"Trash Pick Up"

During the last unofficial  'weekend' of Summer on the hook, we accumulated a lot of trash, and as you can imagine, on a holiday weekend, recyclables too.

The aroma and thought of sailing it all back to our Marina was not pleasurable, but doable. 

After I awoke, I opened the trash door and decide the bag needed to be closed up tight and brought outside.    In that same moment  Calan stuck his head down the companion way to announce he saw his friends Julia and Nikolai  coming up in their dinghy.

Julia and Nikolai attend the same school as the boys in Portsmouth, RI and 2 days prior serindipidously saw their family on the beach and stopped to chat!   Their mom Maureen mentioned that the kids were going around collecting trash from boats and it kept them busy for hours.  I was impressed to say the least and thought what an industrious duo!

Well, I had not even gotten the trash bag up to the cockpit when Calan announced they were doing 'trash pickup'.  Huh!?
Could the universe have provided better timing....?  I think not.    If I slept in, or they had never made it to the outskirts of the anchorage...this coming together of energies never would have happened.  How fortuitous.

Needless to say, we gave the diligent  workers a break by inviting them in for the "Calan Tour" of Nemetona and they invited him to be crew on their dinghy excursion.

Happy Day on our Sacred Space.

The Equation

As I sit here anchored at the Salt Pond on Block Island 1 month from departure, under the Star Filled Sky I ponder what lies ahead.

What does lie ahead? 
More stars, more thoughts, hard work, moments, memories created -  I think of that, but also what brought us here, what brought ME here.  A Jersey Girl sitting on a beautiful 47 foot Beneteau beauty under a star clustered sky.  Stars, like the ocean, showing all the depth and beauty nature can muster.

Here because of a dream started and inspired by the Conway Sailors  (our close friends), the knowledge of sailing known to my husband (who grew up in New Zealand and sailed for the first time with his dad at the age of 8) and me.  Me,  what do I bring to the equation besides this blog?

Hopefully more than just homeschooling teacher, more than wife, more than friend....quite possibly and hopefully bringing my open heart to a new place, a new experience. 

Then, affording those around me a glance of honesty and humbled awereness of the beauty and pull of the universe.
The opportunity to draw in that awareness and decipher it the best Lana Rae way I know how - and share it with those who may not be able to see what I see.  To share it with those I love.

A new land, a new sea, a new opportunity to be organic me. 

Quite possibly - that IS what I offer during this journey.  My part of the equation.

2 Months until we depart our home waters

August 5th, 2015

Most people we know near Newport Rhode Island think we have left already.  Stange that!
Yes, we have left our house and are living on the boat but we are still here.
Sussing out the boat particulars prior to our Big Adventure.

Two months from today we disembark.   October 5th

We head down toward Mystic, CT, then onto Port Jeff, Long Island
Onto NYC and seeing the Statue of Liberty.

Then southward to Cape May, NJ
Then possibly Rock Hall, MD and Baltimore
Then Annappolis before heading to Hampton VA for the Salty Dog Rally.

Super excited to think this will be our reality very soon....but first boat projects!

Some include Toilet Tanks and Macerators, another is Algebra Class and today was more polishing and waxing.....

  

What a difference a day can make

.  

My last post, I admit, was swimming in lost thoughts and unease.

Well what a difference a day or two can make.

Diving deep, I realized my state of mixed feelings was rooted in much, much more than boat living distress and change of living ideals - but had more to do with other thoughts that have been consuming my soul quietly for a while now.  

And the simplicity the boat represented, gave way to the flood gates of pent up emotions I have not dealt with while in the mad- scramble to get everything done to make the shift to the boat.

So I write this post with new energy, a great outlook and gratitude in my heart to my close friends who listened to me unravel a 'kinked necklace of thoughts' from my soul.   

I tend to pride myself on the ability to step outside myself and view my inner clashes with a neutral perspective and grace, usually gaining traction on my own and moving forward.

The lack of being able to do this was a major hang up in moving past my consuming thoughts.  

So in light of the inability to self calm and figure out, I shifted from my normal resolution process and shared my woes - and those open hearts who listened gave me the perspective I was lacking.  

I am so grateful.

In receiving all their perspectives, advice and of course ruminating resolutions...I came away yesterday morning with a great sense of being loved, not just by myself but by others who I may not have realized cared so much.  In a days time, with the help of the positive winds of change my friends and husband bestowed on me, I was able to sail away from the shore of distressing thoughts.  

With this new found presence and freedom of thought, I jumped right into one of my boat chores. Unearthing ALL food products that were shoved in various storage areas (which was dumped on the boat last month in order to get out of the house for rental) and then organizing and finding which compartments made sense to hold our provisions.

Our friend is a professional organizer who has imparted on me amazing thoughts about how to make this 47 foot boat sing with organization!  And by classifying the food in different ways I have found a system that is going to work fantastically for our family.

The usual is spices together, vitamins together, dry snack items...but other things like liquid/glass items stored together (yes, you can think cocktails! along with salsa, oils, dressings), all dinner items (canned goods, starches) together, lunch items (the kids can make themselves) together, then opened items not yet finished (Cereals, chips etc) together, all baking needs in one area.   It feels right but I have no problem being fluid with these designations - for this live-aboard status has only just begun.

Quite possibly digging into what I call the "treasure chest" for dinner items every night - may just drive me batty.  The treasure chest is the area under the salon couch, which is covered by big cushions and a lid.   It is also deep and can hold a lot of items.  I have heard this becomes a pain in the butt over time having to move everything to get to it.  So I have given it the positive title of Treasure Chest....in hopes it keeps at bay any swearing that may arise from the constant maneuvering that will take place every meal time!  (I'll keep you posted!)

  

So we have checked one off the list of to-do boat chores...this brings feelings of  accomplishment.  By checking off a task (even just one) it frees up the mind and helps us get on with the next things in life.  Just like releasing old thoughts that hold us back mentally.  

There are moments where we need to decide..
it's just time to sail on.

Believe Change is good...

How do you feel about CHANGE??

We are now in the CHANGE of thought from Land-livers to Live-Aboards. 

And to be honest, I did not think about the 'plan' for my mental state once we moved out of the house.  Maybe to my chagrin.

Heck, we were so busy packing, discarding, moving, purging and cleaning the house just to hand the keys to our tenants Friday I had not thought much about where my mind would wander the week or so after that transition. 

This transition I am finding harder than I ever imagined.  Maybe its this singular boat focus - which was birthed out of extreme, multi-tasking thinking - that has got me tilted.  

Maybe I have just not caught up with my reality yet.

No pool to clean, No lawn to mow, No weeds to pick.

I need to haul my laundry in a dock cart in order to clean it.

Friends and acquaintances thinking we have already departed, when in reality we are sitting at our Marina in town until October.   

My house comes with me when we sail.

etc....

Not sure the exact root of my mixed feelings - all I know is my friend Christine said today...

"I should give myself a break"

And with all this Change, I think her wisdom shall be heeded.

Just Be in the Present Moment,

for I Believe Change is Good.

Selflesh

The Urban dictionary escription of Selflish
selflish
To do something selfless for selfish reasons.
John is so selflish, the only reason he helps out at the soup kitchen is because he wants to get in Jane's pants.

So I think maybe the opposite is
SELFLESH
Should be
To do something selfish for selfless reasons.

Watermaker Install

Watermaker Review
SV/ Nemetona
Beneteau 473

Sommes Harbour, Maine, 2014

Internet research and talking with friends in 2014 lead me to Rich Boren and Charlie Hammel at Cruise RO Water and Technautics. I was looking for a watermaker to use on our boat during a year long trip that would take my family and I from Portsmouth RI as far south as Grenada and back. 

A close friend of mine had just completed the same trip with his family and they felt the watermaker was a pretty nice piece to have. Unfortunately for him, he did not have anywhere near the prep time I had to pull his trip together and ended up purchasing his watermaker a month before he was due to leave. Sadly he had a really rough experience with another company, and long story short he received the watermaker the day before they left for the BVI’s. Three frustrating months later he had it up and running. After hearing his tales of woe, I was hell bent on getting mine well ahead of time and having the time to get comfortable with it before heading South. 

Around November of 2014 I purchased my SMS 30 from Rich and Charlie. Right from the get go these guys were a pleasure to deal with. Rich walked me through the various options until I was completely comfortable with what I was purchasing.

We have the luxury of an 8kw Westerbeke Genset onboard, and this gave us plenty of power to run the SM30 unit. I toyed with the idea of going to the larger unit, but Rich convinced me that the 30 would be just fine….and obviously it was cheaper also…bonus!!! 

Its 1 hp high pressure motor only draws 9.3 amps, so there was the potential to run it without the generator, thru the inverter with the engine running should something go amiss with the generator.
I diligently read the manual over the winter months and planned out my installation. The nice part about this system is that it is completely modular and you have the ability to install some of the larger parts in different places to optimize the use of space…which always seems hard to come by on a cruising boat. 

With my initial plan in place, I set about prefabbing some backing boards to mount the boost pump and pre-filters. I decided that I would place these in the AFT STB Lazarette tucked up under the cockpit coaming, hopefully out of harm’s way.

Pre-filters and boost pump in AFT STB Lazarette

Viewed from centerline looking into the aft lazarette. Prefilters and boost pump tucked up under outboard coaming.

Pre-filters and boost pump mounted on a board bonded to the hull in the AFT STB Lazarette

Boost pump

I originally planned on going without the remote valving and cleaning assembly pictured on the right. In fact, I purchased the system without it. The more I thought about it, the less I wanted to crawl into the back lazarette every time I wanted to do a freshwater flush. I bit the bullet and purchased the remote panel and mounted it right next to the main control panel. I don’t regret it for a moment. It’s very nice to have all the controls at my fingertips. 

I was able to mount these on the bunk front in the AFT STB Cabin. So far it’s turned out to be a pretty good spot.

Floorboards removed showing the dedicated thru-hull I fitted this winter. To my left is the galley and to my right is the cockpit stairs. Immediately in front of the bunk front is the pump for the air conditioning.

Membranes mounted on back wall. (note: ¼” freshwater line not connected to membrane in this shot) Mattress and bunk boards removed.  This is in behind the freshwater tank. 

The prefilters and boost pump are mounted in the AFT STB Lazarette behind this wall. I was able to snake all the lines thru along with other hoses. 

This is a picture of the whipline used for pickling. Centerline and the HP pump is just to the right of this picture.

HP pump mounted behind hot water heater in the space where a battery use to be positioned.

HP pump with breather cap installed

I have to say the manual for this unit was really outstanding. I was able to wire the AC for the HP pump without too much difficulty. The hardest part was swapping out the breaker and actually getting the wires onto the breaker. As you can see below, everything is pretty jammed on there. The wiring for the 12vdc boost pump was very straight forward.

Wiring into AC panel for HP pump….good time…not

I decided to route my sample line from the remote panel up to just below the galley sink. I simply open the lower cabinet door and put the coil into the sink.




I was able to route the output water directly into the end of my freshwater manifold. I fitted a small and cheap digital meter into the line so I can double-check how much water I have made during any given session.



During the initial startup I discovered a few small leaks and was able to remedy these relatively quickly after a conversation with Charlie Hammel.

We made our first real water on July 3rd in Newport harbor.

I can’t thank the guys at Cruise RO water enough. Their customer service is bar none, the best I have come across. They really are dedicated to making sure the customer is taken care of and 100% happy. I am really glad I purchased my watermaker significantly ahead of time. This allowed me to think very carefully about where I wanted all the components before launching into it. Every time I use it, I am getting more and more comfortable with its operation. The manual is very well written and walks through everything step by step.

I am looking forward to using the system this summer in a limited capacity before we depart for the Caribbean in the fall. Our current plans have using leaving Rhode Island in late September and heading south before joining the “Salty Dawg Rally” departing from Norfolk VA for the BVI’s at the beginning of November.

We have a blog and FB page and you are welcome to follow along our family of four on
armitagesailors.blogspot.com

Or our facebook page

 https://www.facebook.com/Armitagesailors?fref=ts

Best Regards,

David, Lana, Liam and Calan Armitage

http://www.cruiserowaterandpower.com/Home_Page.html

Ready for my close up...

Quantum doing their photo shoot on Nemetona for their marketing campaign.  

Getting some good angles...with Manuel

Johnny at the helm.  Corey taking stills.

Hansondodge Creative doing the Marketing 

Dan and Ben working with Corey to get the right shots.

Dave and Randy hanging out

Shots from the power boat

Nathan our camera man on Liquid Asset getting the shots for Quantum.

Cheers Block Island

Since the weather models changed so much during the week, our departure came upon us quickly.

We left Friday and motored past Newport with the end of the tide.  Nicely done.

Half way out, we decided to pull out the main to find it bunched up.  In and out we pulled the lines, banjo'd them, and finally looking at Dave's face (I the novice sailor) knew THIS WAS NOT GOOD.  And then he mouthed to me as such (to keep the kids from freaking out).

Then he informed me he needed to go up the mast!  It has been a long road for me to gain his confidence and knowledge of getting him up and down the mast.  And boy am I happy he let me practice this spring.    Here we are between Newport and Block Island hoisting Dave up the mast! 

Thank goodness it was not very windy.  But a small rain squall did halt our efforts.  So up and down twice....and Happy to say we were able to furl it back in.  

The episode sure took a few confidence points away with the whole 'in mast furler'.  Fingers crossed all will run smooth in the years to come, we just may be a bit more astute watching it furl in each time.

We motored the rest of the way and the universe heard my request.....

"There will be an orange mooring ball available to us"!

Not just one, but we had our pick.  So we decided on a pretty safe one next to Madame Geneva.  Of which they had 3 kids aboard!  What luck, even if only for a few days before they headed to Maine on their summer long journey.  Fair Winds new friends, we will catch your blog www.fringesquirrel.com

It was nice to get here early and get settled.  And even better coming back to this familiar place.  A place 19 years ago during the same Block Island race week Dave asked me to join him while he sailed with the Conway crew of High Noon.  

It may have just sealed the deal for us that week, for a year later we honeymooned here during the same Race week.

Although we have been back to BI many times in between....it was Chris snd Erica Conway who were a vital component in our doing this adventure!

I guess we owe a tribute to this quaint little Island.

Cheers Block Island! 

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.