August 27, 2014 - The BIG Adventure Begins!

Today was the day, we left the dock, turned the corner into the channel and came to realize our dream coming true.  Wow, even up to the last moments it seemed unreal.  As we left Shelter Bay with some friends on the dock, we also were surprised at many people waving us farewell from their homes.  That was an emotional moment, and thank you all for the well wishes.

Sunrise from Shelter Bay the day we are leaving!

Steve, Cindy, Kathy and Kevin

We wanted to give thanks to all who we have spoken to about our adventure and those that came to our farewell party a few weeks ago with inspiring stories of their previous similar adventures.  Everyone we have met that has undertaken a similar adventure with their children has encouraged us, and they all tell us that this will be one of the most positive periods in our lives, and for our children as well.  A great big THANK YOU goes to Jamie for being a lifesaver.  He spent a good portion of his day off work yesterday to drive to Seattle, with two of his children in the car, just to pick up our new liferaft that was late arriving from Florida.  Without his help, we likely would not have left today.  Also, thanks to friends of the kids that have taken them over the past several weeks so that they could enjoy some end of summer time with their friends, while we worked on all the tedious chores required to make this trip become reality.  Many more thanks are deserved, but there is not enough time here tonight to do so.

We left at 10:20AM this morning.  As we were motoring toward Deception Pass under clear sunny skies, we were hearing of the fog in Rosario Strait via the VHF radio.  The fog was west of the bridge, which is pretty normal this time of year.  As we approach the fog, of course one of the two radars will not change it's range.  We have two radars so thankful for that.   Everything has been working just fine.  We have many chores planned for battening down the hatches prior to the trip tomorrow.  We are not expecting rough conditions tomorrow, but once we get out into the ocean rough waters will find us.  So, we are spending some time now preparing the boat for the inevitable rougher conditions.

Deception Pass and bridge, fog in Rosario Strait

Our plan today was to anchor in Aleck Bay, Lopez Island and then spend the afternoon getting ready for a long day tomorrow in hopes of reaching Neah Bay for fuel.  Yes, A LOT of fuel, we believe 1000 gallons or so.  Ouch!  We have enjoyed a nice sunny afternoon here.  The sunset right now is very colorful.  This has been a great first day to mark the start of our big trip!!!

Sunset in Aleck Bay

Our location and tracking device for our trip will be up and running in the next day or two.

August 25, 2014 - Departure Update

It is taking a bit longer to complete preparations for a departure (house and boat) as well as waiting for a life raft that is due in today but looks as if it may be tomorrow.  Our departure is now planned for Wednesday the 27th at 10am, heading south through the channel and out Deception Pass at slack.

August 22, 2014 - getting close to leaving

As it stands now, we will be cutting our dock lines Tuesday morning, August 26.  About 10 days later than our "optimal" departure date.  Our original departure date was to be Sept 1, but many experienced coastal boaters encouraged us to leave earlier for the prospect of calmer conditions on the ocean.  There has been so much more work too do to get ready for this trip that our August 15 date became unobtainable.

It looks like we have renters for our house.  They just have to pass the background check, which we think they will.  It's a very nice family of 4, with two little ones.  They love our house and it's location near the pool, playground, tennis courts, and clubhouse.  I'm sure they will enjoy it as much as we have.

The living spaces in our house are virtually empty now.  Kathy has been VERY busy emptying every cabinet and closet.  She's also been cleaning the entire house.  We have taken dozens of trips to the storage unit with our belongings.  We just keep taking more over there.  The worst is yet to come though.  My shop and the garage are yet to be fully emptied.  That's where the heavy stuff is like a joiner, a table saw, drill press, and bandsaw. By the end of the weekend we will have an empty shop, garage, and house.  We think we will need to move onto the boat by Sunday night.

The boat should be mostly ready to move aboard by Sunday night.  It's been a tedious and long job wrapping up so many projects on the boat.  I have spent a few 20 hour days in the past week trying to get everything done.  Not fun.  The safety related stuff is now all completed.  Now I'm working on the "nice" stuff.  The things that will make life better onboard, like having hot water.  I just installed a new, bigger, hot water tank in the engine room.  But I had to replumb the hot water side, and I had to hook it into the engine cooling system so the engine could heat the water when we are underway.

I finished the hot water tank plumbing today, I also finished the dinghy securing system I came up with, and hooked up our windshield wiper controls, and the two horns.  I also made a little work bench in the engine room above the start batteries.  I'm trying to wrap up the instrument cluster at the helm, and I need to secure the solar panels so they can't swing outward in rough water.  I have most of the parts and pieces, I just need time to get it all installed.

Once we get underway we can relax a little, organize the boat, and think about what lies ahead.  We can't wait!!!

August 10, 2014 - Thank you, and and update on our plans

Thanks for all the well wishes and questions on when we plan to leave.  Right now we are hoping to leave the Shelter Bay dock between the 20th and 25th.  As we get closer we will post a more definitive day and time.

Our weekend has been occupied with trips to the dump, two yesterday and two today.  Yesterday we emptied a garage full of items (from two boats and leftover building supplies from building our house).  Ten years of many things.  I was surprised to find out we had about 2500lbs with about 200lbs from the house and the rest from the building materials (home and boats) from the garage.  Well, that was yesterday.  Today, our 18th year anniversary of marriage, we had more fun spending time emptying out a crawl space at Steve's sister's house that had items from when we moved up here prior to building our house.  All I can say is out of sight, out of mind! We forgot most of it was under her house.  Confused, don't worry, just too much stuff!  Much of today was metal which was recyclable for free (thank goodness for the environment and our finances), but we had about another 2000lbs of items (no typo there).  Wow, over 2 tons of things to get rid of.  Keep in mind, all of the clothes, toys, and other reusable items were not included, we obviously are giving away items that can provide for other families.

The house is about ready to show as a rental.  We live still in the house but have had the carpets cleaned so everything is sparse around here.  We sleep on a mattress on the floor and the kids have a folding cushion each.  We have some clothes in closets but not much else in the regular living space.  Much of our remaining time will be spent emptying the first floor rec-room/craft room and the garage to prepare it for rental.

On the boat, Steve has now installed the watermaker, both radars, most of the other electronics, and is getting ready to install a new water heater.  It is a 30 gallon unit compared to the tiny 10 gallon water heater that was 30+ years old and full of rusty sediment at the bottom.   We are starting to move items to the boat for our trip.  We hope we can remember where we put everything!

-Kathy, Steve, Cindy, Kevin, and the cat Zappa

August 4, 2014 - Our lives are changing

Already I feel our lives changing....

The house is moving toward emptiness and the boat to be our home.  I made our bed this afternoon at the house and felt some dejavu’ from my past.  I was making our bed which is now on the floor, as our furniture has moved to storage, and I was remembering the old times.  I moved from the east coast of the USA and spent my first months in the Seattle area on a foam pad that was my bed back in 1990.   I made the leap from east coast to west coast without a job or friends/family in the area, to know that I could be whatever I set my mind to be.  I could make it happen.   Wow, fast forward, getting up from the floor today is something to remember after 23 years of life here and many years on these bones!  I can honestly say that the leap I made to move west and the desire to meet people with the same passions as I have had was well worth it!  Follow your dreams and make your life worthwhile, you only have one!  I would not change that decision I made, even with all the wonderful  friends around me; to leave everyone and everything that was my foundation, to transition to an environment that I felt would embrace the person that I am.   I retain those relationships, friendships, and memories from the east and have made/enjoy so many friendships and fond memories with those that I feel as part of our extended family.  This small town life we live here I would not trade, thank you so much La Conner and families for making our life here so very precious.  Thank you ALL for being a part of my life, my families life, as you all help round out where we have come from and our foundation for what comes next.  I feel confident in our adventure, but without Steve being the solid foundation for our family, this trip could not happen.  He is the superman in our adventure and a true rock in the family.    Here we go, I am so excited to have this adventure with my family......

August 2, 2014 - Bon Voyage Party

Thanks to our friends and family for coming to say goodbye last night!  We had a "Bon Voyage" BBQ party at the Shelter Bay BBQ area next to the marina.  We estimate that more than 100 people attended our going away event.  I guess people really want us to get out of here!

We were so busy talking to our guests that we didn't take any photos.  Bummer.

We left our boat open for people to go check out and at one point I looked down and there must have been 15 people up on the flybridge, with more inside.   I left out a few before pictures in various rooms so those unfamiliar with the boat could see all that we've done to Adagio.  She is a vastly different boat compared to when we bought her 3 years ago.

It was great fun last night to see so many of our friends! 

Thank You!!!!!!

Here is a picture that Kathy took this morning when she walked down t the BBQ area to clean up a bit more.

Blue Heron sitting on one of the dock ramps

July 12, 2014 - 4th of July, sailing camp

We just returned this afternoon from a 10 day trip to the San Juan's. Unfortunately we returned to a PC that won't boot up, so I'm going to have to complete this blog entry at a later date.

We had a great time with great weather.  Two nieces from Colorado joined us, as well as Steve's sister.  We enjoyed the spectacular fireworks at Fisherman Bay on Lopez, celebrated Cindy's 12th birthday, and the kids spent a week in sailing camp.  It was a fantastic trip with great weather.

I will post pictures and stories when I have time.