Week #33 - "We have SAILS"
04/25/2025
Chris – “The ME in Team”
I swear it was JUST Friday! I can’t believe another week has gone by, but I guess it must be true. I woke up, this morning, depressed that another week had passed, and I struggled to see what I had accomplished during the last 7 days. Sometimes it is like that. Time passes, and I feel like I probably squandered it, even though I remember trying to work hard all week. Thankfully, since I am committed to writing this blog every week, I am forced to sit still for a minute and think specifically about what I did to fill my hours this week. And, as I do, I am greeted with the reality that we really did make progress. Maybe you are the same, but often, my brain tries to convince me that I am a lazy bum, and that everyone else in the world would have accomplished far more, if they were in my shoes… not very nice of my brain to shame me like that, but it happens.
In truth, my family did the most notable things this week; I played more of a supporting role. I taught Jasper how to use fairing compound to repair a large dent on the boat, and he did an amazing job. I asked Crystal and Oliver to get our boat lettering (name and hailing port) painted on the back of the boat, and they did; it looks SO GOOD too! I asked Ellis to paint the deck at the back of the boat, and he did a phenomenal job of it. Conrad fixed the lights that were not working in the front bedroom of our boat. Posy hung up the dry-erase boards in the kid’s bedrooms. And I finished making all the parts for the anchor chain box (Crystal is painting them now.) As a team, we also got our mainsail and our mizzen sail raised and inspected, and Conrad and Oliver inspected the last 3 loose sails that we had not rolled out yet. Lots of good things happened, it was just, mostly, my family that did them. Funny enough, this was by choice. Last week, I realized that I was not doing a very good job of sharing the work. I had a constant running list of things that I needed to accomplish, but I wasn’t delegating them because I would have to try to explain my thought process, or teach someone how to do the thing, and that would slow me down from doing things. People would constantly be asking me what they could do to help, and I would just be like, “can you figure it out… I’m busy right now.” I know, I’m a dummy sometimes. I have been a boss, and a leader, in the work environment for years, so you would think that I would realize that this is a terrible way to lead, but here we are. I am grateful for an amazing team/family! This week, they proved that I am the one that slows us down by trying to carry everyone and everything. They are fully capable, amazing people, and together, we can accomplish so much more than I can do on my own. It is only my pride that measures the week’s accomplishments based on what I, alone, accomplished. We are a team, and I am better because of the people that support me.
As of yesterday, we have jumped into the process of “going through” the engine room. This means we are closely inspecting all the systems and connections that are related to our boat’s motor, transmission, and such. We are checking every hose and clamp, every belt and fluid reservoir, and I am sweating literal buckets. On many boats, the term “engine room” is just a joke, because there is rarely a “room.” Sailboat engines are normally located in a box, under the stairs, or bed, or a cabinet. The “room” is just barely big enough for the engine, and does not supply any additional space for a mechanic to actually work on the engine. Our engine room is very generous, in comparison to typical sailboat configurations, and I have good access to the engine from most sides, but it is still cramped, hot, and dirty. Now, before my friend Jeremy gets too excited that I am about to dive into the technical specs of our diesel, marine engine, I will admit that the whole thing looks like a pile of nonsense to me, currently. We are studying, researching, and asking lots of questions though, so maybe next week, we can drop some mechanic’s nerd-speak on you guys. I see this process as the “last frontier” before we can declare that we are ready to launch this floaty-boaty (that nickname is for Jeremy’s benefit, since I let him down on the technical talk,) and I am excited to be in this phase.
It is getting hot here, and, even though we were given a small air-conditioner by one of our friends, I am ready to get out of boatyard, and out on to the water. We are close, and we are working hard. Soon.
~Chris
Crystal - “Sail Eat Sail”
Putting up sails (even while we are on the hard) made this whole thing feel instantly more achievable. If I really start laying out the list of things that Agnes needs, it’d be years. But seeing the sails go up, imperfect and fitting like hand-me-...ups?, made me feel like “What are we waiting for?!”
On Wednesday morning, we finally hauled the sails that have been lazily flaked on the booms since we first saw the boat. The wind was still waking up, yawning from a quiet night. We found, with gratitude, that both the mainsail and the mizzen reach the top of their masts. Both are in decent shape. The mizzen (that’s the smaller mast aft of the main) sail has a tear in the leech (rear side) that should be patchable and is missing battens (think whalebones in a corset, they add stiffness and structure to the sail). The mainsail is new and has never seen wind. It’s actually missing the hardware needed to attach to the boom and only has half the cars that go up the mast. It is also about 4 feet short on the bottom width. Luckily, we have an original mainsail to cannibalize and steal hardware from. That sail itself has a story to tell, it’s been split in two! Conrad and Oli spent a couple hours harvesting cars and shackles and grommets. Once we get the new (old) hardware loaded, although the power of the mainsail will be compromised by its undersized foot, we have working sails! And they move well. On the boats we’ve chartered in the past, we’ve had to fight to get the sails down. Agnes’ sails drop like butter! This means that in big winds we won’t have to be climbing to get sails down- which is a good thing.
It’s strange how in the last 8+ months, we’ve been “on the way” but suddenly, this week it feels like we might actually be DOING it. Sometimes I question my own excitement. I see how much we have had to adjust and adapt to life on the road, then life on a boat in a yard. It’s been fairly gradual but when I look at the vast difference between our day to day now versus life a year ago, it’s stark and sometimes it’s hard. Now I’m looking at life on the boat, in the water, without a car, saying goodbye to the friends and familiarity we’ve gained here, no showers or laundry to speak of at the moment. I’m excited to figure it out but I have learned that change isn’t to be romanticized or guessed at. It will be glorious, it will be adventurous, it will be a good story. I don’t know where we are headed once we get in the water, but I know the author of the story. He’s doing such good things and I’m so grateful to be His.
The discomfort and edginess of all the unknown is what’s growing us. I heard a phrase in a Crossfit article “We fail at the edge of our experience”. It means that when we are always comfortable, always “winning”, never struggling, we are also stagnant and missing potential. If we are growing and pushing to live our highest life, we are going to misstep. We are going to make ignorant choices and look foolish and then we’re going to learn and be more capable. We are going to feel the friction of our self preservation fighting to stay safe and in known spaces. God’s grace is so good to not leave us stagnant, and so abundant to not give up on our struggles. He’s rooting for us! He’s rooting for you too!
What edge are you toeing right now?
~Crystal
Ellis - “Moby Di…sappointment”
Once we’re on the water, we’ll expect to spend the majority of our waking time hanging out in the exterior cockpit/sugar scoop area. While sailing, the cockpit is not only the safest and most comfortable place to be but it’s also where you would steer, trim the sails, and fish. And while anchored, the water access is back there, and so is the grill and dinghy davits (which doubles as a pull-up bar). That being said, I’ve been spending a whole lot of time working on this area. In the past few weeks, I’ve replaced a hatch (and ripped out two more, yet to be replaced), painted the sugar scoop, fixed the benches, and did so much cleaning and rust mitigation. The sugar scoop is getting close but the cockpit still needs some loving. This week I’ve been working on painting the cockpit deck-which means I spent a couple hours painting and like three days moving things around, grinding, sanding, cleaning, and taping edges off. I’ve done so much but the harder I look the more I realize I still have to do. But that’s okay, it’s good to have work and I’m really excited to spend some time back there once we’re on the water.
Over the past month or so I’ve been working my way through listening to a bunch of literature classics on audible and for the most part, I’ve really enjoyed them so I decided to try one of the most famous ones: Moby Dick. 23 out of 25 hours in, I am not impressed. I can understand it fine-I was worried it’d be written in KJV or something- but it’s real dry and slow. My virtual literature teacher Brian Wasko always said that great books are the ones that invite and reward further readings… maybe I’ll trying reading it again someday but that’s like a whole straight day of listening, probably more if I read it-I’m not sure it’s worth it!
~Ellis
Conrad - “Production”
We're doing things! This past week, we got our boat lettering painted on the stern of the boat. We also have checked the rest of the sails and even put up the sails that are mounted on the masts for the first time. We started replacing hose clamps in the engine room. Dad is getting close to finishing with probably the biggest project we have had so far; the anchor locker. We are also getting closer with the front of the boat where the sail-furler attaches.
Additionally, we have made time for fun stuff; we celebrated Easter well, we have spent time with boat yard neighbors doing everything from dinner to crabbing, and helping each other with boat projects. We also made time for Bible study and church.
We only have a little bit of work left to do. We need to set up a few boards in the anchor locker and install the windlass, anchor winch, and a few hatches. Then, we need to get a welder to come and help us with the new bowsprit, which is an attachment point for the sail-furler, which sticks out in front of the boat. We also need to get a few bolts welded onto the hull for attaching zincs which stop electrical corrosion. Then we need another coat of ablative paint on the rudder, skeg, and under the boat supports and keel. We might also need to get rid of some stuff so that everything fits on our boat-home. Finally, we need to figure out what to do with our spare sails, because there are a lot of them, and they take up a lot of room. Some of them are in pretty rough shape.
~Conrad
Oliver - “Bleu Crabbe… that’s French for “Blue Crab”… probably”
This week we did a lot of activities with friends. We went on another gator walk with friends (that’s a walk, where you look for alligators.) It was successful. Unfortunately, Ellis did not get to wrestle an alligator like he wanted to. They were way too big.
We also did Easter lunch with some new church friends. We ate grilled chicken, grilled corn, and salad. It was a little more formal than we are used to, but it was really fun.
Our boat “neighbor”, Kyle, has been here in the boat yard for a long time, and this week, we decided to have him over for dinner. We mostly just talked and ate tacos.
Then, our other boat neighbors, got back from Tennessee. We went down and caught a bunch of blue crabs off the dock with them. We used our huge net to scoop them and then carefully grab and return them to the water. That was really fun.
That is all the activities we have done with friends.
Thank-you Dee for the painting request, it will be on its way soon. If anyone else would like to buy a painting, please leave a request in the comments.
~Oliver
Jasper - “Fair-well”
Last Friday, after finishing my school, I was vacuuming a couch when my dad asked if I was getting close to being done. I was, so I said “Yeah, what do you want?”. He said “meet me at the front of the boat once you're done”. ”Okay” said I. So, when I was done, I headed down the ladder and toward the front. Dad was sanding a big dent that had a bunch of red paint in it. He was on the scaffolding so climbed up and sat beside him. After a bit, the dent looked like bare metal (other than a few patchy spots). Then, finally he told me what we were going to do. We were going to fill the dent with Total Boat epoxy fairing. The fairing compounds came to us in two separate containers, one that said A and the other that said B. The A is the epoxy, part B is the hardener. Once you mix the two together you have 15-20 mins to get it where you want it. I started mixing; once it turned green (that is a good sign) we started slathering the dent with the green mush. Immediately, I noticed that we were not going to have enough. So when we ran out of the first batch we made another. The second batch made it look a lot flatter, but still not very flat, but we couldn’t do a third coat yet. So after letting the fairing set over the weekend we did two final coats to get it flat. Now it looks way better than before, and it was fun, so win-win.
~Jasper
Posy - “EASTER”
On Easter, we got up early around 6:45am ‘cause that’s our tradition. Mom and Ellis made us some hot chocolate, because it was a little chilly, and we did a sunrise Bible study of our own. We read the bible together outside in the cockpit. We read about the crucifixion of Jesus. Then Mom, Dad and I hid bags/baskets full of candy for the rest of the family because it is a special tradition that we do on Easter. I really like to give my brothers candy and gifts. Once we found it all, we ate breakfast which was eggs, fruit, sausage, tots, and coffee cake. IT WAS AWESOME! Afterwards, we got ready to go to some ruins of a big building, and there, Mom and Dad hid eggs of which there were around 21, and 6 face paint tubes. While we were finding them we found real eggs! There was a tiny nest built into a hole in the wall of the ruins with 5 little speckled eggs. Once we were done with that tradition we took pictures of us jumping, which is another tradition. Then we drove to a friend’s house to have lunch. I mostly played with a girl named Lilly. They also have a really cute dog. Later that day we had a friend named Kyle over to our boat. We ate fajitas and rice. He mostly talked about boats. It was so fun but it felt fast.
~Posy
Wow! Each of you are such troopers! You never cease to amaze me! I love the unity among each of you and the creativity, stamina and determination! Always enjoy reading your posts each week! I hope as each of you journal, you will one day write a book of all your adventures! 👏🏼⚓️🛥️🥰