The Doldrums

     The doldrums made a visit to us here on the Velvet Sky the first week in December.  They came in with the national cold front.  We begrudgingly welcomed them with the extra electric heater we had stowed in one of the bilge lockers, extra layers of fleece, and a couple of extra blankets on the beds.  We had the idea that by welcoming and embracing the cold, the doldrums would excuse themselves, and activity would be the replacement.  Here we are 3 weeks later, lots of sunshine, cold weather, and no wind.   Three days ago we did the most exciting thing we had done since Thanksgiving.  We motored to the pump out station.  This was our first time.  And we did it all by ourselves.  It seemed like it was going to be a major deal.  It was easy as putting the vacuum on the waste valve of the boat, pushing the green button, flushing a bit of fresh water through the head, and motoring back to the slip.  From releasing the dock lines to warping the boat back into position, and plugging back in to electricity, a total of 30 minutes.  Not bad for the first time.  Now what to do? What to do? Go for a walk.  Do some baking.  Read a book.  Walk to the Post Office.  Watch a movie.  Play cribbage.  Repeat.

     I haven't told you about the moisture that builds up on a boat.  Yes, lots of moisture, every day.   We prop the beds up for ventilation and to keep our bedding dry.  We open the closet doors or the moisture accumulates and builds up creating small puddles which is readily absorbed by anything that is not in a ziplock or protected by some kind of plastic bag.  "Anything" includes shoes, coats, paper products, and any food in cardboard packaging.  There is daily cleanup and drying out.  And let me tell you, in case there is any question, entertaining a child in cold weather inside with very little room to jump, yell, or play, is the most time-consuming, challenging, frustrating part of this wintertime adventure.  We often find ourselves wanting to start the motor, put the sails up, and sail to the warm blue waters of Mexico before the weather or our plans permit.  We pull each other out of that fantasy frequently.  Alaska first, then sunshine, sweet, sweet, sunshine.  I am very well aware of the fact that we will be sweaty and hot and dealing with lots of bugs.  I am okay with that because we will find shade after run on the beach with our bare feet in the warm sand, and a nice long play in the emerald and turquoise waters.  Until then, I am so incredibly gratified by the activities of the holiday season.

     Raising the Bucket on the boat comes with a lot of challenges.  It also comes with a lot of smiles and heart warming memories.  Christmas this year held a lot of meanings for us.  It is the celebration of the birth of Christ, of the winter months winding down, the opportunity to be creative and make frosted cookies, and as my friend Shawn so eloquently put it, "The giving of gifts to a child without recognition."  Santa worked his magic and made his appearance on the Velvet Sky.  The Bucket asked for the simplest things.  A Christmas Tree, a candy cane, and a jingle bell. Last night (Christmas Eve), as we tucked our little guy in, his last words before "goodnight" were, "Santa is coming, Papa, that is so cool!"  "Yes, Bucket, that is so cool."

Cookies

Cookies

This one is for Santa

And more cookies

Milk for Santa

Milk AND cookies for Santa

Santa makes an appearance, in and out like a flash

What is it Papa?

Blow up Bopping Gloves

Oh! That is sooo cool

My own lunch box, now I don't have to use Mommy's

Entertainment (no batteries needed)

Again....(no batteries required)

A cool ninja blanket, it is so soft!  (Thank you Aunt Linda and Uncle Gary in Idaho) Also under the tree are cards and gifts from Great Gramma in Utah, Grandpa and Grandma Smith in Paris, and Grandpa Carl in Oregon.  Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OUR LOVED ONES!

Family, Friends, Acquaintances, Readers, Love and Blessings to you ALL!

Do you like my hat?

     On the bright side.  The Captain is letting his hair grow and we get some good giggles.  I never knew he could grow such lovely locks.

This Stinks

     I had no intentions of sharing any of the down sides to living aboard.  I don't want to be one to burst a bubble, and, after all, most people want to think that "living the dream," is just that, and leave please leave the nightmares and trouble to those that are still living in "reality."  I am here to tell you that even dreams encompass reality.

     From the beginning, we have used the public restroom for showers as well as elimination process.  We decided that it was about time we open the head for business, both for our convenience and that of any company we have here on the Velvet Sky.  We have however limited the use of the head to urination only, no number two (great decision).  Scott never claimed to be a plumber and good thing, too.  It turns out when he did the toilet plumbing, he did it backwards.  The pump out hose was where the intake from the head hose should have been and visa versa.  We were trying to flush from the head into the holding tank via the bottom of the tank,  which in turn meant that the waste was going to be pumped from the top of the tank.  Gravity would have none of that.  We had no choice, the hoses had to be reversed and corrected.  I am looking for empathy here because I cried like a child who saw a monster in the closet when I was struck with cleaning up this mess.

 
     That is pee, and it was stinky, and yes, to me, a nightmare.  I hope that sharing this will bring awareness to those who plan or ever will plumb their own holding tank.  Don't make this mistake, it stinks (literally and figuratively).

   

Updates

     I am beginning to update "About the Boat" and "The Backstory." I imagine this will be an ongoing process.  Like I have mentioned, internet is sketchy and unpredictable.  I will write when the opportunity arises. 

The Day after Thanksgiving

     Though temperatures were in the high 40's, it was not raining, and we were going out, wind or no wind.  The agreement was even if we had to motor and the sails were flopping around like they never should, we were taking Carl out into the Puget Sound.  And it was made so.

Carl and the Bucket excited to see the Sound

Sunglasses make it official

It's a go

Carl takes the helm and Scott keeps an eye on the shape of the sails

The sails never did flail as predicted.  We motored only upon return to marina. The Velvet Sky hummed a beautiful tune as the wind filled her sails and she glided peacefully and easily around the Sound the day after Thanksgiving.  

Thanksgiving

 

     Our friend, Carl, made the announcement that he was coming from Oregon to visit us on the Velvet Sky.  He would arrive on Wednesday evening and stay through Friday.  Oh my! Let's see....how do we do Thanksgiving in Port Townsend? On a boat? Port Townsend does not have a buffet, although there is a buffet in Port Angeles which is about 30 miles away.  Yes! This is what we will do.

  

     No.  This is not what we did.  I just couldn't put myself or our company through that drive on Thanksgiving.  I took the challenge (Shawn knew I would).  I would just keep it simple and on a very small scale.  You know; turkey, potatoes, gravy, green beans, a nice bottle of wine and a pie bought from the Safeway bakery.                                                                              

     What can you cook in a 14X14 inch oven and on a three burner stove top?  A traditional Thanksgiving meal, of course (if you have the local butcher cut the 13 pound turkey in half). 

This is our oven and storage space for the dish drainer

Stove top and our 4 cup percolator
Also the refrigerator and freezer which doubles as counter space

Yes, we have a place for the dish drainer

     Other live aboard's tell me that our galley is deluxe.  I find contentment in this approximately 6 foot square area.

     Our Thanksgiving menu consisted of the following:

One half of a 13 pound turkey and two extra thighs, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, yams, parsnips, brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, hot rolls, cherry pie, pumpkin pie, and a good bottle of wine.

From this angle it just doesn't look like much

Pictures don't do it justice, the turkey was cooked to perfection

Just as I am posting this Scott and I are having a good giggle.  He says next year I will take the pictures.   I was sure I would be doing a bit more bragging.  The pictures just don't tell it as it was, honestly.  We enjoyed the food and certainly enjoyed each others company.  Besides, we were going to untie the bowlines and take the house, our company, and the left overs out for a sail on Friday.

Friends, Forts, & Flags

Friends

Here is the Bucket with his friend Taylor.
 We wandered off the beaten path to build a fort on the beach.
 As everyone knows, every fort needs a flag, and here is the one they made.

T + B= Taylor and Bucket

Supervisor

Just the right size, room for two.

Flag flying

Limited Internet (11-25-2013)

     The internet is being elusive.  Some days I find myself sitting in McDonalds enjoying a soda and fries just for the privilege of using their WIFI.  I have made a friend at Anchor/Canvas (they are making our dodger), who has been generous to offer the use of the internet.  It just hasn't been working the last few days.  I have hope that I will be back on the blogging track soon.

Day Trip (11-17-2013)

     We had our first, "out of state" visitor last week.  It happened like this.  We have no television, no internet, have read, cooked, ate, cleaned, walked, organized, repaired, done just about anything we could think of or we inclined to do.  It is Monday night around 5:00, I have an idea. Let's play cribbage!  We love cribbage and we have a board on board.  We are all set up and ready to play.  There is one problem, we don't remember exactly how.  Funny!  We try to walk ourselves through a hand and  find ourselves creating some kind of new game mixing gin, cribbage and battleship.  This is not it.

      I have another idea.  Let's call Unk!  He knows!  We played for hours in past years.  One phone call and we were back into cribbage and informed that Unk would be here to visit the next day, November 12, 2013.  We hit the jackpot.  Unk, is Scott's Uncle, those of you who know us either know him or know of him.  It was a spontaneous move on his part, we were thrilled.

     Scott and I played several rounds of cribbage and know that it will likely be a permanent form of entertainment for us.

     Tuesday we woke and spent the morning anxiously awaiting phone call from Unk telling us that he had left his home and would be arriving in Port Townsend within 10 hours.  It is a 10 hour drive from Idaho to here, well, at least it is for me.  Unk made it here in just 8 hours!  It was such a treat to see a familiar face.  He was here to sail.  He had contributed ,  hours of labor, love, and so much energy in helping make the Velvet Sky our home and getting her on the water.  He was here to see and feel the magic he had a hand in creating.

     We set out for a sail on Wednesday morning, 10-ish.  Our destination.... Port Ludlow.  We might stay the night in a guest slip there and return to Port Townsend on Thursday.  Although we have been out into the sound 4 or five times and sauntered about, this is our first real venture.  It was a beautiful day, the clouds were near non existent and the rays of the sun danced happily on the water surface and warmed our faces as he started underway.  We  motored out looking for the most important element in sailing.  The Wind.  We found it for about 30 minutes halfway to Ludlow.  It was lovely.  So quiet and peaceful.  No motor, just the sound of the boat cutting through the cool, salty water that delightfully embraced the Velvet Sky.  There was also the sound of 8 knots of wind swirling in and around the sails and waterbirds calling out to their kin when they came across good ocean feed.  A little piece of heaven.

     We enjoyed the 30 minutes of sailing, then motored our way to Ludlow.  Out in the water we see a new sight.  This was our first time around Marrowstone Island.  Colvos Rock is like a tiny little island out on our port side.

Unk enjoying the view and quiet from the sprit 

A new place...Approaching Port Ludlow on our the Starboard Side (exciting for us)

The "Boys," after docking at Ludlow

     We made a short tour of Ludlow and decided to motor-sail back to Port Townsend.  This was a nice day trip, with and without the wind.

Sew WHAT? (November 10, 2013)

     My Husband has a lot of faith in me as a domestic goddess.  He believes I can create and sew anything at his requests.  Believe me, I have never given him this impression and I don't know from where or how he conceived this idea, all I know is that he stands by it no matter what I think about it.  I am confident I can thread a machine, fill a bobbin, cut out a pattern, and sew a fairly straight line (thanks, Mom).

      Making covers and "stuff" for the boat started with shopping for a heavy duty, industrial style machine.  Something I might be able to do a few sail repairs, if needed. It had to take up little space and have good reviews from fellow sailors.  We decided on a Sailrite LSZ-1.  It is a semi-industrial machine, it is well suited for sewing medium, heavy and extra heavy materials such as canvas, sail, upholstery, and some leather.  It is pretty versatile and can be used for home sewing as well.

      Scott's first request was hatch covers.  Luckily for me on this project I had the old hatch covers that I picked apart and used them for patterns.  I found material similar to "Sunbrella" at a local fabric outlet store in Boise, and ordered shock cord online.  It was a fairly easy project. Six covers took approximately 12 hours to complete.  I was really liking this machine.  We bought it used on Craig's list, by the way, and it came with a lot of extras (bobbins, thread, belts, etc.).

     The next project I decided to take on was sheets and mattress covers for the boat.  Oh....this was much more of a challenge.  No patterns and no straight angles.  I managed one set of sheets for the Bucket's bed.  They worked, just okay. I was not satisfied with the results.  I decided the best thing was sheet straps (they are elastic pieces with clasps that hold the corners of the sheets secure under the mattress) they can be found at any department store in the linen section and are a terrific solution to misfitting sheets.

     I did make a mattress cover for our bedroom mattress and added about 270 inches of zipper so that it could be removed for washing.  I just want to add that we used the mattress we were sleeping on in the house (a standard queen) and had an upholstery place cut it to fit the boat.  The mattress that came with the boat was 5 1/2 inches thick and smelled of...I don't know what, it was bad! The new mattress was 10 inches thick with 2 inches of memory foam on the top.  Again, I was creating my own pattern. Ughhh!  I spent hours and days measuring, tracing, cutting, sewing, picking out, and resewing.  We have a mattress cover that is moisture resistant.  Does it fit perfectly? Nope.  Am I satisfied with the performance of the new mattress cover and the zipper (what a pain that was), yes.  And so it is, and shall remain until I am ready to take it on again, maybe 5 or 6 years down the road.  That is a big MAYBE.

      So here we are, living on the boat.  We were on the hard for about 3 weeks.  That put us and our windows (portholes) around 15 feet above the passerby's.  I was comfortable walking around nude if I felt like it (Zayden was visiting Hope at this time, so I could).  The Velvet Sky was splashed in the last week of September.  Now I could look out the windows and see the entire world at ground level.  Even though I was pretty sure they could not see in, I felt vulnerable and exposed.  I mentioned earlier, in another post the window cover thing.  I followed the same steps I did in making the hatch covers.  Cut blue velvet material the size to cover the porthole, made a one inch pocket for small, round elastic. This works! And, it saves on the tape (we were taping material to the window for privacy).

Let the sunshine in

 

Privacy and Room Darkening (for naps)

   

     The window covers were necessary as far as I was concerned.  Scott has ideas for necessary sewing projects, too.  We need a cover for our outboard motor.  Okay, I can do this.  No pattern, just ambition and my husbands faith in me.  Yes, it is a bit extravagant and a lot over the top, considering it could have been as easy as making a shower cap.  We have a good laugh over the (unnecessary) detail.

 Since I am on a roll....I will try my hand at a life raft cover.

The good side :)

My next project will be a cover for the binnacle.  I don't know when, but soon.  I want to shout out a big, "Thank You!" to Unk for making the master head of the Velvet Sky into a work room.  It makes a great sewing room and one of the shelves seems custom made to fit the Sailrite while stowed.