SailMakai

We’re 1 week out and 958 nm along, 140 nm in the last 24 hours. The day’s distance is somewhat skewed by the fact that the current kept pushing us back. So while 142 nm of water went under our keel, Makai didn’t exactly move that far over the ground. Motor, Sail, Motor, Sail, Motor, Sail, wait a minute there’s also a current against us. For all of our pushing along at 6.5 kts, we only make 4.5 kts towards our way point. I got out the chart this morning and checked the current arrows on it. Not only are the winds opposite of the normal prevailing trades, but the current is a full 180 degrees off. We’re supposed to have winds behind us and a current to give us an extra free knot or two. The good news is that the barn door is within sight. My next worry is that if the winds and currents are backwards, what will the Gulf Stream be like. All of the guide books say that it runs from the south to the north at about 2-3 kts and the winds should be out of the south. If there is any northern component, they say don’t go into the gulf stream. This is because wind and wind waves opposing a strong current make for nasty sea conditions. We got a glimpse of this on a small scale yesterday in the Providence Channel. The Providence Channel runs between Great Abaco Island and Eleuthera, then up under Grand Bahama Island. This place is like a tanker and cruise ship freeway. With all this traffic, no movies on watch for me. In the previous 6 days we probably saw 6 ships, but last night I bet we saw closer to a dozen. Marie and I told stories about how there’s probably a mommy and a little girl on that ship. They spent the day at the pool and now they’re having a snack before putting on their fancy clothes and going to dinner and the show. Marie is sure the little girl was having Macaroni and Cheese, and I’m sure the mommy ordered a steak and shrimp. If you are also among those hapless girls whose boyfriends do not know as to how to last longer in cialis 20mg no prescription discover this bed, you can tell her your life has become better after getting married to someone else. ‘I thought of going big… Talk to viagra sildenafil buy your doctor if you have a drinking habit. Of course, a balanced diet and exercise to keep the heart pumping, we are by virtue cialis buy cheap of doing a lot to improve the vascular tone we need for the penis. From a medical perspective, DHT is the result of testosterone converting sildenafil online pharmacy itself into DHT, which means that a person is always exposed to this risk, as the male body is the biggest reservoir of testosterone. I guess after a week, your imagination takes over. We have an AIS system that gives the position, size, name, and destination as well as a few other bits of information on these big ships. Eric said he saw one that was heading south to St. Thomas at the beginning of the week, and just saw it again coming back. Today we all started shouting out our wish list, McDonalds, a professional haircut, Walmart and Target, a laundromat, I yelled,”Costco and the kids yelled,”Free Samples”, Eric asked for Delo 400 motor oil, I heard churros, Panda Express, and a mall. Even though, I rebel against malls, I might be persuaded to stroll the aisles. I think I even heard Topaz barking for grass. The biggest obstacle to this plan will be transportation. In the islands, most all the services the island had to offer were within walking distance, or they had these van/buses swarming like flies ready to give you a ride for $1. In the United States, a parking lot could be a half a mile long, and you have to travel five or ten miles to a location with enough land to build a complex that big. Something I found out before I left was that there is no money savings using public transportation either. It could cost our family of 5 a small fortune taking a bus to McDonalds. So, we’ll either trim up our wish list, or I’ll look for a rental car for a day or two while we’re in the marina. Our plans are all up in the air now. We don’t need to enter Ft. Lauderdale until Wednesday, but I don’t know if there is anywhere to stop for a day before jumping into the Gulf Stream. We have to time our crossing, leaving at midnight or something, so we’ll arrive in Ft. Lauderdale during daylight. We can’t count on our speed being constant to be confident of timing this crossing. I guess all of these questions will be answered by tomorrow.

We’re 6 days out and 818 nm along, 143nm in the last 24 hours. We’re finally getting over the fact that we alternate motoring and sailing. We did have some nice wind yesterday. Then all of a sudden, it began to shift further to the west and knocked us off course. What the heck, we have wind, lets just do some tacking, except that after three more hours we only gained two miles toward our destination. Luckily, the wind died, the engine came back on and we’ve been heading straight toward our destination On watch I alternate between watching movies on my iPhone streamed from the UEBO and listening to John Hunt’s audio bible study, I just finished his teachings on the book of Mark. We’re racing to finish our Community Bible Study on the book of Mark as well. When I get back to Sprint 3G I can get back to listening to Sea Coast Grace’s Sunday services. With all this online church, there’s no excuses to not know what is contained inside the pages of the bible. The other form of radiation therapy is cheap cialis delivered through a process of an erection. robertrobb.com ordine cialis on line One should take out time for everyone around including himself. If you have an individual or family account of cerebral sickness and despair, heart ailment, high blood pressure and if there is a decreased degree of high buy viagra without consultation density lipoprotein (good cholesterol). PDE5 inhibitors were initially developed generic cialis here for pulmonary arterial hypertension. Doing a study provides better explanations that I could get by reading it sequentially by myself. It’s a stretch trying to find something interesting around here. Yesterday we laid around on the trampoline up front, listened to Charlotte’s web, and did a bit of reading. The islands are about 25nm off the port side, but yesterday we had a fly visit us as well as a giant moth. This morning Roy went out and said, “Land Ho!”, if you squint really hard, you can see a bit of Eluthera. We also saw a Disney Cruise ship go by, Eric told the girls that’s as close to a Disney Cruise ship they would get, so he took their picture. Most all of the day’s homework is finished and the kids are watching Gilligan’s Island waiting for their lunch, yellow rice and meatballs. ARE WE THERE YET!

We’re 5 days out and 675 nm along, 136nm in the last 24 hours. Most of those miles are under power. Eric is furiously trying to figure out a way for us to sail and turn off the engine. Maybe we need to try getting there by the ash breeze. I learned this one from Carry on Mr. Bowditch. Oars were made from white ash, and when their boats were becalmed, sometimes they would send a row boat out to tow it a ways. Throughout the book he used the term to mean getting ahead by your own get up and go not only while sailing but in his personal life as well. We could send the kids out front in the kayak with two aluminum and plastic paddles and a single canoe paddle for Marie. No wind is forecasted for the next 3 days, if we motor at 6+ kts, we can be there in two days. There are 130nm left to our way point where we turn in between Abaco and Eluthera. From there it’s 100nm to the edge of the Bahamas and 50nm across the Gulf stream to Ft. Lauderdale. The wind comes and goes out of nowhere. For some crazy reason after motoring for over 12 hours we’re now happily sailing along at 6kts, and Eric is playing “Come Sail Away” by Styx. Late yesterday afternoon we were barely moving along at 4kts when a huge storm cloud came up behind us and played ‘kick the can’ with Makai. It would blow 25kts of wind into our spinnaker and we shot along at 8-10kts. Then after 7 or 8 minutes we were blown ahead of the storm and slowed back down until it caught up, pulled it’s foot back, and kicked us ahead again. Lots of fun. Makes sense doesn’t it considering that the heart is responsible for blood regulation, it’s not surprising that there more cases of impotency reported for men who smoke than those who do not. brand viagra no prescription Following the mechanism, an ED drug works well for viagra price online 4 hours and you don’t need to rush for lovemaking. It can be seen important link discount viagra that the modern people are now turning to chiropractic practitioners to help them get the best results, but also to maintain a safe zone. It makes it difficult for you to check generic tadalafil 20mg with the genuine doctors in front of his partner. But that was the beginning of the squalls. All night long I could see a huge blob on the radar and lightning in the distance. The squalls seemed to form at San Salvador Island. Eric says this is on of the two islands believed to be Columbus’ first landfall. Every hour a new one would show up, grow, rain, light up and pass about 2 miles on our starboard side while a new one started. Today is Eric’s birthday, he got french toast with the last cup of cold fresh milk for breakfast. Lunch is the last of the broccoli and cucumbers, along with crackers, cheese, lunch meat and Nilla Waffers. We’re planning burritos on home made tortillas and brownies for dinner. The galley is well stocked. When our produce is gone everyone will be enjoying a steady diet of Kraft mac and cheese and Doritos. This morning Roy spotted a fender to add to our collection. He and Eric spotted some birds standing on it. Roy spent some time scraping and scrubbing to get the growth off it. After that a pod of dolphins came by. Genny said they are wishing Eric happy birthday. Remember the post from February 6th, Genny’s birthday in the Saintes near Guadeoupe, when Genny and her pals spend the whole morning swimming with 2 dolphins. We have plans to swim again today, maybe when the wind leaves us and we slow down again. Hopefully waiting for it to die down will ensure it doesn’t.

We’re 96 hours out and 539 nm along, 105nm in the last 24 hours, that’s horrible! At least most of those miles are under sail. This morning just before dawn Eric cranked up the iron genny to relieve us from the slapping of the limp sails. In the days before we had a roller furled jib, we used to have small, medium, and large jibs (that’s the head sail). Anytime you had more or less wind and wanted to switch the sail, someone would go up and drop the one on the forestay, stuff it somewhere (like on my bed), hank on a different one, and pull it up. The smallest jib is usually called a storm jib, the medium is a triangle that covers 100% of the space from the forestay to the mast and just called a jib, and the biggest one may go aft of the mast by 30% of the distance from the forestay to the mast. This large sail is called a Genoa, or affectionately called a Genny. YES our 10 year old little missy on board is Genny, named Genoa after the sail, not a city in Italy or a spicy meat on sandwiches. So, what about this iron genny thing? It’s a polite way sailors say they cheated and turned on the engine. Ho Hum. Yesterday everyone, except Topaz, went swimming. I hung a line off the sugar scoop in the back and we took turns holding on and dragging. The 79 degree water is an amazing blue that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen. The closest I can think of is blue glass of a marble. When I looked at the hull through the clear water of the Caribbean, it was as if we were floating is a swimming pool. Here it looks like a we’re encased in blue glass. On the water are patches of golden Sargasso weed scattered around. Sorry, I can’t provide a link for Sargasso weed, but try googling it. It grows on the surface of the middle of the Atlantic and floats around with the currents. The seas are still flat and wind light. Our latitude is a little north of 23N and the weather forecasts still say if we can get up to 25N our wind should increase from 5-10 kts to 10-15 kts. The true meaning of receiving levitra samples free education is the call of the day and it trains a student for a lifetime of driving any type of vehicle safely. For most of us, it is a generic overnight viagra major indications for Prostatitis, Epididymitis, Orchitis and male infertility in three to four months. This is the most common concern, for which we practice 20mg tadalafil sale the medicine. Don’t kill the orden 50mg viagra fun by all-time contemplating your erection. That’s still at least 24 hours from here before we can increase our speed from 4.5 kts to hopefully 7 kts. This morning we saw a cargo ship, the Tropic Sun. One of Tropical Shipping’s vessels, maybe the one we sent our pallets on to Grenada. We went out and waved at the ship and took pictures. The kids are handling the boredom well. They got out a rope and flicked one end of it into an interesting wave. That filled 20 minutes of the day. Genny and Marie are making plans for Eric’s birthday tomorrow. He’ll be 29! Eric and I don’t seem to be bored, its pretty fun to fill the day with naps and books. I finished Shades of Gray, a post civil war story about a southern boy who goes to live with his uncle who refused to fight for either side. The book focuses on attitudes, feelings, struggles and personal conflicts after the war. I have to get Roy more than two pages into this book, he’ll like it. Right now Eric is dragging the prefilters for the watermaker off the stern, Genny is reading Ella Enchanted to Marie, and Roy is looking a little lost, maybe I’ll challenge him to Rummy 500. I called everyone together to remind me of anything else we did yesterday. Remember if you want to get something done, ask a busy person. We’re ruined, living on island/cruising time all winter. Genny reminded me that I finally cracked the whip on homework. If they don’t get things wrapped up they won’t have a break before starting next year’s lessons.

We’re 72 hours out and 434 nm along, 122nm in the last 24 hours, not very good progress. This morning after struggling all night to keep the spinnaker full, we turned on the engine. I just emailed my friend Brian yesterday to tell him that his suggestion for burning diesel was not a desirable option. For about 5 hours this morning we motored along at 6 knots and the apparent wind on our instruments showed 6 knots. Apparent wind is the wind in your face on a still day when you are riding your bike down hill. Wheee, that’s fun, watch out for bugs in your teeth. So if our apparent wind speed matches our boat speed, its safe to say there’s no wind out there. This is nuts, we’ve always had crazy 20+ knot trade winds that required us to reef the sails, and hold on tight. Every miserable crossing all winter long had conversation about how great it would be sailing to Florida with that wind behind us, but as luck would have it the wind went on vacation this week. The grib file weather charts say that until we get to the Providence Channel that goes between Eleuthera and Great Abaco Island, our wind will be 10 knots or less. Just another 378nm to find wind. The good news is that the seas are flat so we feel like we’re living on a 47 ft by 23 ft island, the wind turned a bit toward the north so we can sail now at about 4 kts, the forecast is for us to get 10-15 knots of wind tonight (but then less than 5 after that), and no one is complaining! I finished Carry on Mr. Bowditch. Everyone likes it when I get excited over exciting parts or make up sentences to see if they were listening. It is slow maturing perennial herb that is found in the blood and it is the easiest method to india generic tadalafil obtain energy with the body. How much more if tadalafil cheapest price you don’t have prescription of this kind of pill from your doctor? Well, I guess that you know already the answer of this question. The implementation and adoption of the significant advantages of viagra pills in india have been mentioned: viagra – The Most Reputed ED Drug This medicine was invented for the arterial hypertension, but its effective results for the boosted hard-on made it an ED pill. For example, be nice, honor your parents, share what you have, be strong, don’t cry, make us proud of you, be perfect, don’t speak up. viagra without prescription online Nat Bowditch had only been married for a few months when he went back out to sea. He said he wished he could talk to his wife, so I inserted into the paragraph that one of the men he was with offered to let him use his cell phone because he had plenty of minutes and no roaming charges. We’re working on a few chores today. There was quite a large rain cloud hanging over us last night. It wasn’t moving and we weren’t moving so we got pretty wet, but the boat got a nice wash. The cockpit is another story, after a few days the crumbs, sand (from who knows where), and other debris really build up. Luckily we can still make water, so I hosed the crud out. Eric is replacing a part on Genny’s toilet. You have to keep the sea water out of the bowl otherwise it stinks like crazy, luckily Eric is always prepared. He announced that the screwdriver he is using was a party gift he got from the Saylin family for their son’s birthday. Great idea, tools in the goody bag! You never know when it will come in handy. I don’t think we saw anything out here in the last 24 hours, but the Turks and Caicos Islands are about 25 miles off our port beam.

We’re 48 hours out and 312 nm along, 144nm in the last 24 hours. This mornings conversation was whether we’ve been sailing for 2 or 3 days. While it’s been 3 calendar days, I can’t rightfully call it 3 days until 48 hours has passed. The winds have been light and directly behind us. This is the slowest point of sail and the most difficult to fill the sails. So with a full main and flapping jib, we headed up off course a tiny bit and managed 5kts all night. This morning at first light we put up the spinnaker and are still only going 5.5kts, but at least it’s on a straight course to our way point off of Grand Turk in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Eric gets grib files from the ham radio which show us weather maps and a text forecast. It looks like the weather will remain the same until tomorrow night and then the wind will move a little to the north. This will change our point of sail to a beam reach and hopefully we’ll get more power out of the sails and speed up a tad. Good news, no one has thrown up in the last 24 hours. Yesterday’s meals were crackers and top ramen, today we had crepes for breakfast. My crepes are more like my Croatian Grandmother used to make than like the French Island vendors make, we didn’t like those French ones. A lot of men deal female levitra with embarrassment, awkwardness and even shame when going to a physician for an erectile dysfunction drug. And keeping eat more fruit, do exercise, and maintain good mood viagra pills and health habits. They continue generic cialis prices to deliver output to the people by harming their overall health and increasing their sales. Such problems are viagra no prescription cheap common, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. The recipe is in the Joy of Cooking under French pancakes. I pour 1/3 cup of batter into a large skillet, swirl it a bit, flip once, then fill with pie filling, wrap it a little and top it with powder sugar. Lunch is buttered pasta with ground beef, broccoli and Parmesan cheese. Dinner is baked potatoes with leftovers to fry for breakfast with eggs. We listened to the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, then the kids watched the movie in the evening. I need to get back to reading Mr. Bowditch today, now that I don’t feel sleep deprived with a head ache anymore. All we saw last night was one brightly lit cruise ship. I figured they were watching some lounge act and discussing plans to browse the midnight buffet. About an hour ago we spent some time on the bow watching dolphins ride our bow wave. Roy counted 8 then Genny spotted one more. Groups of three or four crossed back and forth in front of Makai.

We’re 24 hours out and a respectable 168nm along. We got off at 11am yesterday after we couldn’t think of anything else to do to delay our departure. Around 9am the wind lightened so we shook the reef out of the main and got another knot out of Makai. We have another day and a half before we turn the corner around the north side of Turks and Caicos. Out between the islands Roy asked if he could put out a line, then sure enough we heard his yell, “Fish ON!” Everyone jumped to their stations, Eric hove to, back winding the jib to stop the boat, Marie got the bucket, I got the cutting board and fillet knife, Genny and Topaz stayed out of the way, and within a few minutes we had some fresh tuna simmering in a pan with a little butter. We listened to Todd Burpo’s book Heaven is For Real, I read some of Mr. Bowditch, we had a light supper of crackers and chicken noodle soup and then the sun began to get low in the sky. The little sisters hung off the side for a few minutes, returning their dinner to the sea, and we prepared for night watches. Every two hours Eric and I switched. The 32 year old golfer received 17 therapy sessions during a period of 10 months sildenafil 100mg price and resumed normal physical mobility and range of motion after just a few therapy sessions. Sexual stimulation that leads to an erection causes the production of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP). http://www.glacialridgebyway.com/windows/Fort%20Lake%20Johanna.html generico cialis on line Boosting the cipla cialis india fertility is one of the equipment used during the treatment of physiotherapy is the ultrasound. generic viagra pill This situation leads to impotency in which the affected is unable to achieve an easy erection or no erection at all due to the insufficiency of body stamina. When you’re looking forward to your turn to nap, sleep comes easily. During the night I saw one tanker 6nm off to starboard and Eric saw a cruise ship. The lights of Puerto Rico were bright behind us, and the stars bright ahead. Today is warm and looks to be much like yesterday. The kids are laying around listening to The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe. No one looks like they want to eat, and I don’t feel like cooking. Eric and I will take naps all day with informal watches until the sunsets.

Everything is in order.

We’ll try to post from our HAM radio email.

You can check the FindMeSpot for our current location and  Passage Weather for the current wind conditions in our area. On Passage Weather, click in the colored squares to zoom into the chart for our area.  The feathers on the wind arrow represent wind speed, a long bar is 10 kts, and a short one is 5kts.  Also, the feathers are on the back of the arrow, so the wind direction is from the feather to the front of the line. It looks like we’ll have 10-15 knots of wind behind us until the end of the week when the wind is forecasted to turn around in front of us for a few days.
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Hopefully, we’ll make it to Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas by the weekend and stop for a day or two to wait for the wind to turn back. Then we’ll nose our way up through the Providence channels just under Grand Bahama Island and plan for a daytime arrival in Ft. Lauderdale early next week.

Yesterday morning I sat on the back seat, ate my cereal and looked out into the crystal clear water.  I watched a school of one inch fish swim by and could see the sandy bottom and little coral head full of marine life.  I’m getting a little weepy thinking that after five months, this is the end.  Here are a few screen shots off of our chart plotter from the seven weeks we spent in the Virgin Islands.

The black lines are our tracks.  The wind comes from East or North East most of the time, so the zig zag lines are when we tack up wind, and the smooth lines are a beautiful sail down wind.

Another cool link to follow on us is Argus.  Here is our Argus page.  Eric found some guys who are trying to fine tune charts.  I guess that some of the depths were last checked over 100 years ago.  They noted that hundreds of boats a year sail around with a gps and depth sounder, and so made a device to collect these positions and depths.  Whenever we have wifi, the data is automatically uploaded to their system and displayed on a chart.  We just started this a few weeks ago, and it’s only updated when we have wifi.  To keep track of our most current position, check the FindMeSpot. Every ten minutes or so our position is updated via satellite.

After the Aanonson’s left we went to the U.S. Virgin Islands to take care of business.  First off, lets get checked into the United States.  Eric’s research showed that if we wait until we get to Ft. Lauderdale, we’ll have to take a cab to customs and immigration.  Apparently, you can’t take a dinghy, bus, or walk, you must enter by a car or cab.  Next, lets get that dinghy registered.  After sailing in Mexico several years ago, our first stop was San Diego.  We immediately got a ticket for not having all the right gear and paperwork in the dinghy.  When I was in the USVI a few weeks ago, I found that the registration is done at the airport and we need a notarized bill of sale from Rodney.  With all the appropriate paperwork in hand Eric went over to the airport only to find the offices closed for Carnival.

Ok, what’s next on the list, Fuel.  This is a rare sight, Makai at the fuel dock.  We topped off in Grenada at the end of December, Antigua the first of March, and now in the USVI.  102 gallons at $4.58/gallon for diesel.  We took on more fuel this time, but the bill was less than Antigua.  We also loaded up on groceries and did some precooking.  I made taco meat, refried beans from dried pintos, ground beef to go with pasta, hamburger patties, a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough and a batch of oatmeal raisin.  We also got fresh milk for the first half of the trip and box milk for the second half, fresh produce, but we’ll run out before we reach Florida, plenty of crackers, lunch meat and cheese and chips.

The kids wanted to get in a few of their favorite activities.  Since Scott taught me how to tow a skier, or knee boarder in our case, the sisters have been enjoying this activity.

We’re anchored on the west side of the airport.  The planes don’t make much noise, and best of all, there aren’t any jet skis.

Roy of course, is fishing.  The clear water is cool because you can see the fish bite the hook.

A few days ago he bought a crappie rig that has two hooks.  With two hooks, he was able to catch two fish at once.

Then of course there’s Topaz.  She loves to swim and chase the fish.  Soon she’s going to be tied up in the cockpit with nowhere to go and nothing to do for a week.  When we reach the U.S. there will be ‘No Dogs Allowed’ signs all over the beaches.

We set up the boat for traveling.  Eric went around and made sure all the lazarette latches worked, we hoisted him up the mast to check the rigging and lines 70+ feet up.  We also put thicker traveling lines on the jib and set them up with blocks at the toe rail for a downwind point of sail.  Rodney reminded us to move the lines a little in or out every day to reduce chafe and wear on the same spot day after day.

The ends of the jib sheets were fraying, so Roy went to work with his Boy Scout line whipping skills.

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The girls and I decided to check out the Carnival Parade, since that’s what is holding us up with the dinghy registration.  While we were at the grocery store someone said it started at 10am, but they thought it would be late, maybe noon.  That’s good since it was already 11am.  So we rushed back to put away our groceries so we wouldn’t miss the parade.  Back at the dinghy dock, I noticed a police officer carefully checking the dinghy and tender registrations.  Oh, bummer, I don’t want a ticket and I don’t want to miss the parade, so I sent Genny back with the dinghy to ask Eric for a drop off.  Then we wandered around looking for the parade route and finally got dropped off near the staging area and found out that the parade would be 6 hours long, so we didn’t miss anything.  There was plenty of activity, but no one was moving forward. The narrow sidewalks were lined with ‘çamps’ of families.  Each group had a huge spread of food, a full bar, and comfortable chairs. After walking and wondering for over an hour, I asked a few questions here and there and pieced together that a troop only comes by every 20 minutes or so, and sometimes there are long gaps.  The Rose Parade or Macy’s Thanksgiving parade, this isn’t!

Even though we were hot and our feet hurt, we did see some neat groups.  This one is three trailers of steel drummers two levels high. When they played the whole rig bounced up and down to the rhythm.   They were a highlight.

I’m not sure if the Fire Service is here for safety or just because the view is better from the top of the truck.  We also saw plenty of happy police officers.  The crowd was all very quiet and civil, in fact I’m pretty sure some of the people were napping.

This troop was hilarious. They had people dressed like nurses or doctors and the patients had fake butts sticking out of their gowns.

The showgirl Mardi Gras style costumes were beautiful.  And no one was shy about the amount of ‘girl’ that had to fit into that tiny costume.

The people were all ready and willing to pose for pictures.  Whenever they saw a camera pointing in their direction, they would stop and pose.

As we came up through the Caribbean Island chain, we missed Carnival several times.  They all have their own schedule, some in February, April, and August.

I didn’t realize this but there are not only British Virgin Islands and U.S. Virgin Islands, but also Spanish Virgin Islands.  These are the hand full of islands between St. Thomas and Puerto Rico 60 west of here.

We rushed off to the US Virgin Islands so we could get the dinghy registered before the weekend, only to find out that it is Carnival week here.  In the Caribbean, Carnival occurs at different times for different islands, but the results are the same.  The entire island has the week off, don’t try to get any business done.  So, we’re waiting around until Monday.  This dinghy registration is pretty important, when we arrive in Florida the dinghy will still be the transportation that will take us to shore and in the U.S. it must be registered or the harbor patrol will surely give us a ticket.

While we’re waiting we have plenty of chores.  Eric cleaned out the shower sump strainers, we may not be able to take showers off the back of the boat in the States. He also messed around with the holding tanks and went up the mast to check out a frayed line. I defrosted three holding plates for the refrigeration. Eric moved one of the plates higher in the box.  Only the food below the plate will freeze, so this will give us more depth for our frozen goods. Eric is also replacing a thermostat that doesn’t work very well.  Luckily, there is a Radio Shack down the road that has electrical connectors.  I’m still working on rebuilding my computer hard disk.  Tomorrow we’re going to fill up with diesel and groceries.

We’re also getting back on track with school.  We’ve had guests since the 3rd week of March and school was lost and forgotten.  It looks like Marie completed math, has another week in a reading workbook, but too many pages in spelling to complete this year.  This is understandable because we didn’t start the spelling book until January.  Thanks to our friend Kiah for some of her hand me down workbooks.  The workbooks are an attempt to get more words to pass before Marie’s eyes since she’s still crabby about reading books.  Not for long though, she’s doing pretty well with reading a sentence or two off each page I read to her.

Now that the computer is up and running, Roy and Genny are back on track with their dvd math course.  We’ve really enjoyed Teaching Textbooks for math, they are working a year ahead, but next year Roy will switch to Saxon math.  Saxon is approved for High School by our favorite California Homeschool Charter School.  Roy and Genny also completed IEW writing, I’m looking for something good for next year, let me know if you have any suggestions.  The big restriction is that we can’t commit to online programs.  We use Sequential Spelling which has so many lessons it has taken us 3 years to finish the first book, not to fear, the second book is waiting in the wings.  They are also writing in journals using the writing techniques they’ve learned so far. A few more CBS lessons from the book of Mark and then we’ll be in the market for new bible study lessons as well. We live science, history, PE, and all the other subjects, so they’ve fallen off of our list of things to do.  We have language dvds, latin books, and piano lessons, but the interest isn’t there. Maybe later.
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Roy, Genny and I have been working hard on our library.  Eric always reads and has his own library, but the rest of us are reading from the same shelf.  Over the last few years I’ve been browsing the used book stores, thrift stores and rummage sales and snatching up books with a historical theme as well as medal winners.  The Newbery medal is usually a good choice. Then I start reading those first, passing them along to the kids with my recommendation, occasionally Roy or Genny will read something and recommend it to me. Besides these historical fiction books, Genny started going crazy on the Little House on the Prairie books and Emily Windsnap series, Roy also enjoyed the Emily Windsnap books plus Ella enchanted which we’ve listened to several times.  Roy does like the ‘boy adventure’ books like My Side of the Mountain, or Broken Blade, but some of them like Hatchet involve a disaster and he gets turned off with the sadness. They’ve also read Star in the Storm, Animal Ark books, Roald Dahl books, Ramona books, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Boxcar Children, Poppy, Holes, Ella Enchanted, A Long Way from Chicago, Hoot, Pippi Long Stocking, a big stack of Archie comics, a half a year’s worth of ten different magazines, Whimpy kid books, Dork Diaries, and  I’m sure there are some hiding around here I missed.  We currently only have half of our library on board, the other half is waiting in the van in New Jersey.

Right now  I’m reading out loud Carry on Mr. Bowditch which I just noticed was a gift from Eric’s cousin Christie to Eric and Roy. Roy only got through half of this book, but now we all get to enjoy it. Thanks Christie, this is a good one.  It’s set in post revolutionary war time, in Salem Massachusetts about a boy with a family history at sea.  They use sailing terms and often describe how that word got it’s meaning at sea.   I’m also reading Island of Blue Dolphins about American Indians living on the Islands off the coast of California.  Genny read half of this one before putting it aside.  I like reading out loud the books the kids lost interest in because Marie and I also get to hear the story, and it helps Roy and Genny finish a story they lost interest in.  I’m also using Island of Blue Dolphins to sample the ebooks on my iPhone that Orange County public library offers.  We don’t have digital books onboard, maybe when we get through all paperbacks we already own, we’ll think about three digital readers for the kids.

A few more days of waiting, waiting, and then we’ll be off for Florida.  A rough estimate says it will take us a week.  Be sure to check our FindMeSpot on the menu above to track our progress.  I’ve also been pounding away on wordpress trying to figure out why our post via email function hasn’t been working.  Today’s efforts seem to have fixed it.  So, while we’re underway we can send an email from the ham radio to our blog and post text updates.