Jimmy Buffet would be Proud

I’ve come to terms with the fact that we have to haul the boat out again to address the issue found with the stern tube. Today is haul out day. Always stresses me out to be bringing the boat to the dock but practice is a good thing. We weren’t able to find an apartment nearby so we are going to live on board while out of the water. It is gonna be HOT and there are the no see-ums at dawn and dusk and also the dirt and the climb up and down……yada yada yada. You get the gist, it isn’t the most pleasant but we do have a stand up AC that keeps one room in the boat moderately comfortable and with no travel time to and from the boat we should be able to make quick work of our fixing 😀. Cup half full. lol

We’ve been working flat out on other boat projects. My focus has been on making a new dodger (basically a windshield) for the boat. It is an overwhelmingly large undertaking. The 60 gauge plastic for the windows makes it so difficult to maneuver and move through the machine. The test fits take a lot of effort and super frustrating because there are so many angles and I don’t want any wrinkles and I want it super tight. The test fit yesterday left me with a bunch of tweaks to do. I have a feeling of dread and doubt now that this project will ever be done and done well. Stay tuned. Grahams confidence makes me worry even more. 

For fun we’ve been hanging out with a fellow named Jim who bought his boat last year and has been renovating it. Graham and Jim have been loving the frozen tequila margaritas! Jimmy Buffett would be proud. Every time we get together though the alcohol hits hard after a day working in the heat and probably not enough calories. Yesterday was  no exception. We tried to order food but after 1.5 hours of waiting on our meal I learned they still hadn’t started it. We abandon that idea and call it a night. The food would have saved us.  The evening involved a couple falls out of the dinghy at the dock, getting a little off track as we made our way back to our boat and leaving a backpack at the bar 😂😂.  Not to worry as I was sober. No tequila for me! 

Fingers crossed our haul out goes well today🤞🤞 and our time on the hard passes quickly. 

Project Manager's Nightmare

I've always dealt with a feeling like I am just waiting for the next hammer to drop. The next crisis or drama to happen. It's difficult to be really in the moment when you are waiting and in "Protect Mode". Sailing has nudge this "looming threat" feeling into overdrive. Feels like we are always just moments away from the next catastrophe. I tend to stay on guard and ready. I think I might even be a bit addicted to the drama. I have a sense of guilt if I let my guard down and feel too happy. I am use to mitigating risks and managing issues and adjusting accordingly but man this sail life is a project manager's nightmare. 

Yesterday we left the dock and headed out to tie to a mooring ball in the bay. I am working hard to own my role as helmswoman. I refreshed my memory on reversing a sailboat with some help from YouTube and considered where the wind was coming from and if it would be helping or hurting me. I considered all the lines tied to the dock and how I wanted them removed and in what order. I called the dock hand and asked for a hand departing. Gulp....my anxiety was building. I should mention that we have a very heavy full keel boat, so it doesn't respond very quickly and it doesn't course correct very quickly either. 

The dock hand arrived and I asked him to untie the stern line and loop it around the cleat and
return to Graham on the boat. I asked him to control the bow line and walk us back as I reversed. Graham would then keep us close as I backed up and release his line once the stern was clear and then go the bow and take the line once we were clear of the dock. I just had to make sure we backed up in the right direction and not to quickly or to slowly! For any of our sailing friends reading they might be saying to themselves, "no biggie". Well, I hope to one day share the same sentiments and be oozing confidence but for today....I am not there ;-). I am not gonna lie to you though, it is such a rush being at the helm and directing folks on how it will go down but also a tremendous feeling of responsibility. I can imagine a tiny bit of what Graham must feel as Captain. 

Once we cleared the dock and were underway to the mooring ball, I felt a snippet of pride and relief. Phew....task 1 complete and here comes task 2. The mooring ball is in a bay that is a bit unusual because the wind blows you into the bay towards the beach. Almost 100% of the time you are being blown away from the shore so it is fairly straight forward to pull in and anchor or tie up. In this situation it feels a bit uneasy as you need to enter and turn around. I called our friend in the bay and asked if he'd come over and help tie our lines up. I managed to come up right behind the ball with the wind on our nose and close enough for Graham to pass the line to our friend to loop through the ring and pass back. I could of been a bit closer but it was a pretty good job. 

Once we were tied up I headed to the bow feeling.....happy, excited, proud. I taped the
moment and asked for a high five from Graham. Once the recording stopped his face dropped. He let me know that our recent fix in the yard to our prop shaft and stern tube which connects to our engine isn't right as he had checked when we were motoring to the ball and it was burning HOT to the touch......there it is....the universe hasn't let me down. I can tell instantly that this problem will not be a quick fix. We had previously determined that the stern
tube to the engine has never been in alignment but after seeking lots of advice and consideration of the fact that everything has been fine for the past 10 years....we decided to just replace the parts that needed replacing and leave it as is.....well, it seems we should have just bit the bullet and fixed the bigger alignment issue at the same time. My mind starts racing as I consider options....most options dealing with this issue involve not having the boat in the water, oiy.....back to the yard and being hauled out. They require parts that often are not available on the island and need to be shipped....and they involve plenty of time and money. 

I am realizing that if I wait to be happy I am gonna miss it. This is our life....all the challenges and sunrises. There are going to be plenty of challenges but we love challenges, right? These moments can't own my happiness. Feels good to write it down. A letter to myself. I also need to come to terms with the fact that a schedule with sailing is most definitely not set in stone and my need for control needs to be relaxed. I need to settle in and let this journey guide me a bit. I can't be in wait mode....this is my life. 

Unwanted Guests

It feels so flippin good to be home. Unpacking…..is sooo good. We’ve been living out of a backpack for 4 months!! We are reveling in the nesting process. Also wonderful to be floating again. Every once in a while I think to myself “Are we moving?” And yes we are.

So far everything seems to be going to plan….except for one tiny problem….our new houseguests!! When we store the boat for the season we always leave a few bug traps out preventively. In all our years of sailing we’ve only ever had an ant problem but this time when I checked the sticky traps I found 3 dead German cockroaches! Give me big seas and bad weather any day over a cockroach. It became my mission prior to moving back onboard to exterminate these unwanted guests. First step was a deep clean. Opening all the bilges and moping everything out and looking for traces. I found nothing. I was beginning to wonder if maybe these 3 dead roaches were from early in the summer and there were no others. Unfortunately this was not the case as Graham sent me a video of a live cockroach caught on a sticky trap the next morning.

I went deep in my internet research and spent so much time at the hardware store that morning reading all the product. The stock boys must of thought I had an army of cockroaches at home. I came back to the boat armed with 4 different products!

1. Foggers: you basically close all the window, set them off and leave your boat, not to
   return for at least 4 hours.
2. Boric acid: it’s a powder that you sprinkle along the base of all walls, cracks and crevices
3. Baited Roach Traps: the cockroaches are attracted to the poisoned bait and take it back to the others
4. Sticky Roach Traps: these give us a visual queue if we still have cockroaches

Well Graham was the lucky winner of setting off the foggers. We did this on two different nights in different areas of the boat. We opened all our cupboards and floorboards so the fumes would go everywhere. Set them off and got the hell out.

I dusted everywhere with boric acid and laid out all the traps. We felt very pleased with ourselves. I spent a bunch of time the next day wiping down the boat and cleaning after the foggers. We kept checking traps and no roaches. We did it!….or did we??

We moved back on board and began the nesting process and periodically I’d check the traps happy to see no new guests…..until yesterday afternoon. Arrrrggg. Another live one caught on a trap. Now granted it had only been a day since the last treatment and the products say it may take a few days for them to be totally eradicated so I haven’t gone into full freak mode but I am obsessively checking the traps constantly.

Fingers crossed we have given these guests the boot! I'll keep ya updated :-).

Aisle Seats

I’ve been missing writing. It has been in the past a form of therapy for me. I think I might try it again

for a bit. Graham and I arrived back in Grenada on Thursday morning after a red eye flight from Toronto. It has been one hell of a summer, couch surfing with friends and family. Talk about a great form of therapy…so many deep talks and connections, so much laughter as well. I mused with my friend Amanda this summer about how to purposefully be more joyful and silly. I know it sounds too deliberate but man it feels good to laugh. I need more of it and somehow you become an adult and this silly part of you shrinks a bit. I’m gonna work this year on building it back up. All the laughter these past few months has really been the best form of therapy. Anyway it felt really good to be so loved and welcomed this summer. 

And now here we are back in Grenada and in typical “Perry Style” we arrived on the red eye cheap flight at 8am. For anyone who doesn’t know us really well “Perry Style” is basically “on the cheap”. Nothing makes Graham (and myself to some degree) happier than saving money and frugality. Graham also decided to surprise me by booking us seats not beside each other but rather across the aisle??? On a Red eye?? He kept saying, “we are next to each other…just across an aisle”. Needless to say his logic was lost on me and he will be asking me where I want to sit in the future ;-). 

During our last few days in Toronto we packed a Pallet full of groceries to ship down to Grenada. It is shocking how much groceries cost on the island. Most items are at a minimum double but it's normal to pay 3 to 6 times as much for items as well. When we were previously in quarantine in Grenada we bought our groceries online through the IGA website, so now in Canada as we shop we open the Grenada IGA store app and rationalize all our purchases by comparing the prices. The pallet pays for itself! It is also so nice to have some familiar items on board as we set off to cross oceans and we both love the process :-). Purchasing, inventorying, organizing, packing, arranging the boxes on the pallet like a game of tetris, labeling….love the labeling, wrapping the pallet in shrink wrap…so satisfying seeing it all packaged up as one whole, sooo good…..and then when it arrives…..well let me tell you ;-)! 

It’s interesting returning to Grenada as we have been here many times. The newness and wide eyed wonder is gone but it's replaced with a nostalgia and home-like feel. As our taxi (with the slowest oldest taxi driver known to Grenada) weaves through the streets I am smiling.  I have been missing this, missing my boat, my bed, my routine, my time….and mother ocean. Unfortunately, Salty Ginger is parked on land and dismantled for summer storage, so not yet an ideal place to lay our heads. Past Julie and Graham would have moved on board in the blazing heat after a night flight and probably begun work right away….but current us has learned a few things ;-). We rented a small apartment walking distance to the yard and had a couple hours sleep before heading to the boat for ½ a days work. 

Oh my god the HEAT…..I always try to mentally prepare myself but omg….I can literally feel my hair
instantly frizz….sweat seems to come from everywhere….my glasses keep sliding down my nose. I quickly remember how every job on a boat is a series of MANY jobs. First thing we need to do is locate a ladder to be able to climb on board. There never seems to be enough ladders. Once on board we get to work on hooking up electricity so we can turn on our stand up AC unit. Thank god for this small unit.  We need to find our extension cords….we need a few to connect the boat to the plug-in which is a
crazy long distance away. This involves climbing up and down the ladder.  Then we need to remember how to turn on the shore power on board….we should really write this stuff down ;-). This takes a bit of trial and error. Then we set up the AC with the hose out a window and the pillow stuffed in the window around it…then we press the power button and you can imagine we are now in a full blown sweat….I’m in my underwear with hair on head….and the AC doesn’t start. Hot, tired, frustrated….we pull out the filters to see if they need cleaning, we drag the AC over to the bilge to see if maybe it’s full of water….it isn’t. We figure what might be wrong and prior to pulling it all apart we try just one more time to plug in and……AIR beautiful AIR Conditioned AIR blows out…..sweet Jesus I love this machine. 

Now the fun begins. We have one week to do all the jobs that need to be done before we launch Salty Ginger on October 13th. In one afternoon we……ok Graham…checked a bunch off the list…I did a bunch as well but also had to have my first nap on board…glorious! Before we left for the apartment we put up our big sun shade and readied ourselves for a productive week. 

I’m so happy to be home. Even with the heat and the work and the frustrations….it feels so good. I am so excited about what's to come. I feel like our journey has just begun. We plan on beginning our circumnavigation in early November!! Pacific Ocean here we come….. YAHOOO

#pacificcrossing2023