Do you remember the story of the little boy and the leaky dike? He kept putting his fingers in the holes to plug them and then another hole would pop up, well that's how I feel lately. But before I get into the downsides of living here, let me first start with the positives since they far out weigh the negatives.
Boot Key Harbor is an amazing place full of amazing people. The kids have quite a few children to play with and I do have to say, boat kids are great kids. They are resourceful, considerate, bright and respectful, I've yet to meet one that wasn't all of the above.
Colby and Peyton have made friends, watched friends leave and sail off to far away places, then made new ones before sunset. The homeschoolers group that meets every Tuesday for physical education is full of kids, and lucky for me they wear mine out and they sleep great at night. Jess and I have made several friends that have kids the same age as ours, and who better to speak with about parenting and living on a boat than people in the same situation. We have exchanged ideas on everything from parenting, homeschooling to just making life easier living on the hook.
The schedule of events around here is staggering, I've given up trying to keep up and have centered around a few activities. On Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday there is a pickup co-ed softball game at the city park (a rocks throw away) Tuesday the kids attend PE. The Boot Key Harbor net is everyday at 9am, and music at the Tikki hut on Saturdays. However there are seminars on everything from power management to watermakers, yoga to square dancing, always something to do and almost always it's FREE!
Over the past 10 days since my last update we have had several ups and downs, fixed things, watched others break, had moments of doubt and moments of elation. Our battery bank is currently the project at the top of my priority list. Something is wired wrong and it is causing them to discharge at an extreme rate, which is causing me to use a lot of French words on the boat. The good news is I got sick of running our diesel engine everyday at idle without a load (bad for a diesel) and dug out the generator. A friend of ours Steve came over and we tore it down, cleaned it up and got it running before dark! Chalk one up for the home team! However that led to the discovery that something deeper was wrong with the house bank because even after a substantial charge they discharged much quicker than normal.
I had finally gotten the outboard running great and starting on the first pull, only to have the entire throttle assembly break last night as we were heading to the boat for the night. This was actually a break even break, since it was a fix one and the other breaks deal, unlike many other times (See below)
;-)
I found someone to go up the mast since you won't see this big guy climbing 50ft up on a rope with Jessica or Colby as my anchor, plus I'm not so sure Jess wouldn't just say "oopps" with as cranky as I've been lately.
So the tasks I was looking to accomplish at the top of the mast were lubricating the shivs (rollers the halyards roll across) fixing the mast light and some general maintenance. Well just like everything else one fix causes several more problems and I discovered several more things to add to the ever growing list of S*** to fix on the boat. The shivs are corroded and will need replacing, but with the design will involve de-masting the boat to fix. The light at the top wasn't a burned out bulb it was a 3 mile island melt down of the entire fixture! the bulb was laying sideways melted into place like the sword in the stone. A substantial tear was also found at the top of my headsail, good times. So what should have been a couple shots of lithium grease and a light bulb turned into a few projects I'll add to the ever growing list.
Now while it may sound like I'm complaining, I'm really not. And while it's stressful it's not the same kind of stress. I'm getting to know my boat inside out, learning about things I knew nothing about before we got here and figuring it out along the way. Jess had a working interview today where she actually went to work getting paid to test her out. She interviewed with them yesterday and later that night they called and asked her to come in. I spoke with her today just as they were about to take her out to lunch, so I'm assuming it's going well. The income would really help right now because fixing all the little things isn't cheap and it's easy to spend money on a boat.
On a lighter note, I replaced our flag line which meant it was time to put up a flag! Well the only flag I had beside a quarantine flag was a large pirate flag ;-) Arrrrgggghh! It felt good to get that line replaced without ending up with 2 more projects out of it.
I can see how living on a boat is not for everyone, however I'm glad because things would get awfully crowded out here. It has made us far more conscious of our usage of water, electricity, trash etc. It really brings to reality how wasteful we all are in our everyday life. We have cut our trash consumption by around 50 to 75%, our water usage I can't even imagine but I'd have to say far greater than 50%, our electric usage is almost nothing. Our entire lighting system on the boat draws .08amps to light up the boat inside at night, the only thing that really draws amps is the fridge.
However we aren't lacking in anything as far as amenities go. We have a fridge, freezer, working toilet, double sink, water pressure, hot water heater we don't use, 4 burner stove, oven for baking, TV for watching movies and we all have our own personal space and sleeping quarters. There is a shower we could use as well as a cockpit solar shower if we wanted to stay out here without going to shore. Here at the marina there are 15 showers all individual bathrooms with key cards as well as bathrooms in every one and then a men and womens restroom. Everything is maintained by the city of Marathon and cleaned regularly and well taken care of. The community center has an internet area with free wireless, library, TV lounges, free work areas to work on projects such as outboards, lockers for storing tools etc. Just about everything you'd need is all in this little world, many days we don't even leave the city marina/city park area.
To be honest, even with all the problems Im living the life of Riley here. The sun is almost always shining, it's warm but the breeze is blowing and it's just about perfect outside. I've got my family, my boat and my soul back. I feel free, alive and the whole thing seems so surreal, almost like I'm on vacation and I'm going to have to go home soon. The reality of what we have accomplished has yet to sink in, on second thought maybe sink isn't a word I should be using at all ;-)
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