June 2018 – INNTW adventures

5 days left to pack up…

June 26, 2018 Kelly Comments 0 Comment

So when we started planning this trip and the timeline that would go with it, I felt like it was totally doable. I felt like we would have enough time to bring home a “new to us” boat, clean it and get to know it’s systems, pack up our home, decide on a fraction of things to bring with us that would suit us for a year, work full-time jobs until within weeks of leaving, and all the while manage all the home-life duties of a parent and spouse. I have no idea what I was thinking. WHAT WAS I THINKING?!? I don’t think I planned properly for all the boat issues (and decorating), all the cleaning, all the soccer, soccer, soccer, the end-of-the-school-year commitments, and all the supervision of children that would need to be done when school ended. Bottom line: we have 5 days left to pack up and get out and it is chaos around here…

I don’t even know where to start with the documenting, just like I don’t even know where to start with the packing. Every cupboard, every closet, every drawer…lots of boxes moving into the basement for storage for a year and many more boxes than we have space for moving onto the boat. Where did we get all this stuff? How much of it do we actually need?

Our “dining room” has always been our “play room.” However, these last few months, this room has become our packing staging area. There are boxes heading to the boat, boxes heading to the basement, empty containers that *might* be used on the boat, and empty boxes waiting to get filled (along with an old easel from family Pictionary night months ago, of course).

In our final push to empty our belongings out of the house, I’ve started completely emptying cabinets and closets onto the floor or countertops so we can look through everything and decide what we really need to take. What do we really need to take? This is no easy task. It is hard to know what you actually NEED, but what will I even WANT? This is even more difficult when you realize we’re downsizing to about 500 square feet of mobile living space for 5 people, and of course kids feel like they just HAVE TO HAVE lots of stuff.

How many water bottles and cups? Taking into consideration limited storage on the boat, the fact that a boat moves, and also we have no dishwasher…

Sorry for the sideways picture!

Our oven on the boat is 15×15, so any baking dishes we take have to be small. Can you believe we decided on just 2 cookie sheets, 2 pans, 1 saucepan, 1 pot, and 3 pyrex dishes?! Why in the world do we NEED all of this stuff at home??

These are the contents of the baking and spice cupboards spread all over the counter, not to mention the junk drawer and catch-all cupboard!!

At least this area is looking good! Poor Madie (our black lab) knows something is up at home…I wonder how she can tell?! 😉

Meanwhile the kids are adjusting to summer break and anxious to get this adventure started! Kids are so resilient!

Hayley read in the kitchen for 45 minutes yesterday, keeping us company while we debated over pots and pans and utensils. You would never know she is surrounded by such chaos until you see the picture taken from further away!

Toby, or “Muscles” as he likes to be called these days, has been busy taking near-daily swim lessons to get ready for boat life. He is making great progress and (finally) doesn’t *usually* get upset when he gets splashed with water.

Colin kept busy today building lego sets for hours and hours. That’s one bonus to cleaning out the closets–Mom finds presents she bought for you years ago that she never gave you. Thank goodness for lego sets…

Hayley spent some time writing Daddy a letter today. She made sure to let him know mom makes her do chores at home and that she loves him “to bits.” This is also a very clear reminder that no one has bothered to start packing the office yet…

Part of all this “cleaning” and “packing” is also the reality that we are “selling” a LOT of stuff and the kids have been so understanding in saying goodbye to some of their comforts from home. We decided right away that we wouldn’t force them to get rid of anything, and they have been pretty reasonable with what should go to the boat, what we should keep, and what we can get rid of. This is a picture of Toby in his car bed about 15 minutes before it got picked up to go to a new home. He made sure to give the hood a kiss before he said goodbye. Now it’s just a Paw Patrol sleeping bag on the floor.

Today he checked under the hood of his Power Wheels Jeep one last time and gave it a kiss goodbye as well. We also sold 4 bikes, a basketball hoop, and a soccer goal today. This kid is going to be kissed-out by the time we’re done packing!!

To break up all this packing, all these chores, and all the kissing good-bye, we spent some time making signs and pictures to decorate our boat. Getting out paint for 3 kids as a break from what I was supposed to be doing apparently sounded like a good idea to me (crazy!). They turned out pretty good, but tomorrow I think we’ll just stick to swim lessons and packing. 😉

This is a re-creation of a picture Tobin made at pre-school. It is our boat and all of us inside. I love it. He even took special care to ask everyone what color they wanted to be.

Thank you for your support. Thank you for offering to watch the kids or have them play on your swing set. Thank you for reaching out with questions and ideas and dinner dates. I’m sorry we haven’t gone to the pool or seen the new movie yet, but we have 5 days left. 5 days to get this house packed up and our possessions loaded onto the boat. Then we can take another couple of weeks to sort through all the stuff and figure out the new space and the new life that we’ve signed up for (and maybe even the new electronics?!). And pool days! Definitely a few pool days!

Meanwhile, Colin just can’t wait for July 16, our targeted departure date!

Our First Night on the Hook!

June 22, 2018 Kelly Comments 8 comments

Finally a success story!! We spent last Saturday night at anchor (on the hook in fancy boat language) in Lake St Clair and it was AMAZING…with only a few minor issues to report. 😉

On our way out to the Bay we were nervous about depths because we’re just not used to navigating this new boat in our favorite boating locations. We love shallow water for it’s warmth this time of year and because the kids love splashing around and being able to touch bottom while they’re playing. However, we don’t love shallow water because we have a big boat now and props that we can’t raise in shallow water. We were hoping to meet up with some friends who were already out in a certain spot, so we were motivated to get out there, but also a little nervous since our depth finder isn’t yet working while we wait for the electronics install to be finalized. On the way out, we had plenty of discussion about the depths and what our navigation apps were telling us–should we keep going and hope for the best?? Or play it safe and go somewhere else?? Mike’s solution (always so practical!) was to stop every once in a while and stick a pole down in the water to see how deep it really was under the boat. Our navigation apps told us we were in about 4 feet of water, yet his experiment showed us that we were actually in at least 8 feet of water. It just didn’t make sense. So…what to do, what to do? We just kept on motoring easy and stopped a few more times to try the ole “pole in the water” depth-checking trick, and sure enough, we made it to our destination just fine. Whew!

I didn’t take any pictures when we first got out to the Bay because I was too busy socializing, but it sure was nice to have all the kids in the water, going between boats, and splashing around playing. It wasn’t long before our friends started packing up to head home and we were left on our own for the evening. The Bay was so quiet and calm with only a few other boats left. I wondered if we would be the only ones there for the night or if other boats would also stay over. Mike used the grill for the first time, and we had a great dinner of grilled chicken, hot dogs, potato salad, and watermelon–a perfect summer meal. The water was calm, the Bay was peaceful, the boat was content, and it was just about perfect.

Hayley and Tobin played quietly with cars and dinosaurs after dinner. This kind of quiet cooperation doesn’t always happen with these kiddos, so I thoroughly enjoyed the peace.

The flybridge was a perfect place to enjoy my wine and do some research in preparation to head back to the Georgian Bay. I have to admit, it was hard to focus on the book being surrounded by such beauty. I didn’t get much planning done after all, but I sure enjoyed the sunset.

Colin kept me company up there, as well. He is thrilled that it is “Summer Reading Program” season, and he is currently working on reading for 3 different contests. This boy loves to read!!

Grandma Hays also enjoyed the peace and quiet. It reminded her of many years spent at the family cottage not too far from here.

Two of these boats ended up staying the night, also.

We turned a movie on for the kids as they started getting sleepy and the adults enjoyed the view from the sundeck. Gorgeous sunset.

Apparently, a beautiful, quiet sunset was too peaceful for Mike, however. That guy is always up for an adventure, so around dusk he decided to put the dinghy in the water and take it for a spin. I figured the quiet caused by the movie wouldn’t last too long, so I stayed behind to put kiddos to bed. In hindsight, I’m glad I did because the fuel line on the dinghy came disconnected once it was good and dark out there, and Mike ended up rowing the whole way home, surrounded by gnats. He was just thankful they weren’t mosquitoes, but it still looked pretty miserable to me, and he jumped in the lake as soon as the dinghy was secure.

The overnight was beautiful and peaceful (except for all that rowing and Colin falling out of bed, but better him than grandma…). All the bugs that helped Mike row home should have been our first sign that bugs were going to be a problem on such a calm, humid night. We woke up in the morning to find that thousands? millions? of gnats decided to join our boat overnight, mostly on the outside of the windows and screens but plenty found their way inside as well. Mike soon realized that the bugs were going to be quite bothersome outside all day because they covered him every time he went out to take care of something, and of course the forecast called for 90* temps that day, so outside was going to be necessary. I tried vacuuming them up, but it was clear they were not leaving. We decided to ignore the bug problem because we felt pretty helpless on how to get rid of them.

I enjoyed watching some jet skis zoom around in the bay as I drank my coffee and tried to ignore the bugs getting squished into the carpet. The kids had cereal and fruit at the kitchen table. Grandma and I did some interior decorating. And we were HOT. It was 80* something by 10am or so with not much breeze at all and a forecasted high in the upper 90*s. Mike attempted to clean bugs off the outside of the boat, and Hayley joined him on the lily pad when we were greeted by some excitement.

A sea plane flew over the bay, which is not unheard of, but still very exciting to see. However, we were so surprised when the sea plane landed and cruised right over to our boat. It pretty much drove right up to Hayley and gave us quite a show–made us wonder if they were coming to give us a secret message, but texting would be just so much easier. I wondered if maybe he was trying to blow our bugs away?? Then, just as fast as it came, the sea plane cruised right by us and took off again, just behind the boat. Everyone on our boat was thrilled with the show! What a surprise!

Soon the Bay began to fill with boats and a typical summertime Sunday on Lake St Clair ensued…the only difference was this one was filled with tons of gnats. Lots of boats, but more bugs. So many bugs that they scared away two boats of friends from joining up with us throughout the day. The bugs were a bummer. And the heat was oppressive. But it was still a fun day on the water. We are looking forward to lots of days like this on the water, but hopefully way less bugs!!

A few updates:

We have HOT water!! Yay Mike for troubleshooting that problem and fixing it with one new thermostat and just one flood during the process.

The invertor is working properly!! Yay Mike for figuring that out, too. However, now there is a problem with our electrical panel, but it should get looked at next week by an ELECTRICIAN.

We are anxious to get the renaming ceremony done (this is a thing–a post on this soon) and get the new name on the boat. Hopefully soon.

Hopefully electronic upgrade/install will be complete early next week. We need to learn how to use these new gadgets stat!!

Our house is in shambles. Now that school is out, boxing up is in full swing. 9 days til we have to be on the boat full-time. OhmygoodnessI’mfreakingoutaboutthiswehavealotofstuff…

Hopefully a post on this soon.

School’s out for summer!! Woo Hoo! #teacherlife

Just another day in paradise!

June 15, 2018 Kelly Comments 4 comments

This is generally how we feel about our experiences (multiple experiences) on the boat on Sunday. It’s just always an adventure around here, I tell ya… It all turned out just fine, but I’m ready for an EASY day on the boat, that’s for sure. Bring on the floaties and boat drinks, please!

We haven’t moved the boat since docking it in our slip when we first brought it home on Memorial Day. After dealing with (not necessarily fixing) the engine issue, the shore power issue, the water heater issue, the MC number registration issue, and a few other curveballs, Mike was pretty anxious to get out of the slip and experiment with some of our other systems (ya know, see what else we could break!!). We wanted to get the dinghy up on the swim platform and try out the windlass (fancy buttons that raise and lower the anchor) in addition to getting Toby and Hay out on the boat so they could see what it feels and sounds like.

We decided that Sunday was the day to get back out on the water. It was an overcast, chilly day, so not exactly our favorite boating day, but we were anxious to get out there. We had no choice but to tow the dinghy behind us until we could get it on the swim platform. We have never done this before, but we felt pretty comfortable with our plan and the river was not busy, so that was helpful.

As soon as Mike backed the boat out of our slip and put it in gear, he noticed right away that something wasn’t right. The electronics guy told Mike there was a chance that the steering got messed up during the electronics install, but for some reason we weren’t really worried about it. Everything would work out fine, right?! Turns out the steering was actually reversed. So in order for Mike to turn right, he actually had to turn the wheel to the left. To turn left, he had to turn the wheel to the right. This was quite a mind trick and he had to concentrate carefully on what he was doing (no easy task with 3 kids anxious to go on their first family boat ride of the year).

We called the electronics guy and, luckily, he is very responsive. He agreed to meet us anywhere we could dock in order to fix the problem immediately. We decided on Metro Beach since they have a long sea wall we could tie up to and not have to navigate into a slip with reversed steering. We headed down the river and found a ton of fishing boats right at the mouth of the river, just off the channel and some inside the channel. This created the need for even more focus as Mike planned a path between the boats that wouldn’t put us too far off track to head to Metro. We were, after all, towing the dinghy, so we had to go pretty slow and get a feel for how that all works.

Fishing boats everywhere in the channel.

Hayley writing quietly. Dinghy following quietly.

We got around the boats, turned toward Metro Beach, texted the electronics guy to push back our meeting time (for the 3rd time), and I decided it was time for a Diet Coke break. I was just about to open it when I turned to check on the dinghy, and I actually turned at just the exact moment that the tow rope came untied and the dinghy was left behind, in the middle of the choppy-water, fishing-boat area. OH NO!! What the heck do we do now? We are driving away from our dinghy and we can’t steer very well!

The Diet Coke break ended without even opening the Diet Coke as I raced down the stairs to head out onto the swim platform to catch the tow rope before it got caught up in the propellers and caused another issue. After the tow rope was safe, Mike started heading in reverse back towards the dinghy. He figured this would be an easier way to come alongside it so I could get it with the hook. I was trying to set a good example for the kids, so I had my life jacket on and I was ready to hook that dinghy!! You wouldn’t believe how accomplished and relieved I felt when I got it on the first try!! Whew!!

Here I am, with the hook, ready to get our runaway dinghy back!

The rest of the trip to Metro Beach was uneventful and the electronics guy met us quickly and fixed the issue. Mike offered the suggestion of labeling things before they get taken apart, but maybe that is too logical. Here is the boat all tied up as the guys are working to correct the issue in the flybridge. The kids and I headed to the playground to burn off some energy.

All these kids at the playground, and they choose to play together! Crazy!

About an hour later Mike called and said the problem was fixed and the dinghy was secured on the swim platform. We headed back to the boat to see how great the dinghy looks in it’s new traveling location, because towing isn’t much fun after all.

A few more tweaks to make this permanent, but we’re pretty happy with the set-up for now.

The next adventure of the day was to head further down the Black Creek to the bay so we could practice with the windlass. We were even a little giddy at this point, talking about how easy driving the boat was going to be now that the steering was corrected. Of course, you should never talk about how great or easy something is going to be until it’s over, because that is a definite way to ask karma to hand you some bad luck, but at this point, how much more could go wrong?!

Well, the wind… It was quite windy and it was keeping us pinned against the sea wall as we tried to drive away. The original plan was for me to use the hook to push off the side of the sea wall (30,000 pound boat–no biggie, right?!) and Mike would get us turned and out of there. The reality was that we drove a bit down the sea wall, bumping and scraping the side of our boat along the steel (thank goodness for fenders!) until we stopped and tied up again to regroup. Plan B was that I was going to stand at the helm and Mike was going to push “real hard” at the front of the boat to turn us (slightly) out into the wind and then race back and push “real hard” at the back of the boat to get us away from the sea wall (slightly) and then JUMP ON the boat as I drove us away. I had many questions about this plan B, most importantly: What the heck do I do if I drive the boat away and Mike doesn’t actually JUMP ON?! In the end, his plan worked and we were relieved (once again) to be past a challenge and on our way.

I’m glad to say the windlass practice went smooth as can be. We attempted to use an anchor alarm (app that keeps track of how far you go from your original anchor position) and that didn’t go so well, but that is a minor detail. The kids played games and fought about who was cheating (seen here) while we relaxed a bit before heading back to the marina for the day.

Sweet T watching Mike bring up the anchor.

The steering was predictable, the landing was graceful, and the crew was glad to be back in port after another day of adventures. It is clear that this journey is going to throw us curve balls ALL THE TIME. Things we don’t even know can go wrong, will go wrong. But the fun of it is going to be in solving the problems and moving forward despite the fact that we just never know what tomorrow will bring.

Thank you for following us on our great adventure!! I hope to post lots of pictures of floaties and boat drinks this weekend. In the meantime, if you know of a marine electrician in Metro Detroit, send them our way!! 😉

1 Down!!

June 7, 2018 Kelly Comments 2 comments

We found it!! 1 problem solved and the morale in this house is much better today!! The engines are back up and running–whew!!

The electronics installer was talking the situation over with another resource Mike contacted about the whole “engines not starting” thing, and they realized the problem is this switch labelled Engine Shutdown System. Sounds perfectly logical, right? Well the two settings are “normal” and “override.” Who would have thought the switch needs to be on override all the time?

As soon as Mike got the call that they solved the problem, he had to drive down to the boat and fire them up himself. Success!! We are sleeping much better in this house tonight!

Now, just waiting on that inverter to fix the shore power issue!! 😉

What’s next?!

June 6, 2018 Kelly Comments 4 comments

We brought our boat home exactly 8 days ago and since then we have developed at least 4 problems (at last count). Maybe that picture is not quite so funny.

My initial goal for the first week or two of having the boat was to clean out all the cupboards, assess the storage areas, and start to plan how we are going to fit everything we need for 13 months onto this boat. Mike’s plan was to learn to drive it, learn to navigate it, and learn to park it. At this point, however, very little of his plan is working out, so it’s a good thing we’ve got my plan to fall back on. Let’s call it a lesson in teamwork.

1) We have had what we’re referring to as a “shore power issue” at every.single.marina. I mean EVERY SINGLE MARINA can’t have the same problem, right? So it’s got to be us who has the problem…

The issue is that these green lights on the right don’t ALL or ALWAYS turn on when we plug a big cord into the outlet at the boat slip. We “should” be running off shore power, but all the breakers don’t show that they are actually getting power. Also, notice how that white gauge on the left shows power coming in, but that gauge on the right shows that we aren’t really using any power?? That’s apparently not how it is supposed to look. We used to refer to this problem as “troubleshooting AC.” We’ve tried new splitters, new power cords, new outlets, and flipping every switch on the boat.

Today, Mike sent me this shocking picture

and tells me that he has talked to someone who works on inverters (fancy boat word for things that help store power on boats) and they are both convinced that all we need to do is pull the inverter from the basement (is there a fancy boat word for this? I will find out, I’m sure…) and mail it to them in Ohio where they will “fix” it and mail it back. That easy. WHAT?! That does not sound logical to me at all, but it was obvious at this point that this was already happening, so I’m holding my tongue for now. We’ll see how this goes. $190 later the 87-pound inverter has been mailed to Columbus and should be back in 3 days or so. We just want the lights to turn green, people!!

This is apparently what an inverter looks like.

2) The upgraded electronics were supposed to go in last Thursday “in one day.” However, in order for the installers to get the AIS (automatic identification system) set up correctly, we have to have MC numbers for our boat. The MC numbers are being held up by the Secretary of State because they need an original copy of the boat’s license/title and apparently we only have a copy. The original owners now need to order a new original copy which takes about 5 days or so. Follow that trail back to the original goal, and hopefully our AIS will be functional and electronics upgrades will be complete in a few weeks. No biggie, really, and certainly no fault of the installers, but just some loose ends and holes in the dash to consider for a bit longer.

3) In an attempt to correct the “shore power issue” we wanted to move to a different slip at the marina that had a different power set up. We decided to move the boat about 4 slips down over the weekend only to realize that our engines were not working properly. Hmmm… Strangest thing because every time we’ve been on the boat so far, they start right up and sound great (apparently–though I’m not really sure what they should or should not sound like at this point). They would both start right up when the key was turned, but then would immediately turn off when the key turned back. We tried again and again and Mike attempted every fix he could think of, but those babies would only turn on for about 2 seconds before going quiet. Even the electronics installer came out in the middle of his Saturday to help us trouble shoot and see if it could be related to his work, but NO LUCK. Definitely a problem….

So now we are stranded at the dock and even our poor dingy was stuck for a few hours because the big floating condo with wonky power was blocking it in to the seawall. We finally finagled the dingy out with the help of a neighbor, lots of muscle, and some very long ropes. However, riding around all weekend in the dingy (because it is our only boat that starts) did not make Mike a very happy camper…

4) Our water heater no longer creates hot water. Just a minor detail at this point that we haven’t really even considered yet.

So, in the meantime, since we couldn’t work much on Mike’s plan of driving, navigating, and parking the boat, we’ve been working on my plan of cleaning, organizing, and decorating the boat.

The galley faucet and backsplash have gotten some upgrades and look amazing!!

The aft head (back/master bath) is getting the same faucet/backsplash treatment, though the backsplash isn’t quite done yet.

Mike decided to crawl down into the creepy hole under our bed to see what is down there. We played around with the aft shower and realized the sump pump for the shower water is down there along with lots of empty space (kind of like the basement, but this part of the basement *could* have water in it, so it is called the bilge). It looks kinda icky down there, but the good news is that there were no spiders!

Not as creepy as it could be, just some cleaning needed.

I have been moving pillows and rugs around on breaks from cleaning and parenting. It is feeling cozier and more like home every day we’re there.

Touches from home and some new goodies, too!

I’m super excited to add this fun bit of flare to the wall! I waited and thought about it and let it sit in my online cart for-ev-er but finally decided this guy is essential to the trip! I know you all agree!

We have spent many hours measuring and imagining patio furniture for our sundeck and we MAY have decided on this set….hoping to get it to the boat this weekend and I CAN’T WAIT!!

So, despite some setbacks in Mike’s plan, my plan is coming together nicely. Aside from the fact that our power is weird and the boat can’t move (minor details), things are going great. We know that the best way to learn about the boat and the systems is to dig right in, so we’re looking at these waves as learning experiences. I’m thankful that we’re still in our home and in familiar territory as we figure this all out. I’m sure a large part of our year will be spent troubleshooting issues, so we better get used to it.

By the way, if you happen to be a marine electrician or Cummins engine expert, please get in touch ASAP!

INNTW adventures

a family of 5 living with the "if not now, then when" mindset

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Month: June 2018