Hello, Spring Break!

So far, so good out here on the Chesapeake! It's been cool and overcast, but really quite nice. We've made amazing time motoring with the wind and seas coming from behind and should cross into VA waters by 4:30pm. Rather than transit overnight we are looking to drop the hook by the Rappahanock River for a good nights sleep. Tomorrow will be a day full of bridges and locks, and with any luck we'll make it to Elizabeth City Monday. More to follow!

Katreina leading arts and crafts time.

Frank modeling the new sailing gear.

Katreina off Solomon's @ noon.

Moving day

We had a pretty lazy weekend cleaning, doing some shopping, and (for me) getting to know the new Sailrite sewing machine. Well, lazy wasn't good enough so we also remodeled Katreina's bedroom (she traded princesses for pirates!) and moved! Ok, it's not THAT big of a move, just 2 slips down, but it did require us to completely change around our docking set-up. We are now bow-in in a really tight slip, and I think it will take me a bit to get used to not having the "social end" of the boat facing the pier.

A picture says a thousand words

After a gorgeous day and peaceful night at Baby Owl Cove, our luck changed. As I was applying anti-corrosion treatment to the mast I discovered a crack ~1' long near the base of the mast. Some online searching has revealed other 393's with similar issues (due to freezing of water that doesn't drain well) and have also possibly seen it in pictures back to when we lived in WA. Much more to follow, and our spring break plans are now possibly on hold, but we plan to meet this challenge like any other on the boat. Wine, anyone?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

And we are off! No clue where we are headed as of yet...winds out of the east. Happy to be underway after an exciting Friday night of watching the VOR Auckland in-port race. Those guys are amazing!

And we have the luck of our Irish Captain with us--won $30 in the lotto!

Long overdue sail

It feels like its been forever (10 weeks!) since we were out on the water so today we got underway! First we tried out our new slip which is ridiculously tight and will essentially require us to remove all of our safety gear to make it work. Then we took to the bay for a Gilligan ("a 3 hour tour!") where I actually sailed with only a little intervention from the Captain for about half the trip. It was nice to shake the rust off and I'm more comfortable with our loosely planned spring break trip now. The only downside? Baby, it's cold!

New toys!

While I must admit that we now have a Honda generator onboard as well, the new geeky fun toy is our telescope! Frank found this Galileo FS120 on Craig's list and tonight was a great night to look at the moon and a few planets!

A little drama, but still a happy birthday!

Today is my little girl's 6th birthday, and since I missed the last one due to deployment I wanted it to be perfect! Well, perfect isn't always what you initially think it is. We had cake drama (the bakery didn't have chocolate even though we ordered 3 weeks ago!), Trent got in trouble at school, and while thinking about the first and "discussing" the second with the little man, I rear-ended another commuter. Totally flustered! Thankfully all were ok, the cars looked ok, and the lady I hit nicely took my info and we were on our way. I may have to buy a Subaru bumper in the near future!

In the end, the birthday was great! Katreina ordered all her Chinese favorites and loved her Barbie cake (even though it wasn't chocolate). She got some nice gifts and really loved her "level 2" book which she immediately read to her brother. It was perfect. We love you, Beaner!

Fun + chores = weekend!

What a weekend! It started off with a special girls night with our nearly-six year old, then a morning of cleaning, lunch at the local market, and a trip to Gaithersburg to visit family and pick up some shipments that couldn't go to a PO box. Saturday night was "adult night" with a great dinner with family and friends while the kids, amazingly, slept!

Today we returned home to continue with our chores and some outdoor play for the kids. We managed to cut foam for 2 cushions, fix the dinghy (or at least we hope!), and give the kids a few hours of riding bikes and scooters. In a word, awesome.