Stats for June 23, 2019

Origin: Kingston

Destination: Athens Free Dock (I love free docks!!)

Distance: 26.5 miles

Speed: 7 mph

Time on the Move: 3 hours and 47 minutes

After sleeping in, we left our quiet little anchorage near Kingston, NY around 9:30 am. It was a much calmer day to travel and we had a short trip planned.

Lots of people have asked how we manage to fit school work into our routine. Let me tell you it has changed several times over our trip, as we learned what worked for us and what didn’t. We have a different schedule every single day, so whatever our school plan is, it has to be equally flexible. The thing that has worked the best for us is giving the kids a list of their weekly responsibilities and letting them choose what activities they do each day. I usually encourage them to complete 2-3 tasks each day we travel, but other days we are off adventuring and never do typical school work outside of reading. Likewise, travel days could be long or short, easy or stressful–so my availability varies. Flexibility is key!

Colin and Hayley are generally responsible for doing 3 math lessons, writing 3 times, reading daily, and 3 “extras.” Extras could be keyboarding, cursive practice, other school books we have on board, or other academic tasks that appeal to their interests (for example, Colin made a book all about the Bahamas). The reading part is kind of a joke, because Colin reads for hours at a time. Hayley isn’t quite as enthusiastic about reading, but she’s coming along and reads more than I would require her to. I give Tobin a similar list of things to do, like writing his letters or numbers, writing his name, writing journals for his boat school binder, and now he is loving a math book with basic facts. I give him these tasks mostly so he feels like he fits in with the big kids and their school work. Luckily he has become much more interested in academic tasks and is building his stamina regularly now. He’s going to be a great kindergartner!!

Other than this traditional learning, we cover geography, history, weather, budgeting, cooking, problem solving, flexible thinking, team work, and risk taking like gangbusters. And don’t even get me started on the amount of maritime museums we’ve been to!! I like to say real-life experiences are the best teachers, and we’re getting plenty!!

I gotta say, our trip up the Hudson was pretty magical! Check out all the amazing history we passed by!

We are getting pretty good at docking on our own at these free docks (there are no dock hands to help you, like in marina!). In situations like this, Colin waits in the cockpit in the back with a line and tries to loop a cleat to hold the back end in. Since there are no obstructions here (like piles or power pedestals) I hook on that white side step and stand on the bottom step with line in hand. If communication is good enough between the Captain and I (and wind/weather/waves aren’t interfering), I can usually just step off right onto the dock and tie a line from the front of the boat. If conditions aren’t perfect, we just try and try again until we get it right. It isn’t always easy, especially if it is windy or there are tight spots, but we have become pretty darn good at it!

We headed to the local brewery for dinner and then chatted for quite a bit with a young family who lives in the area. They were amazed to hear about our adventure and offered any assistance we needed which was so nice! We ended up at the playground for some playtime before heading back to the boat. And what in the world would we possibly do back at the boat?!

Go FISHING!! Of course!!

We were treated to a beautiful sunset and a quiet night on the river. Luckily, we stopped at the gas station on our way back from the playground, so we were treated to some ice cream, too!! Life is good!

Thank you for reading and following along on our adventures!!