Life Jackets – We went to Emeryville for a few days, mainly to have a free and voluntary safety check from the US Coast Guard. The main thing that they instigated was a search for safer life jackets for the girls. The jackets that we have are legal, but for offshore we would like a …
Category: Preparation
Still in Napa?
Greetings from the Napa Valley Marina, Yes, we are still here. I’m laying on my back right now in the cockpit looking up at our new main sail mounted tidily onto our boom. It looks great. Why are we still here then? Well, the biggest reason is that we are all sick. Whatever the girls …
Becoming a Minimalist
Moving onto Banyan has FORCED me to be a minimalist. I’ve never considered myself to be a huge consumer of stuff, but going through the process of moving onto a boat has opened my eyes! It’s really pretty amazing the amount of stuff we had… and we didn’t even have that much stuff! We had started …
On Board!
We moved on board Banyan just about one week ago. It’s been a very busy time finding homes for all of our things and working on additional projects. We are happy to report that we did not grossly over estimate the amount of room we have. It’s quite the process finding just the right space …
Projects and Moving
They say that cruising is boat maintenance in exotic locations. Maintenance is just life when you own a BOAT (Break Out Another Thousand). Others will tell you “Oh yea, that hole in the water that I throw money into?” Then there is the one about boat ownership being like standing in a cold shower, fully …
Parties and Partings
FAQ #1: “When are you leaving?” Answer: “I’m not telling you” The short answer is that we are moving onto the boat at the end of February and then… we will see which way the wind is blowing before heading down to Mexico via a slow tour of the California Coast. We felt so …
Safety (part 1) + Update
Update: Our Boat is on the hard these days at the Napa Valley Marina. We had some work to do which was better done on land so out it came. Now, we’re taking it apart in all directions and I look forward to the day it is put back together! We had some dry rot …
FAQ
When we share our plans with unsuspecting friends and family, we get a blank stare and furrowed brow for about 5 seconds, and then the questions start flowing. They are all great questions and I decided to answer a few here in short form. Yup! Homeschool… or boatschool. No, I haven’t totally figured out the …
The Plan – the short version
The word plan is used very loosely. So… please don’t hold us to it! We realize though, that friends and family want some kind of framework to put around our upcoming travels. They need a visual idea of what the heck we are planning to do. So… HERE IT IS!!! Timeline March 2015 Leave from …
THE HISTORY – Part III
The following is a fairly concise version of the last 10 years of our lives. We did a lot of preparation for our journey to come, even while daily life went along with all the normal activities, challenges and joys, there were many small and large sacrifices that were made. At times it seemed like …