Taking a Bath on Artemo

STEP ONE: Clean fish blood from your bath bucket. Do this by using small bucket with rope attached and swinging down into ocean and grabbing bucket full of water to wash the bigger bucket with.

STEP TWO: Hoist the 5 gallon water can from the pantry below to the cockpit

STEP THREE: Pour a small amount of water in the bath bucket. Be very conservative with the water. All 4 crew members will be using this water.

STEP FOUR: Position cockpit cushion across the companionway opening or yell, "don't look up here" and wash your body

STEP FIVE: Pour out fresh water

STEP SIX: If you have long hair use the ocean water to shampoo and condition your hair. Use small bucket to retrieve ocean water for your bath bucket

STEP SEVEN: Pour out ocean water

STEP EIGHT: Pour in a little bit of fresh water and do a final rinse of your hair

STEP NINE: Repeat for all four crew member

STEP TEN: Clean up the wet mess in your cockpit

STEP ELEVEN: Hang all wet towels from your life lines

STEP TWELVE: Ask the captain again why installing a shower isn't a priority???!!!

Teeter Totter

I was going to start this blog with how many miles we have gone and how many to go but I am to tired to get up and figure it out! ha. So instead I will start with ......Here we are on the South Pacific ocean somewhere....

Life right now on board is like living in the middle of a teeter totter with a couple of crazy kids at either end changing the rhythm and pattern. Just when you think you are compensating just right.....leaning to left and then to right....you will get a left, left and it will throw you around the boat. Stuff down below regularly gets catapulted across the room. You start believing in the rhythm and thinking you can predict but really you can't. This is the life of downwind sailing. Remarkably thought we do still manage to go about our lives, we just move a bit slower and only when necessary.

As with any point of sail and any weather on Artemo we are all always hungry. Crazy eh? I have heard of many sailors who get sea sick and eat only crackers and other sailors who only eat easy meals like sandwiches, tuna, beans, etc....not us. We all crave yummy new flavors and foods. We have been moving through our "Best of Bridge" cookbook (thank you Judith!). Man I love this book. Yesterday we had curried apple and sweet potato pilaf and today broccoli mandarin red onion salad from it. We have a ton of fresh veggies to eat up and we are determined to cook them in new and unique ways. So far so good! We are going to arrive in Marquesas not quite as lean as when we left.

The kids are doing great. No fish yet for Alex but he is determined. I am so grateful for this time with him. It is hard to believe that there are still stories we can tell each other that we haven't heard before. We have lots of time to talk. He stayed up on watch with me last night and we laid in the cockpit and star gazed together. Since it is new moon right now the sky is dark and filled with stars. I saw the coolest shooting star. Alex was mentioning today how surprise he was at how easy it was to fill his days. We discussed the fact that right now it is kind of like a sick day back home. Where you don't feel that bad but you get to lay around, eat, read, and watch TV. I am making them do at least one assignment a day for home schooling. It is hard right now but they are still managing and once we get even more use to the rolling it will get easier.

Amelia is always smiling. She has discovered her love of reading. She has read the entire twilight series and is into a new series called Lightening Thief. I LOVE that she is choosing reading over dvds. She keeps coming up and saying, "My book is getting soooo good." She chats on the radio with the Gromit girls regularly. They discuss all the goings on, on each boat and parts of their books. I enjoy listening in. Liam chats with Alex a couple of times a day to. He is such a cute kid. We all get a kick out of him. I wish I could record the conversations because they are classic.

Graham is in his element. I am so so proud of him. He has dreamt of the South Pacific for so long. No challenge seems to big for this guy. He takes everything in stride....except for my moods :-). We are both struggling a bit with the lack of a good night sleep. We are taking shifts of about 4 to 5 hours but it still feels like we never quite get enough. I feel like when you wake up super early to go to the airport. Kind of yucky but if you keep pushing through it eventually during the day we feel semi normal.

I really can't believe we are doing this. If I think about it for to long....our little boat crossing the ocean...so many miles.....it scares the heck out of me but then I come back to the here and now and reality really isn't that scary. I am actually wondering if it might be harder for you guys having to watch the dot move out further and further. I put myself in my moms shoes and think of Amelia out here with her family and me watching from many miles away and I wish I could give mom a hug. Please don't worry to much. Gromits are nearby, we always wear our life jackets, we tether in at night, we never go forward without someone watching us, we have 2 EPIRBs if we ever needed a rescue, we have SSB contact and vhf with Gromits, we have spares for almost everything important and most of all we have Graham!

Where dreams come true

The island of Isabella is better than Mr. Walt Disney's wildest dreams. I feel like we have entered another world. On the way into the anchorage 2 super huge mantorays greeted us. I had no idea that they got that big. They had to be 16 feet across. At first when I saw the two fins from the tips of each of its sides I thought it was two dolphins and then it came closer and we were in shock. I grabbed the radio and yelled at Gromits..."massive rays, massive rays"!

Once we were anchored the penquins swam around our boat. YES PENQUINS!!! I told you it is like another world. Is this really my life??? We were a bit tired from the overnight sail, so we got a couple hours sleep and then we were all off on tour of the island. Our first stop was an up close look at the blue footed boobie birds and penquins. There on the rocks, just a stone throw away from Artemo they all sat together in harmony. It was so cool to see these amazing blue feet. The next stop was a mangrove tree with a huge frigate bird in it. It's beak was all curved so strangely. He looked like he came straight out of the prehistoric days.

From there we went on to see the fields of marine iquanas. It reminded me of Indiana Jones and the scene with all the snakes. The ground was just littered with lizards. Totally freaked me out. The scurried to get out of your way. Next we saw white tip reef sharks. They love the shallow water in the mangroves and the nice current, so they just hang out. Very, very cool. Next to the shallows was this little pond and as we were standing there a penquin swam across the pond and as if on queue about 8 fish starting jumping and flying across the water. He was probably chasing them but it looked like a cherographed Disney film.

We then all got our snorkel gear on and went for snorkel. We saw tons of fish. The fellow who brought us out in his boat just followed all 9 of us along as we snorkelled the reef. With all the sea life around I was pretty nervous. Graham was so nice, he held my hand the whole time.

After our tour we all got together on Gromits boat and ate the massive Tuna Alex caught on the way to Isabella. Alex also did up the yummiest marinade for the fish. The Gromits were so impressed, it made him feel really good. The Gromits had another kid boat over for drinks after. Another great day.

The next morning we were up and off to shore before 8am. We had heard that the volcano tour is a must do. We had also heard that it was $45 per person. There was no way we could afford this, so we decided to go into town and see if we could negotiate with a taxi driver. We managed to do just that and we got the total trip for 9 people down to $180! Yippee.

We all hiked the 16kms, which was totally worth it. The volcano had craters and lava tubes. All sorts of different colors of hardened lava. Tons of hot little holes and the view from up top was breath taking. The guide said he couldn't believe that the kids could hike up hill and fast the way they did. He said he was expecting them to get tired. Made us all feel really good. They all seem to motivate each other.

On top of the volcano, overlooking fields of hardened lava we all ate fresh tuna salad sandwiches. Half way down we came across a fellow who had brought some people up on horses as far as he could and he was now waiting til they hiked back. He offered the kids each a ride on the horse. They were so thrilled. Alex said, "I have always wanted to ride a horse". I said, "I told you that this is the island where dreams come true".

Once we were all back at the boat we all jumped in and had a bath. Cornelia and I jumped in off our boats in unison as the kids counted down for us. Once I was in (of course again in my underwear) I look over and there is a huge charter catamaran with their 15 guests all sitting on the deck watching us. LOL. The only thing I could do was wave. They watched as we all lathered up and shampoo'd our hair.

I am so happy we decided to stop here. It was totally against the rules but luckily we have managed to avoid the Port Captain. We know we better not push our luck though, so in about an hour we are off to....MARQUESAS!!! Yes, today is the day, Wednesday, June 9th at 4pm (central time) we are leaving on our biggest ocean passage.

It is 3000 nautical miles away. If we were to average 5knots this would be 25 days. If we were to average 6knots this would be 21 days. Maybe we should have a contest. Everyone put their guess as to how many hours til we arrive in the Marquesas.

My guess will be 504 hours. I am already seeing ourselves happy, excited and grateful to be in Marquesas! We will try and post our position often.

Thinking of you all at sea.

Julie, Graham, Alex and Amelia

Bottom Scrubbers

The seals and sea lions are everywhere. It hasn't gotten old. I can't imagine it ever getting old. It still surprises me when we walk down the pier and they are stretched out on the benches. They seem so human. Today I had to walk around a mother as she was nursing her baby seal....in the middle of the side walk. They seem to be stretched out whereever they can find a nice piece of shade or some sun to bask in. All of the old abandoned boats in the bay are covered with them. Yesterday Gromit gave us a call and let us know that it looked like we had a vistor in our kayak. We all ran out on deck and sure enough there was the cutest baby seal sitting in it. He looked right up at us as if to say, "Can you pass me the paddle?". We were so pleased to have him as a vistor. Unfortunately this morning when the kids went to get in the kayak it was punctured all over the place. The seals must of been biting at it. It is beyond repair. So sad, we really enjoyed the kayak.

The kids have been scrubbing the bottom of the boat the last couple of days. There is a thick layer of green hair all around and mixed with that is tons of barnacles. They had to first scrub at the seaweed and then take a scrapper to the barnacles. The water is pretty cold and it has been pretty windy. They have been real troupers but I think it is only because Graham said he would pay them $25 bucks. It is hilarious to listen to the two of them. Alex just wants to get it done and Amelia is nervous about the seals. She keeps freaking Alex out and then they fight and then Graham yells, "The reason I am paying you is so that I don't have to listen to you guys fight". I am just thrilled I don't have to get in, so I am staying out of it!

The other night we had the Gromits and a couple of other boats over for happy hour/evening. It was great. We all made appetizers and had a feast. We had so many new dishes to taste....cruisers love to cook and eat.

Today we leave for Isabella. It is only an over night sail. Artemo is all ready to go. We will only spend a couple days there before leaving for Marquesas. I can't believe it is only a few days away til we do the sail that has caused me the most sleepness nights and worry, since Graham came home with this idea!!!! I feel so differently about it now but it is still occupying my thoughts. I do actually feel excited. Kinda like that feeling you get on your way to the airport. I keep reminding myself about all the good parts, like the fact that you get to relax underway and no more shopping or running around or spending money. Life gets a whole lot easier.

Avon Calling

I was remembering last night one of the reasons this adventure appealed to me so many years ago. Graham and I have sold everything and gone off and traveled a few times during our 20 years together. Unfortunately, what would always end up happening was that we would crave our home and stability.

Now here we are in the Galapagos going off and exploring the island, struggling with our Spanish, tucking into little shops, eating the local food and having everything seem so cool and new and THEN....we get to come back at night to our warm, inviting, comfortable, familiar, ARTEMO! We get to eat our Ol EL Paso Tacos and our Thousand Islands dressing and our Heinz ketchup and watch our MASH and Friends. We get to go HOME each night in paradise. I tell you, I needed a little bit of normal though, a bit of home, after my day at the local butcher.

Cornelia warned me as we were walking to the shop that it wasn't up to our level of cleanliness (and those who know me, know that my level isn't that high!). It was basically a small cement room. There was an old screen door that we came in through. There were two silver top counters, 3 big freezers and 1 ban saw. The butcher was just a guy in a t-shirt and jeans all sweaty running meat through the ban saw. There were two raw chickens on the counter (not refrigerated). There was a tray of ground beef on the counter (not refrigerated but it looked fresh). There was a pile of old shoes on one end of the counter (yes...Old shoes???).

Cornelia speaks really good broken Spanish and adds in sign language where needed. She let the fellow know that we needed alot of meat. We wanted pork, hamburger, steak and chicken. She told him we had our vacuum sealers and we would like to seal the meat as he cuts it and then leave it in one of his 3 freezers for a few days. He was happy for the business and motioned for us to push the shoes aside and unplug the old TV hanging from the wall and set up the vacuum sealers. For the next two hours Cornelia and I cut bags, sealed bags, filled bags and vacuum sealed bags as many of the towns folk came in to see the show and get their daily meat needs. Everyone thought the sealers were very cool. They were interested in how long our meat would last us on our boats.

The butcher didn't have any wash clothes for wiping the counter clean. He didn't where any gloves. He hacked up the raw chickens on the counter and I put the pieces (with my bare hands) in the bags. I was going to leave the backs and such but he insisted that I take them for soup. When we moved onto pork, he opened the freezer behind him and you could see all these different hunks of meat (not wrapped or in bags) and he grabbed out a huge thing of pork ....maybe a leg? He then ran it through the ban saw for us and the meat went directly onto the same counter as the chicken did and the steak before that.

Once we were finished I asked him if he had someplace where I could wash my hands. He led me behind the counter to this little dirty closet where there was a toilet bowl with no seat on it and no back part, a half a big garbage can with water in it and a milk jug for scooping water out, a floor wash bucket that was empty, a small little bucket next to it that was empty and a bag of what looked like powdered laundry detergent. I stood there very confused and then decided that since the milk jug looked dirty and was floating in the garbage can that I would just stick my hands in there. He came racing in behind me saying, "no, no, no". He had me pour some of the powder into the small bucket and then put some in my hands. He then had me hold my hands over the wash bucket and he scooped water and poured it over my hands? I just wanted to get the heck out of there but believe me it took quite a while to understand what the heck he wanted me to do! I am sure he was thinking to himself....crazy tourist! All of my meat came to a grand total of 34 dollars but I tell you the experience itself was worth so much more.

ps...I forgot to mention that he also sells Avon....yup, AVON!