That sinking feeling you get when liquid pours out of equipment on your boat...

This is where our compass used to be. Matt was trying to remove it to fix the light. He unscrewed the only eight screws that were available (the engine guru worker on the next boat over confirmed that he thought those were the screws to remove). Apparently, those eight screws keep the liquid inside the compass (the screws to remove the compass were already gone).

It took a long few minutes for all the liquid--mostly mineral oil--to pour out onto the deck. At least the teak looks nice now.

It would cost twice as much to buy a new one as to fix it, so we shipped it off to the manufacturer today. Oh, and there was nothing wrong with the light. It just wasn't hooked up.

And...we have ice

Which we will need because the kids keep injuring themselves. Mark is very good at assessing his medical needs when he hurts himself. When he hurt his toe he immediately screamed, "I need a Band-Aid!" After he fell off the rope fence and hit his head, he yelled, "I need ICE!"

Here is an "after" picture of the freezer. Matt insulated it from the inside (the decision to insulate the inside is a long story relating to some questionable remodeling choices made by a previous owner).

Although it reduced the square footage from 6.5 cubic feet to 4 cubic feet (we'll have even less than that because of the gigantic holding plate--the thing that makes it cold), it will be really well insulated. And it should be plenty big for us. Our boat friends on svFullMonty, who also have a Privilege, gave us the idea to insulate from the inside.

 

If you're interested in the nuts and bolts, Matt used 2-inch polyurethane foam backed board and laminated it with 2mm FRP board. Then we had a worker at the yard help epoxy in the joints. Matt amazed himself by fitting everything perfectly the first time. That never happens. All the years of woodworking prepared him for this moment. Or we got lucky. Either way, it looks beautiful. Now I just need to grow longer arms so I can reach the bottom.

 

Creative uses for wooden spoons

(making due without real clamps)

Alive and kicking...

 

We have been living aboard for a little over a month now. This is a life that Matt and I have been talking about for over a decade (with a solid 5-year plan that has taken about 7 years). So how is it you ask?

Well, we have been living in a marina and are having a bunch of work done. So in that respect, it is like living in your house while you're renovating it. In other words, stressful and annoying. Matt spends almost every daylight hour working on the boat (and a good chunk of the remainder thinking and researching). Although it is hard work for him, he gets to accomplish something concrete almost everyday. He is in his element with the wide variety of systems. But we hope to be traveling soon and only fixing things monthly (weekly?) rather than daily.

We are already used to getting enough sleep and the warmer weather. We start shivering when the mercury drops below 75 even though that is about 75 degrees warmer than Chicago right now. This article talks about hedonic adaptation. People get used to changes, even big ones, relatively quickly (whether it is winning the lottery or losing a limb). So we are pretty much used to cooking, eating, and sleeping on the boat. Even being with each other 24 x 7 is starting to seem normal. That does not mean that we always love being around each other. It does mean that we are learning how to be a family that sees one another more than a few hours a day. No one has been thrown overboard--yet.

In a few weeks (hopefully) when we start moving and are no longer in a semi-routine at the marina, we'll have a new set of changes to face. Here are a few boats pics, since people having been asking.

 

If you knew sushi...

Matt whipped up some great sushi on the boat. The fish was from a local place that had very fresh seafood--yay coastal living. Hopefully soon we can catch our own sushi fish. That's our new stove underneath the sushi. It's a fraction the size of our old stove but seems to do everything we need it to do.

King of kludge

We removed the fridge so we could reinsulate it. We found this "workaround" in the air conditioner plenum that someone put in at some point: a coffee creamer container as a hose coupler.

Resourceful or schlocky? Yes.

With the re-insulation complete, the fridge doesn't lose quite so much of its coldness. So the beer remains nice and cold--priorities, man. Another unanticipated project crossed off the list.

What about television?

Our old TV.

This is what we'll be doing now instead of TV.

Do you know someone who grew up not getting any sugar and is now addicted to it? That's what might happen to Conrad and Mark with television.

They used to watch about 2-3 hours a week (on weekends). Our close friend Laura lets her kids pretty much watch as much TV as they want. When we rented a house in Florida and her daughter had her face glued to a portable DVD player for most of the trip, I questioned that. But now I'm envious when I see her kids being indifferent to television. My kids would never walk away from a television that was turned on. Conrad will watch the cooking channel. And history shows. My kids will snarl and bite your hand if you try to turn the TV off without warning. They love, love, love television.

Maybe letting them have more of it would have lessened the appeal. But now it is too late for that and there will be even less TV than before. I like the idea but the kids do not. Matt seems to be adjusting and is actually reading a book--with WORDS and no pictures. I admit that we really missed this last season of Breaking Bad and will miss Game of Thrones when it starts up again. I guess it will be an adjustment for all of us kids.

This place is a little too familiar now

A view from our dock. Behind the birdhouse is a
yacht you can buy for $6.2 million (reduced).

The guy that brought our fire extinguishers back after being serviced accidentally discharged the big one for the engine compartment that costs about $500 to recharge. He was fiddling with it, trying to get it just right when all of a sudden there was a loud hissing noise. He just put his face in his hands and stayed like that for 5 minutes.

I guess he has been working for the company for five years and this was the first time this had happened to him. At least we know it works. It uses a super cold gas so it didn't make a mess but it was really cold in the engine compartment for a while after that.

The Ft. Lauderdale area seems to have everything that Chicago has. You just have to drive 10 miles to get to any of it. Today Matt visited a railing company in the area that is known for having extremely cranky and rude owners/staff. Both times Matt has been there, he starts explaining what he needs and the guy cuts him off saying, "West Marine. Just go to West Marine. They have that." Matt: "But you didn't let me finish. I just came from West Marine and they didn't..." The guy: "West Marine. I'm telling you." They routinely send people away. They told one person we talked to that he had to call before coming to the store and then as he was leaving came out to the parking lot asking, "Are you still here?" Monopoly maybe. Or money laundering front.

In other exciting news today, while the last toilet was being replaced, it was determined that a SCUBA diver was needed to stabilize a broken valve. That's one thing we didn't have to do when renovating the house.

The good news on the income front is that the kids created a bunch of drawings to sell so that they can buy their own iPad. Mark sold one to the co-owner of Just Catamarans for 35 cents, so he sold his first piece. Although the asking price was $10 so he needs to work on his negotiating skills.

Another day in paradise

A view of the floor of the galley with Laurent on the right. That's his
head underneath the floorboard in a space just wide enough for his head.
The next day they decided to just remove the floor board.

The post heading is what Laurent says many mornings as he starts his day, usually before 8:30 a.m. He is the project manager/jack-of-all-boat-trades in charge of fixing many of the things that need fixing on the boat. Laurent is very knowledgeable, competent, and charming (with an adorable French accent). And he and the Just Catamarans crew has done a great job so far. But every day that we see him is another day that the boat isn't finished.

That list includes putting in new heads (toilets), a new stove, a new SCUBA compressor, a new barbecue grill, and new wiring for the electronics. The air conditioner, freezer and auto-pilot need fixing.

Then there are the things that we keep discovering that weren't done right. The faucet in the galley (kitchen) had the wrong size supply line hose which turned into a several day adventure because Kohler has proprietary supply lines that the previous installers decided to chop through. The main sail has mismatched cars and tracks (when I asked Matt to describe the problem he said, "expensive"). The list goes on.

Good thing Matt can fix things or we would be bleeding money at twice the rate. All that home renovation  we did translates well to boat renovation. You would have thought we had learned our lesson though.

We do see the light at the end of the tunnel (hopefully it's not a train). In the meantime, we're doing our part to support the economy. You're welcome.

Boat School

"Cherry" by Conrad (Kindergarten)

The other day, Conrad and Mark started begging to start boat school. That was strange. Kind of a Bugs Bunny duck-season-rabbit-season reverse psychology situation. We take them out of school so they want it.

Almost no one blinks an eye when you talk about homeschooling now. Whether it's the intense focus on the dire state of the American educational system or the wealth of resources and support that the internet provides, homeschooling is becoming more mainstream.

I don't agree that homeschooling (or elite schooling) is the only valid option. The suburban school that my oldest attended has the vision and resources (monetary and kid) to break away from the test-taking focus brought about by No Child Left Behind. I wanted to kiss the principal when she talked at the parent orientation about character, self-reliance and organizational skills. I don't want my kids to be one of the spoiled American kids referenced in this New Yorker article. Don't worry, I won't be giving my 5-year old a machete any time soon. On the other hand, the 6-year old just got the American Boys Handbook for Christmas and needs to whittle a stick to make a bow and arrow.

But no doubt about it, the educational system in general is undergoing a shake-up. There are clearly a lot of smart people who care a lot about the future of America's children. So that's good. It will be interesting to see where it lands or if constant innovation is the new normal.

Our goal with schooling on the boat is to prepare our children to do whatever they want to do in life. Many parents want that. Anecdotally, boat kids (and home schooled kids in general) do fine or better academically (read about Kate and Chris). The ones we have met seem happy, confident and able to talk to people of all ages and backgrounds.

The big homeschooling bogey of "socialization" is one that rankles homeschoolers to no end. It's also the thing that people are most curious about (other than, "Do you seriously want to spend that much time with your family?"). I'm not going to start that debate here, but most homeschooling experts usually respond with something like school is not the real world and doesn't prepare kids for the real world.

There will be gains and losses. Our kids will see the world (whatever parts we get to) and meet people of different cultures. They will learn the history of a place while they are there. They will be given real responsibilities and the luxury of exploring things that interest them.

On the other hand, they won't have all the same cultural references as other American kids. They won't be on the travel soccer team. They won't live down the block from their best friend.  So, on the subject of whether they win or lose in this whole thing, we (and they) will have to let you know. You know where our bets lie.

Wait, I might need that later!

Leather bicycle seat.  Never installed for 23 years, but it could
happen next week. Not! Sold for a surprising amount. 

“The things you own end up owning you. It's only after you lose everything that you're free to do anything.” - Fight Club

To prepare for our move onto a boat, I spent several years selling and donating things left and right: eBay, craigslist, Amazon, and the Salvation Army were all familiar stomping grounds. I have minimalism in my blood and the thought of paring down our possessions to the essentials makes me happy. Matt, not so much.  Matt's take is that I'm somewhat insane. You can draw your own conclusions.

Even though Matt is not materialistic (except for the occasional lusting after camera equipment and certain other gadget-y stuff), he is--to me--a hoarder. Okay, perhaps he is just normal. But  parting with possessions that we might someday need was harder for him than it was for me. For example, to me it was just a box of random, left over screws and fasteners.  To Matt it was the potential solution to some unknown problem we'd face in some part of the world where screws and nails were yet to be invented.  There were some tears, pleading and some surreptitious trips to the garbage can, but in the end, we were left with just a few boxes of possessions (quite a few, if you ask me). Everything was loaded into one 6' x 7' x 8' moving pod, with room to spare. We'll see how much of the contents will fit on the boat.  There were some items that Matt didn't mind parting with: we had a lot of fun drinking up the extra wine he had collected through the years.

Visit The Monkey's Fist to find other posts on this topic:
http://themonkeysfist.blogspot.com/2013/01/moving-aboard-transitions.html

You can't scare us

Last winter.

This winter.

We are surrounded by cautionary tales. We heard that a liveaboard couple on one of the catamarans in the yard gave up the other day. They were on a model of boat that we were very interested buying. They just packed some bags and left their boat.

They called the local broker a few days later and told him to sell it. When the broker opened the boat up to clean it, they discovered toast still in the toaster and other food just left to rot. The couple must have really wanted out of there.

 

Next is Paul who owns a beautiful 50' catamaran a couple slips down from us that he bought brand new. He dedicated a blog to writing about all the troubles he has had with the boat. Of the three years that he has owned it, he says most of it has been spent fixing the boat (he did cross the Atlantic though).

 

If we were smart, we would probably be worried. We are spending most of our time fixing up our own 20 year old boat (with nothing major wrong that we know of) so we can go somewhere exotic. Matt has lost 20 pounds without trying (while drinking a lot more beer than he used to).

 

Everything associated with a boat seems to cost about a thousand dollars. For example, the small stainless steel piece we had to buy for our mast (similar to the one pictured below), set us back about $112.

 

There are many, many conversations with lots of different workers and businesses. Today, Matt had an annoying conversation with a Best Buy store clerk about a bracket for our computer monitor. He knew he was in trouble when he saw her tattoo of the Microsoft logo. He likened it to getting a Betamax tattoo back in the day. At some point it is just going to seem outdated.

 

Despite all this, we are still excited about starting our journey. It could be the newness of everything and our lack of experience with what can go wrong. But right now, we are in sunny Florida in the middle of winter instead of in an office in Chicago. Talk to us in three years.



New Year, New River Walk

A pink bridge seems to take the Florida
pink theme a bit too far if you ask me.

I always forget that Florida is part of the South. Today along the New River Walk in downtown Ft. Lauderdale, we overheard the following conversation between two armed rent-a-cops who had just gotten out of a truck (imagine a heavy twang):

First guy: This here is what we call a foot patrol. I just been here three minutes and I already spotted 4 homeless guys. One over there, two over there and one over here.

Second guy:  HEL-lo...

First guy: No, don't worry about that guy. You only worry about the homeless guys if they're on something.

Speaking of homeless people, the ones here seem to have it really good compared to the ones in Chicago. One guy who was taking an afternoon nap under one of the bridges had an office desk with a nice grill sitting on top.

The bridge in the picture above was raised for boats when we got to the top. The bridge tender must have messed up because when it was lowered, a piece of the bridge about a foot high was still sticking up out of the road and blocking the whole bridge. Luckily for its transmission, the lead car noticed and came screeching to stop while the bridge guy fixed the situation.