The Icy Grip of Winter

     After speaking with the marina by telephone on Friday, Sharon and I drove down to the marina today to rescue the boat from ol' man winter.  Although Maryland's Eastern Shore had received 46" of snow between the 2 blizzards that hit the Mid-Atlantic in the last week, the boat actually faired very well.  Except for the 3' snow drift on the port side (see photo), there was not that much snow on the boat.

 

     The boat did suffer one casualty, the flybridge cover experienced catastrophic failure at the seams and had to be dispatched to the local dumpster.  That will seal the deal on a bimini for the flybridge sooner than later.

The photo below depicts the talents of Canadian Geese and their ability to walk on water.

     The tides come and go, rise and fall, but the ice remains.

Big Blue Skies

      The blizzard of 2010 has ended and the blue skies are upon us.  With 14" of snow on Saturday and 16"  of snow on Tuesday/Wednesday we are max'd out for places to pile it up.  Fortunately, we did not get the strong winds that were predicted.  Sharon and I have plans to go to the boat on Saturday.  I haven't talked to the marina yet, but to the best of my calculations they have received 40"+ of snow from the last 2 storms.  More shoveling to do.  Yes, I still love snow.

Well Deserved Break

 

     We started shoveling snow when the driveway had about 4 inches of snow laying on it.  We started at the top  of the driveway because they had just plowed the road and the entrance to our driveway was plowed shut.  3 hours later when we got to the garage the snow measured 9 inches deep.  In the above photo, Sharon is taking a well deserved rest.  The red stripe in the photo on the left is Grant's VW Jetta.  You can also see how heavy the snow was falling.  

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

     We just received 14 inches of snow this past weekend and are expecting another plowable (6"-14") snow event on Tuesday into Wednesday.  Bob is very happy to have our last winter in Pennsylvania filled with so much snow.  The photo shows Sharon standing in front of the garage door with a snow drift in front of her.

T-Minus 9 and Counting

     Of all the government programs available to make your life miserable, applying for new passports was quite painless, although we did suffer from the lighter wallet syndrome.  We had filled out the passport application online and then printed the application to expedite the process at the post office.  When we arrived at the post office, the only person ahead of us was filling out his passport application at the counter instead of using the table the post office had set up just for this purpose.  So, after a short time, this "gentleman" got the message and vacated the counter.  We were quickly attended to by a pleasant postal worker who reviewed the applications and birth documentation.  Unlike Sharon who has one birth certificate, I have a Department of State Birth Certificate, a Department of Justice Birth Certificate, 2 Documents for a Child Born Overseas to American Parents, a Birth Certificate from the U.S. Military Hospital and a Birth Certificate from Germany.  Yep, I was a Army Brat born in Munich, Germany and proud of it.  So I know who I am.  I got the documentation to prove it!.  Moving along, when the postal worker asked us why we did not answer the question about our immediate travel plans (country and dates of travel), we informed her of our plans to be full time cruisers.  She had difficulty comprehending the idea of living onboard a boat fulltime . So we tried to explain that we don't have firm travel plans, but that we did know that at some point we were going to leave the USA and travel by our boat to another country.  We just didn't know where or when.  You know, carried by the winds as if we have a sailboat.  We were instructed to write "None at this time"  in the answer block for travel plans.  So she took our pictures, made us affirm the application was true and that the picture she just took was in fact a good likeness of ourselves and sent us on our way. Hopefully, if Washington DC keeps its end of the bargain, we will have our passbooks and passcards in 4-6 weeks.

     As I discussed earlier, the galley is of the highest priority,  So we decided we needed a 23 bottle spice rack.  Where do you find a 23 bottle spice rack - you'll find it in your wood shop in the basement.  First we located 6.25 ounce spice bottles and then we located some No. 1 select lumber and one 4' prefabricate decorative wooden rail. A little table saw magic, some Aged Varnish stain and you have one custom spice rack.  The Aged Varnish stain is a very good match to the boat teak interior at a fraction of the cost of the real McCoy.
     In another preparation for our departure, I visited my dentist for one final checkup and due to Federal Law I am prohibited from discussing the outcome with anyone but myself!  Although I can say I have to go back.  Sharon has been lollygagging with scheduling her dental appointment. 

Flashback (More Than Just Lakes)

When kayaking in the Adirondacks, it's very easy to get into a routine of paddling just on the lakes.  However, there are many opportunities to paddle on rivers.  The photo above is of the Oswegatchie River.  I know what some of you may be thinking, but by New York standards, this is a river.  Anyway, the Oswegatchie Rivers meanders around, covering a lot of territory.  Distance covered by kayak versus distance as the crow flies varies greatly.  The river averages about 16 feet in width with vegetation on the banks that rise up 6 - 8 feet in height to create a walled-in effect.  After 2 weeks of paddling mainly on lakes and one or two " open rivers" that were of  a more conventional appearance, this paddle on the Oswegatchie was quite a departure from the norm. Very unique experience and highly recommended!

Top Ten Things I Love About Retirement

Borrowing from talk show host David Letterman - here is the official list of the top ten things I love about retirement - in reverse order, of course:

10.  No more driving in traffic jams.
9.  No more dealing with jerks in the workplace.
8.  No more strategic planning meetings.
7.  No more employee performance reviews.
6.  No more coming in Monday morning and having to answer politely to the same old tired question - how  was your weekend..........It was fine
5.  No more rushing out the door to get to work on time.
4.  No more having to answer the phone and speak to clients.
3.  No more dropping what I'm doing because the boss didn't plan ahead.
2.  No more endless meetings.

And the number 1 thing I love about retirement  -

Walking our dog Sky in the daylight!

T-Minus 10 and Counting

      Okay, the holidays are behind us.  It's time to get very serious about our transition work.  3 months have gone by since we started the countdown.  Where did the time go?  The time frame from Thanksgiving to Christmas is always at best just a blur because of all  the events, shopping and the excitement related to the holidays.

     The weather during December was gray and damp, although we did have 2 1/2 nice snow events.  So the weather presented an excellent opportunity to finish our customization of RecipeMaster. We did manage to get our recipes entered and have pulled a few from the internet as well.  One special acknowledgment -we  did receive the recipe for the "Abyssinia Special".  Thank you Kim and Eric. This recipe encourages us to make the run to Alaska, sooner rather than later. That's where the freshest ingredients (Halibut, Dungeness Crab) can be found.
     We did a backup of all our photos to CD's in addition to a backup on the external hard drive.  The CD's will go into storage and the external hard drive will be used on the boat.  All the photos and slides we had from the 35mm days were scanned by Sharon back in September.  Our wedding video, Grant's Baptism  video and videos from the boys early Christmas's have been transferred from VHS to DVD and copies were also made for the archives. Can you believe we still had videos on VHS, a little ancient, don't you think?

     Santa Claus helped equip the galley with some new utensils,  pans  and some collapsible items such as a colander and a dish rack.  The collapsible items will definitely help with the limited storage space onboard a boat.  Outfitting the galley is of the highest priority!
     

Frigid Sunrise

     We arrived at the boat on Monday afternoon only to be welcomed by very cold and "windy" conditions.  Fear not, we have a diesel fired furnace on the boat!  So, we opened up the boat, ran a shoreline connection, threw a few switches and hunkered down for the best mother nature could throw at us.  Monday night was cold but uneventful.  It wasn't until Tuesday that the fury was unleashed with sustained class 5 winds on the Beaufort Scale, which are described as a "Fresh  Breeze" at 18 -24 MPH.  Let's not forget the wind chill factor.  But then it gets better,.  The winds were to build into the afternoon and gusting to class 8 "Fresh Gale" at 39 - 46 MPH.  When I say the boat shook, it shook, which is not a pleasant feeling considering the boat is supported by anemic boat stands on each side. So the winds settled down last night and we arose to a beautiful sunrise this morning, 18 degrees and no wind.  Cool enough to ice over the water in the marina. Just in case you are wondering, the boat's plumbing system is winterized and the marina bathrooms are 100 yards away!  Pictured below is Sharon enjoying the frigid sunrise at 7 am today.

Better Safe than Sorry

It occurs to me that the saddest thing I have ever heard can be expressed in the concept - better safe than sorry.  What follows is my editorial debunking that popular notion.   If, when looking back on my life, I were to have lived safely, I am sure that I would have lots of regrets.   The future is not for the faint of heart.  Yet most people lead lives of  quiet desperation.  Life is not about being safe.  It is about taking risks.  It is about driving through a snowstorm to be with the ones you love on Christmas.   It is about selling your possessions and taking off in a boat for lands unknown.  Perhaps I have more wanderlust than the average person.  But being average is a concept that is as deadly as being safe.   For those of you who want nothing more than to be safe, I say - bah humbug.  Live a little and have an adventure worth remembering.  Better ventured than safe!

Eagle Scout!

You will have to bear with us while we brag about our youngest son, Grant.  On Sunday, December 13, 2009, Grant passed the final challenge of Boy Scouts, the Eagle Scout Board of Review.  In addition to being  a Certified Emergency Medical Technician (EMT-B), a Volunteer Firefighter,  and Outstanding High School Student, Grant can now add Eagle Scout to his list of accomplishments.  And he is just 18 years of age. Grant's next planned challenge is college, where he would like to major in Applied Networking & Systems Administration at Rochester Institute of Technology (NY).

Flashback ( That's not Bullwinkle! )

     (Unfortunately, we do not have photographs to document this encounter, but nonetheless, it is quite a memory that we both can still visualize to this day).
     Sharon and I were kayaking on Osgood Pond in the Adirondacks.  It was a great day for a paddle and a great location. Our day trip took us north on Osgood Pond and  the Upper Osgood River.   About 2 miles upstream from the pond there is a designated campsite, where we stopped for a late lunch.  The campsite was on top of a small hill that provided an overlook of the river and the wetlands on the opposite side of the river.  After lunch, Sharon and I decided to head back to Osgood Lake, as we had a 1 hour drive back to our campsite on Floodwood Road.  Don't ask me why, but when we kayak on rivers and creeks I will take the lead and Sharon will bring up the rear.  On this particular occasion, Sharon took the lead.  As we proceeded downstream we came to a series of bends in the river.  I could see Sharon just ahead of me, but I could not see around the bend.  Then with very low and calm voice I heard Sharon exclaim "Bob, your not going to believe this".  I could see Sharon was back paddling very quietly but I could not see why.  Then as I rounded the bend, I saw it, a cow moose standing  in the middle of the stream , 25 feet from Sharon, obstructing our travel.  As I started to backpaddle, I quickly scanned all around us looking for a calf, and was relieved not to see one.  We managed to quietly backpaddle to hold our position without scaring the moose. However, the moose did get nervous, turned, walked away from us, then it went up onto the river bank and disappeared into the forest.  Wow, our first encounter with a moose, up close and personal!

     We did not get to share this experience with anyone until a few days later when we were heading home to Pennsylvania.  We stopped at the kayak shop where we had purchased our kayaks the previous year and were swapping stories with the clerk.  When we told her of the moose encounter, she said she was envious as she had been living and paddling  in the Adirondacks for 20 years and never saw a moose.  We left the Adirondacks that year feeling that the day trip with the moose encounter was something very special.

        

Cold Turkey

     I wish that I was writing about left over turkey from Thanksgiving, but that's not the case.  I was abruptly hit with a ton of bricks this morning when I looked at the calender.   It has been 2 1/2 weeks since the boat was hauled, and I am already suffering from withdrawal. I know that I have written about the time leading  to our departure  in November 2010 as being a very short time, and there are so much preparations to do. This is a case of the other side of the coin.  Sharon told me a few days ago that she had to stop reading other blogs about full time cruisers.  Now I understand what she meant.  Even though the boat is on the hard, we will be going down to the boat for a few days between Christmas and New Year for a boat fix.   

T-Minus 11 and Counting

     November was not a good month for our preparations towards being full time cruisers.  I was very involved in winterizing the boat and having the boat hauled.  Sharon offered a couple of days to help with winterizing, which I gladly accepted.  Winterizing a boat is very labor intensive, and if you pay someone to do it, very expensive.
     There was talk between us about different transition projects, but we never actually got to work on any of them.  The cooking recipe database projects continues with no completion date etched in stone.  One of our original plans was to have a yard sale late next spring to liquidate most of those possessions that won't be needed (or fit) on a boat, like a 50" big screen TV.   While we were on the boat for winterization, in October, we discussed another idea to start offering some of the items on eBay or CraigsList to expedite "disposal".
     On another note, something worth celebrating, Sharon decided to retire 6 months early.  Her retirement was effective the 20th of November.  It was back in October she decided to do this and I fully support her decision.  Just another step forward in our quest to become full time cruisers and start our adventure.