Boat Preparations – Can we cut anything out?

After I settled Zakary down for his morning nap Norm and I fell into our pattern of reviewing our endless list of daily essentials.
[embedplusvideo height=”552″ width=”700″ standard=”http://www.youtube.com/v/B_uotMw5nfE?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=B_uotMw5nfE&width=700&height=552&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=&notes=” id=”ep5084″ /]

The boat was quiet except sounds of Orin and Eli reading to Teyauna in their cabin. Taking advantage of the moment we called Jaeden and Dailin to join us in our planning session. It took a few minutes to pry them away from their books but soon we were all seated around the table with paper and pen in hand. Dad and I made a long list and when we were satisfied with the results we asked the older boys for input and if there was anything we should add or change. Before we could stop them we were given brilliant suggestions of a few things we should cross off the list like fixing the sail covers, buying proper flags and ordering charts. Jaeden felt we didn’t really need to know how to practice anchoring properly and Dailin insisted foreign visa’s weren’t that important. The kids were happy to skip the haul-out we have scheduled to paint our bottom. Orin piped up that we definitely could skip painting the stripes on the boat. We all had a chuckle and then had to get back to reality.

By noon I slipped outside to find a hard earned magic enveloping our little crew. Against everyone’s wishes they were each pulled into a rhythm of taping, painting, lacing, scrubbing and drilling. No two kids were working on the same job yet in the quiet of day we were somehow all pulling together to make our dream a reality.

With the work completed, I ran to the store with Jaeden and Dailin to grab a few things for dinner. Returning back to the marina I glanced at the clock and realized it was already 5:15pm and we had guests coming at 5:30. I did not even need to tell Jaeden and Dailin I would desperately need their help to pull dinner off. Thankfully our guests arrived ten minutes late and we had everything tidy and food hot and ready by the time they came. No mater how tricky it is at times to inspire our crew there is no group of people I would rather embark on this adventure with.

At the end of the day we shared our small space with new friends and enjoyed a fun Family Night activity. The food was warm and filling and our boat truly felt like home.

———————
Please feel free to like or share our blog with others online using the following links.

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. Robin Orrego

    This is all so exciting! I am so happy to be able to follow along with all of you. We love it!

  2. Opa

    Ah, yes, the carefree life of sailing the seven seas! Who needs visas and courtesy flags? The Jolly Roger should cover it.

  3. Dennis McKay

    Tell us about your new friends. As residents of San Francisco they have an exotic aura about them and we would love to hear about them. Oh we do love and ENVY your everyday experiences. You should all be keeping journals.

Comments are closed.