13 weeks left!

For every two steps forward, there is at least one step back these days. To-dos are getting crossed off the list while more is getting added. Details that I just never considered are all of a sudden a big deal. At the end of each crazy week, I’d like to curl up in a ball and wait for August, but HEY! We’re STILL moving forward! This IS HAPPENING! aaaaaaand the motivation for another week is revived :)

At the end of April, I started another nursing job for more hours. There are bills to pay, mouths to feed, and expensive boat parts to be bought. The kids have managed to find more than enough to occupy their time while Jamie and I are trading places. We’ve made the rule that there is no beach or trampoline while we’re gone to eliminate extra stress in life! There is usually a few hours of babysitting that Ada is required to do on the evenings that I am working and Jamie hasn’t arrived home yet. I have chosen to work 8 hour shifts instead of the 12 hour shifts to accommodate our crazy lifestyle. It means that I work more often, but the kids are left for shorter periods of time without me.

The kids have created a ‘society’ of sorts in the forest with some other local kids. They have their own currency, a governing body, law enforcement, medicine woman, etc. . So exciting to watch these little people ‘play life’ like big people ‘play life’. It got me thinking about how ridiculous us big people can be re: status and position. We’re all playing a part. We’re all playing the game! I digress….

Jamie picked up our new dingy last month. After much thought, polling the sailing community, and deliberation, we decided that hypalon material was a bit out of the budget and a good quality PVC (VALMEX) dinghy just made sense. We chose an A360D Gala - aluminum hulled RIB with a 20hp Suzuki 4 stroke outboard.

The day before we picked it up, we decided to go hook up the boat trailer to the truck so that, while I was out getting more travel immunizations for the kids, Jamie could pick up the dinghy and meet me back at the dock. The boat trailer was nowhere to be seen! Loooooong story short, the powers that be in the storage compound weren’t sure whose trailer it was, so they had decided to CUT IT UP INTO PIECES and send it to the metal scrappers! A perfectly legal, insured boat trailer cut into pieces. NO JOKE! You can’t make this stuff up! It gets more humerous the more we think about it, but it ‘s still extremely irritating to have one more thing on the list to deal with! Hopefully it will get sorted and we’ll have a replacement trailer by the time we need to sell our motor boat…shall I segue back into the playing life musings?!?!?!? Or is it less effective if I mention I’m going to segue…

About the kids, then. We have had to pay a rather LARGE sum of money to have the kids (and us) immunized for various and assorted diseases we sincerely wish to avoid along the way. After a bill of approx $1700, I can say that the travel clinic has been exceptionally wonderful to us and I feel satisfied that we have been given the information we need to head south. While immunizations are a crazy hot topic lately, I’m choosing to do MY very best with MY kids. I struggle every day to make the right choices for my children and we have put a lot of thought into what we feel is best for these awesome little people. I don’t judge and I certainly don’t think parents with opposing views have a hidden agenda! We’re all trying our very best to keep our kids safe. Anyways, enough about that! We’ve chosen to vaccinate for Hep A & B, typhoid and have a bit of time left to make a decision about the Yellow Fever vaccine. These are in addition to the childhood vaccines that were available via the public health centre with a few exceptions. Since this is our sailing adventure blog, I won’t get into this any further, but thought I’d share this part of our preparation! It’s expensive, but peace of mind is worth it for us.

Lola, our beloved puppy, was so stressed out about us living on the boat that she was throwing up and an absolute wreck all the time. Another VERY difficult decision was made when we told the kids that she would be living with Mom and Dad on Salt Spring Island. I felt like a such failure in my kids eyes as we drove away from Mom and Dad’s, kids crying and begging us to change our minds. Lola absolutely LOVES her orchard life and the doting she receives. She is in the BEST hands, so it was a no-brainer. She wasn’t happy on the boat, even though she adores us. We adore her and because we care, we needed to give her the freedom to enjoy her life. She never liked it here, but we’ve committed to this change. This life we’ve chosen doesn’t come without struggles and sacrifices and this is just one of the many difficulties. On a positive note, we get to see her whenever we are over at Mom and Dad’s and they even brought her to Sidney when they were over one day last month. She looks happy and fed and cared for and we are grateful for Mom and Dad’s willingness to help!

We met a family from Cortes Island who will be travelling south about the same time as us. They are such a cool family with 3 boys around the ages of the 3 girls. They stayed overnight here and the kids seemed to really enjoy each other. We have been hoping to travel together offshore to San Francisco, but it looks as though their path may lead them north of Vancouver Island before heading offshore while we plan to head south of the island through the Juan de Fuca Strait. Life has a way of working out the details, although I have to admit I’m disappointed that it may not work out. Either way, we know we aren’t alone. There are other families that are on a similar path and we will meet up at some point. We figure this is an introduction to the reality of our travelling tribe - “See you when we see you, friends!”

We hit up the big marine garage sale at Ogden point in April and got a few more gems like a telescoping table leg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, a fishing rod, new life jackets and rubber boots for the kids, engine bits, knot books for the kids, and other bits and bobs that will make life easier! It was insanely busy and the items were being grabbed up quickly. Not being a crowd person AT ALL, I think I might have died a little in there!

Solar panels are on - 600W of awesomeness! Jamie is my hero!

CPR and first aid certificates acquired/recertified for Jamie and I. The kids are scheduled for a basic CPR/first aid course next week.

A comprehensive first aid kit has been assembled. That took many many hours of planning and searching locally and on amazon for all the best deals and proper equipment. I think that I’m prepared! All I have left in that department is to get prescriptions for various medications. Our GP in Sidney is willing to provide us with prescriptions, so we are set! What we can’t get here, I’m hoping to pick up along the way, likely in Mexico.

TV screen has been mounted - the kids are desperately excited about movie nights!

Licences for radio etc awarded. New MMSI # for the boat (old one had been cancelled). Iridium Go! purchased. Updated boat registration done. Address changes begun.

My next on the list is to figure out how to cook in this little oven without losing my temper! The stovetop is great, but the oven is, quite frankly, infuriating.

The lists continue to get longer, but the time is getting shorter! Daunting? YES! Exciting? ABSOLUTELY!