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June, 2011:

We are off!

Jun 30th, 2011
by Sara.
2 comments

At 1820 PST last night we did it: a lovely group of our liveaboard dock friends gathered on our finger pier and tossed our lines aboard and we left.

It was so surreal, we were ecstatic, exhausted, giddy. It was one of the most difficult things we have ever done, but definitely the fourth most amazing day of our lives. After eight years of dreaming, scheming, planning and doing we are finally out here.

It was overcast when we motored away from Swantown for the last time. As we made our way through the channel markers the sun peeked out and Olympia’s skyline was aglow. Once clear of the channel we unfurled the genoa and hoisted our mizzen in the perfect 12-15 knots of wind on our beam. We sailed north, watching the skyline of our former home get smaller and smaller. Wondertime was clearly happy to be on her way too; even weighted down with thousands of extra pounds of stuff we were making 6.5 knots over ground.

Two hours later, we dropped our hook off Hope Island for a final visit to our favorite island. We’ll stay here for a day, unwinding, napping, sorting all the piles of stuff below, folding laundry and taking a last hike around the island. After setting the anchor we looked back towards Budd Inlet one last time. The sun had found a break in the clouds and a rainbow was on the horizon. We went below to eat dinner and crash into bed. Our first sleep, cruising.

P.S. We’ll be updating our position daily via Yotreps — see the link to the right on the sidebar.

Countdown to cruising: 1 day to go

Jun 29th, 2011
by Sara.
5 comments

That’s it. Our final full day in town is done. Last items have been put into our 5’x5′ storage unit, trip to Trader Joes complete (I had no idea you could even haul $400 worth of food in one of those tiny carts! Must be all the chocolate I stocked up on). We also picked up a netbook to use for navigation so our main laptop won’t have to carry all the computing duties. Leah and I got haircuts, we visited some treasured friends in our old neighborhood, made one last trip to West Marine, hauled home a 15 lb. bag of cat food (that should last our 8 lb. cat a while at least), ran through the car wash, unloaded the car one last time, delivered our dear old Subaru to her new owner, visited with some dock neighbors, tucked our exhausted girls into bed, and I headed out for one final Mom’s Night Out at our favorite pub.

I came home to this:

I’ll get on it in the morning.

Countdown to cruising: 2 days to go

Jun 28th, 2011
by Sara.
3 comments

Today was provisioning day (well, provisioning day #1 since it continues tomorrow too). Completed today were my trips to Fred Meyer and Costco. Tomorrow I hit Trader Joes for all our true favorites. We are expecting food up on Vancouver Island to carry a hefty price tag since it’s 1. an island and 2. the exchange rate is pretty poor right now for us Americans. While I know that we’ll be gathering fresh bits here and there I am trying to fit as much as I can on the boat now since it’s so much cheaper to buy it down here.

I’m not a meal planning type of person, and my strategy is simply to stock up on the things we use normally that are easily stored onboard: diced tomatoes, onions, beans, ground turkey, tofu, oatmeal, soy milk, cornmeal, Cholula hot sauce, white and wheat flour, white and brown sugar, rice, dried fruit, nuts, pasta sauces, ramen noodles, coffee, Good Earth tea, and of course, Annie’s Mac & Cheese. And on and on.

Earlier today, I was on hour three, or maybe four, and pushing a 500 lb. cart past the pasta sauces in Costco when fatigue really started to set in. I thought: I don’t think I’m going to make it to the checkout counter. But then I remembered what I was doing: I wasn’t just grocery shopping. I was provisioning. As in, we are leaving with this food (unlikely put away yet) in two days on the trip we’ve been dreaming about for years and years. The cart felt a lot lighter after that illumination.

Countdown to cruising: 3 days to go

Jun 26th, 2011
by Sara.
3 comments

We spent today not doing a lick of work, but rather saying see-you-later to many family and friends who stopped by our dock to say hello and tour our little home. It was a good day for sure.

Countdown to cruising: 4 days to go

Jun 25th, 2011
by Sara.
1 comment

A few months ago I came across the blog of another family of four getting ready to go cruising. Like us, they have two daughters less than three years apart in age. Like us, they are planning on cruising their sailboat in Mexico this winter. Not only that, the parents also cruised as a couple in Mexico before their kids were born as we did. Always excited to keep tabs on other soon-to-be-cruising families I bookmarked their blog to keep up on their pre-departure activities. We soon had “met” online and were looking forward to possibly meeting up in Mexico this winter.

However, this family is getting their boat to Mexico a little differently than we are: it’s already there. A really good idea, I’m thinking at this point in time. Not only that, they had lived in Washington D.C. for the past 10 years or so. In order to get to their boat, they sold just about everything they owned, including their house, packed everything up in a small trailer pulled by their Ford Escort wagon and have been traveling for the past month cross country, visiting friends and family on their way westward, and then southward, as they get closer to their new floating home.

When I read that they would be passing through Washington, I got in touch and told them we’d love to have them stop by if it was in the cards. Indeed it was; yesterday they emailed that they would be passing through Olympia today and so we made plans to have them visit us onboard Wondertime.

This is what we love about cruising folks: just minutes after we’d invited this delightful family aboard we were all, adults and kids alike, talking like old friends. Leah gave their girls a tour of our boat as they were a little mystified by what life afloat is like. I think they like it because all four girls were busy playing right away with squeals of joy floating up from below.

After only two hours or so of getting to know each other, Leah and Frances especially (both 5-and-a-HALF) were fast friends. When it was time for the Del Viento crew to hit the road again, they reluctantly hugged each other good-bye.

“See you in Mexico!” the girls called out to each other as our new friends drove away.

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