Lounging Lunches

Living close to one of my offices is great. I get to come home for lunch! and, Peppermint Patty is always eagerly awaiting my quick mid-day visit. Sometimes she watches the birds...

Patty has been mischievously doing some exploring with all our new neighbors... Two nights in a row she's jumped up onto the Catamaran sailboat next to us. Last night the owners were aboard, luckily they like cats... the previous night, they weren't aboard and Patty decided to make a full on exploration out of her adventure!

Patty and Plants...

Living on the sailboat, I've been missing shrubbery!
One of my friends for the holidays gave me Paperwhite blubs, which I've been trying to grow but is difficult with Peppermint Patty around... see pic on left of her munching their tips!
This past weekend I decided to purchase a couple more plants, a staghorn fern (which are very popular in florida) and a boston fern. Patty likes to nibble the boston fern, see pic on right.
Ya, they may not be very practical on the sailboat... but, I'm enjoying them all the same. I'll have to come up with a plan for securing them better. I'm thinking of getting some orchids and bromiliads too!

Winter

Winter
by Wren Rogers
My eyes draw down the darkness.
Dim lights glow warm but cold.
They flicker and go out,
Leaving uncertainty of the path,
In the shadow that is no more.
Sometimes one brightens,
But I must turn away from the light too bright.
My eyes, they are use to the dark.
Winter's wind chills the air.
No warmth can penetrate.
Words muffled through the depths,
They cannot lead me beyond where I am.
I keep walking.
My eyes, they are use to the dark.

So, I have this plan...

It's my "five year" plan.
I think every boater has a plan... to someday depart the dock they are currently tied to...
I use to think I would not (emphasis on 'not') follow through with my plan if I was still single when the select date arrived.
On this, the very day that everyone celebrates love and being in love (phewy), I've decided I'm going whether I'm singlehanding or not.
So, only 1,786 days to go... or 255 weeks... or 58.5 months... or just under 5 years... to go.
January 5, 2014.
It is sort of bleak though, when one is looking down a five year tunnel from the very beginning of that tunnel.
Although... saying I'm 8 months into a 5.5 year plan does sound better... maybe. except. it doesn't actually put me any further along than I am today.
But, perhaps. One could almost say that I'm half way through a ten year plan. since this whole sailing adventure started almost 5 years ago now...
There was falling in love with the sailing dream, March 2004, I think it was. The beginning.
Moved to Florida October 2004. Fell in love with Florida.
Sailed SV Tybee from Key West to Ft. Myers Beach February 2005. Furthered the fall in love with sailing.
SV Athena found me October 2005. Under a different name at the time, but according to legend the old boat name is not to be spoken or written again...
Received a card from a dear friend that contained the writing that inspired SV Athena's name December 2005.
Moved aboard SV Athena July 2006.
One year anniversary of SV Athena finding me, and first sail on Athena with friends October 2006.
Officially named SV Athena, and first singlehanded sail November 2006.
Now it's been 3.5 years since SV Athena found me and just over 2.5 years since moving aboard.
And all the other hard work in between to make it all possible.
Day 1786 is almost up.

Somehow I managed to...

First night back on the sailboat after traveling for a few days...

Somehow I managed to leap out of bed from the v-birth and dash into the salon area to find out what the strange noises were that I heard of potential water leaks...
before I woke up... standing in the middle of my salon....

It's been a while since I've slept walk to my knowledge... kinda freaky when one lives on a boat...

I did have a great time traveling to Charlotte, North Carolina. Traveled for work but got to spend some time with a family friend. We ate at some great places as follows:
The Kabob Grill, a Mediterranean restaurant. www.kabobgrill.com
yummy vegetarian combo of hummus, tabbouleh, baba ghannouj, falafel, spinach pie, yalanji and potato harra.
The Pewter Rose Bistro. www.pewterose.com
Had fantastic vegetarian lasagna with butternut squash.

As we were leaving dinner from the Bistro, an awesome duet was singing a wonderful song from Toad the Wet Sprocket that for some reason always fills me with the desire to go sailing...

"we spotted the ocean at the head of the trail
where are we going, so far away
and somebody told me that this is the place
where everything's better, everything's safe
walk on the ocean
step on the stones
flesh becomes water
wood becomes bone
and half and hour later we packed up our things
we said we'd send letters and all those little things
and they knew we were lying but they smiled just the same
it seemed they'd already forgotten we'd came

now we're back at the homestead
where the air makes you choke
and people don't know you
and trust is a joke
we don't even have pictures
just memories to hold
that grow sweeter each season
as we slowly grow old"

Sink the boat sink

On a very Florida chilly day... I discovered the sink drain had cracked and separated completely from the sink. For those that don't know... the water level rises up the sink drain to the level equal to that outside the boat. For SV Athena, this means not too much further below the point where the sink drain separated!!! It is always best to keep these fittings up above the water line!!! Upon discovering this near drowning... I plugged the old sink drain pipe still stuck in the drain hose attached to the thru-hull (pic top left), and then closed the thru-hull, which this one, unfortunately, has had some deterioration over the past 30 years of its life and allows water to pass even when closed, although not at the rate as if it were wide open. Needless to say, I had nightmares about water being over the floorboards that night....
The next day, after considering getting a new sink, which I have considered previously, I poo-poo'ed the thought (because I couldn't find a close enough match) and went out to obtain new attachments. Not without first, unfortunately, being befuddled by car flat tire... urgh. My bad car kharma never ceases to amaze me... although I'll take that over bad boat kharma! Finally, with car tire plugged (hours later...) and new parts in hand, I attempted to attach new part to the sink... (pic top right) this was not done on a first time trial. Gave new meaning to me to the phrase, "if at first you don't succeed... try try again..." and then try try try again! each time with added brute force and ignorance... all of a sudden, wa la! it went on... never to get back off again when I attempted later after frustration at trying to get hose onto new attachments.... Since I'm always learning something new it seems, I'm not always approaching things in the bestest ways.
Well, unfortunately, given the statements above regarding water level... my new fittings required cutting about an inch and a half off the existing drain hose, however this is still above the water line... while she's sitting nicely at the dock and not heeled over that is...
It was near impossible for me to get the new drain part into the existing drain hose. Not a new frustration. Although thankful in many ways that these fittings are usually very tight, since I'd rather have them tight than loose. But, distraught and fearing not getting this done led to my calling my hero, Russell. After talking through the options, I decided to sand down the barbs on the new plastic attachment. After that, the new drain slid nicely into the drain hose. Not that I'm all that thrilled about the the somewhat now loose fit. I suppose I could have not sanded so much... You can bet I tightened those hose clamps on as tight as I could (bottom pic right).
I may add a third!
Sink is working again, and life aboard can return to some kind of "normality..."