at last.

Interlude is FINALLY back in the water, ladies and gents. Yes! Finally. It all happened in just a few short days. After much heel dragging on the part of the marina/shop where Interlude was being "serviced" (I very loosely will acknowledge that she did indeed have some work done though not near enough) they pulled it together, finished up 90% of outstanding issues. Thee is at least one that will be completed in the coming winter (supposedly) and I would guess the other one as well (chain plates STILL need replaced and there was some fiberglass work that needs addressing as well as the malfunctioning autopilot remote). 

But enough of the bummer part of the whole process! The fun now begins!  

We went up to Waukegan, where she's been all winter, on Saturday with Josh's parents who graciously agreed to help us get her put back to sailing condition and deliver her to her home port in Racine. We put up the sails, tidied the cabin, scrubbed down the cockpit cushions, filled tanks, checked electrical systems, hosed her down, etc. 

Bright and early, err...late Sunday morning, we came back, climbed aboard, stowed belongings and snacks below and motored out into the lake. Seriously you guys, the weather was unbelievably perfect. It was the type of day sailors daydream about: 8-10 knots per hour wind, moderate waves, sunny and clear. I had thought we might be sweaty beasts but once we got out on the lake it was clear the humidity was not going to be an issue. Heavenly. Magical. We motored out around noon and arrived in Racine just about 6pm. We only had to jibe once which was nice. There is a reef, of sorts, just outside the harbor in Racine so we turned on the motor to maneuver her in about 3.5 miles out since the wind wasn't ideal for bringing her in under sail. Once we switched on the motor there was a little hiccup where the propeller wasn't engaged and moving us forward so Josh was a little frazzled trying to drop the main but we got it all sorted out and then we were right as rain. 

And now Interlude is tucked nicely in her slip, waiting for us to come do a few projects and generally enjoy the remainder of the sailing season. We'll head up Saturday morning and stay a few days and hopefully next weekend or the following we'll be there for most of the summer!

a whozit whatzit now?

What do you know about GRIBs? Yeah, me too. Not a darn thing. 

Part of our deal in this upcoming journey is that Josh will manage the engine maintenance and I'll do all the weather forecasting. "Fine," I thought, "how hard can it be?" Apparently, harder than I anticipated. 

Some cruisers have Internet connectivity and simply log onto a website like passageweather.com, windfinder.com or weatheronline.com. Others pay a service and use the single-side band radio and call up a person somewhere back on land who is an expert weather enthusiast (for lack of an official term) through mwxc.com or similar and get the skinny on whether optimal conditions are heading their way. Still others, using email service (sailmail and saildocs, which I'll in a later post) send out an email request to NOAA for a specific area denoted with a series of coordinates, then download the file (called a GRIB—GRIdded Binary or General Regularly-distributed Information in Binary form) they send you, open it with your reading/viewing software and interpret the file. We fall into the latter category. The files look like the above. It's a chart/series of charts that you can animate (much like the weatherman on the 6 o'clock news does) with markings to indicate wind, pressure, wave height, etc. that is from NOAA's satellite imaging with their best guess of what the weather is going to be based on past conditions and what is currently happening in the vicinity. This is why meteorology is not an exact science. There are certain weather patterns/behaviors that can be assumed based on generally accepted weather knowledge (for instance, high pressure usually equals sunny, fair conditions and low pressure air is rising and may bring precipitation) but it takes lots of practice to interpret. And that's my next order of business. Researching, reading, and gathering all the advice and information available to me now so I will feel confident when its time to test in real life. Even when we get out to sea, don't worry too much about us, as we will ALWAYS err on the side of caution. 

For now, I plan on starting a weekly if not daily exercise of doing the above described and checking weather conditions for the great lakes area. 

Also, quick update on Interlude: still not in the water. Yep. Not thrilled. Josh is traveling part of this month as it is, so we will not have her back in the water before the middle of the month. Still no resolution on the work that needs done and we are having difficulty contacting our surveyor. Will keep you updated!

what do you do...

When no one seems to be in a big hurry but you?

As you may have guessed, the lack of posts around here has much to do with the fact that Interlude is not yet in the water. She went into the shop around the first of the year and up until mid-March, we were told she was being serviced. The purchase agreement had a laundry list of things to be fixed and we were told the service department would address them all and let us know when repairs were completed. Around the end of March, Josh received an email update complete with photos of the king plank and bowspirit being replaced, as well as the compression post being replaced. We assumed that all meant the boat was in tip top shape. Josh took a trip up one Saturday following that email to look over the work. Lo and behold, during his inspection he saw that the chain plates had not been cleaned, replaced, or in any way serviced. He also noted that the sea cocks hadn't been replaced (both issues are troublesome and need attention before being launched). He followed up in person by showing the head of the service department the lack of action on the issues. He subsequently sent an email with photos of said problems. No response. 

Fast forward to last Saturday. Our surveyor wanted to take a look at the work that had been done in order to get insurance all squared away and felt a boat in better condition would merit a lower insurance rate. Great. We like that idea. We still haven't heard any more from the service department but I think we both assume they'd seen the email and had taken action. Guess again. As of last Saturday, the boat's still not completely fixed. We are back to the drawing board and the next steps are to involve the salesman who sold us the boat and probably the owner of Larsen. It's a super big bummer because we were really hoping to have Interlude back in last week. Will keep you posted. 

under pressure.

One of the challenges we will be facing when we move aboard Interlude full time (and there will be many) is being contained. Very unlike we live now, our resources will be limited. We can only carry so much food, water, and fuel. Responsible and efficient usage of those resources is something I'm obsessed with being mindful of (now is the time I admit my cheapskatedness). 

A way that I am trying to make the best usage of one of our resources is in food prep. We have a very small oven and 4 very small burners that will use propane tanks. Interlude has two on the deck that will be filled before we leave and monitored incessantly while in port and underway. We love food and we love to eat well and if possible we want to get the most bang for our pounds per square inch of fuel. One way to do that is use a pressure cooker for items that would normally use a substantial amount of fuel/time to cook (various vegetables, more substantial cuts of meat, etc.) as well as eliminating the need to have the galley heated up for extended periods of time. 

You might think that it's weird that I am terrified of pressure cookers. I had heard horror stories of these things exploding or burning people from the women in my family from previous generations (my mom swears my grandma forgot she turned hers on and it burst open, not sure if I believe that but hey, caution never hurt anyone). Not only that, there was this major fear that the food would be over or undercooked, rendering the high pressure cooking pretty much worthless since you'd have to finish it off by other means anyway! So you can imagine my trepidation in giving it a test run. 

My lovely mother donated hers to my cause since hers had been sitting unused in the back of one of those unreachable corners of the kitchen cabinets. She even included the almost pristine cookbook/instructional guide it came equipped with. Guess she didn't do too much cooking with it but she did use it for canning and she tells me it cut green bean cooking time down to next to nothing.

My test subject was a chunk of pork loin I wanted to cook to a tender state and shred and coat with sauce to make barbecue pork. Instructions were pored over 5 times, equipment was checked and I was ready to go. I seasoned the pork, added enough liquid to cover the chunk of pork and fastened/locked the lid tightly in place. You are supposed to crank up the heat to high to get things going then adjust it to medium/low once the pressure control starts jiggling. It should only jiggle four times a minute at the correct temp, so there was a tiny bit of futzing around to get that happy medium. An hour later, I pulled it off the stove, ran it under cold water to release the pressure, took off the pressure controller, and opened her up. Voila. Perfect! 

I think I'll continue to do some experimenting with it just so I'm good and versed in the ins and outs of care and cooking times before we put it to the test on the boat. Next meal is going to be a pot roast with potatoes and carrots and I may even attempt a recipe I saw for pressure cooker cheesecake!?

strictly sail chicago.

For the first time since we've been going to Strictly Sail Chicago at Navy Pier, I was giddy. Sure, I'd always gone along but my heart wasn't really in it. There were always cool booths, gorgeous new boats to step aboard, interesting seminars to attend but when you don't have a boat, all you can do is long for the day when you were officially a boat person, not just an interested passerby. This was finally our year. Actually, our first, since I'm sure next year will be even more fruitful! The day was pretty much perfect. I only wish we could have come back for Sunday's seminars and demos.

Strictly Sail is the only all sailboat show in the midwest, and so, one of the best places to find a variety of services and goods for the avid sailor and his vessel. They bring in the best/most interesting speakers, authors, experts in a variety of areas and you can hear them speak and meet them afterwards. Some are your regular joe's who've taken up the cruiser lifestyle, some are pioneers in sailing around the world, and some literally wrote the book on cruising. 

Before we went, Josh looked at the speaker schedule and mapped out who we'd hear when, and we planned to walk the expo floor in between sessions. There were a few vendors we were specifically seeking out, Nature's Head and Air Head (more on those in a later post), West Marine, Larsen Marine (where we bought Interlude), and a few others. We got there as the doors were opening and had a little time before the first speaker so we wandered around the edges, planning our assault. It was packed!! The event spans Thursday-Sunday, and it seems Saturday is one of the busiest. We didn't mind the crowds though. 

We listened to a family who cruised around the world with their three kids, departing from Chicago as we plan to do; two well regarded female cruisers, Jimmy Cornell, and a few others. It was wonderful to hear tales from all these people but also frustrating to have to wait a few more months before we can get Interlude back into the water to start our own adventures. I'm revved up and ready to do more exploring and learning on our boat. Hurry up, May 1!

We picked up a few items at the vendor booths while we were there too. I got a foul weather gear coat (as seen above), some deck shoes (both from West Marine, who ALWAYS have super deals at the boat show), and our life vests/harnesses. I'll talk more about those once we start using them on the boat, but they are expensive ($150 a pop--on sale. Yikes!) and necessary. I'm always a happy girl when I get new shoes, so you know, all in all, a great outing.

Every year it's a wonderful expo and if you've got the curiosity, I highly recommend checking it out. There are plenty of sailors at all levels and opportunities to get more plugged in with the sailing community even if you don't have your own boat. 

a note about our mission.

There are plenty of cruising blogs out there, I know. We've certainly read our share. There is something very, very important missing from all of the ones we've found. Transparency.

When it came down to living out this dream, we wanted to know the nuts and bolts of what it would take to make it happen. Josh has been covering the technical aspects (outfitting, upgrades, DIY upgrades, etc.) and I'm in charge of comfort and provisioning and all the travel stuff. He's done a stellar job of pricing out the things that we can handle before we leave. I, on the other hand haven't fared so well. Sure, I can find out how much groceries and supplies generally cost stateside but the further reaches are a bit of a mystery. How much does it cost to pass through the Panama Canal? How much is a six pack of beer in the Bahamas? THAT is what we want to know. 

We aren't offended by the money questions. For people who live the lifestyle we plan to live, that sort of knowledge is immeasurably helpful. I need to know how much hoses for a septic plumbing fix cost in Barbuda. How can you undertake such a lifestyle change such as becoming a cruiser without weighing the risks and costs, especially when they lie in foreign ports?? So, our pledge is to be utterly transparent beginning now. I'm proud of our frugality and will happily share that knowledge for the mission of educating those on the brink of stepping into this great adventure too. Once we get closer, I'll post some excel type graphics of costs of repairs, provisioning lists, gear purchases, etc. For now, if you have questions, let me know. I don't think there is any impropriety in being transparent about our financials and I'd be happy to answer any such questions.

365 and counting.

In an effort to 1. become a better photographer, 2. keep my momma and friends apprised of the goings on of one of her city dwelling kiddos, and 3. be sure to keep the blog going, including projects and musings about life, I am starting a 365 photo a day project. I did it successfully once before and this year is going to be way better. I want to be a better photographer and storyteller and I think this'll be the best avenue for me. So, going forward, look for pics here as we'll as at my Flickr account. Happy 2013!