Visiting the Fam

Our Seattle weekend continued as we started Saturday with a visit to Pike Place for breakfast at The Crumpet Shop and to pick up some flowers to bring to Matt's mom.
We then hit the road for a 5-hour road trip to Coeur d’ Alene to visit the family and celebrate Ken’s birthday.
Before heading out for Ken’s birthday dinner, he and Matt reviewed the test companionway doors and talked through their final design. We’ll leave the materials and plans in his good hands to be built. He even offered to build us an overlay for the bathroom countertop from some scrap granite he’s collected. It means a lot to us to have his craftsmanship aboard.
The boys taking a break while dad takes Jeff’s new bike out for a spin.

Productive Seattle Weekend

We took full advantage of a long weekend in Seattle with a date night staying at The Edgewater and seafood dinner at Elliot’s, a refitting gear quest across some premier and cost-effective suppliers, and a visit with the family in Coeur d’ Alene.

• We started our sailing supplies’ gathering with a visit to Fisheries Supply (think Toys-R-Us for boaters). There we picked up epoxy (marine glue) for the companion way doors that Matt and his dad are building, our new electric Lavac Marine Toilet and some electrical wiring for the toilet pump. Through Matt’s exhaustive research, we chose a Lavac for its unparalleled reputation for simplicity and longevity among blue water cruisers. Earlier in the week, we ordered the necessary hoses from Defender Marine Outfitter.

• We then marveled at all the other treasures there and even picked out new LED lighting fixtures (but that’s in our October budget & refit plan so we jotted down the part #s and headed to our next stop).

• From there we headed to Crosscut Hardwoods to pick out some teak planks to build the companionway doors and a shower bench.

• We wrapped up a productive day with a romantic dinner at Elliot’s on the Bay and a nice night at The Edgewater.

Our Dream, God Willing

We're standing on a cusp right now, looking forward to the journey of a lifetime.

And we desire to start that life a little different than some. Our dream is to take some time to experience the world, to slow down, reset our expectations of things to come and enjoy the world that God created.

Someday soon our plan is to, at least for a while, cast off the lines in search of adventure and sail about the world. The ultimate goal is to change our perspectives forever. This cruising lifestyle, as it's called, is not a permanent vacation, nor an escape from our lives, nor running away. Rather, it is running (or sailing) toward the life we want to define for ourselves, creating the environment that will build our bond for a lifetime together.

We have certainly heard plenty of reasons not to but as one fellow cruiser put it: "The best reason 'not to' is because you will be forced to face the unknown. You will meet challenges that you may not be able to solve with the skills you have already learned." You may only overcome some circumstances with ingenuity, perseverance, and the grace of God.

Through the joys and challenges of sailing about the world in our modest little house we will be forced to solve problems in ways that draw us closer together, see people's lives wholly different than our own, and interact with a world full of people that most never folks never know exist.

Our own desires are not the only driver for this lifestyle, as we would like to help and serve the people we meet and share experiences with along the way. The ultimate calling of this service will be to show and share the life-changing message of Jesus.

Plus lounging on a few pristine white sand beaches will be nice :)

For more details about our plans and follow our progress return here.

"There are two options in a person's life -- reflection and action. One is an opportunity to think about it, the other an opportunity to live it."

Cruising Cards

Sailors are a social bunch. More than that, they have a sense of camaraderie and duty to look out for and support one another. People often trade boat cards like these to help keep track of others you meet along your voyages. We ordered these online free, plus about $6 in shipping from Vistaprint.

Another small step taken this week was the purchase and creation of our website, SVKaleo.com. It cost a little less than $10/yr and will house our blog, information about Kaleo, our current location, sailing resources, what to expect when coming aboard, and photo albums. But for now, it just links to our blog as we develop other content.

Amazing Day

The crew woke up to a great, yet hot, day with nice 12-15 mph winds. Some defining moments from Saturday:

• Started with a hearty breakfast

• Matt watched his wedding band slip of his freshly sun-screened hand and go kerplunk in the murky, muddy water at the slip! We assumed it was gone forever and made peace with the loss.
• Discovered new marina neighbor, Steve (who Christie coincidentally had met while running boat errands a few months ago and who happen to have bought a Pearson 365 that we looked at before buying our beloved, Kaleo!)
• Our surveyor (who we highly recommend if you need the best) and sailing friend/mentor, Drake Epple, stopped by to say hi. It's always a treat to see him and we look forward to him joining us for a sail soon.
• Explored the treasure trove, Boaters Resale Shop of Texas, near our marina
• A great sail in the Bay with enough heel to make us all a little nervous, spotted lots of jelly fish hanging out and kicked back with lunch, fun chats and discovered our new favorite sailing channel on Pandora
• Saw a freshly sunk boat just outside of the channel with the captain still aboard and coast guard just arriving
• Jeph spotted a net to which he suggested dredging for the lost ring. On the 6th shot, Jeph nonchalantly announced, "this is the one guys", Matt said a little prayer and the next thing we knew, Matt was spraying water through the mud to discover his ring the net! The pictures show Matt's excitement and amazement.

• 

• The guys spent the rest of the afternoon fitting the test companionway doors while the girls took a nap below in the cool A/C.

• We had a great dinner at Skippers, and then we went for a night motor (our 1st time to leave the slip after dark & navigate out of the channel). It was also our 1st time to see ocean phosphorescence lighting up the waves light underwater fireflies!
• Deck Schwab RedBeard even entertained us with a little recorder performance.

Four's Company

This weekend we hosted our first overnight couple and great friends, Jeph & Amy aboard Kaleo!

A few highlights from Friday:

• Road trippin' in Ph's BMW, "Beverly"
• Creating our pirate names (Deck Schwab RedBeard, 1st Mate Knuckles, Captain Stinky Feet, Admiral Christiana)
• Dinner at The Aquarium and walk around Kemah Boardwalk (shocked at feverishly feeding catfish)

The Net

Today the first parts of our data network arrived, two Furuno FI-50 displays. These will be the primary displays for critical information in the cockpit.

The one on the left is a three-line digital display that will show water depth, speed, water temp & various other bits of navigation data. The one on the right will show the wind speed & direction relative to the bow of the boat. This will be great because right now we have to look at the windex on the mast to tell what direction it's blowing, which makes for a sore neck by the end of the day.

The workbench is coming together

I got the garage cleaned out from the move and am building a workbench. That way I can "work" on Kaleo while in Dallas.

First projects slated to hit the bench: rebuilding the watermaker and building companionway doors from teak.