Summer is winding down in Chicago and Scott and I have been busy ringing the sun and fun out of these last few weeks. Last weekend was spent in Saugatauk, Michigan with friends, this past weekend was Chicago's Air and Water show entertaining a bunch of friends on my dad's boat (ours is too small to host 15 people!), this weekend we head to Northern Michigan for the Traverse City Triathlon, and next weekend we head to Wisconsin for camping and Jimmy Buffett (I am not ashamed to say I am a *HUGE* fan). Phew...and it doesn't stop there folks...things don't ease up until September for us.
While all this is exciting, all these weekends chock-a-block full-o-fun have left us little time for our boat. We have gone out for a sail here and there which means we continue to find new issues to add to our never-ending "to do" list. Because of lack of time, however, we just sort of sweep these issues under the rug for another day. What we are learning with this method is:
a) avoidance does not make issues go away
b) exactly how much we don't know.
How to charge our batteries, for example, while we are at the mooring? Sure, we run our engine in and out of the harbor - but how long is enough? We know we need at least one solar panel (because relying on running the engine isn't sustainable), but what kind? We know we need a new main sheet - but how long is long enough? Not to mention our radar and autopilot have been acting, for lack of a better word, "finicky" which we *think* has to do with the fact that our battery is not fully charged, but don't know for sure. We STILL have to calibrate instruments (!?!?) and bleed the air out of that blasted hydraulic steering system. Then there is the rig: how to check it, maintain it and tune it properly. And our FM radio? KAPUT...the AM works fine, but not the FM...why? We have no clue. One day we were sailing, rocking out to John Cougar Mellencamp and POOF! It just stopped transmitting. No reason. Power was on, AM still worked, we hadn't hit a weird wave or anything...A mystery. Sigh. None of this is stuff we can't figure out - but all of it requires TIME.
So we have made an executive decision to spend September working on the boat. We will enlist the help and expertise of friends and family (ahoy mateys!!) and roll up our sleeves and get down and dirty. We will continue to fix and learn in a Fibonacci-type sequence and inevitably, continue to discover just how little we know.
Your friends,
Brittany and Scott xox
2 comments:
Sounds like our self-imposed grounding for this weekend... Sometimes you just have to do it.
Does this mean you aren't going away for Labor Day anymore?!?!?! (YAY!)
Count us in for some time in September to help you take the boat out for a sail. In other words, you and Scott sail and we bring wine. That would help to diagnose problems, right? That's about all we're capable of.
I know EXACTLY how you feel... we are in the process of getting our boat ready to leave this January and the amount of work to be done and information to absorb is overwhelming! I look forward to reading about your adventure since there are so few people *our age* out there taking this sort of leap! :)
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