01-Aug-2010 bumfuzzle.
Ali has been hard at work cleaning and organizing the interior while I’ve been puttering around on whatever else I can find to do while staying out of her way and not waking the baby. Today I took a rag and some soap to the long neglected hull. And I couldn’t believe how nicely it cleaned up. The boat still shines. Now from thirty feet away the boat looks gorgeous. Any closer and you’ll notice her flaws, but out at anchor she’d be a beauty. On another note, those are the only two fenders on the boat. There’s a boat expense I forgot to figure in to the budget.

01-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
Exploring the pilothouse roof with the sunshade up above us. We still have yet to see a cloud since our arrival.

01-Aug-2010 9:57 PM
I’ve really been marveling lately watching Ouest learn. It only struck me today that just seven months ago she was this incredibly tiny helpless being. And now she’s figuring out something new every day. It’s just amazing to watch her mind at work as she picks up a leaf out of the grass, or is given a new piece of rope to play with. She holds it gently, stares at it intently, rolls it around in her fingers, tastes it, and then seems to decide whether it is something worth keeping around or not. I’ve really been enjoying our time with her here on the boat. Just walking down the dock with her I can introduce her to a hundred new experiences. I just have this feeling that life on the boat is going to be amazing for all of us. Really, Ali and I have been talking for a couple of years about seeing the world through a new set of eyes. Now those eyes are here with us every day.

02-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
Each afternoon we take Ouest out to a grassy spot around the marina so she can crawl around and explore. Today we went over by the owner’s yapping dogs. There we found these flowers. We stuck that thing in Ouest’s ear and she never touched it. She never touches hats either. It’s nice. Like I’ve said in the past though, everything she does touch goes immediately to her mouth. There was an entire flower in her mouth when this picture was taken. It took some digging to get all of that one out.

02-Aug-2010 bumfuzzle.
We finally ventured into the engine compartment today. It’s full of water. The previous owner told me that, inconceivably, the cockpit lockers drain into here. I still have yet to confirm this as it requires some climbing around in Ouest’s room, which won’t really be accessible until her new bed arrives and we can take the crib out. Anyway, today we worked on getting a bilge pump working. After one two-hour trip to the store I came home to discover I still needed one more thing. So the water sits. While in there I gave the engine a turn with a wrench and it went through rather freely. I consider that a good thing. Nothing seems seized up. However this is still sure to be a big project.

02-Aug-2010 9:50 PM
Ouest has been sleeping through the night on her own lately. More or less seven to seven. Ali slips her a feeding at 10:30 that she doesn’t really wake up for, but otherwise she is on her own. We hear a few little cries in the night, but she gets back down on her own quickly. It’s been incredible.

03-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
This video just makes me smile.

03-Aug-2010 7:07 AM
Ali and I are righties. Basically if you chopped off our left hands we would survive as if nothing at all had happened. If we lost our right we would starve to death within a week. Meanwhile we are watching Ouest and she does everything equally well with both hands. In fact she picks up tiny objects with her left hand even better than with her right. Now, being ambidextrous is cool. That’s unique. But being a lefty? Not so much. All I can think is, “Oh Christ, if I have to teach her to throw a baseball left-handed there is no way she’ll ever not throw like a girl.”

04-Aug-2010 9:14 PM
Somebody is finally getting a whisper of hair on her head.

04-Aug-2010 our life. daily.

04-Aug-2010 bumfuzzle.
The standing rigging on the boat looks fantastic. To me it appears oversized, though I’m basing that more on my experience with rigging about half this size on our cat than any actual knowledge. It was brand new about ten years ago, which is quite a while I suppose, but I honestly don’t believe the boat has been sailed in all that time. This rigging has had absolutely no pressure placed upon it. And, even better, probably hasn’t had any salt water splashed on it in all that time.

04-Aug-2010 9:39 PM
We haven’t really accomplished a whole lot in the last couple of days, which in my opinion is just fine. We’re on no timeline and are going to try and enjoy this time instead of stressing about getting this or that done. That’s not to say that there isn’t a long list of things we want to get done, but rather that we know they’ll get done eventually. This is what we try and keep telling ourselves anyway. I’m better at this than Ali, though she’s coming around.

I’ve spent a bit of time pouring over the engine manual and crawling around in the engine compartment the past couple of days trying to get a better grip on just how this monster works. It’s a Ford Lehman 80hp engine, which isn’t really a monster as far as boats go, but certainly is compared the the puny 20hp Volvos on our last boat. It took me twenty minutes just to find the dipstick on this thing. It’s located in the hardest to reach spot of the entire engine. Of course.

Anyway, after going over these things I’m feeling much more comfortable in attacking it. Oil, coolant, fuel, raw water, all the systems are laid out pretty simply and shouldn’t present too much of a problem for me. Of course, I’ve still got to get in there and do them, so I may very well eat those words.

Big plan for tomorrow is to drive to town, buy oil and coolant, and… Well, that’s about it. The day after that I’m going in for sure.

05-Aug-2010 bumfuzzle.
See that. That’s bilge water flowing freely. I know it shouldn’t be a big deal to get a bilge pump working and drain fifty gallons or so of water from underneath the engine, but when the nearest marine store is a two or three-hour round-trip it’s a plenty big deal. With this finally done I can begin crawling around the engine. Before long we’ll be flying down the waterways at six knots. We’ll be basking under a palapa on a Mexican playa and it will all be because of this bilge water.

05-Aug-2010 9:11 PM
During Ali’s recent cleaning and reorganizing spree Ouest’s toys were relocated to this cabinet along the living room floor. Ouest is quite happy with the arrangement. So happy in fact that she very nearly fell asleep inside of it today while playing with the rubber mat Ali laid out at the bottom of the cabinet.

05-Aug-2010 9:59 PM
Pictures from the back seat.

06-Aug-2010 3:47 PM
Today a guy who does boat lettering stopped by to see if we needed any work done. We didn’t have any work, but did ask for some advice. The boat name on here now is painted on. Yeah, painted on top of painted hulls. Meaning there is really no way to remove it without scuffing it all up, repainting that section of hull and then applying our sticker name. Problem with that of course is that there is absolutely no way we will be able to match up the hull color with fresh paint. So we’ll have a big square area on both sides of the boat looking all shiny and new. I tell you, even the seemingly simple jobs on a boat end up being huge projects.

When the guy asked what name we were changing it to we told him Bumfuzzle and he said, “Ooooooooh. I know you guys.” We’re never entirely sure if that is a good thing or not. With him it seemed to be.

So if anybody has any ideas for us as to how to make this work we’re all ears. Or maybe we should just leave the name and rename our website. It’s actually a rather fitting cruiser name. De Texel. The Sheep.

06-Aug-2010 3:55 PM
Ouest is now sleeping 11 1/2 hours straight at night, waking up for two hours, and then taking a two hour nap. Up for another two hours and then another 90 minutes of nap time. Up for a while longer, and then some days another short nap, before going to bed for the night at seven o’clock. She obviously has no problem with the motion of the boat on the water.

06-Aug-2010 bumfuzzle.
I find it hard to envision sitting inside the boat at this helm station while out cruising. I’m not sure why. It has a nice 270 degree view, I can see all of the sails, and it’s bone dry even in nasty conditions. But somehow the idea of steering the ship from this position just doesn’t seem right to me. Maybe on that first cold night out with headwinds and waves coming over the bow I’ll become a little more comfortable with it.

06-Aug-2010 our life. daily.

07-Aug-2010 bumfuzzle.
Turns out this is an SSB radio from the 70s or early 80s. It’s an Astro 150A. It turns out that this thing has some value to HAM radio enthusiasts. Not to me. The idea of trying to figure out what all of those knobs and switches means goes way beyond anything I’m interested in doing. Anyway, it’s also hooked up to a Dentron Jr. Monitor, and the whole shebang will be on eBay soon.

07-Aug-2010 7:37 PM
Well at least a few small things got done today. One was easy; flip the breaker on the hot water heater. Ten minutes later we’ve got piping hot water throughout the boat. The other day when I was in the engine compartment I was looking at the heater and was thinking to myself that there was absolutely no way that thing was going to be working. It looks ancient. Then later on I was talking to one of the marina owners as he was wrecking a sailboat whose owner had long since stopped paying his bills. He was selling the engine, selling the lead, and tossing the rest of the boat. Anyway, I asked him if it had a hot water heater on board and he said that it did and that I was welcome to it. So I jumped in the boat to take a look and lo and behold it was the exact same water heater we have already. So that’s a long story to come around to the point that just today I finally listened to Ali who had told me days ago about the breaker, I flipped it on, and we’ve got hot water. Hooray.

We’ve also got a functioning toilet onboard. Granted, to use said toilet you would need to lift a refrigerator off of it first, but still, it’s a toilet, and it flushes. Hooray.

We also continued cleaning out the engine compartment bilge. It’s actually clean enough in there now that I can move around in bare feet and not come out covered in oil and grease. Now that that’s done I can get to work on the engine itself. One wonderful thing I discovered today is that there is enough space underneath the engine for me to place a big bucket in order to drain the oil. On our last boat I had to use this incredibly tedious and messy method of pumping the oil out of the engine with a tiny little hand pump. Anyway, I bought a garbage pail that fits right in there today and tomorrow I can get to work.

07-Aug-2010 our life. daily.

08-Aug-2010 5:42 PM
A couple of Bum friends dropped in on us today. They were the first non-yachtie types to stop by the boat and it was fun to get their reaction. They’re currently world cruiser dreamers and I got the feeling that coming into our meeting the girlfriend was of the opinion that living on a boat wouldn’t be all that “comfortable.” But they were impressed with the new Bumfuzzle and we could immediately see the wheels turning in their heads. I think we did a good job of selling the cruising life. Or at least the, “living on a nice boat in a marina” life.

And it’s true, Bum is cleaning up really well. I actually like her better than the catamaran as far as a home goes. She’s comfier, warmer, and just all around more homey. Now whether any of this will translate to happiness out on the ocean remains to be seen, but for right now, living in Hidden Harbor Marina, it’s perfect.

The other thing that I think a lot of people would find surprising is that there is a lot more livable space in this boat than our cat. The cat had four cabins, but the only floor space was the two very narrow hallways in the hulls. This boat has a lot more floor space for us to play and lounge around on. The cat would win on outdoor space, but indoors this Bum blows the old Bum out of the water.

08-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
Ouest thought standing on the steps looking out was the coolest thing ever. We have no idea why.

09-Aug-2010 bumfuzzle.
One of my favorite features of the boat; the curving staircase. Every other monohull we’ve ever been on consisted of a sort of ladder leading almost straight up and down right in the center of the boat. This is much cooler, and once again, adds to the “hominess” of the boat.

09-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
Almost old enough to grab some sandpaper and get to work on that brightwork behind her.

10-Aug-2010 5:27 PM
Ouest’s entire life now seems to revolve around standing up. It’s all she does. All she thinks about. If there is anything even remotely within reach which she can use to pull herself up that is what she’ll do. It’s fine during the day when I can just lay next to her and let her grab me by the hair to stand up. The problem is really only when she should be going to bed. We lay her down, she seems completely dead to the world, but then an arm moves, and then a leg, and seconds later she is at the side of the crib scaling the wall with her eyes closed. I honestly can’t imagine her not walking within another month or so. If she’s not, she’s going to drive us completely batty. And if she is walking I suppose that will drive us batty as well.

10-Aug-2010 8:44 PM
We were reading through some of the latest cruising forum Bumfuzzle related jabber today and I have to say that even after all these years I am still amazed by these online armchair wannabe’s. This particular forum is one in which swearing seems to be a prerequisite and I’m pretty sure that these guys think using the F word in a sentence makes them witty.

Here is one of the quotes that I think really stands out as to why there are so few people out doing what we are doing, and soooooooo many people sitting in chat rooms all day discussing it.

Haven’t gotten to the new adventure yet but the first was a classic. I admire them for their adventure (envy them too) but, ignorance is bliss. Most of us don’t have the balls to do it because we know the true risks. The prep work necessary to do it right is beyond what most can afford in money and time. At so many points they got away easy. If just one of their adventures had gone badly we would have been reading about a couple that disappeared somewhere in the worlds oceans.

Just listen to all of those excuses packed in to one short paragraph. I don’t do it because I know the true risk involved. I can’t afford to do it right so I just don’t do it at all. Oh, if only I had the time, I would do all those things I dream about doing. Something bad could have happened. Sure, nothing did, but that’s just dumb luck. Four years worth of it. And then the ignorance is bliss line again? Really? That one must have been printed about us a thousand times by now.

The cruising community really disappoints me. Such a bunch of namby pamby sissies. Here they are on boats that maybe move at six miles an hour, with practically on demand detailed weather charting, and a whole slew of other safety gadgets, and yet sailing away from the dock is too dangerous. Better to stay tied up in Vermont and dream about those islands tucked way out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

I really just don’t see Ali and I having much in common with the yachtie crowd. We’ve tried. We really have. But it just isn’t taking. It must be our fault. I can accept that. I just don’t think we’ll be able to, or care to, do much to change it.

11-Aug-2010 8:40 PM
A couple of days ago some new Bum friends stopped by the boat to say hi. Nice people who also brought along a big bag of fruits and chocolates for us. Then today a good friend of ours from back in our Red Sea sailing days came by. Nicole’s daughter Luna has always been one of my favorite kids. She was two when we met them in Oman and is the little girl who I’ve always thought about when I’ve contemplated raising my own little girl aboard. Watching the way she could swim, move around a boat, and even interact at that young age with adults, stuck in my head.

Both these families happened to be from Sebastopol which is sort of what I’d call a counter-culture town. Sure there’s lots of money and eBay mansions, but there is also a lot of people not conforming to the every day norm. I like it. If I had to settle down on land I think I might even try it there. Though let’s hope it doesn’t ever come to that.

Ouest loves having company. She just sits and stares at all the new people talking around her. And having other young kids there? Forget it, she can’t get enough of them either. Luna was a champ and just sat there nicely while Ouest touched her face, and legs, and pulled her hair.

Nicole brought a bunch of food too. I’m starting to get the feeling that nobody thinks our onboard diet of Taco Bell, beer, and pretzels is healthy enough.

11-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
Seriously? Making out with your reflection on the door?

12-Aug-2010 7:51 PM
Work on the boat has slowed to a crawl the past few days. What with friends dropping by and our general slothfulness. Today we managed to get a little bit done. I started out the morning fixing the toilet. The toilet I only just got working a couple of days earlier. I’d forgotten how much fun marine toilets are. They’re made out of plastic and designed to be simple, but somehow these things are never simple. The problem turned out not to be any of the things listed in the manual’s troubleshooting guide, but a jammed up wet/dry switch. Anyway, we’re housebroken again. Two of us are.

I also got started on hooking up our shower. Our full size 6’4″ headroom shower. Man is that going to be sweet. This actually looks to be a fairly straightforward project. Two water hoses, a bilge pump, and the wiring to run it. Once that is working Ali has grand plans for the bathroom. Envision a Pottery Barn catalog and then figure in that any time I’m doing something it is probably the first time I am ever doing it, and the result should be somewhere south of the catalog but north of where it is now. We are nothing if not determined to make this boat a comfortable home. Ali’s already talking about things five years or more in the future, which I can only take as a sign that she really is happy with our new McMansion.

The engine work has ground to a halt. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but the reason I’m not doing anything on it at the moment is that I don’t have a set of wrenches. There was a time when I actually had a moderately decent set of tools. Then we went cruising and half of them were destroyed by rust, broken doing jobs they were never meant for, or just plain lost. The remaining half then went on a VW journey with us where they were abused some more. And now, we arrived in California, with nothing but a set of sockets and a small handful of screwdrivers in order to take on a long neglected boat with an engine that hasn’t been started in six years. I really need to go to Home Depot and spend some money.

12-Aug-2010 our life. daily.

13-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
We found this great little used bookstore on Main Street here in Rio Vista today. It’s seriously one of the top three used bookstores we’ve found anywhere around the world. Small, but a great selection, incredibly low prices, and a carpeted floor for Ouest to run amok. Crawl amok? Climb amok?

13-Aug-2010 bumfuzzle.
The marina owners were tearing a boat apart recently and pulling all sorts of nautical goodies out of it. They’re generous guys and have been trying to push all sorts of stuff on us. Today they offered up these. Two forty-foot new in the bag lifeline nets. Good stuff. Still a few feet short, but this is a great start. Now, just need to get new lifelines and we can hang them up.

13-Aug-2010 9:11 PM
It never fails, as soon as I spout off about how much the cruising community, especially the online bit, annoys me, cruisers and Bum friends come by to say and do nice things. Today we were sitting here when a guy we met last week dropped by with a big bag of fresh picked pears for us. It’s harvesting season around here and the trees do indeed look loaded. He also mentioned that his wife is a big fan of Ali’s. Who isn’t, right?

Then tonight as we came out of the shower with Ouest we were surprised by a couple of longtime Bum friends from Medford, Oregon who were sort of driving through the general area and decided to see if they couldn’t track us down and say hi. We had a nice visit with them and again the new Bumfuzzle got two thumbs up.

So anyway, I know I give the cruising community crap sometimes, but I also know just how fortunate we are to have so many friends from so many different places around the globe that, I suppose, would have to be considered part of the “cruising community.”

13-Aug-2010 ouest lill. eight months.
Ouesterly,

Another month, another birthday. I promise after you turn one I will stop calling the thirteenth of each month your birthday. If for no other reason than I don’t want you to suddenly start wondering where your cake and presents are each month.

This was a monumental month for you, and for us as a family. We moved aboard Bumfuzzle a couple of weeks back and you took to it immediately. It’s a good thing too, because more than likely this will be the only life you’ll know for the conceivable future. You’ve got your own room on the boat which is more than we can say about your life up to this point. You seem to like it too. And with good reason, it’s the best cabin of any boat your mama and I have ever been on. I almost feel like we need to go buy a bunch of toys just to fill up the huge amount of space you’ve got in there.

You’ve been busy growing up this month. You seem really impatient with the whole crawling thing. Like it is boring. You can pull yourself up onto anything in just a matter of seconds and then you just stand there like you’re thinking seriously about taking off and walking back to Minnesota. But then you fall down onto your well padded butt. Walking will have to wait another month. It won’t be long though, I’m sure of that.

You haven’t said your first word yet, but you have been making all sorts of strange noises. Hacks, of the sort a farmer makes right before hocking a loogie onto the sidewalk, are your favorites, but you also make sweet melodic hums when the mood strikes.

It’s been another fun month. We’ve traveled a bit, you’ve learned not to HATE your car seat, we play in the grass each afternoon, you eat grass each afternoon, you’ve become an excellent driver, you eat anything and everything that we put in front of you, you often sleep right on through the night, and you smile and laugh all day long.

We’re already looking forward to what next month might bring.

14-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
Ali is painting Ouest’s windows black. Up to now they’ve been covered in tinfoil. Ouest is a good sleeper, but a dark room makes things a lot easier. And besides, when she’s not sleeping the windows are opened up and light and air is flooding in.

14-Aug-2010 7:58 PM
On the boat front today progress continued in the bathroom. The shower is hooked up and working with hot water and all. The shower bilge is spitting out water and all the wiring and hoses is beautifully hidden and smoothly run. I’m quite pleased with how well this little project went. Paint is next, then a new mirror, some woodwork staining and we’ll be done with that. As easy as pie.

14-Aug-2010 8:27 PM
Lots of smiles today.

15-Aug-2010 8:25 PM
We moved Ouest’s bed out of her room today so Ali could finish up her window painting. So this was the first real chance I’ve had since we moved in to look around, especially at the back where the rudder post and auto pilot are. I also was able to confirm what I find to be one of the most bizarre set-ups ever on a boat. The cockpit lockers do indeed drain directly into the bilge of the boat. Meaning whenever we wash them out we would then get to go into the engine compartment and clean that out as well. Or worse still, when a big wave swamps the cockpit and rips one of the locker doors off its hinges the inside of the boat could then begin filling with water. For the time being I don’t see much I can do about it, though I haven’t been able to explore too much back there yet, and I’m sure I can eventually find a thru-hull that I can run them out through.

Our autopilot is an ancient contraption. A Benmar of early eighties vintage. I don’t know much about these things yet and will have to do some research, but judging by the ATARI looking control panel in the cockpit I can’t imagine this will be interfacing very well with an Apple computer of today. And considering that our autopilot did 99.95% of the steering on our last trip I think this is something we’ll invest a bit of time on.

15-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
I’m starting to feel a little guilty about how much work gets done around here each day. As far as we know nobody around the marina has any idea of our past travels so whenever we get to talking to people I end up with the distinct feeling that they feel sorry for us. Like we’re deluding ourselves into thinking we might ever get this boat fixed up and actually move out of this slip. But hey, what do we care, we get to play with Ouest all day. That, and this slip cost about eight bucks a day.

16-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
And on this day she discovered rocks. Turns out she has a taste for them.

17-Aug-2010 bumfuzzle.
Parts for the engine arrived today so in I crawled. One of the things I had hoped for in a boat, a dedicated engine room, had to be given up when we decided on the Spindrift. And while the engine doesn’t have its own room it does still have pretty good access. Though I’ve seen pics of these boats where the owners have shoved a generator engine into the space that I am occupying in these pictures. I honestly can’t imagine that I would ever give up this space for a generator. Without this four square feet of floor space this engine compartment would be a nightmare. As it is I managed to get fuel and air filters changed, and coolant hoses replaced.

17-Aug-2010 our life. daily.

18-Aug-2010 our life. daily.

18-Aug-2010 bumfuzzle.
One of the engine projects today was to change the raw water impeller. I bet I changed at least thirty of these on our last boat. They were constantly breaking apart. When I was ordering parts the other day I asked the guy how often I should have to replace these with this engine and he told me, “Maybe, maybe, once every three years.” We’ll see if he’s right.

18-Aug-2010 8:19 PM
Ali was playing with Ouest today when she caught a glimpse of something in her mouth. Tooth number five came in and we didn’t even know it was coming. I swear you would think we’d have recognized the signs by now. She went from sleeping great, to suddenly rustling around in bed unable to get comfortable, and even cried for forty-five minutes one day during a naptime where she should’ve been exhausted. As soon as we saw the tooth today we felt awful. We should have known something was wrong and given her something for the pain. Instead it’s like we’re trying to breed a prize fighter. No pain, no pain, no pain!

We went out to Ace Hardware today to pick up a couple small items. We’re in there every couple of days for one thing or another and most of the staff now know us, or at least Ouest, by name. I don’t even mind paying the higher prices at this store because it’s so darn friendly. They’ve even got a popcorn machine going all day long. And then on the way out I get to grab one of the free suckers from the register. Small town wholesomeness at its best.

But I digress. While in the store today we browsed the aisles looking for a bathtub for Ouest. We found it in the gardening aisle. We tried out a couple of different sizes before settling on the big green one. And tonight Ouest got her first bath on the boat. She’s been showering with us since we got here, which was fine, but wasn’t too relaxing for her. Tonight she got to enjoy splashing and goofing around again. It was fun to watch her reaction when she realized what was going on.

19-Aug-2010 7:11 AM
Ali was replying to an e-mail regarding our online naysayers when she looked up and said, “I actually think all the internet critics helped us on our circumnavigation. We didn’t have anybody saying yes, yes, you can do it. We only had people telling us that we couldn’t do it, or just not saying anything at all. Those guys just motivated me more.” So I guess we should thank them.

19-Aug-2010 7:42 AM
Yes, we’ve made it official yet again, we are mean parents. This morning we discovered tooth number six is through already and seven is very close. We missed every single sign this past week. No pain, no pain, no pain! Two teeth? Three? Toughen up!

19-Aug-2010 bumfuzzle.
I got the Delaware registration stickers off the boat today. This is one of our quiet time projects. Still haven’t attacked the painted on boat name, but I’ll have to wait a couple of days for the muscles in my buffing arm to recuperate.

Just some randomness.

19-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
Every day around three o’clock we can be found in a shaded grassy spot along the Delta. Our friends that have visited us here at the marina have all commented on what a beautiful place it is. And I guess it really is. It’s like a flowery oasis in the midst of vineyards, corn fields, and pear groves.

20-Aug-2010 bumfuzzle.
All of our lifelines need replacing. The ones on here now are just sad saggy things that no amount of tightening could fix. To be honest I don’t really understand how stainless steel lifelines get saggy in the first place. How does that steel stretch while just sitting there for years on end? Not sure how much these things cost but we should at least be able to save a few bucks by reusing the hardware. And not getting the plastic coated ones either.

20-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
All the kids are into vampires these days.

20-Aug-2010 8:44 PM
Well we got our fifty dollars back from the canvas guy. Unfortunately. As we would have much rather just had him deliver what was originally promised. Anyway, we’ve got a different plan for Ouest’s bed that really shouldn’t require any special skills beyond being handy with a sewing machine. If any of our Bum friends out there would like to take on this project for us we’d be very appreciative. We’d of course pay for materials and maybe even a pizza and a beer. Let us know.

21-Aug-2010 bumfuzzle.
Ali has been hard at work on the cockpit lockers the last couple of days. These were a serious mess after many, many cans of oil, epoxy, and paint rusted and leaked in them through the years. Today she announced, “Okay, those babies are spotless. Stay out of them.” Only half-jokingly. For a second I thought I honestly couldn’t have access to the cockpit lockers. Just like the kitchen. And the bedroom. And…

Meanwhile, the engine is on hold while we await a new fresh water pump. When I first turned the engine over by hand I spotted a leak that I’d originally assumed was coming from the old hose. So we waited for new hoses and a few other parts. When I put the new hose on and added coolant it still came pouring out. A closer look revealed it was the pump, not the hose. Once that gets here we should be about ready to crank this thing over once and for all. First press of the starter in six years. Oh yes, the camera will be rolling for that one.

21-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
Clouds. Glorious clouds. Something we didn’t see our entire first month here in California. Not that we’re complaining. But a good cloud sure can spruce up a picture now and then.

22-Aug-2010 bumfuzzle.
There are things that a lot of boats of a certain age all seem to have. And if you’ve owned more than a couple of boats odds are that you’ve got boxes and boxes and bilges and bilges full of miscellaneous parts. So there are things missing or broken around our boat that I’m just going to flat out ask if anybody else has and would be willing to part with. Just ask a fair price and it’s yours. Just need the glass for one of these five inch lights. A few of these cabinet latches, and a couple of winch handles.

22-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
Exploring the boat.

22-Aug-2010 7:44 PM
Lately Ouest has had to learn the meaning of no. Up until now there hasn’t really been any reason to tell her no, but the past couple of weeks her explorations have started to test the boundaries. It’s nice to see her grasping that what she is doing is either a good thing or a not so good thing. You can see the understanding in her eyes. When she picks up a rock and slowly brings it to her mouth, pausing at the last second to look at us, she clearly knows that what she is about to do is going to get a, “No.” Not that she listens. The rock still goes in the mouth. But she knows. And she knows that we know that she knows. And we know…

23-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
“Ummm, hey. Hey. Over here!”

23-Aug-2010 9:01 PM
Ali is packing up. We’re off to Minnesota for a few days. Ouest’s next treatment is later this week. Which is the bad news for her. The good news, if she were old enough to understand it, is that the Minnesota State Fair also starts this week. Pronto Pups, Summit Pale Ale, miscellaneous deep fried stuff, and fresh chocolate chip cookies. All that, and we get to go stare at those 4H kids who sleep in the barns with their prize heifer for two weeks. Man we love the State Fair.

24-Aug-2010 9:12 PM
We left the boat this morning and boarded a flight back to Minnesota for Ouest’s next laser treatment on her nose later this week. Everything started out well enough. The plane had one row with only two seats and we managed to get seats there. So no sharing a row with anybody. Always a good thing with a baby along.

The trouble started when she dirtied her diaper. Normally no big deal, grab a fresh diaper, wipes, and head off to the bathroom. So I step into the bathroom and stand there looking around in circles for the changing table. Finally I poke my head back outside and asked the flight attendant, “I’m sorry, I can’t find the changing table anywhere.” To which she replied, “Yeah, this plane is too old for those.” I asked where I could change my daughter and she sort of looked around and then pointed to the floor right outside the cockpit doors. The floor is where Delta wanted me to change my baby’s dirty diaper.

Anyway, we eventually changed her right on our seats, which I’m sure made nearby passengers really happy. And even more happy when we did it again two hours later. I’m sure everybody around us was thinking, “Gross. Why don’t they go use the changing tables in the bathrooms?”

Aside from that little issue the flight went well. No crying whatsoever. Unfortunately no sleeping either. Her eyelids looked like they weighed ten pounds each by the time we touched down, but she absolutely could not give in to the temptation of sleep.

24-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
She’s still too young for a beer. But that doesn’t stop her from perusing the drink menu.

25-Aug-2010 10:04 PM
Being back in Minnesota with family it really struck us just how quickly Ouest is changing. She seems so much bigger and more mature. She rarely gets upset any more and she can entertain herself for long periods of time. We’ve also been able to just move furniture out of the way and let her have free reign of the living room. We’ve seen it on the boat, and now we’re seeing it here, this girl is an explorer.

25-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
Ouest got her first camera today. Fittingly, she carried it around with the strap in her mouth the entire time.

26-Aug-2010 10:15 AM
Trying to maintain two or three comfortable “homes” for Ouest is a pain in the butt these days thanks to airlines and their outrageous baggage fees. Fees that were originally put in place to offset high fuel costs. Costs which no longer exist. Ali has spent pretty much every free naptime minute the past two days running around town to buy a crib, a highchair, and food. By the time we’re settled in again it will be time to leave.

26-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
We’ve gotten a lot of good advice from people regarding their favorite children’s books. Some advice even comes with a few bucks. This is Ouest saying thanks for the new book from a friend she’s never met.

27-Aug-2010 2:06 PM
Ouest had her seventh laser treatment today. We’re never looking forward to these, but are always anxious to see further good results. Basically everybody who sees her and knows about her hemangioma says, “I can’t even see it?” Which of course is exactly what we all want.

So when we saw the doctor beforehand today he took a close look at Ouest, sat back in his chair, and happily announced, “You guys, this is a success. If there was ever a success story it is this one.”

Over the past few months we’ve gotten involved in the online community that exists for children with hemangiomas. And over that time we’ve learned a few things. The big one being that nasal tip hemangiomas like Ouest’s do not generally go very well for the child. By the time parents and doctors realize what is happening the hemangioma has usually progressed to a point that there is very little that can be done and the child is left with a large deformed nose that requires surgery once they are old enough. It seems all nasal tip h’s require surgery. Our doctor is hopeful however that we may have avoided that necessity in Ouest’s case.

Fortunately with Ouest we got the right diagnosis early on, and while our Mexican doctors advice to just “wait and see,” was wrong, we didn’t listen to her and sought treatment immediately. We count ourselves as very fortunate that we did. Essentially what her laser treatments have done is stopped the hemangioma in its tracks.

The doctor told us today that he was lowering the “power” on the laser for this treatment and that, unless there is some sudden growth, we will not schedule one for next month and that we can now keep a close eye on it and maybe keep up preventative treatments on a two or three month schedule. This was all very good news for the three of us today.

27-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
Waiting for the dreaded nurses in blue to show up. Ouest is still too young to know what this hospital toy room means. And in case anybody is wondering, those are twelve month old pajamas that are sitting about halfway up her shins.

28-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
We had a barbeque over at Ali’s sister’s house today. Good food, good fun, and lots of family pictures.

29-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
Summer is winding down in Minnesota. Which means it’s the time of year to squeeze something in to each night because very soon nobody will be able to venture outdoors. Tonight it was fast-pitch softball.

30-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
The Great Minnesota Get-Together. That’s the Minnesota State Fair’s tagline. We, along with the rest of the family, braved the ninety-three degree heat and humidity today for our yearly visit to what we still consider to be the best fair in all the land. We hadn’t walked a block from the car before Ouest peed on me. She’d gotten her diaper off kilter somehow and this was her way of telling me. Not a good start, but from then on she had a great time. It’ll be even more fun when she can walk around and eat things that are fried on a stick. On another note, Ali’s parents celebrated their 41st anniversary today. Yay for them. Meaning of course that they married in the summer of ’69. And that Bryan Adams will forever be a part of their lives.

31-Aug-2010 our life. daily.
Ouest seems to be learning that there may be some benefit to crying. Like if we take a fork away from her, or grab her as she climbs up the fourth rung of a ladder, she can cry big tears and see if that will get her left alone. It isn’t working so well at the moment, but it is clear she isn’t going to stop trying any time soon. It’s doubtful that we’ll be able to resist it forever.

31-Aug-2010 2:52 PM
A package full of window seals showed up today. With a little luck we should be able to fix up the portholes and prevent any further leaking without having to rebed any of them. From what we saw so far they all seemed to be leaking from the window seal itself. So, fingers crossed on that one. There should also be a package waiting for us at the marina with a new fresh water pump in it for the engine. That’s pretty much the last of the engine projects before we can fire it up. Looking forward to that day. It’ll be exciting to push that starter for the first time. Could very well determine whether we got ourselves a good deal on this boat or not.