Enjoying the Weather

We are enjoying the weather.  And the rest, well, the word "Mañana" which means "not today" was born here - everything is framed by the uneasy feeling that it "will happen some day, just not today". 

Some days when I don't feel as though I am living in a single car garage while fixing the garage - with three other people - are good days and some days are - well I just call those days when I want to pack it in "adjusting" days. 

We are still attached to a dock, can't sail anywhere. We finally have the new rigging wire, but the rigger is sick and will soon be booked well into the future. But our engine is now fixed (we have been waiting for over two months for the mechanic to return a repaired part), our frig no longer has black mold thriving all over the poorly nailed in weather stripping, many of our things have a home somewhere on the boat and as Tamsyn said today, "The toys are out and there is food aboard, it feels like home." (There was no food aboard for the three days it took to clean and re-do the refrigerator door seals - we lived on Pb & J, cookies and Banditos - our local hamburger joint). So we are getting somewhere I think. We are in the process of provisioning - getting food aboard for the next 4 months. Trying to plan for what may not exist on the Islands of the South Pacific (or at least not in our price range). It is a complicated and daunting task since it all has to fit in this little boat - with us.

Grandpa John just left with our car, Owen's Toyota 4-Runner. (His visit along with pics will be a separate blog entry.)  So now we provision either by taxi or on foot. Owen's feet are getting sore. It requires many trips to 'provision'.  Imagine trying to plan servings of fruit (2 per day) for 4 people for 3 weeks (for fresh food) and for 15 weeks (for preserved, dried, and canned food). You can do the math - it's about 784 fruit servings. Then repeat for veges, meat/beans/fish of opportunity, grains, dairy, paper and plastic products, cleaning supplies, extra parts and let us not forget water - for much more than drinking. We spend our time measuring each item in our favorite meals, doing the math and thinking about weather or not that meal will continue to be our favorite after the 15th meal in 15 weeks. We have a water-maker aboard so we try not to worry about water. (We have not had the opportunity to test our water-maker yet - but we have it aboard and the membrane is pickled so we do as we always do - plan for the time when we can sail out of the "marina", run the water-maker in clean water and test it. We are certain it will happen Mañana).

Bathing in a Boat Yard

We live attached to a dock attached to a boat yard. There is a huge 72 ton lift to lift boats down to the water or up to the yard or so that their bottoms can be scraped of barnacles and seaweed, scrubbed clean, stripped of paint (if they are steel or if they are "glass" (fiberglass) they do not need their paint stripped off), painted and all manor of boat repairs. We've seen boats come in that have hit a reef and need their keels fixed (chunks of the keel missing). We've seen boats come in that had something leaking (severely) in their keel and have had to have their keel's removed to be repaired - that looks odd - a sail boat with out a keel looks like a top heavy and narrow power boat. The boat yard is generally busy, the kids are not allowed up there without an adult during work days (6 days a week). All of this activity makes for lots of excitement for Tamsyn and Griffyn, boats are frequently powering just to our port to tie up before they are lifted out. Often they need assistance tying up to the dock (so we run out and catch the dock lines). Sometimes the boats come so close to our "slip" (a temporary spot not really a slip) that we have to stand on the bow with our whisker pole (a long pole with a hooked end) in hand ready to push their boat away from ours.  Once a very large powerboat gave a us a nice chilled bottle of red Mexican wine (for when we leave Mexico). They had a 60" flat screen TV aboard. There are a number of these mega yachts up on stilts in the boat yard - walking around them as you head to the banyo can be a little daunting. 

We use a communal shower/tiolet in the boat yard. We can't "poop" in our Lavac toilet because there are no pumping out facilities here. We only pee in it. So every time a young person has to go #2 (young 'uns are not allowed in the boat yard unaccompanied) Owen or I and the child must treck up to the banyo together. It makes for a lot of fragrant quality time.

Did I mention that we have no hot water on our boat? (I found out when I got to La Paz). So taking a shower - if you want hot water can only happen in the communal banyo (in the boat yard). The day Owen went to pick up Grandpa John he left very early - before I could take a shower, so to get one, I had to bring both Tamsyn and Griffyn with me to take a shower. They cannot be left alone on a boat even their own.  Now they get fairly dirty every day playing on the dock and on deck (since we haven't been able to give this boat a bath yet) so of-course they needed a shower, but I don't relish being naked in a hard and slippery somewhat public place with two hungry and fairly squirrelly naked and slippery children. I have done this only once before and swore I wouldn't do it again (but I had forgotten about that that morning).  We wondered up to the shower after Owen left around 7:40 AM. (The shower is near the office of the boat yard, near the front gate, near the entrance.) All the workers in the boat yard (10 or so men used to long hard days in the hot sun) arrive between 7:45 and 8:00 AM. 

Lately the showers have had a tendency to overflow - filling up the stall (a couple inches lower than the main floor) because of a clogged drain. And taking a shower with three people will take more water than taking a shower with one or two. Thus I was anticipating a bathing experience in the shower. So when my kids, who are usually angels, began splashing the water from the over flowing shower stall into the changing area I wasn't too happy about it. The "changing area" is what you walk into when you enter the banyo. The banyo door's lock doesn't work, the door blows open in a slight wind (the wind is always blowing in that direction). Earlier I had found a way to secure the door - pushing the broken block (of the lock) into the slot in the door frame so I wasn't worried about it opening on us (as it has to many other unsuspecting women). But I was getting rather frustrated with my two for throwing towels up in the air and other surly activities as I was drying off. I was "encouraging" them to get dressed and not having much luck. Well at some point - I had had enough of their playing (instead of dressing) that I gave Tamsyn a swat on her butt (Griffyn was already in time out). She let out a deafening howl (tile walls). After some scolding and finally dressing, we "unlocked" the door and walked into a completely silent boat yard. No heavy equipment generators running, no sanders or power saws running, you could have heard a pin drop. They had all been listening!! I was mortified - but clean. The three of us marched across the silent boat yard to the dock and back to our boat to hybernate for a couple of hours. 

After talking with my dock neighbors about bathing with children - and we all laughed about it - I was reminded of the quote from Pride and Prejudice, "What are we but sport for our neighbors - and to laugh at them in our turn."  

Mangroves, birds, and beach

Each day brings a new challenge for the crew of SV Madrona (that's us).  There is always work on the boat to get her ready for sea - things like putting new gaskets on ports so they don't leak, or marking out the  lengths of chain rode that our primary anchor is attached to - and making sure that the bitter end is in fact attached to the boat (it wasn't - but it is now.  No comment about the previous captain).  And school along with keeping food flowing from our cramped galley keep the co-captain quite busy too.

So, with those things in mind, we decided it was time for another outing to the mangrove swamp on El Mogote peninsula, and this time we brought a camera.  Rather we brought three cameras.  Our big Canon camera, and each kid brought a digital underwater capable camera that they got for Christmas.

So this is a picture post with comments of course.

Our morning started out visiting with this little puffer fish.  He hangs out under the dock.

And the laundry was still hanging from the previous day.

On to the field trip.

The Eagle has landed.  La Paz is in the background.

Our noble steed - now seemingly repaired.

General MacArthur.

Mangroves!  At low tide.

Young explorers.

La Paz and the beautiful cathedral dome.

A male and female Heron - of what kind I do not yet know.

I watched this diving bird catch three fish in a back channel.

Sandcastles are part of every good outing.

Pure happiness.  

Splashing at high speed is good fun too.

I snuck up on one of those herons.  

Carrie's got the camera.  Ripples.

The sand patterns were amazingly beautiful.

Light and shadow.

Lots of yachts and the old mountains.

Some sort of underwater insy tube worm things.

An oyster bed in the mangroves.

Stepping out.

Moonrise.

Griffyn accosting our friend Steve.

A couple minutes later.  Dusk falls quickly this near the tropics.

Now it's time to see what pictures the kids took.  First Griffyn.

First picture!

Mangroves.

Mom.

An interesting - something.

Now it's time to see what Tamsyn shot with her camera.

One small step...

There's my family.

The love between them is very evident in this picture.

A really nicely composed landscape.

How cool is that?

So that's our photo post, but it isn't all of the story.  Shortly after I pushed our dinghy back out into the water and got the engine started for our return journey to Madrona, everyone started yelling "Dolphins!"

Sure enough, about eight dolphins were swimming past us about four or five boat lengths away.  We didn't get too close, but it was hypnotic watching their slick sides arch out of the water and slide liquid back into the silver sea.  All in all it was a very fun afternoon.  And on the way back the wind had died down so we didn't even get wet.

We'll talk more later.

P.S. The rigging wire and associated hardware all crossed the border Friday, and we should have them Monday.  Yeah us!!! 

Owen

Art Day at Lynndale Elementary and on board SV Madrona

So last Thursday was Art Day at good old Lynndale Elementary, and we thought that there should be an art focus here in La Paz too.  Painting clothing and photography were the big projects, and for Tamsyn that meant an inside-out Lynndale Elementary T-Shirt.  Unfortunately all Griffyn had that was white still was some briefs.  So art was made!

Now this shirt appears to spell RAT.  It in fact spells art - three different times - if read from top to bottom!

Here's some art of a different sort.  Griffyn had a blast.  So a big shout out to Mrs. Woodman's and Mrs. Park's classes.

Water, water, water

We are surrounded by water. We float on it, we wash in it. But we cannot drink it - not the local stuff. There is a source for spring water and the first time our tank ran we out - we got our water there, but we could only get 15 gallons at a time and we had to drive to get it. So a couple days ago, the last time we ran out and were very thirsty (4 PM and 85 degrees out), we decided to fill our water tank with dock water. We treated it with bleach (100 gallons water to 1.5 Tbsp bleach) and now we are drinking it. It tastes a little like chewing metal - kind of like water from Northern Minnesota - just like what we grew up with. The kids get a little taste from home.

Not sure if we will fill it again with dock water, but for now we can use water freely which in itself is worth the poor taste.

Carrie

And School Begins

I officially began home school last Thursday. I had given Tamsyn and Griffyn math sheets, letters to practice and small writing assignments over the past month - but it wasn't organized - just 'busy work' so Owen and I could focus on stowing things, finding food and supplies (endless shopping trips), dealing with laundry (walking to and from a laundromat, hanging clothes out to dry, unhanging them, stowing them), or fixing the boat (an ongoing process that we don't really ever expect to complete). And each time we'd leave the boat on an errand there were always people we would meet along the way which led to a lot of socializing - extending the length of a trip. Sometimes it seems we couldn't even leave the dock for much longer than we planned - Ivar would be there offering us fresh baked brownies (on his boat), or Lulu would wander by and we have to ask her where she was off to (so we would know where one more thing could be found) or Max would come by to help Owen fix something on the boat, changing our plans entirely. On many of those shopping trips we never found what we went looking for (it took many many trips to find a tea kettle). For so many reasons I wasn't ready to begin homeschooling just yet. 

And then one day about a week ago Ranger Owen gave them an hour long lecture/demo on Fossils. They were both very good listeners and really enjoyed his presentation and the drawings they did at the end. Tamsyn had started talking about her school routine, how it made her feel part of something, rather than just a passenger or "in the way" as she felt now on the boat. She and I sat down and discussed how much time she spent each school day on Math, silent reading, writing, recess, as well as things like art, music, gym and cultural studies which she did a couple times a week (rather than daily). Griffyn talked too about what he missed - going to the treasure box, going to the library and of-course recess. I noticed over the last couple of weeks that Griffyn was very studious for short bursts. He had had no trouble completing a page of Math or Writing practice. And Tamsyn was eager to begin and feel part of something again. She wanted a project to work on. So last Thursday morning I decided it was time to begin school even though two good friends came by the boat to ask me to join them for yoga. 

We have a beautiful old ship's bell on board. When school begins (after breakfast) I ring the bell (one bell). At each recess, I ring the bell (one bell) and at the end of recess, I ring the bell (two bells) and at the end of the school day (three bells). The kids love to "get in line" at the end of recess. Griffyn races to the head of the line.  "Just like we did at Lynndale Elementary," Tamsyn says. They line up inside the cockpit at the hatch waiting for me to call them in. We began our day with Math, using the Math curriculum from Lynndale. Tamsyn worked through 5 sheets and Griffyn one. Then it was recess. Then we worked on phonics, Tamsyn loves to lead and was good at coming up with lots of words and Griffyn is working on letter recognition and sounds.  We sat on deck and did this with cards while looking out across the water at whatever we saw. Then we came inside and worked on writing - Owen and Griffyn worked on the alphabet while Tamsyn and I worked on answering emails from her friends back home. (Tamsyn reads the emails, writes out what she wants to say and I type it up). After lunch we sang a round "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and discussed ABAB patterns, rounds and music parts and rhythym. 

We all enjoyed school for two days and then it was Saturday and we felt we had earned it. We went for a ride in our dinghy (testing the third repair job) to the peninsula, called El Mogote. We waded barefoot around mangrove swamps, saw a couple different herons fishing and found a dead puffer fish at low tide.  There were amazing star-shaped patterns on the sand created by tiny crabs and layers of crushed shells marking the highs of each tide. The water temperature was just like the Rum river (Anoka, MN) in summer, lovely. The day was warm and sunny with a light breeze. The clouds were high in the sky, wispy and whimsical. I watched an airplane's plume disappear into the stratosphere, a sharp line against all those soft thin rounded clouds. Without a working rig or a dinghy, we have only been able to get around on foot or the occasional drive when Owen can drive us. It was quite a treat to be moving over the water - our ultimate goal. We still do not know when we will see the wire for our rig or be able to sail away from the dock, but our friends who have all spent longer in La Paz then us continue to encourage us with phrases like - it will happen, eventually.

Monday was Valentine's Day and it took us a half a day to find Valentine's day treats so we spent the rest of the day eating them (on holiday). Also I had heard that Ace hardware might have some of the things I had been searching for - so I was eager to find out. We found our tea kettle there (the exact same one we had had in Seattle) and also a French Press (for coffee), a French butter keeper, a lovely wooden spoon, a rolling pin, a serrated plastic knife (for cutting up veges) and plastic egg cartons - Wow! So much in one store. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven. I love Ace hardware. Tuesday Tamsyn's desire to learn to sew overtook our formal school plans. We had discovered a fabric store over the weekend and she was eager to begin learning how to sew. Tomorrow we will begin by making an Alphabet to run the length of the settee. I want to make labels for everything on the boat that Griffyn can name. 

Our school days last around 4 hours, beginning around 9:30/10 AM and ending around 2:00/2: 30 PM. I am the main teacher but Owen generally helps with Griffyn.  Because we are still outfittng the boat, finding things we need and figuring out how to live here, we will not have school 5 days a week. My goal is to have school formally 3 days a week with a day or two of "project days" in between.  We also have a Spanish Rosetta Stone program so soon I will add Spanish language lessons to our routine. I want to keep up with Math, reading and writing for Tamsyn regularly either during the school day or in the evenings and for Griffyn to work on phonics, letter and number recognition and eventually beginning reading/writing. He is already doing the simplest math equations.

This coming Thursday is Art Day at Lynndale Elementary. We look forward to making playdough (and working with it), beginning our stalagmites project, building sand castles and found object art and learning to take pictures with our underwater cameras. 

Carrie

Survived the windstorm

We did indeed survive the Norther, though when the big swells came into the docks and pinned us to the dock (against six bumpers) we had moments of anxiety for the boat.  Top winds were around 32 knots (which is more in mph), but it was the swells the wind generated, and our position on the north side of the dock which created an uncomfortable couple of nights.

It also got quite cold.  We had a low one morning of 47 degrees.  I know, I know - don't cry for us.  But still.  We don't have a heater at the moment.  It was nippy.  One of things we did today was get Carrie a warmer pair of slacks, as none she brought were up to this cold weather.  We also got both kids flip-flops today, and Griffyn got a new pair of sneakers.

Carrie has been great at making amazingly good meals for us, which has been quite an accomplishment in this different culture.  Yesterday she made pancakes again for breakfast, and we all were at the table.

Our Dinghy is back and looks O.K., but it will take a ride under power to see if it is really repaired.  Tomorrow.  Our wire should cross the boarder Tuesday, and come down the Baja peninsula to us by the end of the week.  Keep your fingers crossed.

School has been touch and go the last few days as there has been so much to do getting our boat papers, and importation documents for Mexico in order.  We've also been going though our mountain of spare parts, identifying them (thanks Paul), and figuring which if any need to be easily accessible.  Not many.

Some time back I mentioned these special moments Griffyn has been having on the boat.  Well yesterday I caught one on camera.  Early morning light becomes a play-thing.