Report Card: One Month Out

We have just spent the entire day with all the settee cushions free of junk, nothing on the berth in the V but the blankets, and a cleared-off chart table. I think we’re getting organized, y’all.

While the boat is still not where we’d like her to be, the projects are slowing down; they’re fewer, and they’re less urgent. We’re able to move on to a few beautification items, and can claim for many things a permanent home. We understand how we use the boat better, and can change our storage needs around to better suit how we actually live. It is no small thing to know where to hang a hook for your hat where it won’t be in the way, but will be actually convenient to use.

We’re still not on the hyper-efficient spectrum when it comes to spending money, but it’s been weeks since we’ve felt the need for a desperation dinner out; we’ve actually got enough food in the house, in a combination that makes sense, and making a meal doesn’t seem like an impossible task. And hey–look at that. I said “house” instead of “boat”. Guess I just mean “home”.

Nothing fell over when we took the boat out today. That’s pretty amazing.

We’re moving though space a bit slower than expected. We thought we’d be deep into the North Channel by now, so we’ll have to decide if we’ll arrive later to the Erie Canal or spend less time up north. It’s not easy to think about the long arch of planning for months, but we’re feeling more confident about our ability to look at the weather, and where we want to go, and deciding what will be safe and comfortable; generally, that seems to mean slowing down. Fortunately, we have time.

The two things we seem to be struggling with most: internet addiction and finding kid boats. While we’re running into more folks out cruising for weeks at a stretch, we haven’t really found any cruising kids. We met a family in Mackinaw City who were visiting cruising grandparents for a week, and F practically accosted them; despite being about 6 years older than the daughter, she buttered up that kid and was doing her hair after 15 minutes. So: if you know of any cruising kids in our area, send them our way!

As for the internet, well—part of our issue is the blog. We’ve got a lot of friends and family following along, and have started using Facebook for the first time in our lives; now we get stressed out when we can’t post something, knowing that others want to know what’s going on. The kids are missing graphics-intensive video games—marina wifi can’t keep up—and everyone’s been frustrated by slow download times. We ran into a real issue trying to download Canadian charts this week; we have paper charts, but navigating the North Cannel is tricky, and we wanted to have the info right on our iPad—but we it took us three days to get the charts to download correctly. Michu ended up camping out right next to the marina router.

Overall, though, things are getting better. When I look around our boat, I no longer see a complete disaster area—i just see our home. A solid B, I think—not all solar showers and catching fish, but a relaxing glass of wine in the cockpit most nights.