Tonight I will remember and tomorrow I will celebrate

Here I am in the cockpit in the pitch black on my last night of our voyage. This last day has been everything we could of hoped for in a last day. I woke up to the smell of fresh whole wheat buns and bread. Graham had been busy during his watch. Love starting my day with a hot bun with butter and honey on it. YUM.

Once Graham was off for his sleep, the kids and I dug into school work and guess what???? THEY FINISHED!!!! yipeeeee. They are done their school year. I am so happy for them and me. Two whole months off. Glorious!

As soon as school was finished and I had just closed my eyes in the cockpit Graham poked his head up and said....."We have got a fish." I sat up to get ready for the onslaught of activity and noticed that we hadn't just caught one fish....we had TWO. I wish we were able to take a video of the craziness that ensues once we have hooked a fish. Alex, Amelia and Graham are struggling with both the reels and pulling in the fish. I am running around grabbing tequila, camera, shorts for Alex (or else he won't let me post any pictures), the gaf, the pliers, the leatherman. We also have to bring in the head sail to slow the boat while trying to hold the reels. Pure craziness. Oh and the seas are totally crazy at this point. We are all being bounced around from one side of the cockpit to the other, so I am trying to tether the kids as they are reeling lines. With one hand I am holding on and with the other I am trying to hook their harness. They are also moving, so even this small task takes way to long. Two fish is craziness times two.

Graham landed one of them and Alex gaffed and landed the other. They pulled them both up onto the back deck and for the next hour they had to steak and fillet them. They have it down to a science now and I am noticing that Graham is having Alex do more and more of the gutting and cutting. At the end of the ordeal Alex exclaimed, "What a perfect ending to our voyage!"

Once the fish was safe and sound in the fridge Graham and I had a few minutes in the cockpit together as the sunset. We are both really excited about making landfall tomorrow. Excited doesn't seem like a big enough word. I want to climb to the top of a mountain and scream, "We did it!" I feel so proud of us. How does impossible become possible?

Rewind to January 2006 to the Toronto boat show in the convention center. There is the Perry family standing inside the first sailboat they have ever been on. Amelia says, "look at how big the wheel is". Alex says, "This boat is nicer than our apartment". Julie says, "I could totally live in here". Graham says, "We won't be getting a boat this nice guys". That day seems so like only yesterday. What a whirlwind the past few years have been. I remember telling everyone who would listen, "We are going to sail around the world". Saying it seemed to give it power for me. I remember our first sailing lesson in April 2006. In true Perry style we got stormy weather and high winds. I remember the first time we could take out one of the bigger boats all alone with the kids. I remember taking my sister Chanty out for a sail and getting hit by a small storm and scaring the shitaky out of her. I remember chartering a boat for a week on the ocean and catching a glimpse of the possibility of actually sailing around the world. I remember seeing Artemo for the first time. I remember moving on board. I remember all the countless goodbye's. I remember the months and months of elbow grease...blood....sweat...oh there was sweat and of course tears. I remember our first anchorages, our first snorkels, our first fish, our first sunsets, our first sail. I remember the fear. I remember it all and it makes me feel so good and so proud.

Here we are just as we had envisioned so many years ago but secretly I may not have believed all the time. I don't want this feeling to fade. I want to remember Graham coming home with book in hand and telling me he wanted to sail around the world. I want to remember how ludicrous I thought this idea was. How I dismissed it so quickly. How fear overtook me when I thought of leaving land behind with my two kids on board. How the hell did we do this? How are we here? This is so totally whacky. I AM going to scream, "We did it" when we arrive tomorrow. From the top of my lungs. You know there are going to be tears. I am already tearing up.

Tonight I will remember and tomorrow I will celebrate!

Life of Riley...

Rollin, rollin, rollin......get this sailboat rollin....Rawhide! We are directly downwind now and Artemo is rocking back and forth. You can hear everything in the cupboards crash to one side and then to the other. Anything left out is rocketed across the boat. So far no major injuries just a few bruises. I had another bath today and as I am leaned over with my head in the bucket we had a huge rock and I ploughed my head into the bottom. Lovely! Regardless, I am clean again and feel so much better.

The day was beautiful. The air is warmer now. It feels like we moved from Spring to Summer in a few days. The swell is back to normal height and the winds are only 8 to 12 knots. I feel so happy. I stood for quite awhile today in the cockpit with my head up over the bimini watching us sail across the ocean. I love it when Mother (being the ocean) is happy. We blasted the tunes and soaked in the day. I came to the realization that I am actually enjoying sailing. Can you believe it? Not only am I actually sailing the boat now but I am also liking it!!! Somebody slap me! Millie was laughing at me as I was yelling with tears in my eyes and my arms spread wide open......"I love you Mother ocean".

Graham realized today that I am actually getting about 10 hours of sleep a day. The kids have been staying up til 11 pm with me and I snooze in the cockpit and then they go to bed and Graham gets up at about 12:30 and I go back to bed til 8! Ha. I even manage to sneak in an afternoon nap most days. Life of Riley I tell ya. Graham has a bit more trouble sleeping than I do. I never go wake him up but he still seems not to sleep for long stretches. He goes to his berth from about 8 pm to 12:30 and then from 9am til 1pm. Not enough sleep in my books but he seems ok.....aside for the grumpy behavior.....but it's hard to decipher normal grumpy from over tired grumpy. ha

I think the kids have thought of just about everything and anything you can play over the vhf radio. They have done battleship, X&O's, 20 Questions, "if you had a super power what would it be", made up personalities, worked through recipes together making cookies and cakes, read school assignments, talked giberish, reviewed books......and I think that is about it. If you can think of anything else they can do I am sure they would love to hear it. At the end of every conversation they say, "Standing by on 6". The other night Amelia came up to the cockpit to say good night to me and then she says, "Standing by on 6"! LOL. Total habit. I laughed.

We are still eating really well. Tonight we had open faced hot pork sandwiches with gravy, mash potatoes and peas. Total Alberta meal. YUMMY. I thought Alex needed a bit of Alberta in his life. He just finished reading Anne Frank in about 4 days. It has made him sad and left him feeling a bit homesick. We had a few good discussions about the book. I am shocked by how much he picked up from the novel. He talked about how Anne's moods were reflected in how she addressed her diary and how creative her mind was. He spoke about what an amazing and unique person Anne was and how she would never have settled for an ordinary life. I feel really lucky to have this time out here to be able to work through and discuss all of these things with him. I have to wonder if I would of even realized he was reading the book if we were back home in our regular routine.

Amelia completed her first knitting project today and I am wearing it proudly around my head. It is a beautiful yellow and white headband. Nanny Judith gave Amelia a knitting book, yarn and needles for xmas. It took us a few goes but finally we got the hang of it. Amelia is now teaching her Dad and Alex the techniques......I am sure you can just imagine how this is going.

Well we have about 490 nms to go. I am thinking we will arrive on June 30th or maybe even Canada Day. The kids are on target for finishing school! Well it is time for my evening snooze.

Miss you
Julie

Detox - Day 14

LOL. Day 14 of no happy hour gin and tonics .....no red wine.....no coffee....no internet.....hmmmmmm I wonder if this has anything to do with how good I feel? I hope not :-).

Today the seas were.....hmmm what is bigger than gigantic and monstrous??? HUMONGOUS!!! Seriously. It was enough to make you want to run for cover. It continues to shock us all that Artemo just rides up and down, no matter what side she is hit on. We had to change our course today though so that the seas were pushing behind us. It was just to dangerous to have them coming at us on our side and really uncomfortable.

I was sitting in the cockpit facing backwards watching in awe as the waves form behind us and coming charging at us and then whoooshhh us down. On one of the waves I noticed something in the water and then all of a sudden the waves were filled with them...."Dolphins"! It was mind blowing. To see the dolphins just beneath the surface torpedo'ing down the wave towards Artemo was WAY COOL. They all swam in sync. I got the most amazing pic of it and the cool thing is that finally since the dolphins are in the water it gives the wave some perspective and you might be able to get an idea of how huge they really were from this picture. For the next 1/2 hour we watched as the dolphins performed their show for us. They were jumping and diving all over the place. Imagine Amelia yelling, "Oh My God" over and over again......I have created a monster. Ha. Alex was yelling at his Dad because he went back down below to tend to his cooking. He couldn't believe he could leave during such an event. Given the size of the seas we were all tethered in. The size of the waves finally got to Amelia though and she said she was to nervous to stay up on deck anymore. I couldn't blame her, I was wishing I didn't have to either!

Finally at about 8pm tonight the seas have become more calm. I am so grateful for the calm. It looks like we should only have about 6 more days out here if our speed continues as it has. I might need to slow us down so the kids can finish their home schooling.

Yesterday Amelia was the SSB net controller for the Pacific Crossing net. The net is a SSB radio station that vessels crossing the Pacific tune into and give their position and just let everyone know how they are doing. It is very structured. Everyone takes their turn talking and the net controller orchestrates everything. She practiced the day before with the script and the morning of she got on the radio and did beautifully. She sounded like an old pro...."Any underway vessels for the Pacific Puddle Jump net wanting to check in, come now"...."Roger That"...."I have your position at 7 45 S and 112 35W...is this correct" "next check in come now"....She was really good. We took a video of it. It was alot of fun. Our days are Tuesday and Saturday and we do it twice a day. There are about 7 other boats crossing right now. Alex says he wants to do Saturday's net.

Ok, my shift is over time for bed. Here is the link to our position reports so that it opens in a big window.

http://www.winlink.org/dotnet/maps/PositionreportsDetail.aspx?callsign=va3pry

Night Watch - Deep Thoughts....

I know.....yet another blog. Forgive me, I have nothing but time out here :-)!

This South Pacific passage is like the gateway to the world for me. I feel like we have finally been given the key to the locked door we have been knocking on for so long. There are moments out here when it all hits me and I am overwhelmed with emotion. We are finally here! I am so happy to have 20 some days to reflect on this fact, rather than running to the next goal. It feels good to revel in it for a while.

I feel this sense of power. I find myself wondering what else there is that I can do with my life that I haven't even imagined yet. Is it really as easy as setting a goal, making a list and forging ahead through thick and thin? If this is true that opens a whole different door! hmmmm possibilities fill my head out here at sea and nothing but time to explore and think through each one.

Enough of my night watch "deep thoughts"......We had another day of squalls yesterday. Artemo handles them beautifully. At one point the wind was blasting at 28 knots and it was pouring rain. I cracked opened the door just a pinch and peeked below to see what was going on. A warm blast of heat hit me from the cooking. It looked cozy down there with the soft glow of our lights on. Graham was just finishing up making dinner and telling Alex how to play solitaire. Alex was on the computer at the navigation station. Amelia's fresh baked cookies were cooling on the non skid on the table. Graham yelled out, "Amelia dinner time" and I heard her from the back call out, "coming".

I got my warm fuzzy feeling and quietly closed the door. Nice to be able to peek in on normal every once in a while when "crazy" is blasting around you. Not to long after that I heard a knock on the door and I opened it up and out comes my yummy spaghetti dinner.

We finished our 4 baths today. I feel glorious. We each heated up a pot of water today for the occasion. (good idea Theresa) This added an extra step but so totally worth it!

12 days out and we haven't had to run our engine yet. We truly are a sailboat. We are also almost making enough power from our wind generators and solar panels to stay topped up. Every few days Graham runs our Honda generator to bring us back to 100%. We have gone through 2 tanks of water so far, so we are making water to fill them back up. It is so cool to have everything we need to survive on board.

As far as garbage goes we have about 1/2 a bag now. All our paper, food scraps, tin cans and bottles go over board. We have a bit of fresh fruit and veggies left. Probably enough for another 4 days. After that we will be onto dried fruit and canned fruits and veggies. We have tons of potatoes, onions and garlic though. Freezer still has lots of meat in it. We have been cautiously moving through it. We are making our own bread and yogurt. We have a ton of cheese. As far as food goes we are doing well.

The kids are working hard to get through their home schooling year. Amelia finished math and tossed her book to the sea. Boy was she happy. I promised Graham they would be done by the time we get to Marquesas. What was I thinking! I have told the kids they better not let me down.

Well I better run....the sun is just setting and I don't want to miss it.

Gigantic Monstorous Waves

Yesterday the waves and wind built and built to an all new high. It is so strange to ride up so high on a huge wave and then plunged down deep into the trough and be staring up at the next massive wave. It seems impossible that they won't overtake you but right as rain Artemo slides back up and finds a sweet spot to belly surf down. This isn't to say that there isn't the odd "BANG" or "CRASH" against the boat and then a huge "SPLASH". I hate these noises. Sounds like the world is coming apart but luckily it doesn't. We are really lucky that our confidence is building in rhythm with the increase in the weather. We are handling it in stride and fear doesn't grip me like it use to. Although when I spot the breaking waves and can look through the top of the waves and see the beautiful blue green color of the sea as they form their roll......this scares me a bit! I can't remember if I ever told you how I use to shake with fear when things got chaotic, like actually shake and I couldn't seem to stop myself. I may have been to embarrassed to mention it but we are way past that now :-). The good news is that the sky is blue. It always seem worse in 25 knot wind and huge seas when the sky is ominous. I am grateful for the blue sky!

Well this morning just after Graham had gone to bed following his shift and just after I had finished writing the above paragraph.....we began our day of squalls. The beautiful blue sky filled in with dark clouds and you could see weather systems all around us. The squalls moved much faster than I was expecting. I had just spotted the extra dark spot off my port side and I noticed that there was a line of frothy water coming towards us. I managed to get the computer down below and slide the door in its place just as the rain and crazy wind began. I knew I had to furl in the Genoa, so I release the line and tried to hold it as it flailed madly, with the other hand I tried to pull in (furl) the sail up. There was so much pressure from the wind it was hard. The kids were yelling to me, "Dad is coming. Dad is coming". I managed to get the winch handle on and start to bring the sail in as Graham came up on deck and helped me out. Winds blasted up past 30 knots and the seas built even bigger than I wrote about above. Pictures do not do the size of the seas justice. I did get a picture of the wind speed indicator at 30 and also the radar showing the massive squall moving at Gromit and Artemo. Now even through all this chaos we still were in good humor, if you can believe it. I remember at one point Graham and I are standing in the cockpit soaking wet. I had my full rain gear on. My hair is sticking to my face. We are braced against the missen and tethered in. Graham only has his rain jacket and underwear on because he got woken up from his sleep and he was shivering. We stood there hugging each other and I said, "Living the dream baby!" We both laughed.

During the day we had 4 more squalls hit us. Graham went to bed after the 3rd and I handled the last 2 on my own. It was a good drill to do over and over. Once you feel confident that you know what to do in these circumstances, that you have a plan.....all you do is execute the plan. I was really proud of myself. I even managed to do the last 2 squalls with the hydrovane steering us. I have finally mastered the hydrovane and feel as good about it as I did about the auto pilot. The best part is that it uses no power though! The kids weren't as confident in my skill as I was though. For both of the squalls they still asked over and over, "Should we wake up Dad". ha. It may have taken me longer to furl etc. but I got the job done!

In between the squalls I was making buns and pizza dough for our halfway party. At about 8pm we reach it. We celebrated by eating pizza and all four of us singing the Gromits a song we had written for them. It went over really well and there were lots of cheers coming across the radio. We also pulled out the cream soda in celebration.

So Alex got his wish. The day after the big one got away he was out on deck at sunset and voila......he landed a beautiful 5lb tuna, that was just the perfect size for dinner and lunch! He cooked up a storm and the fish was his best yet! My rule is that he can't fish until we eat the fish we have, so tomorrow he should be able to begin again. He is excited. He might even be getting a tad bit cocky :-)! Oh I have to mention that it was 150lb test that broke. Alex was horrified that I got that wrong! ha

Right now we are wing on wing downwind sailing. We are averaging about 6 knots an hour and only 1420 nautical miles to go!