What do we do in the boat yard...???

Well thought you all might be curious about life in the boat yard. It is a bit like putting your car into the mechanic shop to be fixed and living at the garage while they do the work. Picture a dirty mechanics yard/shop and "Bingo" you got it! Oh wait....add bugs and extreme heat. Now you are there. The bathroom in a mechanic shop pretty much looks like the bathroom here to!

Ok, I will try and stop complaining now. So we didn't hit the water last Friday. We are shooting for this Friday. I made another list and distributed. We have been on top of everyone throughout the day to keep things moving and things are getting done. We have to make the decision tomorrow about wiring the final payment for this Friday because "No Cash, No Splash" is there slogan here. My fear is we do the transfer and they don't finish by Friday and then we are in the water and out of there face and the remaining nick picky things don't get done!!! Ok, breath Julie, breath....

We are busy round the clock. Artmeo is looking better and better. Feels like home. Graham spends his days chopping through his list and assisting the various boat workers doing their work on board. Alex and Amelia do their school work, play with the other boat yard kids, swimming and hide and go seek, they help with the chores. Amelia enjoys doing the laundry (no one tell her that it is actually work!), Alex is a huge help carrying groceries, prepping for dinner, washing the boat, etc etc...I have been making bug screens for all the windows, organizing the boat, unpacking our storage shed, laundry, shopping, cleaning, list making, tracking down various workers, etc etc....So anyone dying to be in our shoes? Ha

Everyone cross their fingers and their toes for us, in hopes that we splash on Friday with all the work we paid for completed!! Stay tuned.....

Why so many stories....

Why does it seem that anything to do with us and boats, leads to a story? Who knew that our week of rest and relaxation in Curacao would have an adventure involved?.....

Christmas in Curacao was nice. It was great to have a complete change of pace and absolutely NO boat repairs. It seemed that all the favorites that we miss from back home were available at the grocery store in Curacao, so we all ate alot. Things like "Poppycock" and "Dankse" butter cookies. Graham and I stayed on my Dad and Cheryl's boat at night and the kids slept on a blow up mat on the floor in Uncle Rob's room. They said the best part of their trip was staying up late and listening to all of Rob's funny stories in the dark. Family time fills the heart. It felt really good. (Not to say that there weren't any fights......cause what is Christmas without a family quarrel or 2 :-)....but that isn't the story I am tellin').

So on the 3rd night Graham was finishing watching "Patriot Games" on the deck and Dad came out and right at the finale of the movie asks Graham if he thought the boat might dragging backwards? (The house we were renting was overlooking their boat.) Graham was so engrossed in the movie, he only slightly acknowledge and it was decided it must just be Dad's imagination. Dad went to bed and when the movie finished Graham and I drove down to the boat. Once we got onto the boat it really seemed to us that it had moved a bit. I wrote down the coordinates as a reference and we tried calling Dad on the VHF but he had it off. I figured out how to set the anchor drag alarm and we went to bed.

Unfortunately it was a "Squally" night. Every half an hour or so we would have high winds and pelleting rain. Graham woke up with a start in the middle of the night and raced up on deck and then started hollering for me to get up. He said that we were really moving and in danger of hit the rocks/shore. We figured out how to start the boat and discussed going to get my Dad. I was shocked by how much we had moved and fearful. We went forward to see if we could easily figure out the anchor in the dark. We could see the foot button to automatically pull up the anchor but we could not see how we would release it and we started worrying about being responsible for re-anchoring on a muddy bottom on a boat that was not our own.

Now came the hard part....one of us had to stay on board and if the depth dropped to low begin to move the boat forward and the other had to take the dinghy in the dark over to the dock and drive up and get Dad. Neither option seemed good to me. As I was yelling pros and cons of each option to Graham and feeling totally stuck, Graham was unhooking the dinghy and then he started it up and said "See you soon, put her in forward if you start to really drag". I yelled back, "Which lever is forward....", but with the wind and the rain and the motor he didn't hear me.

Those of you who know me, know I tend to panic and there I stood at the helm, in the darkness and totally panicked. I pushed the red lever forward and heard the engine rev up, so I knew that the left lever must be neutral, forward and reverse. I had enough smarts to run below and turn on the depth gauge. I then could do nothing but wait and watch the coordinates on the GPS tick away. It felt like the longest 10 minutes of my life.

When Dad and Graham got back we got to work. We ended up needing to re-anchor 4 times in the dark, wind and rain. Graham was at the helm and Dad was working the anchor and I was positioned in between the two of them yelling what they were saying back and forth. We were all so cold. Finally in between tries, I had time to run below and grab a jacket and shirts for Dad and Graham. They were both shirtless since they had been awoken. At one point I look forward and there is a my 66 year old Dad at the front of the boat, feeding the muddy anchor chain manually down, in rain that felt like hail. I can only hope to be that fit at 66!!!

We finally got it set and were all happy with our position. I look over at Graham and he says, "I can't wait to have this much fun on our own boat!" You gotta love him! A Christmas in Curacao we won't soon forget!

CONFRONTATION and of course....Merry Christmas

I know I haven't written anything substantial in a while. Graham and I both feel mentally and physically exhausted. We have both lost almost 40 pounds between the two of us and we didn't have a whole lot of extra weight to begin with. Things have been challenging to say the least. We were getting up at the crack of dawn or even sometimes before and Graham was heading to the boat yard just after 7am and not returning until after 5pm. He would come home all dirty and his hands all cut up and most often he would return with stories of how something else went wrong or how there was no one working on the boat for another day or how the fellows who were on the boat didn't know what they were doing. The boat yard is dirty, the bathrooms are gross, it is muddy with puddles and muck everywhere. Lots of mosquito's from all the standing water. Not a nice place to be. You also have to walk a mile from the bus stop to get there.

The boatyard manager(Nicholas) told me awhile ago 5 weeks to completion, which would of put completion on November 19th. The 19th came and went and we could see there was WAY too much left. Nicholas is a nice guy but he is an optimist and he doesn't like confrontation. He would rather tell me soon, then tell me the truth, or he would rather just avoid me. They put just one guy on the boat so most days something would get done but just not that much or the work done would have to be redone the next day. Graham was feeling the pressure and finally one day when no one showed up he went looking for Nicholas. He didn't find Nicholas but he did find the yard owner "Jason". Jason is a Grenadian with a HUGE temper. He is very volatile. As Jason was walking past he said hello to Graham and ask how he was and Graham told him the truth. Anyone who knows Graham knows that he doesn't raise his voice or yell. He remained calm and explained the situation to Jason. Well Jason flew off the handle on Graham and said many many mean things. Graham said that some of the things he said he couldn't even make sense of and figure a response because they were so ludicrous. Regardless, Graham let him have his temper tantrum and then asked him quietly again to get the guys on the boat and get working. Luckily the end result was that the guys were on the boat asap and they even worked the weekend. I was ready to take a strip out of Jason when I heard this but Graham said it was not worth it, we got what we wanted so who cares. I love that about him. I am a little more HOT HEADED.

Unfortunately the effects of speaking with Jason didn't last long about a week later we had another day with no one on the boat. We were already well into December and realizing the list of items left was long. So on Wednesday, December 10th Graham and I left the kids with his Mom and Dad and we went to the boat yard with our list of items remaining. The first thing I did was I went to the office and photocopied the list. The next step was distribution. We left a copy for Jason and then we walked the boat yard until we found Nicholas. Nicholas was speaking to a few of the guys but he saw us standing and waiting for him. He must of been able to tell from my face, I was MAD!

Once he came over he tried to make small talk but I just couldn't muster it. I handed him the list which he reluctantly took (I had to actually push it towards him). I said that I was done, that this was crazy that we were still here, that I see people in the yard yell and scream at him and that it seems to get what they need done and that maybe that is what I needed to do. At the end of the speech, I was yelling and screaming. You could tell he was mad when I was finished and he began to blast me and tell me that I need to find more courage and take things in stride and then my final move........I began to cry. He started out his speech telling me that no one would be able to be on the boat for a week! By the end of our heated emotional discussion he was going to have them on the boat right away and start getting the items done. The talk was about 40 minutes and I was exhausted when it was finished.

Since that Wednesday confrontation we have had anywhere from 3 to 11 workers on the boat each day!!!! The boat is now OUT OF SHED, give me a hip hip hooray! The boat now has the mast and all the rigging up, give me a "Hoo0-RAHHH"! The boat has the steel arch up and attached, "DANCE A JIG". The woodworkers are working from 8am til after 4 quitting time on the final trim work on the coach roof and even worked SUNDAY, give me a "HOLY CRAP"! Things are moving and shaking and we couldn't be more happy. In amongst this craziness we decided it was time to leave the apartment and move on board and be close to the action. You can imagine the day we move aboard there are 9 men working on the deck of the boat, it was chaos, but it made me SO HAPPY.

Living on the boat while it is "on the hard" (not on the water) is not that great but still it is so much better than the apartment, it just feels like home. We spent Thursday unpacking and organizing and of course the kids played with other boat kids. Night time is a bit of a challenge because the bathrooms are so far away and the mosquito's are outrageous. The bites they leave are huge and swell up. We put bug nets over our beds but somehow they still find a way in. The other night I had to grab a fan in the middle of the night because it got so hot and as I was trying to hooked it up, I had my arm outside the net trying to plug it in, a mosquito was buzzing in my ear and I was swatting madly, Amelia said I looked like I had lost my marbles, she was laying behind me and thought she would help me out by swatting behind my ear to, well I felt something touch me and then totally freaked out. Graham was watching the whole thing play out and laughed himself silly.

The best news of all is that for the last two mornings I have woke up to Amelia's smiling face. It has been awhile since I have seen her smile so much. It makes me so happy. We all feel so much better seeing the progress. Today we flying to Curacao for Christmas. We really need a break. We need to be away from the boat for awhile and just relax and enjoy life. We are all excited. It will give us all a chance to like each other again.....:-)!

I have booked with the yard to have Artemo put in the water on Jan 2nd. The things we are waiting on is the final sealing and caulking after the trim work is done, and the bimini (cover above the cockpit). Graham and I have many other things to do but most can wait until we underway.

I wouldn't wish this experience away for anything. Challenges make you stronger and believe me, stronger we feel. I am amazed by what we have withstood and accomplished in the last few months. I have also learned alot about how we operate as a family under stress, we do pretty well but we all realize we need to work on not getting short with each other when we are stressed, hot and tired (I am probably the leader of this bad habit!).

There you have it the whole story. The Perry family is not defeated. We are still going strong and ready for what life has in store.

Miss you all more than you could possibly realize. Thank you for all your emails, comments, visits, cards and also for the packages! Such a treat to go to the post office and pick up a surprise! We feel your support and it means alot to us.

Merry Christmas.

Julie, Graham, Alex and Amelia

Nanny and Papa

Yesterday we said good bye to Graham's parents (Judith and Roger). We had such a nice visit and our spirits were really lifted having them here. Roger and Graham went and worked on the boat a few of the days! Graham said what a great boost in momentum it was to have his Dad here and to get into and finish a couple of jobs that had been looming over his head for awhile.

We also rented a car and saw some parts of the island we hadn't seen before and even a new waterfall. The freedom that comes with having wheels felt really good. The weather was great while they were here to, some nights we didn't even need a fan.

Nanny Judith brought peanut brittle and made fudge and muffins while she was here. We all had our sugar fix. Made it feel more like the Christmas holidays for sure. Amelia and Nanny even made Christmas ornaments.

Roger and Judith took the kids to a Rotary meeting here in Grenada. We are all so proud to have a father/Grandfather who is a District Governor of Rotary. Roger is dedicated to Rotary international's goals of Health, Literacy and Education. Amelia said she was nervous about where they were going for the lunch meeting because it looked kinda shabby but once the doors opened inside was a beautiful room done up nicely for lunch. Her take on things is always so funny. Alex said it was better than church!

The kids and I went to the airport with them and saw them to the gate. When the doors closed the tears started flowing. Life seemed so much better with them here! Thank goodness we are heading to Curasco in only a week.

Past, Present and Future house guests!

PAST HOUSE GUEST....
Sunday morning we found the most disgusting creature in our guest room. It was a HUGE CENTIPEDE. Graham and I were tidying up the room for his folks (who arrive in only 2 more sleeps!!!) and I look up on the wall and OMG............of course I freak out and start doing the 'weeby geeby' dance. Amelia and Graham are laughing their heads off. Amelia grabs the camera and Graham goes to work capturing it. Once they have it contained, the kids go to show the neighbors. Turns out it is "POISONOUS" and the neighbors Dad lets us know ASAP and he proceeds with killing it. Ok, I haven't slept well since. I wake every hour or so with a startle and start smacking myself and checking the sheets. YUCK!

PRESENT HOUSE GUEST.....

Some of you have heard that we now have "Sam" the kitty living with us. The kids found him by the house and they started feeding him and I laid down the law....he was NOT allowed inside! Unfortunately, the little kitty was attacked by a larger kitty and the neighbors brought him up one night all bloody and scared.....so off to the vet and $100 EC later, we have an indoor kitty named "Sam". Anyone who knows us, knows Graham and I are the furthest thing away from cat people......but the weird thing is that we are all liking this new family member. He is definitely a distraction. The neighbors have agreed to own him after we leave this month.

FUTURE HOUSE GUESTS.....

We are 2 more sleeps away from having Graham's folks here. We have been "X'ing" off the days. We have rented a car and we are all excited about having the freedom of wheels and being able to see the whole island! We are going to go see the chocolate factory, the Mona Monkey's, the waterfalls, the beaches and of course "ARTEMO". We are in desperate need of this visit, it will lift our spirits and it will nice to be in vacation mode for a bit.