16 January 2013 – Thawing out in San Francisco
Our first week in the San Francisco area has been freezing cold. When we left Canada for our sailboat, we told the kids to leave all of their heavy sweaters and jackets behind because we did not want lots of excess cargo on our sailboat. Yes it did lighten the suitcases substantially to pack it full of t-shirts and shorts but it sure did not account for the winter weather in San Francisco. Since we arrived on the 11th of January it has dropped to between 0 and 2 degrees Celsius every night. Under normal circumstances that is bearable but when the heating/ac unit on the boat does not work, that makes things much more interesting. We have bundled up the three youngest kids into one bed under a load of blankets, the baby is in the room with mom and dad while the teenage boys are huddled in their own birth.
Everyone we met in San Francisco said this was not normal weather and so we held out that it would get better. But now a week into the trip we broke down and bought 4 little heaters and have placed one in each cabin to help thaw everyone out as they sleep. Tonight will be the first night that everyone will sleep in a warm room… lets hope that the heaters can handle it as the portable heater we had last night stopped working as we were heading off to bed.
Cargo – Stashing over 13 wheelbarrow loads of Cargo. Where’s the shrink ray?
We arrived in California towing a small U-haul trailer of supplies. Last year we had purchased dozens of cans of freeze-dried emergency food which we thought we would bring along as a nice addition to what could otherwise be some bland meals. With such items as strawberries, pears and chicken sealed in a can, we are determined to ensure that we eat well on this year long voyage.
In addition to these food supplies we have packed plenty of other food, comfortable mattress toppers, snorkel gear, wet suits, biodegradable diapers, toys and a huge library of books. I was amazed that the heavy trailer made it here without a problem and was worried on a few occasions that the load on the hitch of our van would not hold… but it did.
All in all, in addition to the clothes and suitcases we brought with us, we had 13 wheelbarrow loads full of cargo that we brought onto our vessel. It was quite a sight to see and dozens of people on the dock asked us what was going on and where we were going. It was quite obvious that we were preparing for something big. I guess they were surprised that we were not even planning on leaving for 2 months from this area but we are getting ready now.
The challenge as we looked at our back deck stacked high with boxes and much lower on the waterline than we had anticipated, was where on earth were we going to be able to store all of our goods. I was beginning to think that we were going to have to stack boxes of #10 cans under the mattresses of the kids (which would have probably brought their beds within 2 feet of the ceiling of their cabins) but incredibly enough we averted that scenario.
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As we gradually worked at tucking away things into every nook and cranny of the ship we found the space just seemed to squeeze in a few more things here and there. The problem however soon became the clutter that was collecting everywhere. We finally took a trip to Walmart and a hardware store to find some containers that would fit into the various shelves and spaces that we had previously measured out. After a few hours we managed to find containers that would be able to hold the various books, games, clothes and other clutter that was being stacked on shelves and in the limited amount of cupboards. It is incredible to see how little space a family of 9 can live in. We definitely have set a record for ourselves… although we sure could use a few more winter clothes.
