Huck Finn would be Proud

For those who remember, Huck Finn was punished and his punishment was to white wash a fence.

Well he turned what was a negative into a positive by persuading others that this tedious job was fun, an adventure, something they wanted to do.

Well - I think I have some of that blood in my system too.   

We purchase the boat and my sister Tara comes down to a Marina in NJ and Power-washes the dirt and gook off the boat.  Making it look amazing!

My parents come and help clean the inside of our vessel.  Murphy oil soap all the wood and even Dad helped me remove the oven to clean behind it.  And it sure did need it!

Our children, who can vary on their level of excitment abou tthe boat, have helped out tremendously in their own ways.   Especially the first winter we painted the bottom.   Calan getting all geared up to paint and Liam pulling of the painter's tape from the hull!  Great memories created here!

   

2 winters ago my friend Peg came out with me to the boatyard, while the mast was on saw horses, to polish the mast.  As you can imagine the jokes that came out of that line.  (Polish the mast...) Ha

She grew up knowing the pride of keeping a boat in tip top shape and offered to assist in the polishing.  Gratefully I accepted knowing doing this with a friend is much more fun than going it alone.  So we were off to the boat yard on a beautiful winter day polishing the mast, listening to music and chatting the whole time.   

The Mast on saw horses 2013

Peg and I

Last Summer, Nigel, David's father came up from New Zealand and did amazing work on the wood, particularly the toe rail.   It shines like the top of the chrysler building!  It seriously changed the curb appeal of Nemetona!

A tidy up after some wood work

The reward for a hard days work!

                                            

Dave and his dad

Uncle Sticky who runs AB Marine has been crucial, not so much in the hands on labor, but in helping us outfit our boat.  He has helped us with many products from lights, repellents, a shaft shark to a propeller.    All to help Nemetona sail smoothly.

The Armitage men, Sticky, Chips, Ross and Nigel

This year I have had the good fortune to again spend some hours at the Marina connecting with a like spirit.  I had a wonderful time polishing the cockpit with Jenn (my new Next Door neighbor). Music on, chatting the whole time and doing what Mr. Miagi would be proud of.....Wax ON, Wax OFF.   

      

This weekend we had our youngest (and smallest crew member) help clean a tight space....the back lazerette!   He was so happy to help.

Many hands make light work is so true, doing it with friends and family is an experience!

THANK YOU!

Happy Anniversary

The best anniversary gift before a long voyage...a place to put the hatch boards!!

I'm in love!!

Dave has been Soo busy prepping the big important-to-get-off-the-dock jobs, working, travelling and he still etched out time to finish.

Maybe only a boater would understand the significance, but I think everyone can feel the love!

Happy 18 years honey!  So many more memories coming up in the next year to reminisce about!

A return gesture of Love - Polishing the Stainless.

Been planning for a week to polish all the Stainless and made sure I got down there today to finish before our anniversary tomorrow.

I like when our loving 'acts of service' advance our quest.

Our trip condensed

Float Plan Basic

So many people are asking and wondering when we are leaving.  And since it is really a two fold experience living on the boat - let me explain.

First we will be living aboard in New England then we will be living aboard in the Caribbean.

June 19th 2015- we are looking to start living on the boat as of this day.  We will be sailing to Block Island for Block Island Race Week Regatta in which David is sailing.

July 1st, 2015 - the date our renters move in to the house.

July, August, September - living on the boat in our marina slip at NEB.  Sailing locally.

October 2015 - setting sail down the East Coast of the USA.  Heading toward Virginia to meet up with the Salty Dog Rally.

November 2015 - David's Dad and brother will be up from New Zealand to help him deliver the boat to the Caribbean.  Lana and the kids will be picked up by her parents and they will be doing a historical drive down to Florida (Home school field trips galore) where they will fly down to the Caribbean to meet up with David once boat is delivered.  (I know may seem like a cop out...not doing the delivery, but it was the deal maker when deciding to do the trip!!  I know my limitations and possibly 11 days on open ocean....no, not with our kids)

December 2015 through June 2016 - It will be just our family on the boat sailing the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean.

July 2016 - Back in our marina slip in Rhode Island.

Finding Calm within Chaos

May 6, 2015

I have to admit today was a difficult one.
So much going on, so many check boxes to tick, two track life full speed ahead. 

I struggled all day knowing there is so much to get done, yet couldn't focus correctly.  Has this ever happened to you?

It's frustrating ...period.

Being alone at the boat for a good part of the day was good - I despise when my unsettled mood is opened to others....it's not often, and I try to not share it.  But yesterday was an exceptionally hard mental day and actually spilled over my negative energy (My apologies to those who were near my bubble of unsettled-ness).  

I have not figured out yet the true cause although conclusions have been drawn. Overwhelmed with boat tasks, house tasks, logistics of 'stuff' (stuff to get rid of, stuff to store, stuff to setup), nervous about prepping house for rental, nervous about the trip it self, am I prepared, will I miss the routine, yet looking forward to the lack thereof, Wanting to be on the boat Now, yet have so much to prepare prior, anxious for my son who is having a hard time transitioning as the house becomes more and more bare, excited for my other son who wants to celebrate the changes, 6 weeks until we move on the boat, 7 weeks to be out of the house, tick-tock, etc...etc...

Emotionally askew in a world moving forward.  

It wasn't until this evening at Cal's cub scout meeting I had a chance to be still, stop and walk. Let me preface, I was his pack leader, but a few months ago handed over the reigns.  I usually assist in some way but tonight I excused myself, which allowed me the opportunity to be still.   Meetings are held on church property, of which there is a cemetery. And this is where I found some calm.

Among the gravestones, inscriptions and the sun setting streams of light - there was quiet, solitude and calm.

The stillness of the bodies below, grounded me.  

Thankful for the moments presented and appreciated!    I can't say the uneasiness is fully purged, but at least I have some clarity.  

The universe surrounds us with beauty, we just need to take notice.

Enjoy a few pictures from the moments of calm.

Miller Time

Before I write about what brought us to the amazing couple who will be renting our house for the year....I need to talk about Miller Time.

For those who drink Miller Beer - do not get ahead of yourselves here.  There is a story to be told, and if you have read any of my other posts...the title does not always match the moral of the story!

So here I go...

Dave and I have lived in our house now for over 10 years.  A lasting memory of the sale was the response to the question...."What are the neighbors like?"  The response from the seller went something like this..."It's nice, they keep to themselves"

Boy did I under estimate how much they kept to themselves.  The properties touching ours were very quiet and never seemed to come out of the house.  To be honest not many were out in their yards except maybe to mow in summer.   Demographically....I would agree, this was an established neighborhood were their kids were nearly out of the house and mine were mere babes. So not much in common.

But when your husband travels ALOT....and family is very far away (New Zealand and New Jersey) your neighbors become family.  I simply thought this is how it went considering I grew up in a neighborhood where we called adults respectfully by their first names, ran through each other’s back yards, had many mom’s and dad’s looking out for me on the street and helping hands whenever you needed it.   Even in our first home, Bill and Jill - our sole accessible neighbors on the cul-de-sac - were our mentors, board game extraordinaire's and the bon-fire experts.  (Their children grown and we did not have any yet.)   They welcomed us like family and we reciprocated!  

So, I am not sure if this is a New England thing or just zeroed down to this street, but the seller was right, people kept to themselves!   (And must admit, post-partum depression did not exactly enhance the prospects!)

So a few years in we hosted an ice cream social for the neighborhood, it was fun, yet the sentiment remained the same, but now at least I knew the names of the people living around me.   So we carried on - a few new faces around the corner moved in (to which I left notes in their mailboxes greeting them to the neighborhood!) and a family a block away, who I have built friendships with.

Then it happened, the house closest to us next door, sharing an open property line (no fences) went on the market in the fall of 2013.  My immediate response was to start a mantra to the universe asking very specifically what I would like in a new neighbor.  It was not a long mantra, but specific and was repeated every time I drove past the for sale sign.   I asked, “Please allow that house to have a family who is similar to ours, celebrates life and has children around the age of my younger son, who like to play outside.”  This was not a generic request but quite specific and maybe varied in verbiage, but had this same gist every time.

I am not sure if it was my mantra that kept buyers away until the perfect family found it….or just the housing market consequences….but it took well over a year for it to go under contract.   And the day this family moved in – Dave and I both were over there greeting our new neighbors the Miller’s.

Thank goodness they were immediately open to us, for they could have been overwhelmed by our enthusiasm.  Trust me when I say we were well enthused on that cold winter day with snow mounds high, my hugs open hearted (and plentiful) and some homemade Berry Jam to welcome them the day they got the keys! 

There was no question in those first moments that this family was-amazing.  I cannot begin to say how blessed I feel to have them live next door to us, especially now that I have gotten to know them…to share our stories, lives and dreams. 

And here is the kicker for me….that validates using specific mantras…was they had 3 children.  One year older, one year younger and one the same age as Calan.  And they all love to play outside!!!   As a mother, there is nothing better than hearing the giggles, laughter and Joy coming from your child!  And already three short months later...I already feel they are a part of our family.  

  

 The only downside is that we are going to be living on our boat for a year and I will miss them terribly!  Before they moved in I did not care if we came back to this house, but now I am overjoyed knowing the Miller's live next door. 

Jenn reminds me of my sisters who I miss everyday and her gusto for life and 'get it done' attitude inspires me!  As we talked I came to find she too was praying for a neighbor like I was.   Pure Karma!  

Right now we look forward to the remaining few weeks in the house, then onto the summer months sharing docktails on Nemetona in her slip down the street until we depart and mostly their presence when we return from our sailing adventure to begin the era of ...Miller Time!!

The Boulder

When your heart is open and you try and live life with inner intent and soul searching serenity…you come upon many chances to discover something new about yourself. 

I have always seen this journey as a path, a path where I am moving forward.  I imagine a quiet dirt path, meandering its way through a tall wooded grove with sunlight streaming through the leaves searching for contact with the underbrush.

In a recently hard episode in my life - I felt that my journey became a shambles and I wasn't strong enough to stay on the path.   This recent incident derailed my journey for a couple of days, but with the insight of my close friend and confidant Erica - she reminded me of some very important thoughts. 

She so kindly said "I have not fallen off track but rather my journey is still happening and the episode is part of the journey."  Visualize the episode as a boulder that has been placed on the track and it has halted your forward progress.   It is true, my lack of forward motion made me feel stifled and congested in my thoughts.

"Use the boulder as an opportunity to learn something about yourself."

Her words resonated.  When I realized I hadn't fallen off track, and the many years of aspiring to be true to my core self weren't as fragile as I imagined…..I was enlightened and heartened.  I no longer felt off track, frazzled or like a failure.  Instead the boulder was a gift, an opportunity to look within, to halt, to reevaluate the path.   If we could all look at what is halting our journey with a soft heart, we would have some wonderful lessons to learn.  

She mentioned there is no way to go through the boulder or ignore it.  If I wanted to keep moving forward on my path I needed to address it, meditate on it. Accept it as a chance to grow.

Basically, in order to begin forward motion again the boulder needed to be moved and to move it I needed to shower it with my deeper understanding and love.   To find this I would have to meditate on the boulder, but first get to know it's size, weight, structure.  Then during the meditation - focus on what the boulder is, why it is there and how it could be moved with love through a singular focus.  To move it without an offensive measure but with tenderness.

This meditation had amazing results and gave me calm, strength, and highlighted my true essence, which ultimately lead me to the idea of how to move this boulder.  My resultant answer on how to move this particular boulder was genuine and came to me with insight, love, tenderness and giving.  I also meditated and envisioned how it would be received by the other person and hoped it would be felt the way in which it was meant to be.

I learned a lot about myself during this recent episode.   For one, I was reminded that all boulders give us a chance to stop and reevaluate our path, and if soft hearted we have the chance to learn some wonderful lessons.

Feeling eternally grateful for the episode, the guidance and the chance to address that boulder with love and focus.  I am a better, stronger person for it.

A Shift...

This past Wednesday my friends mother passed away.  She was 96.  She lived many years raising a family of 6 kids and spent the last few years with Alzheimer's.  I found out about it via facebook while at an event I was working near Boston.  During the ride home late that night and into the days following many thoughts drifted in and out of my mind.  Similar to when you find out friends are getting a divorce....it makes you question your paradigm.  Your framework.  Your life.

Most of my thoughts and realizations about her loss made me think about my parents and that time when they too shall pass.  It made me reflective.  Made me look at all the amazing things they have done for and with their children and how I would handle that day.   THAT day when they are no longer a phone call away, a mere drive away, a mere flight away.

The word that kept coming into my consciousness was SHIFT. 

A shift of Thought.

A shift of Family.

A shift of Caring.

A shift of Giving.

A shift of Loving.

Made this for my friend Sue.

A Cairn marking the milestone of her mothers life,

the Alzheimer Flower Pin she gave me in support of her mother

and the 2 shells representing her life and her daughter Kate's.

So the loss is for those who remain on earth....or should I say the Shift is for those of us who remain. It is us who carry on the legacy, to write about it, to share it, to embody the things we learned from those who touch our lives.  Shifting our energies from the thoughts of loss to the thoughts of how we intend to live our days here on earth.  To embrace the beauty that is all around us (if we look), to touch the lives of those who enter our sphere (if we are open), to go within and shift our wants and desires to reflect the soul we have within.  

May we always be this way - even outside of death.  We have a short time to be effective human being here on earth...soften your heart, open your soul and touch upon the spirit we all have within.  

We're going for REAL....

Where do I begin.  Where do I begin....

The trip is happening.  REALLY Happening.

But do believe in the greater spirit of the universe providing such an amazing path leading to this point.

An amazing family found us on Zillow and wants to rent our beautiful home out for the year he attends the naval war college.  Sitting with her for 4 hours on Saturday and simply conecting and chatting about life and family solidified the amazing response the universe had for my request of just that.  Connecting with another family one who would love our home as much as us and take care of her while we embark on a once in a lifetime adventure with our children into the Caribbean.

If it was not for our brand new month old neighbor next door, who said Military families look on Zillow for rental listings.   We would not of had this amazing family wanting to rent our home. (Thank you Jen for being amazing!!!)

I promise we will be back after the year celebraating our good fortune to have you as our next door neighbors!!

Winter Boat Prep

Winter Boat Prep was tough this year.  The winter was amazingly beautiful....but with Tons of snow. Here in the North East of the USA we had a cycle of storms that kept dumping inches of snow. Not a problem if your a skier or snow shoe kinda person, but for a family trying to prepare for the trip of a lifetime...it was a hindrance.

But I can say proudly that today April 7th, 2015 around 8am the beautiful s/v Nemetona touched water for the first time since last fall.

This feat took the will power of one determined man withstanding bitter cold temps armed only with a tiny space heater.  With the boat completely emptied out of cushions and luxury items....David amazingly and faithfully went to the boat whenever possible to get through our massive Boat prep check list.

(Mind you this Boat prep checklist was just to get her in the water...we still have about 2 other boat checklists hanging on our wall!)

This winter David did the following

• Remove Water heater (which meant cutting out part of the bed frame to make this possible) 
• Paint bilge area 
• Drill a new through hole, (fill, patch, sand, seal and paint) 

• Back fill a through hole (fill, Patch, sand, seal and paint) 
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• Replace about 3 through holes (sand, seal and paint) 

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• Prep area for fuel filtration system 
• Prep areas for water maker system 
• Reattach hoses 
• Reattach wet exhaust system 
• Sand bottom of the boat 
• First coat of anti foul painted on 

There are so many other things I am unaware of...and hope to get a full list from David at some point.

Then in the last week and a half together we have been (in the somewhat warmer though damper weather)

• Grinding down spots on the bottom of the boat 

    

         

• Wiping bottom clean with 216

• Second coat of anti foul painted on
• Third coat of anti foul around waterline and keel and rudder

       

•  Wash off and dry topsides
• Compound and polish sides

    

Wax Off




• Wax on and Wax off sides 

•  Washed and Waxed the green waterline

• Waxed the spot we could not reach from the scaffolding and some really dirty spots in the cockpit/companion way and transom.  (It was also a test to see if the large buffer could be used in these areas when she is in the water, without spattering polish everywhere.....confirmed.  Yeah)

Again I am sure David has done an enormous amount of work other than what is listed here...but just thought I would document at least some of the hard/complicated work that has been done to the boat since January.  I hope to someday to get a listing of all the upgrades and changes we have done to her.

Still smiling.....

Until then...just know we are getting excited about moving onto the boat in a few months.  The house has found renters, homeschooling has been approved by the town and med kit is ready.

As my friend John says, just keep picking at the mountain.  Each and every moment find something to do that reduces the size of the mountain and in time it will be 'moved'.
In our case it will be 'sailing'.

Bump in the road

So this winter was harsh....not just from the "Can't make progress on the boat prep when it's this cold" or "thank god my parents left me their Snow Blower when they moved to FL" aspect, but evidence from the pictures posted here show that the roads were hit hard too.

SO to add to our already fun and monotonous Car stories since October.....

We have hit another bump in the road.

Literally!

A Pot hole....not that huge, but very deep.  

Hidden by slush on a dark Wed. night heading to Cub Scouts.

BAM, Shudder, pull and a "what in the world was that...were we just in another accident??"

Did all I could to grab my composure when we pull into the parking lot of scouts and see a tow truck there hooking up a small red car.  No doubt they too hit the said pot hole.

So I went on to calm my son and explained we will know after scouts if any major damage if we see a bubble form on the outside of the tire.  

Promptly after the meeting, before getting in the car he checks the tire....no bubble that he could see.  PHEW

Next morning - after more snow....I am shoveling near the passenger tire and what do I see......

The bubble.

The Bubble

Ugh, Exhale, Breathe in. Clear head. Think clearly.

Need to wait for David to return from business trip, drive to Town Fair Tire, Replace.  Ca-ching. Done. Simple.

Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it!

Inner & Outer

In the craziness that has been my first few months of 2015, (in our cold, stark, snowy world of RI)...I had many obstacles to hurdle.   In that time I began to drift from my true inner self...I was so exhausted by the outer invasion of information and deadlines and health issues, I lost a sense of the Inner.
Sometimes we do not realize how much of the Inner we lose until a light is fixed upon it, or words are brought before us that make us stop and think.
Today was one of those days...In the midst of all that is going on I stood up and took notice of some words that brought me back to my inner.
Let me explain...I have started another one of Deepak Chopra's guided meditations.  (I have done others before, but not recently...this past Monday though I started a new 21 day meditation presented by Chopra Institute)
I just read the reminder email that was sent - it outlines the thoughts for that particular meditation and this is what it said.....

Matching Inner and Outer
In the S-M-A-R-T acronym, the letter A stands for “agreement with your inner self and those around you.” Agreement means harmony, mutual support, and even love. For there to be agreement between the inner world of our values, goals, and beliefs and the outer world full of contentious individuals with conflicting ideas, we must find a deeper level of commonality. That agreement is based on your personal connection to universality. Steve Jobs expressed this agreement perfectly: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

Our centering thought for today is:
My inner and outer worlds mesh perfectly.

"I think true success is intrinsic... It's love. It's kindness. It's community."  — Tom Shadyac

Bueller.....Bueller

Nothing more to add......Thank you Ferris!