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Subject: Group inactivity; was Re:[world-cruising] Re: Other Recommended Yahoo Groups
From: vjhook (vjhook@XXX.XXX)
Date: Tue Jun 17 2003 - 16:29:16 EDT
Last month my family went on our annual sailing "vacation" (Ha!).
On Tigerhawk (a Hunter 30) there was:
My husband Charlie
Me, the mom,
our 5-yr-old,
our 2.5 yr old,
our 7-month old
our 17-yr-old FES (from Finland)
On Bay Prince (a Pearson 35) there was:
Our friend John
our 14-yr old nephew
our 16-yr old nephew
their 16-yr-old friend
We set sail from Annapolis MD early Sunday morning. It was raining.
Of course. I'd been up all night the night before, fixing food (tuna
sald, curried chicken salad, other pasta salads) and packaging up the
perishables and non-perishables and diapers and sippy cups and toys
and books and sunscreen and lifejackets and trying to figure out what
kind of clothing to bring along. It had been an unseasonably chilly
May. Were we due for a heat wave? More cold days? More RAIN? I had to
be prepared for anything. So into the duffel bags went everything
from bikinis to long underwear. And, by the time we would be home
again, EVERYTHING would have been worn. Several times over.
I packed every cooler we owned full of food and sent it with the
first wave of supplies. I'd have to trust that the boys knew how to
divy up things between the two boats. (I'd bought two of just about
everything at the grocery store Saturday - except for ONE package of
my personal favorite cookies. You can guess where THEY ended up,
though. Sigh. :-) I did get ONE that week! :-D
When I arrived at the boat, with the little girls (carried one by
one, still sleeping, from dock to deck like a bucket brigade in the
early light of dawn), the "down below" was a WRECK! duffels and
groceries and tools and other dunnage every which way. The boys,
under John's direction, had been performing a variety of maintenance
procedures on both boats, which were now in various stages of
completion.
It would remain in a general state of chaos for the next few days, as
I gradually fought a battle against the clutter, and we ate our way
through the food supplies.
My father wasn't surprised at the living conditions when we showed up
at Solomon's Island that first evening to have dinner with him and my
mother - The first day of a ship's tour was the messiest, he said. It
was true when he was afloat with the Navy, it was true for our little
vessel as well. In time, everything would get stowed properly.
I had plenty of time down below - although time to stow things was
scarce. The rain and the chilly weather kept me and the girls
belowdecks the majority of the week - NOT ideal, but we managed. We
read books, we played pat-a-cake with the baby, colored with crayons,
played "Go Fish!", sang silly kids songs, made up imaginary playmates
and spent a lot of time snuggling together in the V-berth, listening
to the Chesapeake Bay slosh gently along the hull.
And I'd make coffee - had to learn how to use the new alcohol stove,
not pressurized - it wasn't difficult. I'd pass up warm cups through
the companionway to the damp person at the helm, either my husband or
one of "the boys" - there were four of them, they alternated crewing
on each boat. I made soup. They needed it. I made a lot of herbal
tea.
Oh, and I almost forgot my other prime occupation - wiping noses. We
all were coming down with nasty sinus infections.
--- I'll continue this later, gotta run! ---
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