11/15/2009, Topsail Beach, NC
September 2, 2009: A "first day of school" picture we'll never forget! No backpacks, half dressed, and bare feet!
When to start homeschooling was a difficult decision to make. The original plan was to begin homeschooling at the same time as our planned departure. However, as we move closer to the final stages of our cruising goal, there are little details that have had to be adjusted.
The biggest influence that tipped the scale towards homeschooling was the fact that Wil lives in Durham, the kids and I live at the beach, and the boat is in Beaufort. We also need to sell the beach house, and don't know when we'll start living on the boat. In order to get boat work done & be able to spend family time together, we meet at Wil's mom's house in Beaufort.
We are extremely fortunate that Wil's mom lives just down the road from Jarrett Bay. What are the chances that the only travel lift in NC big enough for our boat is just minutes from Grandma & Uncle Pete? Again . . . it seems like something that was meant to be! We don't have to stay on the boat while it's on the hard, we get to visit with family, and the kids get lots of "grandma time". We owe them a huge amount of gratitude, and appreciate every extra moment that we've gotten to spend with them.
Therefore, homeschooling was the right choice. Due to our current way of life, the kids would have to miss too much school in order for them to see their dad, and we wouldn't have as much time to get the boat ready for cruising. Schooling can be as flexible as we need to be.
Well . . . all easier said than done!! No one ever mentioned just how exhausting homeschooling can be. And I know a lot of families who homeschool! For at least the first 2 weeks of school, I didn't think I would be able to keep up with it. During the school week, I am by myself with the kids 24 hours a day / 4-5 days a week. I am their mom & teacher all on my own. I have 2 kids, at 2 different grade levels, and with 2 very different learning styles. In the beginning, I had this image of keeping one room in the house as the "school" room. We would have our school schedule, and when school was in session we would be in that room. The rest of the house would be for normal living. Everything that I thought would be went out the door by the end of day 1.
The kids distract each other, so I have to have them in different rooms. I never realized how mentally exhausted I would be at the end of a school day. I feel like I've gone back to school for myself! We've tried a rigid schedule & we've tried an extremely flexible schedule . . . finally having to settle on something in between. Traveling with all the books & lesson manuals between our house, Wil's place, and Beaufort is far from an easy task. Books are heavy & take up space. What about days when there are supposed to be science experiments? I have to plan ahead when I know we're going to be on the road. When we're away from home, how do I set up school so focus on school work can be achieved?
We're still figuring things out, but I have to say it has become a lot easier over time. I'm getting the hang of lesson planning. I'm learning how to encourage learning with the different learning styles. I've learned to have a lot of patience . . . on most days. The kids still say they prefer homeschool to regular school. I can finally say that I'm glad we're doing this, and I'm glad we're doing this now. I can't image how much more difficult life would be if we were trying to start homeschooling at the same time as moving onto the boat. Adjusting to the cruising life can be difficult within itself! (Despite what most might believe, it's not all tropical sunsets, swimming in warm waters, & having drink in the cockpit!) We recently met a cruising family with 6 kids aboard a Venezia 42 who have only ever home schooled for the their entire school career. They also highly recommend homeschooling before moving aboard and said it was good that we were doing it this way. It's definitely an advantage to find your groove with homeschooling first . . . and then begin the cruising lifestyle.
So we're finding our groove!
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11/15/2009, Jarrett Bay, Beaufort, NC
The kids like to hang out in "the hammock" towards the end of the day while waiting on us to finish up the day's work.
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11/15/2009, Jarrett Bay, Beaufort, NC
Most of the hatches and ports had some sort of leak. They are either cracked, need new gaskets, need re-bedding, have a broken hinge, or had a screw come all the way through to the inside.
We have re-bedded some of the hatches & windows, and will be replacing the glass in all hatches and ports. We have picked out a dark gray acrylic that should tolerate UV. The big question was whether to choose Lexan or acrylic, and after tons of research, we've chosen acrylic. The current glass on the boat is acrylic.
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11/14/2009, Jarrett Bay, Beaufort, NC
It's been nice to have our own 2 car garage. Protects us from the sun or the rain. However, we still have to watch out for water draining from the thru-hulls!
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11/14/2009, Beaufort, NC
On Thursday at 1045, a day ahead of schedule, and due to a forecasted wind increase, we pulled away from our brief vacation at the Beaufort Town Docks. We had spent the day before eating out and visiting the NC Maritime Museum. The day finished with our king mackerel dinner and drinks in the cockpit. Then we took an after-dinner walk up the boardwalk to listen to music, get fudge, and eat ice cream. A real treat!
During our time at the town docks, we again discovered just how small our world is. I was in the cockpit when 2 guys walking past suddenly said "Black Pearl! Sarasota, FL! We know this boat! It was at Marina Jack's" I had to take a double take and ask them to repeat themselves. And then, to add to the smallness of this world, the one guy said that his friend was the person who had installed all of the electronics on this boat. I really about fell out of the cockpit at that point! We RARELY dock our boat, and the main reason we were at the town docks to begin with was because we were having electrical issues! This guy immediately put Wil on the phone with his friend, and the friend emailed the electrical schematics to us. Talk about something that's meant to be!
Today, we motored to Jarrett Bay for our 1300 haul-out. As we were passing through the Beaufort Bridge, the bridge tender compared us to the Lookout Tours cat which was coming from the opposite direction . . . an obviously faster boat. As we were on the waterway and approaching Jarrett Bay, a small sailboat, "Don't Panic", panicked about which side they would pass us on when there was plenty of width for the both of us.
Even though we had ~10 knots of wind blowing us onto the docks at the Jarrett Bay basin, docking went pretty smoothly with one engine and a crippled woman. However, once we had docked, they realized our size and that we needed to be on the opposite side of the basin for the big lift. With one engine & the current wind conditions, we were unable to get ourselves off the dock.
This was when we were fortunate to meet the crew of s/v Pelican, a Passport 40 which was docked in front of us. They got their dinghy ready, and then they carried two of our anchor lines across the basin to the line handlers who pulled us over to the other side. In addition to their aid in the basin, Kristen's father offered to help Wil in the final stages of our port engine rebuild . . . all just because he enjoys tinkering with engines!! Meeting the family aboard Pelican was a wonderful reminder of how great cruising people are. Thanks guys! We are looking forward to passing along favors.
From the moment the boat was tied to the service dock, the kids wanted to know when we were getting to grandma's house. It was very difficult for them to wait through the haul-out & getting the boat situated for it's stay at Jarrett Bay. The boat doesn't feel like home to them yet. Hopefully, it will one day.
Now some major work begins!!
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11/14/2009, Topsail Beach to Beaufort, NC
We have some catching up to do, so here it goes . . .
Sunday, July 12th: Hauling up 3 anchors after 3 months on the hook . . . It was the longest anchor haul-up ever! Terribly complicated, but it all went well considering the circumstances.
We started the lengthy process at ~1415, not knowing exactly how to begin. To add to our situation, due to a torn cartilage in my wrist, I was in a full supine cast to above my elbow, so my abilities were limited to the helm. We had 3 anchors down (2 on chain & 1 with rode), and one of them was in about 2-3 feet of water. The wind was blowing 20 knots with higher gusts, and we only had one working engine. Our situation wasn't easy. The boat would go exactly the opposite direction it was supposed to. Every time the nose would fall off the wind just a tad, the wind would throw us completely broadside & perpendicular to our anchor line. Also to mention, we were in a spot of water that's only good swinging room for boats up to 38 ft . . . not easy for our 48 ft cat!! To ease our situation, we tied 2 of the anchors to fenders and let them go float on their own . . . we would pick them up once we could move freely. However, the one and only anchor remaining happened to be the anchor on the sandbar! Wil dinghied over and tied an additional anchor rode to that anchor which allowed us to change the angle of the pull and get it up without getting the boat too shallow.
Once we were able to start pulling the rode up, we had to deal with the fact that it was covered in sea squirts. This wasn't your normal case of sea squirts . . . the anchor rode was at least 8 inches in diameter thicker because of the sea squirts! That doesn't leave much room to come up on the anchor roller. With Colin & Justine's assistance, Wil used the windlass and a boat hook to scrape the sea squirts off as the line came up. It may as well have been raining! The sea squirts squirted so much that our deck & anyone forward of the mast was drenched and smelled terribly. The wind even carried some sea squirt "juice" for me back at the helm!
There were only a few other minor mishaps . . . Wil had to go swimming to untangle one anchor line & fender from the rudder, and we touched bottom a couple of times. The whole process took us about 3 hours. The kids' patience was tested, as ours was too, but we all worked hard to make it happen. At ~1700, it was a huge relief to actually get underway! Going down the waterway, the kids sat on the bows to feel the wake from passing boats. Wildlife spotted . . . osprey, a deer in a marsh channel, 2 dolphin, a heron, and a pinkish bird. At 2135, we dropped the hook (and only ONE!) in Banks Channel in Wrightsville Beach. We were completely exhausted & ready for sleep.
Tuesday, July 14th: After a stormy, rainy Monday, we were thrilled to pick up the anchor and head to Beaufort. The rain started early Monday morning, and continued on and off until almost sunrise today. We discovered the origin of many leaks, and it was a hot, damp boat with all the hatches and ports closed.
After sitting for almost 36 hours in the rain, and knowing that our batteries weren't getting charged for some reason, rather than wait for the SW winds that were forecasted for Thursday, we hauled up anchor and motor-sailed, close-hauled the whole way to Beaufort. The kids were slightly queasy, with some periods of feeling good, but they handled their first offshore experience beautifully.
We sailed almost due east under full main & jib, and then tacked to the north. Along the way, we trolled with 3 hand lines out, catching 4 king mackerel and one Spanish. We only kept the first king because we were hoping to get some mahi as well. We saw lots of flying fish, a few dolphin, and a jellyfish. We cut into the Beaufort Inlet shallows a little too soon, so we had to tack back out to get to the channel. We also had to adjust our course for a freighter that was headed out to sea.
We followed & crossed tacks with a Hunter all the way from Wrightsville Beach to the Beaufort Town Docks. They motored more than half the way without sails up because his wife was tired of the healing. They said they should get a catamaran! It took us 2 tries to pull up to the t-dock . . . one working engine, a one-armed wife, and 2 kids makes it a little tricky! It felt really good to plug in. The a/c worked for a minute, we had a beer, killed a roach, and visited with Jennifer (mother-in-law) & Pete. We plan to vacation at the dock for a couple of nights. Ahhh! What a relief!
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