Jessica – Page 36 – Matt & Jessica's Sailing Page

The Little Van That Couldn’t

Friday October 2, 2015

Our group scene here around the marina has been pretty bland lately. Â They say it should be getting busier any time now, but we’re still in that slow spot where you won’t see a new face for a week or more at a time. Â While we kind of like how we mostly have the place to ourselves right now it also doesn’t help our socialÂ calendar that the only people we have to talk to are those who work at the marina and sometimes our friend Ellen when we can wrangle her off her boat.

That is why I was so incredibly excited when our friends Bo and Allison wrote stating they were coming to check on their boat in Stuart for a few days and would love to get together. Â Even better…it would be on their boat. Â Which is in the water with nice breezes rolling through and not a dusty work yard which we’re always reminded is 10Â° hotter than all of the surrounding towns. There was pizza and beer promised and even a pretty sunset over the water. Â Yes, I was looking forward to this night.

Since we were going to be out and about anyway we left a few hours early to be able to fit a few errands into the day. Â Things like stopping at Merritt Marine Supply for a crap ton of epoxy resin and hardener (we go through that stuff like water if you can’t tell); Harbor Freight (we also go through gloves like water); and an intended stop at Home Depot just before the marina to pick up another sheet of foam insulation for our fridge. Â We were sure our trusty Kia Sedona would get us safely to all of our locations. Â She’s been doing a good job of it since we picked her up for the low low price if $1,000 back in May.

So I like to blame what happened next on Matt. Â Whenever we tell people about our sweet ride with dents in it’s side, no AC, and about three door handles missing (including mine from the inside) he always just laughs and says “Sure we could have gone with a slightly more expensive and more reliable van, but the great thing about this one is it was so cheap that if it ever breaks down on the side of the road we can just sign the title and leave it there. It probably wouldn’t even be worth the money to fix it.” Â Well, our van felt like testing him out on that day.

As we were heading north on I-95, going from West Palm Beach to Stuart, a light that I hadn’t remembered seeing before went off on my dash. Â It’s not unusual for lights to be showing there. Â For some reason my Kia feels the need to remind me any time I have the auto-cruise button on. Â There’s also been a check engine light on since we bought the vehicle, but the previous owner assured us to ‘Not worry, it’s not for anything big’. There had been plans to get it to an Auto Zone once upon a time to have that light diagnosed, but we’d always been to ashamed of the messy state of our van to let anyone see it. Â However…the light that came on this afternoon was new. Â Something red and having to do with our battery and leaving me questioning if I should pull over on the side of the expressway right then and there.

As Matt frantically leafed through our manual and I kept us going at extremely slow speeds in the right hand lane, we realized that the next exit happened to be the one we needed but it was still five miles away. Â I just kept slowly plugging along until we departed the expressway for familiar grounds and I convinced Matt we should pull off into a Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot to further diagnose the problem. Â By the time we pulled up, a dark cloud that had literally been looming over us for the past 20 minutes finally opened up and sent a torrential downpour our way. I still wasn’t too worried about the van at that point so I saw it as a perfect excuse to run inside and enjoy a pumpkin spice iced coffee while we Googled the light further on our tablet.

My fall flavored bliss was quickly cut short when we found out that the light meant there was an issue with the charging system, most likely our alternator. Â This also meant that we were still 20 miles from home and with no means to charge our battery along the way. Â Not only was my perfect night of pizza, beer, and sunsets thrown out the window (and run over by my crappy Kia about 30 times), but it meant that we may not even be able to make it back to the marina under our own juice and could possibly have to call a tow truck to get us the rest of the way.

Once the rain eased up we jumped back in the van (since using windshield wipers was now a luxury that I didn’t have the battery power for), and Matt gave me instructions on what to do if the engine cut out on me along the way. Â How it would switch to power steering and breaks and I might have to manhandle it to the side of the road. Â I looked at my little noodle arms and then back at him as if to question ‘Then why the hell did you put me behind the wheel?”, but we were already on our way and there was no stopping now. Â Not if we wanted to get the van started again. Â Luckily it never came down to it and we pulled in next to our boat before I had to test my upper body strength.

The next morning we went back to look at our problem, and with the help of our volt meter did realize that there was in fact no power coming in and we would need to replace the alternator. Â 4 days later we had a brand new one shipped to us at the marina (for only $60) and Matt was able to spend hours and hours under the hot sun, taking apart the van and putting it back together. Â If he could say one thing to Kia I’m sure it would be that they suck at putting their vehicles together. Â It’s like the built everything around the engine because it’s almost impossible to be able to find room to remove any screws and bolts. Â Even I had a hard time getting in there with my tiny hands.

Eventually we did get the new alternator in and while we were at it, also installed the AC compressor which we’ve been carrying around since May. Â Yes, air conditioning! Â Just in time for fall!

* Also, a big thank you to Bo and Allison who decided to come to us while we were stranded and even brought pizza and beer with them! Â As well as a few other essentials like milk, cat litter, and pumpkin spice coffee creamer.

Throwback Thursday: A Slice of Culture

Now that weâ€™re sitting in Indiantown Marina and itâ€™s obvious that weâ€™re going to be here for quite a long time while we fix up Daze Off to sail, I donâ€™t want to bore you with stories that areÂ onlyÂ related to boat work (but donâ€™t worry, theyâ€™re still coming). Â I know thatâ€™s what some of you crave, but if youâ€™re like me, you also need a little fun in there. Â A little travel and a little adventure.

So for the foreseeable future while we are doing nothing much more than boat work I will be adding a Throwback Thursday post in every week as well. Â Cataloging our trip so far, giving you that needed sense of travel and adventure, and for those of you that havenâ€™t started with us from the beginning, catch you up on some of the most important or memorable parts of our travels.

After leaving Peru for our next backpacking stop of Colombia, we spent our time in two of it’s major cities before having to fly back to Guatemala where Serendipity was awaiting. Â There was still plenty to keep our plates full though. Â From our 54 hour bus ride between Colombia and Peru where we took on armed guards to protects us against gurillas that had robbed the two buses ahead of us, to a drunken night wandering the streets of Bogota while meeting up with one of our backpacking friends from Peru. Â We enjoyed Botota for a few days although Matt had come down with terrible food poisoning that left him sick in our hostel for 3 days straight.

After Bogota we bused it to the town of Medeillin, known for being the city of eternal summer and also fostering ex-drug lord Pablo Escobar. Â We tried to take in as many of the sights as possible by riding the cable cars high above the town and visiting the botanical gardens and checking out the Botero Sculpture Park in the heart of town. Â It seems like our backpacking adventure through South America passed us by way to fast, but we still have a million memories from our time there. Â Plus if given the chance, I know we’d be back in a heartbeat.

You can find the original post here.

Wednesday September 18, 2013

It was kind of nice having a forced hiatusÂ from backpacking for just a few days. A little time away from the past few weeks of sightseeing, activities, and even the drinking. But after 48 hours of watching reruns of Friends and The Big Bang Theory (those were the only shows offered in English), we realized we needed to get out. The unsavory tablets were working well enough on Matt’s stomach that we thought we might be able to get him out of the hostel for just a few hours. The destination for the day? The historic center of Bogota.

Armed with our over-sized map once more, we stepped onto a collectivo that we were sure would take us at least close to the area we wanted to go this time, with plans to abort if necessary. ‘Ok, we need to stay on Calle 7 until we get to Carrera 13. If the bus diverts past Calle 10, we get off.’ The good thing about the streets here is they are all ascending numbers of Calles and Carreras, so you’re always relatively sure of how far away you are from something. When we did incidentally have to get off at Calle 10, we knew it was only three blocks down back to where we wanted to be on 7. No Martin Luther King Blvds to get lost on here.

My main goal for the day was soley to see the church in the large city square, but as we got off the bus the sky became overcast and a light drizzle fell on us and I didn’t know how long we’d want to be outside for. We have not had one sunny day in Bogota yet and even though we are surrounded by all the modern buildings that both of us had been slightly yearning for since we left the states, I was momentarily left yearning for the sunny beaches and good friends we left in Mancora. But ever since the salad there made Matt sick, the place gets a big black X in his book. He should have listened to me when I told him to get the ceviche…

Upon entering the square we were greeted with about a hundred rickshaws that seemed to be having some kind of protest or rally. Again, because of the language barrier, they could have been there to celebrate Larry’s 50^th birthday and I would have had no way of knowing. We tried wandering around the square for a bit while appreciating the architecture, but the rickshaw drivers also had horns they would not stop blowing. Apparently they were very excited about Larry’s 50^th. After close to 15 minutes of this we left for quieter side streets.

Even though we had the luxury of sitting around for the past two days with constant internet access, I had not done much research on the area and so we just walked up and down each street unsure of what we would find. The rain was continuing on and off, and during one rainy session we ducked into an art museum. The art here was focusing mostly on a Colombian artist, Botero, who I had not been familiar with but whom Matt told me was very famous. I guess he had a thing for drawing and painting very voluptuous people. Room after room there were paintings and sketches in this style, and a large focus was on nude women at the beach or in bed, or sometimes, even in the kitchen. I think Sir Mix-a-Lot would have been very impressed.

There were prints from other famous artists as well, and some of our time was also spent enjoying the works of Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, and Chagall. Which are always nice to admire because, as Julia Robert’s character says in Notting Hill, â€œHappiness isn’t happiness without a violin playing goatâ€.

Â We tried our hands at one more museum as well, one on the history of Colombia and Bogota, but everything was in Spanish. Most of it was more than my basic knowledge could piece together and soon it just became annoying trying to figure out what each item meant. I think a grand total of 15 minutes was spent in that museum. The staff may have thought that we’d gotten ourselves lost since we wandered back by the entrance so quickly, trying to point us back to where the exhibits, and us trying to motion that, no, we wanted to leave. At least I got a few cool postcards with the entrance fee. You can expect to get it in about three months Huong!

Having completed a giant circle of the area, we ended up back in the main square where most of the rickshaw drivers had finally departed. And I was hoping to get back there in time for cake….

Taking one more turn down a side street that would point us in the direction of our hostel, even though there was no way we would be walking the 60 blocks back, we knew it was our last day in Bogota and wanted to see as much as we could. The rain had other plans for us though. At this point we were wet, we were cold, and we were hungry. That is exactly when we saw the golden arches of McDonald’s shine down on us like a beacon. And I was finally able to get my Mc Whopper. I mean, Big Mac.

Â They have llamas!!

Building our Refrigerator Box: Stage 1

Sunday September 27, 2015

After searching for what seems like months now for the perfect refrigerator for Daze Off, we have come to one conclusion. Â Although it would be soooo nice and sooo easy to buy a pre-made one that we just slide into place and plug in, there seems to be two definite problems with that. Â 1. Â Our hull curves in so much that any of the larger sized fridges could not fit into the space we’re looking for, and if we put it against the flat surface in the center of the boat then the depth came out much further than one would like to have remaining foot space in their galley. Â And 2. Â The ones that would fit either of those areas were too small for our taste.

To go into a little further detail, we would have preferred a pre-fab fridge with drawers, but those all fell in the category of not fitting into the space well. Â All the front open fridges we could find that did work with our hull shape and also the layout we have in mind for our galley usually fell in the 4 cu ft range. Â We had 9 on Serendipity. Â That would be cutting our cold food storage in half. Â Not that we always filled Serendipity’s fridge to the top (unless we were headed out on passage or to the Bahamas), but it became a terrible game of ‘I need what’s sitting under 8 other layers’ the times we did. Â Plus we could only imagine opening the door only to have all of the items inside topple out on us if there were any kind of motion on the ocean.

The only good solution left was to build our own.

A lot of planning went in to this (on Matt’s part, god I love him for figuring all of this out), and once we had our approximate measurements of the outside of the box it was time to head to the hardware store to buy a sheet of 1/2″ exterior plywood to begin the project.

Our first step was making cleats to add on to a few of the aluminum frames that came out on angles from the hull, allowing us to be able to have a level board sit down when we were finished. Â Once the cleats were installed we were ready to cut the bottom board but also had to take into account the frame, slicing a small section out of the plywood’s edge so we could fit the board around it.

The back wall of the box needed to be built in two pieces to allow for the curve of the hull. Â We do want to maximize the usable space in this fridge as much as possible which is why we decided not to build it straight up and leave a large gap between the box and the hull. Making sure that everything was level and that we’d be ending at 90Â° angles, we measured and cut the back two pieces, also having to make an allowance for the frame on the bottom of the two.

I had thought the sides would be much easier to cut but forgot to factor in that they needed to be pentagons to, once again, work with the curve of the hull. Â You should have seen the drawings I had in my notebook as Matt was giving me measurements to write down. Top – 23″; front side 19″, top back side – 8″, remaining – 12″. Â Eventually I had to make drawings to keep it all straight so we could remember what line connected to what when it was time to mark the lines on our plywood.

The front was by far the easiest, and once we loosely assembled it together it was nice to step back and say “Wow, look at all we were able to complete in one day”. Â Except, we were still so far from finishing. I had also forgotten that we needed to cover the metal frame that was running through our refrigerator box. Using sheets of Eurolite for this we cut two pieces that covered the top and side and also cut some sheet foam to slide under that area so that once it was closed off it wouldn’t be sucking cold air into a useless area.

That was enough to fill one whole day, but in the end it still felt like we accomplished a lot more than we have on a normal day lately. Â Day two was prepping the wood for final installation and also do all the final prep to that space before the boards were permanently placed, such as insulating and running conduit.

While I was sent outside to ‘epoxy the s#*t’ out of the boards, as Matt put it, he was inside working on more spray foam insulation. It turns out the previous owners of our boat once again had it all wrong. Â Where you’re supposed to have insulation from the overhead leading to the waterline, they instead had bare metal all the way down to the waterline and then decided to insulate from there to the bilge. Â Oh that’s right. Â They needed a place to hide their drugs.

So Matt went through and properly insulated the rest of the hull and made a huge mess in the process when he tried to add a little extra to the existing insulation to the overhead. Â But it was also kind of nice knowing that I’m not the only one who makes big mistakes on this project of a boat. Â So yeah, a lot of my free time is now going to be spent scraping off bubbles of foam from the walls, cabinets, floors, and even the plexi hatch.

A few days later once the plywood had two coats of epoxy we were ready to screw all the boards in place and fill any gaps. Â Working with my new best friend, epoxy, we added some colliodal silica to make a nice thick paste which we then ran along all the cracks and made sure they were thoroughly filled. Â This should make sure the frame of the box will be completely water tight. Â A very good thing when condensation is a high probability.

So there you have it for stage one of building our own refrigerator box. Â Stay tuned for the next step where we get to insulate!

Throwback Thursday: Everybody’s Gone Surfin’. Surfin’ P-E-R-U

I happen to be having a love affair at the moment and it’s called Peru. Â I just can not get enough of it. Â Which is why you happen to be getting 2 Throwback Thursdays back to back. Â There’s just so much we did in this one ~~little~~ big country that I’d feel ashamed of myself for leaving any of it out.

A quick side note on if you’re ever questioning where to take a 3-4 week vacation and get the biggest bang for your buck? Â Peru. Â Hands down, no questions asked. Â This is one of the most diverse countries we’ve ever seen. Â It Has.It.All. Â History, culture, mountains, deserts, and sea sides. Â Which is exactly where we found ourselves during our last stop in Peru. Â A beautiful little ocean-side town called Mancora. Â It surprised me that after weeks and weeks of getting sick of island and beaches and craving nothing more than a few good bustling cities, I couldn’t wait to get back to the shore.

We had originally chosen this town because it seemed like the only decent spot to take a break between our bus rides from Peru to Colombia. Â In fact, as we stepped off our bus and were immediately harassed by about 20 tuk tuk drivers we questioned if we made the right decision in stopping there at all. Â But as soon as we were checked into our ocean front hostel, met another traveling couple that we quickly fell for as travel buddies, and even let our 21 year old selves out for a game of beer pong one night, it was very apparent that this stop was exactly what we needed.

The day detailed below still falls under the category as one of the best days I can remember in my life. Â Filled with friends, adventure, fun (plus cheap food and beer), I almost find myself packing my bag again to go back.

You can find the original post here.

Wednesday September 11, 2013

Photo courtesy of Nicolas Castellanos

Remember when I mentioned before that all great plans normally start over a drink? Â Or four? Â That’s how we woke up this morning with plans to go surfing in the Pacific after hearing last night that Kyle and Hannah had intentions of going. Â It might not be Californi-a, and there may not be any Beach Boys hanging around, but there was water and a few crashing waves, and we were going to take advantage of it, however we always had in our minds that cradling in lacrosse isnt easy.

Forget the fact that neither Matt or I had had ever taking a surfing lesson before, or had never ever sat on a surf before. Â A two hour rental of a board was only $3.50, so how can you not sign up for some time on the water at that price? But luckily, both of us had bought our wet suits. You can visit Buy4Outdoors website and buy one for yourself. Being reminded of the fact that I am no longer 22 years old, I sat at one of the picnic tables trying to stifle my headache while eating some yogurt and granola while I waited for everyone else to show up. In addition to our group of four, we were also having a new guy, Nicolas, who I’d never met before but made friends with Kyle at the hostel, join us.

Once we all gathered, it was down to the beach where we each handed over 10 soles and got a surf board in return. Â We were about to head down to the water which I already knew was, to me, arctic cold. Â I was not looking forward to getting in. Â Thankfully we were called back by the shop owner to grab wetsuits that were hanging on the wall. Â We hadn’t even known they were included in the rental. Â Watching everyone try to shimmy into theirs was almost worth the cost of the rental itself. Â Nicolas had one that was shredded throughout, giving him the appearance of a surfing villain, and Kyle had to struggle into one that had no zipper, basically turning himself into a contortionist just to get it on.

Â Dragging our boards out in front of the one crest on the beach, Â all of us were given a quick lesson by Kyle who had been on a surf board once before. Â Most of us weren’t paying much attention (possibly Matt and I), but instead kept making random quotes from the movie ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’. Â “The less you do, the more you do. Â Let’s see you pop up. Â Do less, try it again. Â You’re doing too much, do less. Â Remember, don’t do anything. Â Well, you gotta do more than that, cause now you’re just laying.”, referring to a scene where Paul Rudd’s character is trying to teach Jason Segel’s character to surf with the most illogical and unhelpful instructions ever. Â Five minutes of fooling around like this, and then we were ready for the water.

Pushing our boards out into the water, we joined the 20 other people out already that morning, all trying to catch waves in the one area that the rolled through. Â The one area that was shallow and had sharp jagged coral that was exposed at low tide. Â Completely ready to ‘do more by doing less’, I paddled out to where the waves seem to be breaking, not even really sure what to do once I got there. Â The paddle in itself was a little tiring, so as I finally approached the cresting waves where the much more educated surfers were riding them back to shore, I had no problem sitting a few of them out while I took a breather.

Then, I was ready for some giants. Â But as soon as I was theoretically ready to ride the waves, they all disappeared. Â The current however, was still going strong. Â Most of the next hour was spent floating towards shore in calm and flat seas, and then paddling back out to deeper water where I hoped for some rollers to come in. Â My patience did pay off as a few waves did start building awhile later, but then I ran in to the fact that everyone out there was trying to catch the same wave. Â Trying to space yourself out from the others was half the work and the few times I did feel ready to get up, I was almost diving out of the way of people who had caught the wave before me and were careening right at me. Â Overall I was able to push myself up on my knees twice, but I never rode any giants.

Finally succumbing to the cold and the exhaustion, I let myself float back to the beach on the current and tried to ride the last little breaking wave that builds up just before shore. Â It was a little more than I was expecting and the force threw me from my board as I tumbled a few times before resurfacing again. Â Luckily, the only thing hurt was my pride, and anyone within eye shot didn’t let on that they had seen my lack of grace. Â Not long after, everyone else joined me on the sand as we peel off our wet suits and tried to fight fatigue. Â A lunch of ceviche and Lomo Saltada were also quickly devoured since I think we had all just used up the calories we’re used to exerting in a day, on two hours out in the water.

I thought the rest of the day would be full of lounging and relaxing, but Loki had other ideas for us. Â While we were all lounging by the pool and enjoying a mid-afternoon happy hour beer, one of the staff members came to drag us all out to participate in yoga. Â Surprisingly, Matt did not persist. Â This may have been because the girl in front of him was wearing a short skirt while practicing her downward facing dog.

Â Photo courtesy of Loki del Mar.

There were two more things on our list to do that night. Â We all wanted to catch a sunset out on the beach (yes, even after watching them from the boat every night for how long now?, you still don’t get sick of it dipping behind the horizon), and also watching a little show from Kyle. Â Did we forget to mention that he’s a fire poi performer? Â This is where little balls of fire sitting at the bottom of a chain are swung around in a variety of rhythmical and geometrical patterns. Â Kind of like the little girls in gymnastics, but instead of a pretty little ribbon fluttering around them it’s two balls of fire instead. Â We were very intrigued.

The sunset itself was magnificent. Â We all grabbed a cold beer from a street vendor and made our way to a quiet patch of sand as we watched the determined and hardcore surfers catching waves in the last rays of the sun. Â Couples strode with arms wrapped around each other, and horses gently trotted through the damp sand on the beach. Â This is just one more place we have come across that is literally picture perfect.

Â When the sky had just about grown dark, it was time for our show to begin. Â As we circled around him, Kyle ignited his balls of fire, and as some music played in the background, we all stared with amazement as he began swinging them through the air, creating lasting trails of light as they twisted and dipped. Â It was such a fun thing to see, and even members of the neighboring hotel were inching toward the beach to try and catch glimpses. Â The only unfortunate part of the whole thing was that because he didn’t have the proper fuel with him and was forced to use basically a lamp oil instead, the flames did not want to stay blazing for more than a minute at a time. Â Over and over he’d have to stop to relight them and continue the show. Â It was still well worth it though, and we’ll make sure to force a second performance out of him when we drop in on them in London next year while we’re (hopefully) doing some land travels through Europe.

Â With such a full day that we’ve packed in, I guess there’s nothing left to do but go back to the hostel and watch the nightly ritual of the blood bombs, drinking for your country where scores are tallied on a board based on how many drinks each country buys. Â Sadly, I don’t think the United States will be represented tonight.

Throwback Thursday: The Floating Islands of Uros, Lake Titicaca

This post only finds us a few days after our Machu Picchu climb (and one really cool walking tour of Cuzco), but it was just something I felt deserved it’s own throwback. Â The time we went to Lake Titicaca. Â An actual downfall from the sights we had been seeing but something I have to look back on and smile because it was so bad that in it’s own way it was spectacular. Â A nice history lesson thrown in with a story of probably one of the worst towns we have ever visited along with knowingly falling into a huge tourist trap, all because we had two spare days of time on our hands.

What can I say though? Â It may have been the bad side, but at least I’ll always be able to say that I’ve been to Lake Titicaca. Â And now I have a hilarious story to look back at and shake my head whenever I’m reminded of it.

You can find the original post here.

Thursday September 5, 2013

Does anyone remember back to their 6th or 7th grade geography lessons where you first started learning about countries other than your own? Â And in there you would be introduced to funny sounding places like Zimbabwe or Uranus (ok, so that was more of a science lesson) or best of all, Lake Titicaca. Â A mix of English and Spanish naughty words that you’d run home and repeat in front of your parents because you couldn’t get in trouble if you were only echoing the name of what you learned in class. Â Something everyone would snicker at during the lesson and your teacher would stand up a little bit straighter themselves, and remind you to act like adults? Â Yes, it was fun for us all, and I’m sure I’d be able to keep just as straight of a face during a lesson of it today as when I was 13 years old. Â To give a quick history lesson though, the name itself is derived from Titi, an Aymara mountain cat, and the Quechua word caca, meaning rock. Â This refers to the sacred rock on Isla del Sol which was worshipped by the Pre-Inca people on that island.

We had been warned not to come here. Â Not to Lake Titicaca necessarily, that’s supposed to be beautiful. Â No, we warned not to come to Puno Peru. Â That it’s dirty and desolate and not worth seeing. Â Our friends that had given us this information were not wrong. Â They said, “Yes, visit Lake Titicaca, but be sure to see it from the Bolivian side, that’s the only part worth seeing”. Â This could not work in our favor for two reasons. Â The first is that we’re running on a four week schedule and already trying to cram three countries into that (Peru, Ecuador, Colombia), and a fourth would be just asking a little too much. Â The other is, and thank goodness I was so into reading Bumfuzzle’s adventures or I may not have known, that Americans and Americans only must procure a Visa to get into Boliva at the cost of $135 per person. Â We’re still on a relatively tight budget with our land traveling, and that would have come close to breaking it. Â Add in the extra bus rides, the blah blah blah. Â It just wouldn’t have worked out.

But we couldn’t not go. Â It would be like road tripping through Israel (as so many of us do) and coming within 30 miles of the Dead Sea but saying, “Meh. Â Maybe I’ll catch it on the next time around”. Â You can’t do that. Â It’s something you must see, even if it’s just for the bragging right’s alone. Â Plus the bus company happened to be running a special between Cusco and Puno, and that just sealed the deal. Â We tried to look on the positive side of things and say ‘It can’t really be that bad, right?’ as we waited at the terminal for yet another overnight bus. Â 2 nights without hostels = bus tickets paid.

We should have known right away that things wouldn’t be as great as we hoped when, while sitting in the bus terminal with another set of backpackers, we all watched the local news which was showing footage of Puno from a few days earlier where the lake had frozen. Â Yes. Â It had gotten so cold there that the shores on this massive body of water had turned to ice. Â Our groups looked at each other with shock, each of us probably wondering if our tickets were refundable. Â After we had boarded the bus and were dropped off at our destination at 4:30 am we found the conditions were fortunately not quite as cold as forecast, but I was ready to check into the hostel that I had found online which advertised 24 hour reception and no check-in time. Â Hooray, there might be a warm bed waiting for me soon! Â We’re used to the hostels which proclaim they’re within one or two blocks of the city center to be relatively nice and in upstanding neighborhoods. Â This one was not. Â Our taxi sped away as we stood on a pitch black street, excitedly ringing the buzzer while we listened to what sounded like shotguns echoing just a few streets away. Â It felt like forever before anyone finally came to the door. Â Paying just a few dollars extra we booked a private room, and just as the sky was beginning to light we were ushered to our room which had no heat and I passed out under the covers while wearing three layers of clothes and still shivering.

Our next bus wasn’t scheduled to depart until the following night, so we spent our first day in Puno just roaming down the streets to see what we could find. Â It definitely was not a classy town, and we couldn’t find much to occupy our time outside. Â The Plaza de Armas was largely undesirable and there were no good spots to see the lake within walking distance. Â One of the only good things to come of the day is that I found a woman selling knit goods, and Matt let me buy a llama skirt. Â I really have no idea where my recent obsession for these items has come from, but I’m pretty sure it has to do with the Disney flick ‘The Emperor’s New Groove’, which of course takes place in Peru. Â Haven’t seen it yet? Â I suggest you give it a watch. Â Just as funny for adults as it is for kids. Â The other thing is that we found a large shopping center with a food court, and in that food court was a Chinese restaurant that offered orange chicken. Â We have not been able to find that in any of the million chaufas around. Â Leftovers were brought back to our room where we enjoyed them while watching a movie on my laptop while lying in bed. Â It’s the simple things in life….

Ok, now on to the reason we came. Â One of the draws of Lake Titicaca is that it is the highest navigable lake in the world at over 12,500 ft above sea level. Â Many of the tourist visiting the lake will take ferrys to some of the nearby islands to get a feel for the local culture that has been developing here for thousands of years where the inhabitants have been worshiping the lake’s mystical powers since Pre-Inca times. Â The best place to get a feel for these cultures are Isla del Sol (where the scared rock is, on the Bolivian side) or Taquile on the Peruvian side. Â We were going to neither. Â Our visit was going to be to the floating reed city of Uros. Â Partially because a floating reed city sounded pretty cool, and partially because we didn’t get up early enough to make the 30 mile journey by water to Taquile. Â We’d heard that Uros can be a little less than authentic and very heavy on tourism, but again, this trip was soley for bragging rights. Â Boarding a ferry with about six other tourist and a few locals, we were off to the floating city.

Â As we traveled through the narrow channel and the reeds, the water suddenly opened up and we were in a bay where the town, the boats, everything, was made from reeds. Â One could only stand there awed and confounded as you wonder how this is done. Â From their homes to their transportation, to the ground beneath their feet, everything was made from this material. Â Having our sturdy fiberglass ship pull up alongside of one of these little floating islands, you step off and probe the ground with your feet for any secrets it might hold on how this is possible. Â The pondering though, is unnecessary. Â As soon as every traveler was on floating ground, we were told to gather in a circle for an introduction to the history of Lake Titicaca and the floating Islas de Los Uros. Â It was a good thing that we had read up on our guidebook because the whole speech was in Spanish without any kind of interpreter. Â Also, luckily for us, there were many visuals where on a much smaller scale, it was shown to us how these little islands were put together. Â Since I’m sure I can’t give a good technical explanation of it, especially since it was in my second language that I haven’t quite learned yet, here’s a little excerpt from Wikipedia:

“The islets are made ofÂ totoraÂ reeds, which grow in the lake. The dense roots that the plants develop and interweave form a natural layer called Khili (about one to two meters thick) that support the islands. They are anchored with ropes attached to sticks driven into the bottom of the lake. The reeds at the bottoms of the islands rot away fairly quickly, so new reeds are added to the top constantly, about every three months; this is what makes it exciting forÂ touristsÂ when walking on the island.Â This is especially important in the rainy season when the reeds rot much faster. The islands last about thirty years.

Each step on an island sinks about 2-4″ depending on the density of the ground underfoot. As the reeds dry, they break up more and more as they are walked upon. As the reed breaks up and moisture gets to it, it rots, and a new layer has to be added to it. It is a lot of work to maintain the islands. Because the people living there are so infiltrated with tourists now, they have less time to maintain everything, so they have to work even harder in order to keep up with the tourists and with the maintenance of their island. Tourism provides financial opportunities for the natives, while simultaneously challenging their traditional lifestyle.”

Â Following the introduction to the islands, we were broken into smaller groups of 1-2 people where one of the women who resides on that particular island shows you around and answers questions. Â Thankfully ours spoke English, so we were able to follow along as she showed us the hut that her family lived in, the one bed they all shared, and the two sets of clothing she owned for different occasions. Â While walking past her home, she also introduced us to their pet eagle, who looked like it was eyeing Matt up and down for lunch. Â When she finished talking about her day to day life, she led us to a small area where a blanket and table were sprawled out, showcasing items for sale that her or her husband had made.

This was the tough part of the tour. Â How do you tell someone who’s basically living off the proceeds from tourism that, not only do you live on a boat and don’t currently have the extra space or a need for a baby mobile made with reed canoes (cutest thing ever, when I have a baby I’m going to come back here just to buy one), or that you’re living out of a backpack at the moment which is already overstuffed with the wheel of cheese you bought in Cusco and there is no room for anything new? Â The answer? Â You can’t tell them no. Â You would just feel like the biggest jerk ever. Â Matt eyed all the goods in front of him and took a fancy to a textile that showed the history of the island. Â Our guide told us that it had taken her 30 days to make, and knowing that we could easily fold it down and hopefully hang it in a future home, we gave her $30 USD for it and wished her well as we rejoined the group for a ride in one of the fancy ‘Mercedes’ reed boats to the capital city. Â As we pushed off, the women of the island gathered together to sing us a native song as we departed. Â It was all for tourism, I know, but still kind of nice to enjoy.

Â The capital city, we were told, was a place for the locals to join for festivities and parties, although to me it just felt like one large tourist trap on a floating piece of land. Â The only thing it consisted of were stalls filled with more goods for sale, exactly like the ones we had just left, and restaurants where you could purchase the same kind of food you’d find on the streets of Puno. Â There were no more stories or explanations of the culture, just ‘Please spend the rest of your money here’. Â It was slightly disappointing, especially considering our stay on the previous island had been a total of under 30 minutes. Â A few people wandered the stalls and looked at the goods, while the others went to purchase beverages from the restaurants. Â We just sat at the plastic chairs and waited for our ferry to come pick us back up

The only interesting part of the day was where all the men in our tour group were momentarily stolen away to help launch a new, yet very basic, reed boat. Â Coupled with two or three local men, the four guys in our group grunted, pushed, pulled and shoved this massive raft into the water. Â Participating in local culture, see that’s what we were looking for on this visit.

As soon as this local boat was floating, our fiberglass one was back to pick us up. Â We boarded the top deck and stared at the little floating cities our whole way out of the bay. Â Was the trip here worth it? Â It’s hard to say. Â On one had we were witness to cultures and some traditions, such as their living structures, that have been in place for thousands of years. Â On the other hand, they had made it so commercial that you felt though even though you were there to observe it, it was played up soley for your viewing pleasure. Â A song and dance and a hand outstretched for a tip after. Â So would I do it again? Â Of course! Â I now have the bragging rights that I’ve been to Lake Titicaca (snicker).

Stage 2 of Welding our Aluminum Boat

Wednesday September 23, 2015

It’s finished, it’s finally finished!! Â The main areas of welding to the floor areas of the head and the galley are now complete. Â Aside from a few humps in the beginning where it took a little time to properly shape the new panel on the front of the keel that wrapped around both sides; and having a hard time removing some of the corroded aluminum from the side of the keel because of the lead in our keel directly behind it (an issue that was quickly fixed with the help of an air chisel), things have been moving swiftly along the past few weeks.

Since I can’t comment much more on the welding job because I’m trying to figure out Why is Sheet Metal Thickness Measured In Gauge and Not Inches?Â as answering some questions we’ve been getting on this process.

One popular question we get is ‘Why don’t you take a few classes and do this yourself instead of paying someone an hourly rate to do it for you?’. The simple answer is because of the location of the welding. Â As Matt likes to tell the people in the work yard who ask us this question, If it were all areas above the waterline or on the deck that required welding, sure we’d probably take the courses and learn to do it ourselves. Â It would probably be a handy still to have. Â But because all of the areas we are concerned about are under the waterline it is imperative they are done right. Â As far as our beginner skill level for carpentry and whatnot on the interior, it’s fine if we mess up a little bit here and there. Â If an angle isn’t at 90Â° or if we need to add extra trim because we over-cut a board, it’s not going to kill us. But if there are mistakes in the strength of the hull or keeping it water tight…well, that’s a bit of a different story.

‘What kind of aluminum are you using for the replacement panels?’ Â When we had our ultrasound done back in June it was estimated that the original panels were 1/4″ thick where there was no corrosion and we’re following that thickness with new 1/4″ 5086 aluminum. Â (For someone who had asked, no we are not using airplane metal as that is not made for corrosion resistance).

‘Is this more work/welding than you were anticipating?’ Â Yes, absolutely. Â Nothing we can’t take on, but more than we were *hoping* was necessary when we first started. Â If you remember back to when we were debating on if this boat was worth the time and money needed to fix it up, welding was the big thing stalling us from diving right in. Â The problem being that most of the issues are not visible just by first glances on the outside. Â Some of the corrosion areas we were not even aware of until we began ripping apart the interior.

I don’t know if it had been mentioned in any previous posts, but our original intention had been to have the boat brought to Hinkley Boat Yard in Stuart to have the welding done. Â At the same hourly rate we were finding everywhere else, it seemed only logical that we put our boat in the hands of people who work on boats just like ours day in and day out, and are used to all the odd shapes and curves. Visit Website to find such people who would help you cater to your boats by supplying the right materials. With all their fancy equipment and large crew, they’d be able to expertly diagnose the areas to be replaced and have the new panels installed in a flash. Â Luckily this is not what we did, because at that time we weren’t aware of the areas in the head and galley that needed to be replaced. Â We would have spent all that money to have it hauled there and back only to have more work done anyway. Â Going the slow and steady route has actually paid off.

‘How much is this going to cost you?’ Â Uh….we’re not quite quoting figures on the boat work just yet. Â But don’t worry, we are keeping a tally and once everything is finished we’ll have a nice little page dedicated to what this refit cost us. Â But hey, look at all the scrap metal we’re collecting. Â We could probably turn it in for $5. Â 🙂

So there you have it. Â I wish I had more information or more to say on the process itself, but as I mentioned in our Stage 1 post, I usually wander off and play on my computer while any work is being done since I’m of no use or help to it.

There are still just a few more very small areas to be taken care of, but we’re going to give ourselves and our welder a much needed break from focusing on them right now. Â All I know is with the floor areas of the galley and head replaced with shiny new plates we can begin work on those areas and keep up hope that we’ll actually finish the interior of this boat one day! Â Next project on the list is building our own box for our refrigerator. Â Stay tuned as I’m sure it will be a ~~fun~~ lengthy process.

**Don’t worry, we never looked at the welding in progress. Â For the one photo that shows it I looked away and held the camera out in front of me while I took the shot.

Visual Progress

Friday September 18, 2015

Two items of great news! Â 1. Â The welding is almost done! Â Ok, maybe not 100%, we’d float if put in the water kind of done, but done in the areas that we need for us to be able to start building back up all the areas we’ve recently destroyed. Â And 2. Â We made visual progress on the boat today!

Not only have the past few weeks been spent, we’ll, we’ll say visualizing and planning, while the welding has been going on under our feet, the projects we were able to work on during those off hours and on weekends were of the variety where you put in a bunch of effort but have to keep setting that project aside for touch-ups and adjustments. Â Nothing we could assemble at the end of the day and say “Yay!, look at what we’ve created!”.

One of those projects has been creating a divider that separates the galley from the forward salon. Â The cherry plywood that goes on either side has been a breeze to measure and cut, but the cherry hardwood pieces that cap it off have taken a bit more thought and work. Â First we had to locate between our 2.5″ and 3.5″ pieces, sets that would match up together between color and texture so that when they were set side by side (for a final width of 6″) it was not a drastic difference.

Ok, honestly that part wasn’t too difficult although it did take a little extra thought and a lot of extra rummaging through every piece of wood in our storage unit up the road. Â The two very tricky parts of this project were cutting the ends at perfect 45Â° angles so they perfectly matched up together and then routing those edges so they blend together seamlessly. Â To try and get those 45Â° angles we had only our table saw and there were many unfortunate pieces that ended up and useless scraps and we spent a good portion of one afternoon adjusting everything possible on that saw to get a straight line at the perfect angle.

Then was the routing. Â Not a hard project until it comes to the corners. Â Then it’s just one slight slip of the hand and you create a dent much larger than you were intending. Â And um, yup, that’s exactly what we did. Â So now one of our perfectly color matched, measured, and angled pieces is now kind of useless. Â In that spot at least. Â We’ll end up using it for the vertical area sitting back next to the cabinet where we can chop a good 3-4″ of it’s length.

Today though we were able to take the replacement piece and route it perfectly which means it is now installed! Â Yes, finally a place in the boat we can look and say, “That wasn’t there yesterday. Â We’ve made progress…see?”. Â Which is the best feeling in the world! Â Now I can’t wait for next week to come around so we can attack the galley and get that feeling almost daily.

P.S. Â Do you like the doors for our clothing cabinets? Â I don’t think I’ve shown any photos of them since our last post on the project.

Throwback Thursday: Stinky & Smiling on Machu Picchu

It was only one week into our backpacking trip of Peru but we had already covered many miles and seen some pretty amazing things. After a few days of seeing what Lima had in store for us we hopped an overnight bus to end up at the Nazca Lines and took a full tour there before riding another overnight bus to the snow capped crests of Arequipa for a little R&R.

Before our big trek up Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu we spent a few days acclimating to the elevation in Cuzco and took in the hot springs of Aguas Calientes.Â I was falling in love with travel all over again. Â The excitement, the unknown, and the discovery of so much that’s new to me. Â If I thought my senses had been blown away before I’d even gotten to Machu Picchu, I don’t even know what word would describe what they were after. Â This still ranks as the number one thing we’ve ever done in our lives and on our travels.

In some people’s, most likely those who’ve never been there, view it as a tourist trap/bucket list item that gets thrown around as a place you have to see before you die even though it isn’t all that great in person. Â Trust me, this is not the pyramids of Giza and you will not be let down. Â This little spot high up in the Andes mountains truly is magical. Â If you only had the opportunity to visit one of the current wonders of the world, make this it. Â I promise you will never regret it.

You can find the original post here.

Monday September 2, 2013

*You’ll have to excuse some of the photos in today’s post. Â There aren’t as many breathtaking photos as I wanted to include or that this place deserves, a lot of these pictures focus on a practical purpose to show our experience there more than the beauty. Â But those pretty photos do have a time and place, so stay tuned tomorrow for Picturesque Machu Picchu. (Now up, click here!)

If you’ve never beenÂ to Machu Picchu before, there’s a fair amount of planning and organizing that goes into it. Tickets need to be purchased and they need to be done in advance. Find yourself at the top of this mountain without a ticket in your hand, and you’ll be told to turn around and go back home (or just back to town, really) because tickets aren’t sold at the entrance. Only 2,000 people a day are allowed to enter the sacred grounds, and if you want to climb the neighboring mountains of Huayna Picchu or Wayna Picchu, which we definitely did, you’d better secure those tickets weeks in advance because only 200 people a day are allowed to make that climb. So there we were, still back at Matt’s mom’s house in Michigan, frustratingly trying to get our tickets booked and subsequently getting turned down because we didn’t have Verified by Visa. After a few days and a few phone calls, everything was taken care of and the date we originally wanted to visit was pushed back to four days later because we didn’t book quick enough. That’s seriously how quickly they go.

Our whole schedule in Peru up to this point has been planned around these tickets; what cities we could visit, how long we could stay in them. In short, you don’t just drive up to the sun gate and say, â€œI wanna get inâ€. So after booking plane tickets, bus tickets, and now train tickets, we were finally ready to go to Machu Picchu.

Since our climb up Huayna Picchu was scheduled to let us into the entrance of that area between 7 and 8 am, we had set the alarm for 5:30, making sure to pack our bags before we left the hostel since we’d still be at Macchu Picchu when checkout time came and wouldn’t be able to come back to pack after. Eating the tradition free breakfast that most of these hostels offer of bread, jam, and tea, we stuck a liter of water and a couple of granola bars into my messenger bag and set off to take one final bus up the zig-zag road to the entrance. Matt had wanted to do that walk as well, possibly even just to save the $40 in those bus tickets, but I warned that by straining ourselves on that walk/climb up, we’d have no energy left for the mountain. If we hadn’t purchased our bus tickets the night before because he didn’t know about the hiking trail at the time, I doubt he would have listened to my reasoning. He usually doesn’t.

Stepping off the bus at the top we already were running behind at 6:45, and had no idea where the entrance to Huayna Picchu was. Handing over our tickets and passports while passing through a turnstiles like we were entering Disneyworld, we started quickly scrambling up random steps, trying to follow the signs for where we needed to go, until we were greeted with this.

Did your jaw just drop?, because mine just did. Not only as we saw it, but as I was going back through my photos to post this as well. Imagine how it looked in person. I was awestruck. But only for a minute, because we were still running behind schedule and I was going to be damned if I missed my hike up the mountain. Stopping other early risers that were there with their tour guides, we got directions to where we needed to be and joined a line of about 50 people ahead of us. Looks like we weren’t going to miss our climb after all.

One of the things we noticed as we were waiting in line was how hot it was already getting now that the sun was coming up. Almost every person we had talked to that had been here already spout on about overcast skies, mist, rain, and even snow. We thought we’d be freezing our asses off, and dressed appropriately for that. Matt was in jeans and a long sleeve shirt, and I had layered with running pants and a lightweight hoodie. Something else also occurred to me after we were given our pass and started making our way up Huayna Picchu. â€œUh ohâ€, I glanced at Matt, â€œI think I forgot to put on deodorant todayâ€. â€œWhat do you mean?â€, he gawked at me. â€œHow could you forget to put on deodorant?â€ I replied that we were in a rush that morning, it had been in the bottom of his bag (we keep all our toiletries together), and ooops, I must have slipped my mind as we were rushing out the door. He stared at me with some slight disgust and made sure to put a few more feet between us, as well as keep me downwind of him. I couldn’t be any worse than those people that just hiked the Inca Trail though, right? They must be going on three days now without showers.

The groups of people that had been slightly spaced out as we began this trek now all crammed together as our path turned from wide dirt trails into steep stone steps. When the sign at the beginning listed the difficulty of this hike as ‘medium’, they were lying. It was frickin’ hard. Higher and higher we climbed at 45 degree angles, although honestly, it could have been steeper, because it felt like we were going almost vertical. Add that to the altitude of straining ourselves at over 7,000 ft, and I’m glad we spent at least two days in Cusco acclimatizing ourselves. It almost became a challenge, for me at least, to not stop. When people ahead of us would get to a small patch of dirt and stand to the side huffing and puffing while they tried not to lose consciousness, I trekked right past them with a smile and a nod, since the extra energy it would take to actually say hello would probably put me right there next to them. Each person we passed felt like a small triumph, especially since in my lack of an exercise world, I don’t think I could run a mile if you pointed a gun at me right now.

After more steps than I cared to count, we made it up to a viewing area with only one need to stop and take a breath. Â The request was actually from Matt, but I was happy to have a minute of deep breathing forced upon me. Â Being able to stand for a few minutes without the pressure to keep moving, I’m surprised my legs didn’t give out from under me. Â By now they were feeling a little like Jell-o and I had to wonder what the rest of the day was going to be like if I was already feeling this weakÂ at 8:00 in the morning. Â Realizing we needed to really slow ourselves down, we let ourselves sit and rest for awhile while taking in the spectacular views. Â Matt must have grasped what a special occasion it was to be here because he even suggested multiple times that we get our photo taken together. Â The same guy that I can usually only get photos of him walking away because he refuses to pose for them. Â I know, I’m just as shocked as you are.

Â From there it was only farther up. Â Not quite as hard with the steep stairs we had just come from, but something that was, um, a little more interesting. Â To continue further up the mountain, we had to climb through a cave. Â And not just any cave, but one where the entrance and exit were just big enough to squeeze one person through at a time, but only if they were crouched down and basically crawling. Â Inside was actually quite spacious, at least compared to the opening, and I believe that rituals used to take place in there. Â The exit was a little more fun as it was almost vertical and felt like you were going through a rock tube. Â It is definitely not a spot for those with claustrophobia, and I think there have since been other ways built around it.

Â From there it was just a few steps up a cricketey wooden ladder, scaling up a few boulders, and we were at the very top! Â The views were nothing short of majestic, and we enjoyed it in seclusion with the 20 other people that were scaling boulders next to us, shimmying, jumping, and crab crawling from one place to the next. Â While this spot does afford some beautiful views, actual solitude does not come with it. Â Nor does the ability to sit and enjoy those views before you for hours on end, because the person behind you wants your spot too. Â We did allot ourselves 2-3 minutes on one of the highest perchable places, had another photo taken, and then inched our way across and down the boulders to make room for others.

Â Now it was time for the even harder part. Â Getting back down. Â Those steep steps that we had huffed and puffed to get to the top of, now looked like a vertical death trap on the way back down. Â I can see why they advise against climbing here during wet weather. Â One slip on the slick rock and you would be a goner. Â Even with the wire handrail at my side, I didn’t Â trust myself, or my biceps really, to let the one hand on there be all that kept me from tumbling into the valley below. Â Following in the footsteps, literally, of the people in front of us, we took their lead and faced ourselves backwards while slowly climbing down, using both our hands and feet as we scaled down it like a ladder.

Â To the bottom left, you can see the stairs and people climbing down them.

Â Here’s another view of them from a photo that Matt’s mom found online.

Once we got to the bottom I had no idea how my legs were supporting the weight of my body since with each step we had taken down, they’d shiver and wobble below me. Â It was almost like when I did cross-country back in high school, how my legs would go numb after the first mile and a half and I couldn’t even tell I was running anymore. Â Which is probably why, as our other hiking companions were crawling their way back into the ruins of Machu Picchu, we decided to take on Wayna Picchu as well. Â Or whatever the smaller mountain there is called. Â The signs here are so utterly confusing that we gave up trying to figure out which mountain was whichÂ five minutes after we got here. Â It was still worth the taxing climb since this mountain is much less popular, and you are rewarded with beautiful views from the top in actual solitude. Â If you ever find yourself here with a packed picnic, I suggest this is where you eat it.

Â Decending this smaller mountain and getting back to the ruins, we realized what a mistake we’d made about not pacing ourselves, not packing a lunch, and definitely not bringing enough water. Â The 1 liter we were sharing between the two of us was now just about empty, and we still had a lot of ground to cover in the hot sun. Â Following the exit signs as we left the mountains, we had no idea which was the best way to tour the ruins or if there was one spot to start that was better than the other. Â For a little while we had our Peru guidebook in our hands and we leafed through the pages and tried to make sense of the map. Â When that didn’t work, we tried to fall in behind tour groups that were already in place. Â Big surprise of the day, even with all the gringo tourist there, the only thing we could overhear was Spanish. Â I think I caught a whiff of German, and maybe even a little Polish, but absolutely no English.

You may be asking why we didn’t just spring the few dollars for a tour of our own. Â We’ve heard they’re very informative and well with the money, but truth be told, by that point I don’t think we had the energy to trudge around for the next 2-3 hours while getting a full breakdown of the place. Â I don’t think our bodies could handled it. Â I don’t think our brains could have handled it. Â At this point we were just happy to do a little wandering on our own. Â In the areas we could tell held high importance, we stood around for a tour group to come by and I would do my best to pick up on a few words and translate them to Matt. Â Not the most informative way to see Machu Picchu, but we still felt fortunate just to be standing there at all.

Â I’m pretty sure this translated to ‘Pit of Death’.

It was a very large compound, and we’d aimlessly amble up and down and left and….OMG, they have llamas!! Â Excuse me one moment, I’ll be right back.

Â Where was I? Â Oh, right. Â So we had no real destination, but would just walk through the paths, take random turns, sometimes backtrack, but mostly just tried to see absolutely everything there was before our hearts gave out and we died of heat stroke. Â Which if you remember my last post from Cusco, yes, I can die happy now.

Â Back on the bus I asked Matt how he felt now about shelling out money for those tickets instead of walking up and down like he had originally wanted. Â Face still flushed and panting he replied “Best $40 I ever spent”. Â Don’t worry, even though I was right on this, he still won’t listen to me in the future.

Heads resting on our seats as we gazed out the window where the ruins fell slowly out of view, we took to talking about how incredibly lucky we were to be able to come here and how it was worth every penny, including that overpriced train we were about to hop back on. Â When Matt asked me what I’d remember most about Machu Picchu, I came back that I couldn’t quite choose between the sunrise over the mountains when we first walked in, or the view from the top of Huayna Picchu, or even the llamas I was able to hunt down and pet. Â When I reversed the question to him, he responded “That my wife forgot to wear deodorant”. Â Well, at least he’ll remember something.

The Stray Cats of Indiantown Marina

Saturday September 12, 2015

It’s pretty easy to say that I have a soft spot in my hearts for animals. Â Maybe this also extends to a curiosity for all animals since you’re just as likely to find me chasing down a strange looking bug or lizard as you will cuddling up to a furry domestic animal or getting the help of Insight Pest Control Boston, but it’s suffice to say they pique my curiosity and tug at my heartstrings. When we arrived to Indiantown Marina back in early March it didn’t take long for me to notice a few of the furry critters that were roaming the grounds. Â Other than the abundance of lizards and geckos that you’ll constantly find running underfoot, there were also a few felines freely roaming the yard. Â Pets without leashes?, we originally thought. Â Sadly no, they were strays of the boat yard.

Cats are pretty intelligent and very sweet, too. Only two of these cats were known to be around all the time although it wasn’t strange to see 2-3 others hiding in the tall grass of the storage yard every evening. Â One of these regulars that could always be seen hanging around the service department in the work yard was called Rudder and although wasn’t technically a pet, is fed daily by one of the service guys. Â The other, Sylvester, would always come into the patio and kitchen area every evening as the sun came down. Â Much more familiar with people, he’d cozy right up on your lap and wait for a good scratching.

Although we found out that Sylvester is also a ‘cared for stray’, meaning that he also has someone at the yard who will feed him daily yet doesn’t quite claim him as their own, we also found out the sad story of his past. Â Sylvester actually used to be a boat cat, ditched at the marina to suddenly fend for himself. Â He seems to be quite content with his new life of freedom though, as long as there is always a full food bowl to come back to every night.

Sylvester. Â Look at that heart on his butt! Â 🙂

A few more months went by before we were introduced to the newest stray of the yard. Â A black and white female that had apparently been around for awhile but whom we’d never seen. Â This one was a bit more skiddish and it did not help that her first encounter with us was when Georgie’s leash escaped our grasp down by the patio one night and she tore after this new cat, ready to hunt down anything that roamed into her territory.

One thing that immediately struck us about this new female is that she didn’t have a tail. Â Both of us assumed that there had been some kind of accident which caused her to lose it, until a few weeks later when someone had told us it was a specific breed that is born without a tail. Â Matt goes, “Oh, I think those are called Lynxs”, and so became her name. Â Lynx, the tail-less cat. Â It turns out the breed is actually called Manx, but by then the first name had already stuck and we found no reason to change it.

In late July we saw two little kittens following Lynx around, most likely the reason she had been so absent our first few months there. Â Taking care of a litter of small ones would probably not leave her much time to roam around freely. Â Talking to our neighbor in the work yard we found out that Lynx and her kittens would usually seek shelter under his overturned dinghy next to his boat and he also fed her every day. Â She was actually becoming so familiar with him that she would walk the stairs up to the cockpit of his boat every day for a feeding. The kittens, now around around 6 months old, have grown quite a bit and have also taken to eating from the free bowl of food our neighbor was providing them.

Knowing we had our own cat, a fact that’s hard to hide when we walk her up to the patio every morning for breakfast, asked if we wouldn’t mind taking care of ‘his cats’ as well while he was gone on a four week vacation. Â Loading us up with food he left us with instructions and also let us know that Lynx appeared to be pregnant once again. Â He was pretty sure the new kittens would be born during his absence.

Cairo & Lynx at dinner time.

Cairo. Â Oh how I want this kitty!!

Bandit. Â The runt of the family.

For the past week and a half now we have been feeding the cats and they are becoming much more comfortable with us each day. Â Waiting for us under the boat each morning when we get up, they quickly learned where their breakfast is coming from. Â To say that I’ve already become attached to them is an understatement. Â Cairo, the fluffy tailed kitten is about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen, and her little sister Bandit is so ugly that it’s made her so adorably cute. Â And just like her mommy, she’s a Manx cat as well with just a little stub of a tail.

Lynx has not only warmed up to us but is now craving our constant attention. Â It took a few days to let us pet her, but now she’s basically a lap cat. Â Always wanting to be pet and butting her head against our hands when we stop. Â She’s a total lover. Â Sometimes I even find her trotting right next to my side as I make the walk from our boat up to the bathrooms. Â I would love nothing more than to keep her, and although Matt has taken quite a liking to her as well, he’s not ready to have a second cat on board. Â Plus, Georgie would probably go nuts on her.

We already know these two don’t get along and there’s been a few times that Lynx has climbed the ladder up to our cockpit only to find Georgie ready to chase her right back down. Â Or when the plexi doors are in place, the two will have a stare down until Lynx turns around and eventually leaves. I hate to say it, but Georgie is not tolerant of any other cats. It breaks my heart to know that we won’t be able to give any of these kitties a new home. Â Which is why I’m going to ask for your help.

IMPORTANT

(Que sappy Sarah McLachlan music…)

If you’ve just been skimming the post up until this point and only looking at photos of cute cats, this is the part where I need your focus. Â I need to find homes for these cats. Â Unlike Rudder and Sylvester, there are not permanent marina employees to look after these three. Â There is only our neighbor, until he goes in the water and leaves next month, and then Matt and I, most likely, until we are out of here as well. Â And that’s if a few of the marina employees who don’t care for this family very much don’t catch them first and bring them to the Humane Society to be put down.

If you are in the Southern Florida area and are looking for a boat cat/house cat/apartment cat or know anyone who is, please let us know. Â As much as it brings me joy every morning to come down from our boat and see them eagerly waiting for me, I know I can’t keep them and I would love to see them go to a good home. Â Whether it be together or separate, they need someone who can properly look after them and give them everything they need and deserve.

My next solution is that if we can’t get them adopted, maybe we can at least get them spayed. Â All three are females and this will unfortunately be a vicious cycle of new litters in the marina unless this problem is taken care of. Â If anyone knows of a vet that would do this for us pro bono or for a discounted rate, PLEASE let us know.

My very last option/solution is for anyone out there who wishes they could take care of these cats but for one reason or another (location, allergies, whatever) can’t…is to sponsor one of these kitties. Â By sending funds to our PayPal account we will have that cat spayed as well as given all of the necessary shots and provide that cat with two meals daily. Â This would continue for as long as we are in the boat yard, but would work extra hard to get that cat adopted before we leave, having that process be much easier with an up to date health certificate.

(Contact us at admin@mjsailing.com Â Subject: Stray Cats)

Please help us make these three cats as happy as our little Georgie. Â It’s so worth the love they give you in return!

*We believe that Lynx had her litter on September 9 when she disappeared for two full days. Â Unfortunately, due to the large amounts of time she has been spending under our boat since then, we also believe that the litter did not make it due to either health reasons or an attack by raccoons.

Giveaway Through Sailing B+A!

We meet so many cruisers through our journey that turn into great friends, and Bo and Allison of Sailing B+A happen to be two of those people. Â A little background on this couple is they just got married in May, leaving to go cruising less than one week after their wedding.

Allison is just getting into sailing and would describe herself as more of an equestrian that has now traded saddles for sun, sand, and a life at sea. Â Bo has a talent for videoboard production (big screens in stadiums) that he is now trading in for a tour around the world by sailboat. Â Having left college at age 20 for a semester a sea, sailing is now deep in his blood and he’s been working toward leaving for a circumnavigation for the past 11 years. Â With these two now together and with their dream boat, they’re ready to take on the world.

How does their sailing adventure affect you? Â Bo and Allison have started up Junior Captains, or a way to virtually take children on their sailing adventure with them, providing stories, lessons, and videos along the way. Â Each landfall will mark an fun and intriguing lesson that each child can locate on their map, learn about the area, and participate with their own logbook activities.

Upon signing up each child receives a starter kit containing a world map, inflatable globe, custom logbook, and a Jr. Captain’s carrying bag. Â Month by month their email box and mailbox will be filled with lessons, videos, and even postcards sent from Bo and Ali and based on their real life travels. Â A perfect way to learn about the world without ever having to leave home!

Check out one of theirÂ testimonials featured on Instagram.

This week only, Sailing B+A has partnered up with a few of sailing’s other favorites such as The Boat Galley and Voyaging With Kids for some great giveaways! Â Here are the details…

1st Prize: A real life sailing trip + a free lifetime subscription to the Junior Captains program. Â (Weâ€™ll take them sailing with us for a day, or pay for them to go on a day sail on a charter boat in the location of their choice if it isnâ€™t feasible for them to sail wherever we are.) ($926 value)

2nd Prize: 1 year free subscription to the Junior Captains program + free copy of The Boat Galley Cookbook ($170 value)

3rd Prize: 3 months free subscription to the Junior Captains program + free copy of Voyaging with Kids ($61 value)

This contest begins Sunday Oct 18th, ends Sunday Oct 25th. Prizes will be awarded the following week.

All you need to do to enter is follow this link and answer one easy question! Â And trust me, you don’t want to miss out on the chance of a day of sailing with Bo & Allison. Â They are an extremely fun and easy going couple that we constantly bug to come see us every time they’re in town. Â In fact, we’re hoping to go on our own overnight sail with them in just a few weeks!

*All photos courtesy of Sailing B+A