Love it or Endure it

Seems like I am either loving it out here or enduring it and unfortunately the past few days have been more endure. We are all so flipping exciting to have Salty Ginger in the warm water and to return to Antigua where we started our adventure from in 2008, that it is sometimes difficult to be happy in the moment. We also have visitors to look forward to. First my mom and Rob and then Alex's friend Andrew for a week and then our good friends Louis and Jules! It it going to be so much fun. We talk all the time about it.

We also spend a lot of time talking and thinking about food. We are eating really well out here but food still seems to be the main topic of conversation. Today Graham and I started the day with oatmeal and now he is making the kids french toast. For lunch we will have Graham's famous bean burritos with our second last tomatoes and for dinner Thai green curry with our cabbage, carrots and canned button mushrooms. YUM, my favorite meal. We were remarking yesterday how funny it is that we can't seem to have meals planned out at home but here we are out at sea and no problem.

A typical day on Salty begins with Amelia waking me up at 8am letting me know that it is my turn for watch. She always seems way to happy to get me up. We each do 3 hour watches twice a day. It is still dark at 8am and the sun usually rises just after 9. Graham sleeps in the cockpit for Amelia's watch, so once I am up and the sun is up we have our morning coffee and oatmeal as the kids sleep.

Next on the schedule is my favorite part of the day, Graham fires up the SSB and checks the weather and for any new emails. My dad has been our awesome weatherman for the journey, so we are always sure to have some news from home. My sister also checks my email and sends me highlights to the ship. I savor these updates and the kids look forward to hearing any news once they are up.

I get Alex up at 11am for his watch and I take some time for a rest. Amelia usually rolls out of bed around noon or 1pm. The kids do school from 2 to 5pm while Graham is on watch and sometimes if Alex finishes early we watch an episode of Dexter. Amelia takes over watch from 5 to 8pm and we all have a nice dinner in the cockpit. Graham lies down in a bed at 8 until 2pm while Alex and I are on watch in the cockpit. We get Graham up 2am and he does his watch alone until 5am when he wakes up Amelia and we do it all over again!

We all watch as the miles tick down and compare the miles made during each of our watches. Tomorrow we should be in triple digits. This is very exciting. We should also be moving into a couple days of lighter winds, so we are thinking air buns and hamburgers are in order! Each day we strip off a few more pieces of clothing. The gun show has started with the boys and Amelia and I got out the bathing suits yesterday. It is definitely getting hot. Bring on the Caribbean Sun!!