The new nav station is installed, and we couldn't be happier with it. 

It has lots of drawers and little storage places.  The office chair used to be down in our starboard hull, but we decided that wasn't working and impeded access to the new forward bathroom.    

Tanya traded quite a bit of cabinet space for the new washer/dryer, but she seems to be coming out okay through more efficient use of space in the new galley drawers.  Unfortunately, I did something to my right knee which has put a damper on the boat project progress, so the washer/dryer is not yet hooked up.  It needs power, water, drain, and vent lines run through the adjacent bulkhead to the bathroom-turned-pantry there.

The crib is nearing completion and will be the next piece to get installed.  After seeing the look of the new furniture, we decided to go ahead with new galley countertop and a new salon table of the same wood.  The galley already has new drawer banks, and the table will have additional drawers and shelves in its base that should help with storage.  We're also nearing completion on the new catwalk design, so that will be built in the coming weeks.  The new bathroom is still undergoing trials and there will be post on it soon.

The one thing this new nav station doesn't have room for?

Paper charts.

At nine months pregnant, the standard answer is: large and uncomfortable. Jay is our photo person, so unless he feels so inclined, you probably will not see the pictures of me that look more and more like the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man. People keep telling me I look “so cute” but I certainly don’t feel it. After five pregnancies, the novelty has sort of worn off. I am fortunate not to get sick, and usually like being “with child” but sleep deprivation and swelling do funny things to a person. Even when “Honey Bunny” (so-dubbed by Sam) finally stops wiggling at night so that I can fall asleep, I then have to get up 4-5 times to go to the bathroom. Climbing in and out of my bunk (which is about 4 ½’ off the floor) had become dangerous, so I moved into the salon to sleep (and be closer to the head). Needless to say, I miss the privacy and comfort of my bed.

That said, I also feel really excited. I love babies. I love the way they smell, the funny little sounds they make, the way they look at you like you are the one new to the planet. I love baby things, like the awesome new stroller that I just purchased (look for boat-baby gear reviews in the near-future), and tiny clothes, blankets, and the basket that was lovingly woven for this little one. I even love cloth diapers, which may sound weird to my non-crunchy readers. I will love them even more now that the Splendide has arrived—part of the new nav-station remodel includes installation of an Italian marine washer-dryer unit. That means I do not have to wash cloth diapers by hand. I am actually going to attempt infant potty-training with this kid, but we’ll see how consistently I can stick with that after she shows up.

The other frequently asked question these days is “Do we have a name picked out?” The answer is yes, and no. We always have several in hand when we go to deliver. We like to see the whites of their eyes before we dub them–we need to see who this person is before we stick them with a permanent thing like a name. We have the benefit this time of knowing that this is a little girl (well, relative certainty, anyway) because we had an ultrasound done in Marsh Harbor this winter. That means the list is half as short. We also have traditionally given our children Biblical names, so that narrows the list too. Suffice it to say that the new baby will not be named Esther, Jezebel, or Dorcas. As for the baby’s actual name, like us, you will just have to be patient. And if, by some chance, the ultrasound tech was wrong, then we will have to go back to the drawing board, come up with a boy name and buy some blue things.

For those of you who are praying people, we would certainly be thankful to know that you are asking for a healthy delivery in the near future (the actual due date is April 22), for a quick recovery and smooth transition as we bring a new baby aboard, and for a supernatural dose of patience. We will be posting stats and pictures of the new crew member as soon as she decides to grace us with her presence!

It's new laptop time here on Take Two. 

It’s an endurance test for Tanya's machines.  She squeezes about 5years out of them, by which point they're literally falling apart.  It'shard duty too.  Drops, spills, kids.  Mine get more use, but I'mgenerally nicer to them.  I depend on them heavily though, so I typicallyget a new one every 12-18 months whether I need it or not.  I still haveoccasional failures, and even though I pay for next-business-day on-sitesupport, it doesn't always work out that way.  So when I get a new one, theold one becomes a backup.

Lots of people we know use netbooks on their boats.  The theory beingthey're cheap and easily replaceable.  We have one, but the only use we'vefound for it is teaching the kids to type.  It's cute, but it isn't aserious computer, and neither of us can bring ourselves to use itseriously.  I've considered switching us to Macs.  I think the Macshave reached a level of maturity and market acceptance to make them viable forme.  Simultaneously, as my usage skill trends more toward the median I'verealized the overall suckage of Windows.  But Macs are too expensive forwhat we subject our computers to.  The ports on the laptop I've used forthe last year and a half are actually starting to corrode.

I've also had trouble with heat.  Modern machines are designed to runin air conditioned offices and they just can't cope with tropical climes. During the summer my laptop's fan would be running full tilt boogie 24/7, andin direct sunlight it would just roll over and die.

I considered ruggedized computers like the Panasonic Toughbook, but they areridiculously expensive and the specs aren't even that great.  We'relong-time Dell customers and Dell does have a rugged laptop called the XFR, butit has a starting price of $3800.  The specs are better, but it is stillridiculously expensive and looks like it belongs to Robocop. 

In between is their "semi-rugged" laptop called the ATG.  Tanyahas dubbed it the All-Terrain Gadget.  Shealso thinks the term “semi-rugged” is somehow fitting for me.  It is essentially just a business-classLatitude, which I have been using exclusively for the last 10+ years, but itcan tolerate higher temperatures, humidity, dust, vibration, and has asunlight-viewable display.  I decided that was the way to go and onearrived today.

While I'm moving into the new computer, I have the old E6400 and the newE6410ATG side-by-side on my desk.  For the most part the ATG looks andfeels just like the regular Latitude.  I don't know what might bedifferent under the covers, but the chassis is only slightly different. The back part of the base is wrapped in a rubber sleeve that includes portcovers.  These covers should prevent the corrosion the old one has.  Butthe sleeve also covers the E-Port on the bottom for Dell's port replicators anddocking stations.  I can see the E-Port is there, but I don't see how itcould be used.  The ATG's lid is more substantial and has a slightly morerugged look.  It weighs a little bit more and the screen is indeedbrighter.  Everything else appears to be the same.

We’ll see how it looks in a year.

How have I never discovered Bondo before?  I thought it was used exclusively by auto body shops, but I watched our carpenter using it to fill and fair the floor and walls after demoing our old nav station.  The stuff is amazing.  I've been using West System 410 Microlight for these types of jobs, but the epoxy is much harder to work with and takes longer to cure.  The Bondo can be sanded within minutes, which greatly reduces the fill-sand-fair-sand-paint cycle. 

I might actually get more painting done now…. well, at least the fairing and sanding part.  I had to kick T and kids off the boat for 24 hours for the last painting project.  Partially because of the fumes, and partially because if there's wet paint around one of them is bound to put a hand (or worse, a foot) in it.

Here are some early drawings from the carpenter building our new nav station.  These are just screenshots, but what he actually gave us is a 3D model that we could flip, rotate, and crawl inside.  We're ecstatic that we can communicate in such detail about what he's going to build, and very impressed that he got so close to what we were envisioning just based on our conversations.  We've been back and forth with revisions to optimize usable space, so there will be a few extra drawers and shelves that aren't shown here.  We should have it in the boat sometime next week.  The empty space in the front is for the washer/dryer.

In general we love having a slip close to shore and being able to back the boat up to the dock, but there's a downside that we didn't anticipate.  We should have taken a clue from the rat "hotel" under the dock gangway.  Then yesterday afternoon T found some evidence that there had been a rat in the boat.  With two cats aboard, we hoped he scoped things out and then beat a hasty retreat.  But at 3:30am this morning, the cats located him hiding mere feet from where Tanya makes her temporary bed.  I was promptly notified that a full-scale rat removal project was required.  Now.

I'm sure it was a comical scene.  I chased him around the boat naked with a pair of kitchen tongs for about 30 minutes before I finally cornered and caught him.  I distracted him with the flashlight and got him with the tongs from above.  He gave a couple panicked squeaks and then was silent. 

I hadn't given any thought what to do with him at this point, so I stood outside, naked, holding a pair of tongs and a very pathetic little rat and contemplated my options.  I wasn't about to take him ashore, ask his forgiveness, and set him free to find his way back.  His trangression carried mortal consequences as far as I was concerned, and there was a chance I'd already killed him with my determined grip on the tongs.  I decided I didn't care where he ended up as long as it was far away and he got there quickly, so I hurled him off into the night.  It was a good throw and a few seconds later I heard a splash.  But then I realized I no longer had the tongs.  Oh well.  I don't think Tanya wanted them back anyway.

In addition to the cats on the inside, there's a feral stray that patrols the dock (and our boat) most nights.  I would have thought that would be enough to keep rats from getting too adventuresome.  I don't know if he came aboard by the docklines, but our transoms are less than a foot from the dock, so I don't think there's much I can do to rat proof the boat.  So for now I guess we'll get some new tongs.  And maybe a spare pair, too.

While we were still in the Bahamas and looking forward to returning home, we made a list with the kids over dinner one night of all the things we wanted to do this summer.  Some of these things are already done, or on the calendar, and some I know won't happen.  There are also other things that belong here, but I'll leave them off to remain true to the original list.

Japanese Steakhouse
Disney World/EPCOT
Legoland
Monster Truck Show
Lowry Park Zoo
Family Mini Golf
Cayo Costa with T family
Take friends sailing (Jonah & Leyla, Drew)
Visit Cousins in Naples
Visit the Windsor
Tortugas with F family
Fantasy of Flight
Dinosaur World
Water Park
Boys Shooting
Kennedy Space Center
County/State Fair
Laser Tag
Planet Jump
Bowling
Guitar & Piano Lessons
Camping
Sweet Tomatoes
Chick-Fil-A
IHOP
Go to Church
Bar-B-Que
Coldstone Creamery
BBQ at Mimi's
Airplane (the movie) 

Just as we were getting used to life without Spice…

Tanya was cooking dinner tonight when she heard a knock on the hull.  She went outside and was shocked to find a man who lives near the end of our dock standing there holding Spice.  He had heard meowing from the boat next to his; one that didn’t have people aboard, let alone cats.  He investigated and found Spice inside.  Apparently she went in by an overhead hatch and couldn’t get back out.

Needless to say, we are ecstatic to have her back.  Spice is restless and re-exploring all the corners of the boat.  She doesn’t look like she’s been trapped for 8 days, although she plainly smells like a closed boat.  I’m sure the boat doesn’t smell any better for the encounter either.  She’s hoarse and starved for attention, but not much thinner than she always has been.  

Spice’s return has put a crimp in Sugar’s plans of household domination, and Sugar isn’t exactly welcoming her.  

Without going too much into the social dynamics between our cats, Sugar has always been the big sister but Spice has always been the favorite.  Sugar is jealous of the attention Spice receives.  While Spice was gone Sugar did not pine for her as much as we thought was appropriate.  We were willing to chalk this up to an animal’s acceptance of the ways of nature, but we harbored a slight suspicion toward Sugar as having had some involvement in Spice’s disappearance.

However, our suspicion was stronger regarding a stray cat that we’ve been dealing with.  We think he’s a tom, and he has not been shy about coming aboard at night and claiming our boat as his territory.  

Spice has always been the bouncer.  In Atlanta she bolted through an open door to chase a neighbor’s cat off of our back deck.  She didn’t stop until she got to the backyard fence, whereupon a visible look of panic crossed her face as she realized she was outside in that green stuff, and then ran even faster back into the house.  In Clearwater she chased a squirrel… onto the roof of the house.  Tanya heard the plaintive meows and had to rescue her with a ladder.  

So our leading theories about Spice’s disappearance were that she chased the tom and got lost, hurt, or was up a tree and couldn’t get down.  We checked the trees nearby and hoped for the best.

While Spice was gone Sugar received all our regular attention and maybe some extra.  She blossomed in the absence of her sister.  She seemed to become a sweeter cat.  And last night she ran off the tom.  

Tanya sleeps upstairs now (to reduce the impact to both of our rests when she trundles out of our bunk 4-5 times a night) and was awakened last night to a full-blown catfight in our cockpit.  It was Sugar and the tom.  She thrashed him pretty good and then stood guard at the cockpit door for the rest of the night.  I won’t be surprised if he doesn’t come back.

Sugar is now directing that aggression toward poor Spice.  We’ve seen this before when Spice came home from an extended visit at the vet’s office smelling like that feared and hated place.  We’re doing everything we can to make Spice feel welcome and expect Sugar’s rejection to pass as Spice reacquires the household smell.  If that starts taking too long we’ll just give them both a bath and call it even.

Update: Spice found after 8 days.

As we prepare to add a new crew member, it looks like we’ve lost an old one.  One of our cats, Spice, apparently has decided she’s had enough of the cruising life.  Ironically, between the cats, she was the one who seemed to adjust to it the best.  We arrived here on Wednesday, and Thursday night was the last time we saw her.

We’re saddened and anxious for her welfare.  It is easy to assume the worst, but we prefer to think she’s found a new home.  Its better this way than if she went missing at sea, or doubt was otherwise removed.

Spice was a simple cat and very sweet.  We used to joke that she rode the short bus.  While almost 14 in human years, mentally she was just a kitten.  It is possible she’s up a tree or under a bush somewhere and may yet find her way home, but I think the odds are against us seeing her again.

Spice and her sister Sugar were our first kids.  We got them from the pound when they were six weeks old and we were six weeks married.  We brought them home in the car with Tanya holding one in each hand.  We marked their birthdays by our anniversaries.  

When Spice was a kitten she used to play with balls of yarn, as kittens are apt to do, except Spice swallowed the end of one.  As newlyweds it seemed frivolous to shell out the $600 for surgery to remove the yarn from her intestines, but looking back it was money well spent.  She provided 13 years of companionship and amusement.  Even though she was getting some gray in her whiskers, she would still occasionally chase her tail.

Fair winds Spice.

Spice
Spy
Spidamo
Spideycat
Spice-y-moto
Spice-o-rama
Spice-a-rooni
Spyder
Spicetastic
1997-

We’re safely ensconced in our new slip at our old marina.  

For having so few choices about places where we can fit, we have amazingly good luck.  Our old spot had a beautiful view of the river and was very private, but it was an end-tie and the boat would grind against the fenders when the breeze picked up.  We also had boats going around us which sometimes made me nervous.  We were never hit, but the seawall was.

This new slip can’t be beat for convenience.  It is the shortest distance to the pool, laundry, and where the packages are delivered – all the important stuff.  Since we’re in a real slip the boat is secured away from the dock which cuts down on noise.  We don't even have fenders out.  We’re also backed in, instead of being sideways to the dock.  This allows us to simply walk down the transoms and step onto the dock, which is great for those of us carrying a few extra pounds.  We have a little more road noise, but a lot less privacy.

Re-entering the US was painless.  They didn’t even know we were gone.  For all our security and big federal agencies, the US is surprisingly lax in this regard.  

Tanya and I have registered through the Local Boater Option program.  We appeared before a Customs and Border Patrol officer before we left and were issued a 6-digit ID number.  Upon return, we only had to give this number over the phone and we were done.  Unfortunately, they don’t issue these numbers for kids under 14 so I had to read names, birth dates, and passport numbers for all of them.  Then I was told the kids needed to be seen by a CBP officer.  Can you guess how happy we all were about that?  I called the airport to set up an appointment, but was told by the officer there that it wasn’t necessary.  It took a few phone calls, but our arrival was processed without seeing anyone.

Tanya’s van situation was cleared up with similar ease.  I could buy insurance online with a credit card in a matter of about 10 minutes and print out an insurance card.  Unfortunately, the electronic processes that so efficiently communicate a lack of insurance to the DMV don’t work in the opposite direction.  I had to go into a tax collector’s office and show proof of insurance in order to renew the tags, but that wasn’t too bad.

Right now our days are consumed with readjusting to shore life.  It isn’t difficult, but there’s a lot to do.  The boat needs to be unloaded, cleaned inside and out, and then reloaded with the stuff we *really* need.  We need to select contractors for our upholstery and carpentry work and get those projects underway.  Plus a hundred other things, large and small.  And that’s just the boat list.  The kids have their own, and it’s a doozy.  And then there’s visiting with all the people we’ve missed.  In short, we’re slammed.

But it’s all good.  We’re really enjoying our time back.  We’re going to my mother’s house tonight so she can see the kids and Tanya and I can get some downtime.  Sam wanted to know how many miles and if we could sail, or if we’d have to motor.