Just Hangin' Around

My friend and neighbour took this picture while Cos was working on the shrink wrap winter cover. It certainly appears that he has painted, or heat gunned himself into a corner. No worries, he didn't have to swim around to get back in. He left a small cut in the bow that he crawled back through. Then he sealed it from the inside with a removable panel... removable so we can let air flow through on very sunny or warm days. But I love how he's just hanging out there on the bowsprit stays. Her husband tends to have some equally interesting liveaboard photos.

crew

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyzPNJjYNgI

Swabby

Our little Swabby was helping us decommision the boat for winter. She loved helping us on deck.

We just bought some dirt.

Well, we have officially entered the ranks of home-owners... Mortgaged up to our eyeballs and unable to take family vacations away.

We're not selling the boat or even moving off of it.

We bought a 'cottage'. It's a house. But we keep insisting it's a cottage so our family doesn't get the wrong idea and start thinking we're going to conform to their 'norm'.

The place needs quite a bit of work. But we think we're up for it. And we're excited (and terrified!). We sign the papers in the morning and then there is the rush for arranging the financing and the home inspection and the insurance and... the list goes on... and never ends. We take possession December 1st. Christmas in our own house? I don't know about that. We'll see. Nothing like unfinished walls and floors and a lack of furniture to put a damper on your Christmas spirit (laugh). Did I mention that we're excited?

From Crib to Toddler Bed

We took DD's crib rail down and replaced it with a shorter safety rail to keep her from rolling out of bed at night. The rail isn't up yet in this picture. Now you can get a better idea of the beautiful work DH did in designing the tiny bedroom/stateroom. Below the bed are two drawers that house DD's toys. Above, you can see two dark blue ovals. These are the port holes. I made covers for them that resemble the little caps the pioneer ladies used to wear. A little elastic around the fabric and a cute little skirt of trim. Her 'big' bedroom is still under construction. And since she regularly tells me that this bed is too small for her, I think we had better get a move on and finish her new room. Yet another thing on the 'to do' list.

Atlantic Grace - Maiden Voyage

Here's a digital scrapbook page I did of our vessel. The details of the layout can be found at my scrapbooking blog http://armasdigiscrapper.blogspot.com/

The filmstrip pics are all feature shots we took when we first purchased the boat back in 1998. The main picture and the smaller sailing picture were both taken by friends on our maiden voyage in 2001 after several years of construction. The small black and white image in the corner is a sketch of the original "Spray" owned and sailed by Joshua Slocum.

Water, water everywhere. And not a drop to drink!

Today we had one of our plastic potable water tanks repaired. It cracked some time back so we have been doing without this 100 gallon tank, surviving on our meager 50 gallons tank, waiting for the guy to pencil us in. Amazing! The guy put both of his long skinny arms into one little 8 inch diameter access hole and was still able to see inside to do the repair. Without removing the tank so they can weld inside and out, they can't warranty the work. Hmmm. $300. Let's hope it gets us through a few more years. Removing that tank essentially means demolishing the entire main salon. It can all come out piece by piece, but it would be one heck of a job. For those of you who are the praying kind, please feel free to add us to your list.

Random Sailing Pics

Here's some miscellaneous photos taken while sailing with family. Darling C's parents and nieces on one day sail. Daughter K enjoying the view on Father's day of this year. Some dear friends joining us for a rough and windy day.

"But where does the baby sleep?" they all ask.

If we get around to taking a better picture of the built-in crib, I will post it. But it's pretty incredible so I thought I should put some visuals up. You can almost see it around my expanding belly in one photo(eight days before due date). Then you can see the make-shift mobile and the dresser drawers in the next. The final shot shows a pretty complete view of the set up although you can't see the storage compartment and toy drawers below the bed. This crib is located in the main salon. We converted a four foot bench that is across from the dinette and directly aft of the entrance to our v-berth/master stateroom. One might think we were planning ahead in our initial construction of this perfect little space. She's still sleeping there, 2 years later. But the aft cabin is coming along nicely. Just need to find some time to decorate and tidy.

Not the Atlantic... And no Grace to be found anywhere!

It's an older shot but since hubby is leaving this up to me, I thought I might try to embarass him a little. We anchored out from a little beach with a few friends and their boats and had a little picnic. Darling C decided to try a dive from the bowsprit. When a friend noticed, she told him to wait until she got her camera. Well, the wait was just long enough for him to take stock of just how high out of the water this bowsprit really is. Not one to back down, he decided he must dive after all. But it seems his couraged was dampened just enough to affect his grace. Looks more like he got pushed in or fell off, don't you think?

Piercey family sailing day

Since hubby hasn't gotten around to updating the building photos, I thought I'd add in some sailing pics. Here's two of my brothers, taking turns checking out the view from the bowsprit. What an incredible day of sailing. Light winds but enough to keep our 45,000 lbs dinghy moving. Not too fast though. One brother managed to dive (yes dive, not simply jump) from the bowspit, and swim back to the ladder amidship without too much effort. You can probably guess which brother based on the photos here.

Johnny, eat your heart out!