Week #62-"Cold Snap"
11/14/2025
Chris – “I am not fast.” – Baymax (Big Hero 6)
Hardly a day goes by without someone asking me if I have got our engine running yet. I know that they are all just asking how we are doing because they care about us, but I still feel like I am being judged… well my buddy, Robby, is probably judging me… I KNOW he would have had this thing rebuilt, AND probably completed his first circumnavigation, by now. But I am not fast. The engine is coming together nicely, and I make progress every day, but I am not fast. I haven’t found any “extra” parts, so far, and the parts that I removed, and cleaned, are going back in smoothly, and look nice in their cleaned state, so at least I have that going for me. I had thought that I might even get a chance to start it up today, but alas, it was not meant to be. I was down to a short list of “to-dos” when I broke off a brass screw in the raw-water (sea water) pump. Anyone that has ever broken a screw off in a workpiece knows that it is either going to be not that big of a deal, or it is going to be a REALY big pain in the butt. I panicked a bit, then spent a bunch of time trying, and failing, to remove the stump. Then I resorted to carefully drilling it out, re-tapping the threads, and installing new screws (which I had to drive into town to find at the hardware store). I have tried drilling and tapping screws before (“tapping” is the process of cutting new threads in the metal, so the metal bolt will spin in smoothly and hold tightly in the work piece), and I have never had much luck. I have broken a fair number of bits while trying to cut the new threads in the metal, which only makes the problem worse. I was nervous to be trying again, on a part that is critical to my engine, but I am happy to report that I did not screw it up! That is a huge sigh of relief, but it also still leaves me needing to do the valve adjustments, attach the rocker cover, fill the engine with fresh oil, and bleed the air out of the fuel system. Tomorrow is Saturday. The engine and I will both take a day of rest, thank God for bringing us this far, and then I will get back to it on Sunday afternoon. Sunday evening, or Monday, I should be ready to do the test that will reveal if my rebuilt engine will run. I am really nervous! People have been telling me, for a while, how impressed they were that I was doing this, and I keep telling them, “Hold your applause until after the thing fires up!” I THINK everything has been done correctly, but I won’t know until we crank the starter, and try to fill my beloved engine with little explosions that make things spin round and round. Lord willing, all will be well. I will be holding my breath, praying, and crossing all my fingers and toes, when we go to give it the first try. And you better believe I will be celebrating if it does fire right up!
The boat yard is filled with activity these days. So many people are showing up to get their boats ready to go in the water. Hurricane season is almost officially over, and people are ready to head South… more South… for the winter. It is easy to start to imagine getting our boat on the water too, and to dream again of actually sailing, but I am trying to not count my eggs before they hatch, so to speak. We feel the holiday season approaching, and we are really hoping to be out of the boat yard, and living on our own terms. The boat yard is a great place to work on a boat, but it does not exude holiday cheer, in my opinion. I know that God will lead us out of this place, in the perfect time, so I am content, for today, that I was able to fix my little broken screw, and to keep moving forward.
I have been able to catch up with a lot of people this week, but I still have a list of people to call. It is really good to hear from people that I miss very much, so make sure you reach out any time you think of us. We would love to hear from you. God bless you and keep you.
~Chris
Crystal - “Smatters”
Coaching- I miss coaching. I heard from a friend who is going through the process of coming off pharmaceuticals for mood regulation and has no real support to navigate alternate options-nutrition, etc. I don’t feel qualified to do that but I realized how much it makes me miss having the opportunity to speak into people’s health as a coach. Now I just nerd out on my kids and Chris. Nutrition and movement matter so much. Dialing in what fuels and grows a body, in turn, changes the function and health of the mental/emotional being.
Proud and Embarrassed- There is a great company called Azure Standard- they ship bulk organic goods all over the states. The shipments come monthly on a semi. Everyone shows up to the assigned parking lot and get their goods at the appointed time. I placed an order this month and the drop was scheduled for 6:30pm. I drove across town being sure to arrive 15 minutes early as advised. I had skipped my morning workout because it was 34 degrees out that morning and I was a sissy. So I told myself if the truck was late, I was going to do 100 dumbbell snatches in the parking lot while I waited. I keep my gym in the back of the Yukon these days for easy access. The truck was not there but there were maybe a dozen other cars with people waiting for their stuff. I parked and got my dumbbell out before I talked myself out of it. As I was sweating and huffing and puffing, it was an equal amount feeling weird and conspicuous and also like maybe someone there might think “if she can make that work…I can ____ too” . I wish I had invited somebody to join me. Hah. That would have been fun! I want more stories like that- random workouts with strangers in parking lots…or better yet on beaches.
Thanksgiving- it’s coming fast and we don’t know how we are celebrating. It is not for lack of gratitude but traditions are all a bit fluid when home is more of a feeling than a place and family (like the holidays specific “family” are all states away). Last year we were with family, not the regulars but they made us feel like we were home and it was good. This year…we’re excited to see what happens. There is an annual cruiser’s thanksgiving hosted by some locals here that we plan on checking out. They have events all week. Most of our crew said they just need pie and lots of it.
Bible study this week- We are reading Acts and seeing the disparity between what most of us experience at church and what it could be. We talked about how all the habitual, produced things sometimes get in the way of the Spirit having space to move. We talked about how we miss connection because we’re busy. We talked about how to make church more like the Church was meant to be without making a new denomination a.k.a.-different kind of broken church. What we came up with was “unity”. Spirit enabled, bold and beloved, embraced and embracing, righteous but not pious UNITY. There were 13 of us in the room. I said, if we all walked in on Sunday with that kind of “church” in each of our hearts, the whole congregation would find more.
School- When I planned school at the beginning of the year, I only planned for the first semester and figured I would evaluate where we were coming into the second half and go from there. We’re looking at it coming fast now. And my kids are getting through what I had for them quickly. So I have been busy this week, trying to lay out a reasonable workload for all my scholars. Trying to find a challenging load without making it an overload for anyone is a bit of a moving target. I am praying that God’s grace fills in the gaps that I am inevitably leaving, but on the other hand, I am constantly impressed with these kids and their capability to overcome and ingenuity at overcoming obstacles.
God is good. We are well. Chris is moving steadily forward with the engine. After a little snap of winter, we are back to a beautiful Georgia fall of high seventies and sunshine. We are grateful. This is not what we signed up for but He’s making it good. I am continuing to see God show up perfectly in places where I know my default not long ago would be panic. That’s fun.
If you’re reading this, I bet we miss you a lot! Send us a line if you have a second, we’d love to hear from you!
~Crystal
Ellis - “We Bring the “Cool” With Us“
We got a record breaking cold snap this week here in St. Marys, GA—the previous record for November 10th in the area was 36 degrees Fahrenheit but we got down to 33 on Monday! That’s two now: earlier in the year we got the first snow this area has had in over 40 years! All our friends here are saying it’s our fault… Overall, I’ve been really enjoying the chillier weather but I was wishing I had another blanket last night! It’s made me realize that our “ideal” circumstances aren’t the only place we can find joy. We’ve spent all this time trying to get to this tropical, clear-waters dream we’ve had for years but now, after the summer we’ve had, we’re all more than happy to just be cold. It’s also got me wondering what we’ll get up to after we sail for a season or two. A pre-mature day-dream maybe, seeing as we haven’t even sailed on our boat yet, but I’ve gotten sort of disenchanted with boats. They’re a lot of work and it seems like no matter how much we do, our to-do list is still growing. But maybe once we finally get in the water and start doing what we came all this way for, it’ll make more sense.
~Ellis
Conrad - “Living Around”
Ever since we left Colorado, and even before, this entire journey has been one leap of faith after another. Lots of little things and a few bigger ones, but all together, lots of trust. And so far, while it hasn’t been what we had expected, it has been pretty good. It hasn’t been as fun as we had expected but we have grown a lot. I have a much better understanding about a lot of different things, including myself. School has been pretty light but I have learned way more than I usually used to.
Some of the biggest things I have learned are; How to live by faith, trusting God to take care of us and lead us. How to figure stuff out, like welding, splicing, wiring, and hopefully eventually, fishing. I have realized that people don’t know how capable they are at overcoming. A lot of people are just to scared to try overcoming stuff that they get it in their heads that they can’t. My dad has gone from zero mechanic anything to rebuilding a tractor sized boat engine. He is a beast! Anyway I hope that people see us and realize that, it’s okay to take chances and chase your dreams. You might make mistakes but don’t get discouraged. Don’t give yourself a reason to be disappointed when you look back at your life
~Conrad
Oliver - “Hmm… a Little Chilly“
The temperature this week is absolutely crazy, it dropped at least 20 degrees in under 8 hours! We put on a lot of clothes and snuggled up, I even wore two blankets to sleep. We have all realized that we are babies about temperature, >90 degrees it’s too hot, <40 it’s too cold. Even on a warmer day now it is too cold to get in the water at the beach. But, things are coming together in the engine room, Dad has gotten a lot done, it is going much quicker than I expected. I know for a fact that we would not be able to do this without Dad. I have not done much art yet on the boat. I tried a little bit of acrylic and played around with watercolor, but nothing serious. I want to paint, I just need inspiration, and motivation. I am still doing custom watercolor paintings. 1 for $25 or 2 for $40.
~Oliver
Jasper - “Lemonade Math”
Remember how in last week’s blog I said that it was a very comfortable temperature and not crazy hot, way nicer than we had expected, right? Well, things change; for the better or the worse it got quite cold recently, for instance, 2 nights ago we were sleeping in below 40 Degrees for most of the night, we woke up feeling like our fingers and toes would break off at any moment (Huge exaggeration), in other words Georgia got a cold front. But before that on Friday It was still getting up to about the 80s, so me and Posy decided to go sell some cool lemonade to the thirsty workers around the Boat yard. We sold it for $2 a cup. Now, let’s do some really quick, easy math.
Here’s the word problem. Jasper and Posy were selling lemonade, $2 a cup. They sold 6 cups and got $3 in tips.
How much money did they make?
Answer:$15
We split up the goods into three categories: tithe, our dream business fund, and our own money. $2 Tithe, $3 fund, and $5 per person. Brorito’s is the name of our wanna-be company which will start off with just a restaurant, and then expand. Well, that’s it, Bye.
~Jasper
Posy - “WEEK PEAKS!”
1. Me and Oli are both artists, and I wanted to make something. Oli suggested making a picture frame for some of the art, so we did. Here’s how it unraveled. At first we figured out what wood we wanted then we went to the wood shop (it’s kind of self explanatory) and cut our pieces so that they fit with a piece of plexi-glass that we had picked out. We also did shou sugi ban which is a way of finishing wood. After making sure all the pieces fit, we glued it together, finding a good back board we also glued that to the first boards. We finished it and it turned out really great. There should be a picture of it somewhere around my blog.
2. Legos are some of the funnest things. Like really! We built 10 different vehicles in the past week or so, three of them were taken apart. And also that’s out of a one gallon bucket.
3. Everyone keeps saying I’ve gotten really good at drawing muscles, and people in general but since I haven’t been able to find my sketch book in a while I have been drawing on our middle sized white board. It’s been fun.
~Posy
Thank you all so much for continuing to blog. It is such a blessing to hear your stories. I am always so moved and so inspired by your faith and by your willingness to go where you are lead. You guys rock.
Oh, I wish you all could feel what’s in my heart! EACH of you makes me realize that there’s still hope in life’s storms, hope for prodigals and hope for me. Thank you for giving me a sense of overwhelming joy when seeing true reflections of the Lord as you boldly share your lives with me. Loving you and believing in you down to your toes!!!