon and the Great Pyramids and so many other places. We have been interested in the sailing and traveling life from the start. So what is stopping us?
Well we had some problems with the engine leaking water into the oil. The standing rigging that holds up the mast was 18 years old and in bad shape. One of our through-hulls started letting water seep into the boat from the river. Those were all critical things to fix… but…
I’ve never needed to be handy with fixing things in my life. Because repairs aren’t something I know how to do well, I tend to shy away from trying them. This is a mental roadblock for me. One that I have had to start facing because boats are a lot of work! Often too much for just one person.
I have needed to help more and more with projects. I helped re-bed hardware, remove, refit and replace through-hulls, epoxy and paint repairs, hoist sails, and climb the mast among other things.
I’m still not very handy but I am learning. As I learn and help I am realizing our boat starts to feel more real. Not just a place where we happen to live but something that is truly ours.
Some days it feels overwhelming and like maybe living on a boat was a bad choice and it would be so much easier to live in a house.
Then again… is an easy life what we really want? Or do we want to follow our dreams? Our brains build roadblocks in our path to success. They do this to mitigate the pain of failure. Our brains help us give up on our goals before even trying.
The truth is we have only been half committed to our dream. We have been letting the work that needs to be done become our roadblocks against really living our dream. One of those roadblocks for me has been driving the boat. It is 42 feet long and it is our home. The idea of making a mistake can be paralyzing if I let it.
I recently commented about not feeling comfortable docking the boat. One person replied to add a bunch of extra bumpers on and give it a try. This really resonated with me because what she was essentially saying is ‘face your roadblocks.’ I haven’t docked the boat yet but I did decide to take the helm and back it out of our slip to take it out for our first time actually sailing! This was big for me. It helped me realize that the fears we build up in our heads are usually worse than reality.
The more I do on the boat, and roadblocks I confront, the more excited I become to actually get sailing. It feels real in a different kind of way then just wanting to travel and even selling everything and living on our boat.
It feels a little bit more mine.
What are your dreams? What roadblocks are getting in your way? What can you do to face your roadblocks?
Those little holes in the bottom of our boat

Those little holes in the bottom of our boat

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The excitement and stress involved in doing a large project on a boat is always high. The anticipation of being complete is a great feeling. Knowing that all you have to do is that one last thing and you are finally done…except…we are learning that it is never really done.
Just as we were wrapping up the large undertaking of pulling down our mast and replacing all of the standing rigging holding it up, we decided to do another ritual check of things around the boat.
This check is fairly simple and often quick. The first thing we look at is the bottom center of our bilge. Since this is the absolute lowest point in the boat, and under all of the floor boards, it is where all water flows if there is any kind of leak. Checking this area for water will give us some insight into how well we are doing at not sinking.
After checking the bilge at the lowest point, we go through each of our thru-hulls. These are the holes in our boat that are meant to be there. Some are above the water line outside and some are below. Some are used to discharge water out, like the sink drains, and some are for bringing water in, like the air conditioner cooling water.
Each thru-hull is first a hole cut into the boat. A bronze or plastic device is placed into the hole and sealed in place. Attached to this bronze or plastic device is a valve often referred to as a sea-cock. The sea-cock typically has a barbed nipple attached to connect a hose. The intention behind all of this is to control how the water comes in or goes out and to avoid leaking.
As with all things boat related, just as we thought we were getting done with big projects like the rigging, our inspection of thru-hulls revealed that one of them was leaking. That meant our boat was sinking! Of course, our boat was sinking very, very slowly but still.
Unfortunately, the only right way to fix a leaking thru-hull is to pick the whole boat up out of the water, remove, and re-bed it. As always, we started researching the best ways to do this project and came to MarineHowTo.com. This site has a wealth of experience based tutorials on boat related work. It is well worth a look if you are learning.
They describe a method of using fiberglass backing plates instead of the wooden ones that Hunter thought was a great *read cheap* idea. These are to be glassed into the boat so they are permanent and fixed. It also suggests that using something like the Groco flange adapter will help to improve the strength of the whole system. We decided this was the way to go and we were going to do the oldest 5 thru-hulls below the waterline. We have 11 total below the waterline but the other 6 had been re-bedded a few years ago by a previous owner.
We needed to flatten the inside of the boat so that our new backing plates fit properly and then could be well glassed into the bottom of our boat. When you need to grind the inside of your fiberglass boat and you don’t really want to get fiberglass dust everywhere what do you do? I say make a sanding tent!
After a ton of research, even more elbow grease, and a little bit of guess work, we were able to get them all replaced. Of course just we we thought we had the hard job completed we realized that the hull had some bumps on it…These bumps are known as osmotic blisters.
These are bubbles that form between the fiberglass of the hull and the gelcoat that is used as a barrier. It turns out that gelcoat isn’t really that great for boats despite being on just about every fiberglass boat I have ever been on.
The blisters fill with fluid which slowly converts to a corrosive substance. It then eats away at the fiberglass which rots it. The only solution is to grind all of the bad glass out of the hull. It was a little scary to start grinding on the outside of our hull but once we got started we just kept going until we got all of the water out.
After grinding it all out the next step was to fill the holes with thickened epoxy. We used West Systems 105 Resin, 205 Fast Hardener, and enough 406 Colloidal Silica to make it like a thick peanut butter. This mixture had to be pushed into the holes then smoothed out to make a nice finish. Once we had the finish shape we wanted we were able to paint over the patches to make a finished look.
That big hole in the top of our boat…

That big hole in the top of our boat…

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I didn’t realize just how many holes there are in a large boat. Despite not wanting to have holes, since they seem to be how water gets in, there are several. One of the larger ones on the topside of the boat is for the mast.
Some boats have a deck stepped mast and some have a keel stepped mast. A keel stepped mast is one where the mast goes through the top deck of the boat and then rests on top of the keel at the bottom of the boat. A deck stepped sits on a foot on the deck. Under the foot on the inside of the boat is a compression post that goes down to the bottom of the boat.
On Rána we have a deck stepped mast with a solid stainless steel compression post. This has the advantage of having a much smaller hole in our deck than if we had a keel stepped but that doesnt mean we have no hole.
When we took the mast off the boat it seemed like the right time to take apart the mast step and work on rebedding it. This is where we completely disassemble it, remove it from the boat, clean it, then remount it with new bedding compound in the hopes that it will not leak on our heads.
Upon taking apart our mast step we found that ours had a mast foot, which is the dark grey plate, a stainless steel plate with wings to hold the turning blocks, and another stainless steel plate which was welded to the compression post.
Someone got the wild idea that we could try rebedding just the mast foot and leave the rest in place since it looked as if the whole compression post would have to be removed to rebed all of it. As I am sure you can imagine that did not go well.
A few days after we bedded the mast foot we were sitting at our table as it started to rain outside. It didn’t take long before it was raining inside as well. I suppose it was better than having it leak after the mast went back up! So we went to work taking it all apart again and cleaning it up. This time we took the whole compression post out and cleaned everything.
Once we got it all back in place it looked pretty good. We waited a few days for the bedding compound to cure then we did some wet tests to make sure it wasn’t going to leak. The only thing left to do now was to take apart and rebed all of the chain plates…
All things aloft…

All things aloft…

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When we surveyed Rána we found out that she would need new standing rigging sooner rather than later. After doing some further digging we realized she was still on her original rigging which meant it was 17 years old.

We had to learn a lot about standing rigging and how it all worked. The standing rigging is the wire and other components that hold the mast up. Our boat is a Bergström-Ridder or more commonly known as a B&R rig. This is a unique design that was adopted by Hunter several years ago. It was originally viewed as a poor choice but lately has gained a lot of regard since it appears to work as well as they said it would without much issue. It is now being incorporated into other manufactures designs in some fashion or another.

 

Standard Fractional Rig

The B&R rig is a lot like any other rig however it lacks a backstay. For reference, you can see in the picture that the stand style of rig has a forestay coming from the front of the mast to the bow of the boat, a backstay coming from the back of the mast to the stern of the boat, and two side stays that go from either side of the top of the mast down to the chain plates on the sides of the boat. The B&R rig does away with the backstay by making a tripod out of the forestay and side stays. The side stays are held back at an angle by the spreaders. This keeps all three stays at 120 degrees from each other.

B&R Rig

Since the rig is setup this way it is very stable and does not require any adjustment while sailing. It is sort of a “set it and forget it” design only requiring the occasional inspection for problems. This has its ups and downs but for us we felt like it would be best to have the simplest setup we can.

We did some research into rigging age and realized that as a general rule, rigging should only be used for around 10 years and that is when it’s been used in the best conditions. We spoke to a lot of different sailors and it seems there is a lot of opinions about this. We heard everything from “20 years is fine” to “5 years is the very end.”

After doing even more research we decided that the only real answer was to scale the mast and fully inspect everything. Various websites give ideas on how to inspect your rigging but none seemed to really lay it all out there. In the end the most important thing we found to look for is cracking from corrosion or stress as well as rust staining. The rust staining is an indicator of a large problem since all of the standing rigging is made of 316 Stainless Steel. It takes a lot to make this stuff rust but the salty harsh ocean environment is just the right mix of corrosive.

We started the process by taking zoomed in images with our DSLR camera and zoom lens. That got us part of the way there but really didn’t show enough detail from the ground. The next step was to climb up the mast and look as closely as possible. We had read that taking high resolution images was a great way to inspect. This turned out to be a very good idea since the bright sun and the movement of the boat made it very difficult to get a good view. Using the images, we could zoom in and really see if there were issues.

Immediately we noticed rust staining at just about every joint in the system. We also found several very small stress cracks. As it turns out, stainless steel apparently corrodes from the inside out. This means that if you can see corrosion, it is likely much worse on the inside of the steel. After looking everything over we decided the best bet was to just replace it all.

We contacted a few local riggers to quote doing the full replacement for us. Turns out that is surprisingly expensive. We were given verbal quotes of between $10k and $15k. We let that sticker shock sink in a bit which led me to research doing it myself. I found a few sites with information on how to do it and all in all it seemed doable. We decided that we would pay a shop to make our new rigging and ship it to us then we would put it on.

We took a great deal of measurements and took a lot of pictures to get the quoting process started. We knew that we would have to pull the whole mast off the boat to get the final dimensions but we needed to get a basic idea first. We contacted several companies that could do the work and found that Sailing Services in Miami FL had the best prices as well as the best information and recommendations from others.

Finally, the day came to pull the mast down and get all of the old wiring off the boat. Since our mast is 50’ long above the deck of the boat and it is a rather large piece of aluminum extrusion, this required hiring a crane and operator to meet us at a nearby marina. The crane was strapped to the mast then we started removing all of the connection. Once down we were able to take off and label each wire so we could measure and prepare them for replacement.

We took our final measurements and wrapped up half of the wiring to send off the Sailing Services. Once they received everything they went to work getting it replaced. Our new rigging arrived in a little more than a week. It was much nicer and cleaner than the old stuff.

While we waited for the new rigging we did some work on the mast. This was the best time to take apart the in-mast furling gear (this allows our mainsail to be stored inside the mast) and grease it. Since the mast was down it was also the best time to replace the wiring inside it as well as the lights on it. We also did an inspection on the entire mast and re-bedded the mast step and chain plates…more on that fiasco in another post.

We spent another few days preparing the new rigging by setting everything to the old measurements. Several of the wires have turn buckles on them so that they can be adjusted to the correct tension. Since we knew the lengths for the old wire we configured the new wiring to match so we would be ready.

After a lot of hard work and anticipation finally the day to put our sailboat back together came. We prepared the mast to go back up and brought the boat over. Putting it up went fairly quickly which was sort of surprising. We didn’t spend a lot of time tuning the rig which could be done late so it was really just all about getting it back on the boat.

Once it was attached someone had to go up the mast again to remove the crane strap and connect the wind instrument. I quickly volunteered to rid the “sky hook.” I got strapped in and the crane operator lifted me all the way to the top of the mast.

After getting the boat all back together and into sailing shape we decided it was a good idea to do an underwater inspection. This is where we look through the boat at all of the underwater things (from the inside of the boat) for leaks. Surprise….a leak…

Peaceful Moments

Peaceful Moments

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Life can be stressful and hectic, that doesn’t go away and sometimes it may even be worse while living on a boat

but there are these moments…

small moments…

That make life feel so peaceful…

We have 2 adults and 2 energetic young kids in 41 feet worth of boat. We estimate that our living space is about 300 square feet.

It is understandably crowded.

Toys get spread all over.

It is loud and sometimes difficult to get work done. There are always boat projects to do, which make their own mess and take up space.

This might not sound like much of a life to many people and of course it isn’t right for everyone.

But there are these unexpected peaceful moments that just didn’t exist for us when we lived in suburbia.

It is hard to put into words the feeling when you go outside into the cockpit first thing in the morning (to open the propane valve so you can heat the kettle on the stove) the air is fresh and clean, the water is as still as glass.

There is this moment where you seem to inhale the calmness of the morning and just feel peaceful.

Another unexpected moment is when it rains…

Sitting inside listening to the pitter patter of raindrops splashing on the deck.

Or even better sitting in the cockpit under cover watching the rain dance on the water.

It is amazing when it rains. The water becomes almost perfectly flat with only the ripples from each rain drop spreading out to play with the others.

When life gets stressful, as it does, nothing beats taking a moment to go upstairs and lay on deck.

Looking up at the inky dark sky sparkling with stars or watching clouds drift lazily while the boat gently rocks.

It is almost indescribably calming.

Our days aren’t always full of beauty, but there are days when we eat dinner in the cockpit surrounded by clouds alight with the flaming colors of the sun’s descent…

and afterwards we sit on deck to watch the full moon ascend into the heavens.

There were occasional moments like these in our former life.

In fact, seeing the beauty of a total solar eclipse was a large part of why we made the decision to change our lives and seek more moments like these.

Most of our life was just repetition of the mundane. We still have mundane tasks but we also experience these small moments on an almost daily basis.

The kids are also finding these moments of beauty. They notice the changing colors of the sunsets and the beauty of the moon.

Even the little one points out flowers that he says are “gorgeous!”

These are the moments that feed the soul. And we are just getting started.

What Do We Do All Day?

What Do We Do All Day?

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What is it like to live on a sailboat with kids? What do they do all day? These were some of our biggest questions before buying our boat.

We have had the boat for almost a year now and we moved aboard full time about four months ago.

We decided to do an interview with the kids so they can share their opinions of life on the boat so far…

Who are you? What can you tell us about yourself?

D: “My name is Deirdre Lynn Protzman but I like to be called Super Kitten or Mew Mews. I’m 8 years old and I like playing with dollies and doing crafts. And my favorite color is Yellow.”

O: “Baby Super Kitten. Red. My favorite color is red, because it goes with me. I am 2 years old.”

Playing in dock carts at a marina.

How do you like living on the boat?

D: “I love it and I love motoring but I’m scared of sailing.”

Why are you scared of sailing?

D: “Because I’m scared it will heal over a bit and also I’m probably scared because before I ever went on a big sailboat I went out on a little one with no motor and there was a storm on the lake we took it out on.”

Our first sailboat

How do you like living on the boat?

O:”By playing with toys.”

There is a lot of book reading on the boat

Do you miss living in a house?

D: “I miss like the open space and there is a house I used to live in that I miss very much but I like living on a boat more.”

O: “I do.”

Art class at the library

What do you miss?

D: “Well there is a house I miss and I miss my friends because we had to move. I miss my friends and the places I knew because we had to move.”

O: “Katherine and Andrew and Windsor house. I miss Zeke.”

Riding bikes from a marina to a local park

What do you do for fun?

D: “Play with my dolls and play games. That’s what. I play.”

O: “Play with my toys.”

Investigating a local art display at the library

What is your favorite part of living on a boat?

D: “I don’t have a specific favorite but I like the handrails to climb on.”

O: “Dinghy rides”

Learning to drive the dinghy

What is your least favorite part?

D: “One of my least favorites is I miss my friends.”

O: “Winching without my gloves.”

Winching up the Main Sail

How do you learn?

D: “By doing educational things.”

Like what?

D: “I was just playing Dragon box Algebra on a tablet and I was programming on a tablet and I read almost constantly sometimes.”

Trying to get Deirdre to stop reading and play more

How do you learn?

O: “By building train tracks.”

Favorite toys take turns on which one is out

What is it like living on a boat?

D: “It is different and the same. Similar in some ways but strange in others. Different from living in a house.”

O: “Not Anything.”

The world is our playground

If you could tell future you something what would it be?

D: “That’s obvious it’s would be ‘something.’ If I were to tell future me something, it would be something.”

O: “Play Mario Kart”

“I won 12th!”

If you could tell past you something what would it be?

D: “I wouldn’t travel back in time.”

O: “I don’t talk, while I’m a baby.”

Life is not about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain

Why do you live on the boat?

D: “Because we decided to move onto a boat and I like it.”

O: “Because I like boats.”

Playing at a local park

Where do you want to go on the boat?

D: “I want to sail under the golden gate bridge and I want to sail to Ireland.”

O: “Drop the dinghy and motor to the beach, and hop out and go to the beach, and you can bring your shoes, if you want toos.”

Investigating tide pools at the beach

Like Deirdre said life on a boat is different but also the same. We read, play, go to the library, park and grocery store and sometimes we even play video games.

The difference is, now we live in a much smaller space. We do just about everything together as a family. We are all learning to be more courteous of others.

We have gotten rid of so much stuff. There is only space for the things that are really important to each of us. So we have all had to learn how to let go of the clutter in our lives.

The kids play together more often than before because there isn’t a whole house full of reasons not to.

We still have a long way to go but I think we are on a good path.

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