Patience

More work today...

Here is a photo of Brian, who spent much of his day trying to twist into tight spaces, many times upside down with his head down under the wood to the hull space below.

Part of our AutoPilot can be seen on the lower right corner of this picture. The rest of the parts are still waiting to be shipped. The device needs to be custom-fitted to our boat steering device. If anyone is interested in how these work, check out this site: http://www.sailnet.com/forums/gear-maintenance-articles/19904-autopilot-overview.html, which is outdated but provides a good overview.


The photo you see here is actually the space underneath our bed in the aft cabin. This is at the back of the boat. All 4 of us usually sleep together here! For now, while the installation and upgrades are going on, we are sleeping in the forward cabin (aka V-Berth) and in the settees (couches) in the main salon (living room). Fortunately, our girls are surprisingly adaptable and are used to living on the boat in the summers.


We are getting to know a few more people here at the marina. Stephanie and Josh are married graduate students at UNC-Wilmington, studying history and nutritional biology. They have a 16-month-old daughter Grey. Our girls enjoyed playing with her and sharing toys. Their family lives on their sailboat all year at the marina dock. If we lived in this climate, we might consider this as well. It would be a lot more cost-effective than a house! Also, this couple is particularly environmentally-conscious and they like living a more simple life.


We are trying to take our daughters' lead as they teach us to enjoy little moments. It seems like it takes an hour to walk with them from our boat, down the long docks, and to the marina. We have to stop at tiny marvels like spider webs, a white crane in the marsh nearby, a log slowly floating down the river, etc... Now that we have a different time table, we don't have to rush them, we can just stop together.