as if...

As if you all needed more pictures of Willie.


We went out sailing this past Sunday. It was a beautiful day with a light breeze and it was very relaxing just to go out and about he harbor and come back in. We only took this one pic or I'd put something more exciting up. Anyhow, they are beginning to move boats into the inner docks for the winter and it will be shrink wrap season soon so that might have been our last sail of the year :(

Perhaps we'll get one more chance this weekend!

Ludwig

Well, it's that time again. Time for heat. Many of you will remember our posts about heat last fall. Unfortunately, the downside of having a shiny new sailboat is that we are once again on a boat that has no heat. So, we've had to purchase a new system. This time, we've opted for dickinson's propane system. It is a bulk mounted system with a double walled self venting flexible flue. It has a nice little window so that we have a cozy flame and it has a built in fan to push the heat around. Nice.


The trouble is that we have no good bulkhead to mount it on. Our solution was to shorten the starboard couch/berth. It was really too short to sleep on anyway and even Jenny had trouble trying to do so. So, we cut the cushions down to size and then I built a teak storage area on a 45 degree angle. The heater can mount on that and it will be nice and low for optimum heat. There is a good spot above it for the chimney to run through. Now we are just waiting for the actual heater to arrive. The propane tanks will be mounted safely and out of the way on the stern rail.


The cushions are going to be cut a bit shorter still. We are just waiting for the heater to show up so we can be sure of just how far away we feel comfortable with cutting them.


Also, there is a new member in the family. Our friends Mike and Alyssa are sailing south toward the bahamas or anywhere else they feel like going. Mike had a motorcycle and needed to get rid of it. I've always wanted one, so Jenny and he worked out a deal and she bought it for me for my birthday. yay!

Rat Bike Extraordinaire!

I'm thinking of naming the bike Ludwig. After Ludwig von Mises.

telephono?

So, I've had a fair number of pictures sitting around on my phone. Often times, I just end up deleting them. This time, I figured I'd send them along and post them here for you all to see. Some are more worthwhile than others, but all are at least moderately fun.


This is Jenny at the helm on our trip back from Salem. It was blowing about 20kts with gusts to 30 or so. That is about the biggest wind we've been in so it was a little creepy for us, but all was fine and we had a really good time actually. Sadly, her eyes seem to be closed but we couldn't tell that til the picture was uploaded.



Jenny's parents were here for a bit and her dad decided to row her mom out into the harbor via the dinghy. While leaving on my way to work I spotted them under this bridge and snapped a quick pic. Can't see much but a white spot, but I like the picture anyhow.



Before the parade of lights started we discovered that Peter (the guy who's boat we were on) had a sombrero sitting around. Jenny modeled it for a photo.



This was just the other morning. I was walking Willie up on shore and it jumped out at me just how noticeable our bright yellow boat is. Can you find it?



On that same morning the fog laying across the city was just super thick so I snapped a picture of that. It always looks cool that way. I love fog.


Jenny got a hat to keep the sun off of her punkin little head while sailing. I got some sun glasses to keep the glare out of my eyes while sailing. We soon determined that Jenny should not wear both at the same time, and this picture is testament to that decision. :D



For those readers who aren't sailors, there is a way to sail called "wing and wing". This is when you are running directly with a light wind. This is exactly what we were doing on our way up to Salem a few weeks ago and it was the first time we had ever successfully done this maneuver. It is not the most efficient way to sail because the fact that you are moving with the wind takes away from the apparent wind, but it was exactly the direction we needed to go and it is darn fun to do. The picture shows the basic idea: foresail out to port and mainsail out to starboard (or vice verse) with the wind filling both.

that's all!

-Justin

Swimwear

Willie outgrew his old lifevest and he also chewed one of the buckles off. It was his loss because now he has to wear this. It isn't exactly a completely heterosexual fashion, but it was on sale as an end of season deal, so he's stuck with it. And lets face it. He's adorable.

Parade of Lights

A couple of our friends, Jeff and Kristi from aboard "as you wish" put on the first annual Boston Parade of lights a couple weeks ago. We went out in our friend Peter's Carver 36 "new beginning".

Here is a collection of pictures that somebody put together.

Hanna? Was that you?

Hanna was a flop. Our neighbor clocked the highest winds at 27mph. Don't believe the weather channel. They are just shilling for ratings. It was a little windy, a little rainy and everyone here was way way over-prepared. Better that than the opposite.

In the meantime, we've had 3 straight weeks of family visitors. We went to the islands a couple times and took a trip to Salem. It was our first trip beyond the islands in Madrigal and it went splendidly. We'll have some pics and whatnot of the last 3 weeks soon.

Cheers to everyone and good luck with Ike. I have a feeling you all may not get as lucky as we did with Hanna.

pup