Live-Aboard Exercise

Scooter Kids

Talking to Mr. Blue Heron

One question we get is about living aboard is how we get exercise. Well, first of all, the car is NOT parked in the driveway. I would say that we get a bit more exercise walking up the dock to the parking lot. Even with the weather being less than conducive to being outside, when it is nice like yesterday, we are ready to take advantage of it.
As we drove down the road above Golden Gardens on the way home from school, the boys lobbied for a "scooter" down to the beach. We called our dock neighbors who also have scooters to see if they were game. Of course, they too, were ready to take advantage of the beautiful afternoon. After a quick stop by the boat to grab scooters and for Mom to change her shoes, we met up with the Ghostsailors and headed for the bike trail. The kids used more than a little energy cruising those scooters to Golden Gardens while the moms got in a nice brisk walk.

Finding Critters

Once at the beach at low tide, the kids couldn't help but find all the critters they could: crabs, eels and snails. The sun went behind a cloud on its way down and suddenly, it was much too cold to be playing in the water. We scootered back to the boat and warmed the kids up with some hot chocolate. I think we all got a pretty good a pretty good workout and maybe even a little marine biology, too!

Beach JOY!!!
Brought to you by
Bryce
Austin
Ellie
and
Zak

Capaz Crew Cooking

First flip

The Capaz crew worked hard in the galley today.

It started this morning with Bryce making breakfast for us all. There were directions to be read and improved upon and a new stove to learn how to use. (Bryce figured out Grammy-Sue's stove in Portland last week.) I think Bryce has been secretly studying his G-pa's technique for years. Anyway, he prepared scrumptious blueberry pancakes and grapefruit halves getting Brad out the hatch in plenty of time to make his 10 am showing this morning. Bryce has discovered that the flipping thing might be easier than it looks, but he is willing to try again to get more practice. This could work out well for the parents who actually love to sleep in.

Austin enjoys pancakes

Careful chopping

After a quick laundry run to the house I made it back home in time to take enjoy Austin's tuna salad sandwiches at lunch time. It is his favorite meal and he feels that it just doesn't come his way often enough. So today, he took matters into his own hands. He located the ingredients and so carefully (for his mother's sanity) chopped up the celery and onions using the really big sharp knife. Austin served up everyone a semi-custom order (Mom likes a pickle slice on the side, Bryce likes only the barest of minimums of mayo and Dad eats pretty much anything you put in front of him). Austin even made himself and Brad seconds on the sandwiches. I can tell now that the boys are going to be great helpers when we are cruising.

The last meal of the day was cooked by Mom. Nothing new there, but I sure appreciated that I didn't have to really go into the galley (except for a little advice, when asked here and there) until almost 6:00PM!

Chowing down on tuna salad

Sailboat?????

The question is: Are you a sailboat if you have masts but no booms? I would like to believe that we are back to being a sailboat even though we haven't quite gotten the booms re-attached. You all will have to weigh in on this one. I guess technically, we would have a hard time sailing without booms, but we certainly look more like a sailboat. The masts went back into the boat with the help of the crane at Seaview East yesterday. We took the boat over on Monday night, spent the night on their wall (I could walk to yoga class in the morning) and by a little after noon, the masts were back in their rightful place with many boat bucks worth of beautiful new rigging and spreaders that Forespar advises us are much less likely to fall down! Brad and I took the boat back through the locks under beautiful sunny skies. Had the boys not needed to picked up after school, I would have suggested continuing across the Sound to Port Madison for dinner. I had to leave work to help Brad with this little trip and was up to my ears with stuff to do. I did feel guilty leaving, but that didn't stop me from closing my eyes and smiling up at that glowing orb in the sky as we waited for the locks. We even remembered to check and see if the railroad bridge was up after exiting the locks (powerboats and mastless sailboats do not have to do this).

Main Mast going in and what makes everything work: It only looks like Spaghetti Mess

Mizzen Mast going in

We have completed our first month living on the boat. Brad and I keep looking at each other and wondering why we didn't do it sooner (one reason was that we didn't have live-aboard status.) The boys, the cats and the parents all seem to be transitioning well.
Bryce and I took our Ham Radio Technician level test on Saturday passed. The FCC now recognizes both of us as lisenced amatuer radio operators. From now on you can refer to me as KE7ZTO and Bryce as KE7ZTP (although we are looking into vanity call signs?????). The Lake Washington Ham Club did a fabulous job with the prep class and they were all so friendly that we look forward to meeting up with them on the airwaves once we figure out our radio.
Finally, thank you to everyone for your concern over our little conbustible incident last week. We are all definitely OK and have all started checking the power for excess heat which is the way a crew should work (together). I hope everyone who has a boat takes it as an opportunity to discuss the plan in case of fire for their own boat (as pointed out by a land friend, we all have an escape plan for our homes, why wouldn't you have a plan for your boat?).

Little Fire

The Culprit

No, "little fire" has nothing to do with my job as Potlatch chair. No, it refers to an event that happened the other night aboard Capaz. We were sleeping all cozy in our boat when the smoke detector in the boys' cabin went off a little before 2:00am. Brad and I sprang out of our bunk and sprinted (a short sprint that involves a couple of stairs) back to investigate. When we opened their door, out poured enough smoke to really scare at least me. I grabbed a fire extinguisher and Brad started searching for the source. Space heater: off and cold - I had checked it before bed. Engine room: more smoke - but how does a non-running engine create smoke? Batteries: fine. More smoke, so we opened the hatch and Brad was preparing to check the laz where the other engine access is as well as the water maker, diesel heater and other mechanical stuff, when I thought of the power cord. Too late: Brad grabbed the fire extinguisher from me and put out the small flame that flared as he had opened the cover. Ironically, it was the power cord that had evidently corroded and then, overheated causing the problem in the mechanical compartment that Brad had opened. Our shore power plugs in on the outside of the cockpit combing adjacent to the compartment. So, in the middle of the night, in 30* weather, the crew of Capaz opened up all the hatches to try and get as much smoke as possible out of the boat. I hung out with the kids (who didn't want to get out bed unless their lives were in imminent danger) until most of the smoke had been blown out by the increasing southerly wind that had piped up. Funny how I really felt the need to stay very close to the boys for awhile. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well the rest of the night. Besides a little lack of sleep, though, we are all fine. The boat sustained very minor damage and the new shore power plug-in has already been installed and new shore power cord was purchased and is in use.

Back to NORMAL

Austin reads to Brad

A couple of side notes:
1. We are still a power boat. We went over to Seaview East last Wednesday, spent a night on the wall only to have the yard not be able to get to us on Thursday. So, we went back through the locks and braved the ridicule of the lock tenders who teased us about not finding our masts and we will try again next Tuesday. We have to wait until then due to side note #2!
2. The Boat Show. Well, what more do I have to say? We are in the midst of the world's longest boat show. I actually could say alot more, but I realize that there may be children reading these entries.
I will be very glad when the Boat Show is over and Capaz is back to being a sailboat and my house is either rented or sold!!!

Visit from Nana and Poppy

Happy 8th Birthday, Austin!

The Birthday Boys of Room 307

What a whirlwind the last few days have been. The kids got back to school and we have been making steady progress on getting our house ready for the rental market.
The 9th of January always seems to come at me from out of nowhere. When the doctor scheduled the appointment to induce me for Austin's birth, she wanted it to be a week earlier. I decided that was too close to the holidays. Now, I wonder if the 9th is even too soon after all the hub-bub. Then, again, 10 lbs was big enough - no need to let him grow for another week!
We made it through another of year of successfully celebrating Austin's birthday. He requested that we celebrate at school with Jell-o cups for his class. That is a great way to cap off a Friday afternoon. Austin shares his birthday with his teacher, Mr. Shook.

Aaron, Austin and Satchel
on the bow of Capaz

On Thursday night, Austin used our giant muffin tin to make giant cupcakes which he very carefully frosted to share with his friends, Aaron and Satchel on Friday. The boys joined us on the boat after school and then we went out to dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. Grammy-Sue flew up from Portland to celebrate Austin's big day. G-ma couldn't get back up to Crystal Mountain, so she and G-pa also had pasta with us. We all returned to the boat for those giganto cupcakes (you will have to click on his blog to see these babies). Satchel and Aaron were very thoughtful in their choice of gifts-choosing things that would work well on the boat. Austin crawled into his bunk, a happy 8 year old.
Today, we hit it early at the house. All of the furniture except for two pieces has been taken care of. Thanks to help from Sue, Rose and my brother, John, we have made some significant progress. Back on the boat, we had dinner and played some games before hitting the hay. All in all, we, including our four-legged friends seem to be adjusting to live-aboard life well.

Satchel and the Birthday Boy

Here We Go Again!

Snow on our neighbor's boat
We spent all day, packing, purging and freecycling! It is getting a little monotonous, though it seems as though we are making some progress. Halfway through the afternoon, the snow started falling again!!!! The kids are having visions of extending their already extended (on the other end) Winter Break. This parent was horrified at the prospect. I just need some time to work on the house, work, etc. without having to figure out things to keep the boys busy. They have watched way too many movies and played on the computer far too much over the last two and half weeks, because I have just plain not had the mental capacity to keep up with my own stuff that needs to get done. Because I have spent time reading with Austin or getting either of them going on this project or that one, I feel pretty darn far behind in getting the house emptied out so that we can put it up for rent. Today, Bryce and Austin were actually pretty big helpers and it was really worth it to figure out a couple of projects for them to work on. Anyway, as I am depending on school happening tomorrow, I am hoping that the NOAA guys know what they are talking about and the snow does turn to rain by midnight. We are toasty warm and just had a nice taco dinner on the boat, so I guess that is what is really important!

Happy New Year 2009 - the Bakers from Shilshole

The Bakers celebrate New Years Eve at Tim and Kelly's

Happy New Year! We rang in the New Year last night with Kelly and Tim having a relaxed dinner filled with good food and company. We made it home to spend our last official night at the house on Palatine. After a good "sleep in" this morning we loaded up both cars and headed for the marina. Our first day as live-aboards was the most typical Seattle winter day you could imagine: 38* and drizzle. It did make it easy to stay inside the boat and organize which is what we did for most of the afternoon. At some point, the boys got permission to start watching the old episodes of Gilligan's Island which they really enjoyed.
With the major load stowed, it was back to the house for the cats and more stuff (all those things that we didn't take but might need). Tasha seems to be adjusting just fine. Sammy in true Sammy style is hiding on the seat in the shower. Luckily, we aren't using it as a shower right now. Dinner on the boat is becoming very ordinary (we had dinner here pretty much every night since Christmas).
Brad is tackling the pass-through berth where all of our tools and some of the spares need to be organized. He is making steady progress and we have decided to put up a temporary hanging bar above the berth so that we can have a place to hang work clothes until we don't need them for work anymore.
The mast project was majorly derailed by the cold snowy weather and our rigger being somewhere nice and warm for the holidays. The next priority will be to finish the work on the mast and the final couple rigging pieces and get the rigs back into the boat. There is a snooze-n-cruise scheduled for this weekend, but Brad does not want to go as a power boat! We will try to participate in the one next month.

Back at the house, the plan is to work on cleaning it out and fixing a couple of things and then getting up for rent as soon as we can. We are shooting for the first of February, so if you know anyone interested, please let us know.Three of so many dock carts going down to Capaz,

I couldn't possibly guess at the total number!