we actually left the dock!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!!

Here's Ben fixing up our dinghy's outboard.

Not sure what's going on with the web page here, but it is doing funny things to my pictures. I know there is a double of the one of Skippy in the boat....I have no idea what happened & it won't let me delete one.....oh well.

So here we are taking our dinghy out for it's test run. Ben got it running after a morning of cleaning parts & pulling the cord about a million times. The motor has barnacles all over it, so my guess is that it hasn't been used in a very long time.

Skippy was convinced that he was the captain. The picture on the top is of the town dock in Oriental NC. The Bean is right in the middle & it is where we get our coffee fix most mornings.

AHHHHH!!! The triumphant look on Ben's face is because we finally left our spot on the dock in Oriental & set out to Beaufort through Adam's Creek. This was taken right as we pulled out of the canal into sailcraft where we were staying. I would like to say that we will miss everyone there a lot. Thanks for all the help & for being so nice!

Thanks to Mark for all the rigging help & invite for Thanksgiving!! We would have loved to make it!! And, Thank you Turtle for the help in getting to Beaufort & for being so awesome in general. We will send you that postcard. Your paint stick is sitting on the nav station so we won't loose it.

Here is Beaufort!! Our new home for the first night out.

Ben setting our anchors!

Mission completed!

Skippy's favorite place to snooze on passages. He is shaded from the sun,and squished in place by the canvas on both sides, so when we roll he doesn't move. It's also a nice wind tunnel, so he doesn't get too hot. Pretty nice.

Ben wants me to hurry up & take the picture so he can eat his thanksgiving bird!

I made a roast chicken with vegetables, stuffing, and a pie. We were very full!!! It was a delicious chicken!

Ben carving the chicken. He did an excelent job!

Ben took this awesome picture above this morning just as the sun was coming up in Swansbouro. Very pretty.


Here I am freezing while navigating the ICW. I have my Thermals, a tank top,a long T-shirt, a fur lined hoodie, Ben's polar fleece, my scarf & hat, and a down blanket on.


I look silly, but I'm staying fairly warm.

Typical set up on the ICW.

Skippy's second picture. oops.

We are anchored out tonight & there was this crazy Christmas parade that went by with all these big power boats all lit up & decked out for the holidays. It was so funny!!! They were playing music & yelling over the loud speakers & bull horns. It's probably the last place we were expecting to see something like this. We pulled into the little anchorage we are in & it is basically a swamp! There are a few houses in the distance, but mostly hunters and fisherman in small skiffs going by. We were in the midst of gun shots & hunting dogs barking among the reeds on both sides of us one hour to Christmas parade the next....what will we see next?

Last but not least another one of Skip's favorite perches. In the companionway door where he likes to watch me cook.

Oh, also, we bought a SPOT. You can see our exact way points when you click on the link. It's pretty cool. Check it out. I think we only have two on so far & they are connected wrong, but it will get better as we figure out how to use it better. http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=09GSAiPTTFXn5LSfvHcSLmWKCn7rGBi9j

Happy Thanksgiving again & we hope to hear from you all soon!!

PS Hi grandma & grandpa!! good to talk to you & thanks for checking in & reading the blog! :)miss you!

Hello from the Arctic!

BRRRRRRR!!! Thank God for space heaters is all I have to say!!! It has been freezing cold here!! It actually snowed twice this week!! People keep assuring me that it NEVER snows here, and it's usually in the 60's this time of year. They are all liars! :)
Luckily Wind-Borne came with a small space heater which has been putting in some serious overtime trying to keep us warm. I am in the bedroom currently with all our blankets, the heater, and my thermals to keep me warm, so I'm quite comfy, but if I walk aft to the galley it's so cold I can see my breath while quickly pouring my coffee then promptly running back to my nest of blankets! Good news is we are back in the water & will be headed south very soon to warmer weather!!
I've put a ton of pictures on this blog so you can see the process of putting the boat back in the water where it belongs! I'ts pretty cool!


To the left is a picture of our new life line nets to keep us & Skippy aboard in rough seas. Below is our newly added hailing port!! We put Blakely on, because Ben spent lots of time growing up there & thats where we lived this last winter. Also, because sailboats don't belong in Cle Elum, so we didn't think that was a fitting place to call home for Wind-Borne. We think it looks pretty cool!!

Allen (the boatyard owner, and pretty cool guy in general) came to lift the boat up early so Ben could put some touch up paint on the bottom where the stand were holdign it up & the bottome was on blocks.Here are some pictures of Ben running around getting the job done.

To the left Ben just couldn't resist tasting the paint on the rudder (kidding...this paint is soooooooo toxic!!! If you get very much on you, you are supposed to call the nearest poison control center imediatley!!)

And here he is painting the bottom.

He does such nice work!

Above is the lift getting ready to take us away!!!

It's pretty funny watching yoru boat driving down the road... THere's Ben behind it being the traffic director.

Here it is above going in!!!!! Almost there!!!!

This is our friend Rich climbing onto another boat to help us man the lines.Below is his wife Jan standing by to help & take pictures also!

To the left is Alan hanging on & Ben manning the lines on board. There she goes!!! Off into the water!! This was a great moment!!

And there she is at the dock below safe & sound getting ready to set sail soon!! (I made that weather cloth two days ago by the way) :)

Skippy prefers to stay in Bed with his toys on cold wet days. We shaved him & cut out all of his undercoat with a special new brush we bought, because it was supposed to be warm out, so he is not as prepared for the cold as usual!! He was actually shivvering the other day when we let him out!!!! This is the dog who sleeps in the snow 8 hours a day back home in the winter!!! At least we know the new brush works!!I think he's looking forward to warmer weather as well!! :)

I know it's not a very good picture, but this is the top of our staysail. As you can see it's VERY VERY thick & about the consistency of a block of wood!

Our rigger Mark & Ben noticed that it was badly damaged by UV rays in the tropics due to lack of use & the way that it is stored when it is furled up. Anyway, There was a rip at the top near where it attaches to the track which means that if & when it rips more the sail will come free and no more sail for us!!!! This is especially bad, because this is the sail we will most likely be using in heavy winds or bad weather.....not a good time to have your sail rip free!!

So here it is coming down through our butterfly hatch into the main saloon where I was sewing it back together with a piece of webbing.

We thought my sewing machine was cool before!! I can't believe it sewed through that!! I had to hand crank it, but it sewed through it like butter. Ben was on the other end holding it straight for me.

At the very tip top there are a few extra layers of crazy hard material that I'm pretty sure the machine could have handled, but unfortunatley the needles couldn't & we broke 4 before finally finishing up the last bit by hand.

Here Ben is showing off our handywork!

Ben finsihing up our sail with the "speedy stitcher" sail needle. He did a very nice job!

We put the sail back up & it looks like new! Go team Davidson!

Thanks again for checking in!!! Someone comment!!

We are extremely excited to be in the water & although it is taking us a little longer than we had hoped we are getting things done & will be ready to sail soon!!

We have been working steady the last few days. Almost as soon as we entered the water Ben fired up his newly fixed engine & it fired up almost instantly!!! Good work!!! He insalled the turbo all by himself & did a wonderful job. The water pump had a broken gasket that he needed to replace, but otherwise it seems perfect so far!!

Ben also noticed that we had a small leak on our head (toilet) dry/wet (flush)switch, but he located the problem & it is fixed already, so that's really nice!! He also has to fix the pump for the holding tank, because there seems to be a problem with that, ...so that should be fun...he is putting it off & I am not asking about it.

I am finishing up the provisining, stowing, sewing, and other indoor stuff. I made the splash/weather cloths for the cockpit, so hopefully we will stay a little dryer & warmer on heavy days. Also I made a pretty cool jerry jug hammock to keep them lashed tightly to the netting on the side of the decks & out of our way. We have made several trips to the gas satation & filled up our gas & diesel tanks along with our stove fuel and water.

We are well on our way to our goal now & I'm getting really ancy!!! Ben has finally had time to peek over some charts & we are begining to plan our journey south to Florida. I'm excited for some off shore time & my first overnight watch!! We will start off slow though & get used to this new boat & new systems. There will be some inside passages as well as some quick day passages off shore. We hope to get to Florida fairly soon, but there are some things we want to see along the way, so who knows when we will actually reach it.

If the weather keeps this up I think we will be encouraged to head south faster & not poke around down the coast as much. Only time will tell!!
Plans are sort of a lost cause in the boating world. The more we make them the more they seem to fall apart. It's kind of comical. We are learning to just go with it. It is much less stressful & safer that way.

Well, we look forward to hearing form you all soon!! Hope you are all well & things are good back home!! We still miss you all!! We are thinking of you!!!

xoxoxo Kristen, Ben & Skippy

All in a days work!

Hey Guys!

Here are some pictures of us at work. Ben put together a new boom jack (it holds tension on the boom) and painted the bottom, and installed the turbo this week. He's been very busy! You can see our messes in the picture below.

Ben had his engine parts all over the place & the stairs all torn out to access the engine.

I was trying to provision the boat. In order to do that you have to think up everything you think you will eat or use in the next several months. Then, you go to the store & buy it all & bring it back of the boat to take it all out of it's packaging & label it & package it again how you want it. Then you stow it in various places around the boat & hope you don't run out or forget something....or forget where you put it. Luckily we are going to be in the US for a while, so if I do forget stuff it's ok. It's my first time provisioning so, we'll see how I did. The picture doesn't even show half of it.

As you can see we are having some lovely weather here. It has felt like Seattle here lately. Actually today was really nice, although it was freezing. It actually snowed a few flakes!!

Here is a cushion for the boat ( I don't have any other pictures of finished ones right now, so this will have to do) Below is a picture of my "shop" Skippy & I have taken over the pavilion here (you can see him next to the plastic chairs. he's my guard dog) and were there from about 9 until dark every day lately. I'm finally done though!! Yay!!

We are really really excited, because we should get in the water tomorrow!! We were held up a little because of weather, but we are almost ready now, so after lunch tomorrow we won't be landlocked any more!! We will still be at the dock here until Thursday though. We need to do a few more things & get some parts we ordered in so we can work on the way.

They say that the definition of cruising or living aboard is "working on your boat in tropical locations" I believe it. It seems like the work is never done, but it's good work. We have really enjoyed most of it so far. I can't think of anything I really didn't enjoy doing. ..although I wasn't the one who got stuck re plumbing the boat....

Anyway, when we do get out of here we will update you all on our intended course. We haven't really had time to figure out where exactly we are headed after our shake down cruise yet. Thank you all by the way for your inquiries on where to send up things. We are looking forward to getting mail!! We can't give you an address yet however, but will as soon as we can!!! We have to figure out where we are going before we can get mail there! :)

Everyone here is impressed with the progress we have made in such a short amount of time. We have earned the nickname "the workaholics" We aren't sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing....

I'm going to take it as a compliment, because we get to leave soon & finally live out this crazy dream. I'd rather work like a maniac now & get to the Caribbean faster & work there than hang around for a year & go when it's all finished. We are way too impatient for that!

Well, there's the update for now! We will put pictures up of our boat in the water when we get it there tomorrow!

Thanks again for keeping up & we hope to hear from you all soon!!

xoxxo Kristen, Ben, & Skippy

A correction & some additions to " were almost there"

Hey everyone!!
Thanks again for reading our blog & commenting!! We check them all the time! We don't always have tmie to post a new one.
I just read Ben's new post & just wanted to say that the picture of the upholstery was of my two unfinished ones, so they actually look better & not lumpy now that they are done...not sure why he put that one on....It's funny to see the contrast in colors though (new & old) our setee is half aquamarine half cream now. Pretty funny when you go down below! Also, the sewing machine is a sailrite LSZ-1. I's amazing!! I can sew through 8 layers of sunbrella like nothing & I made our teathers and in some places had to sew 4 layers of webbing. It was crazy how easy it was!!(For anyone who's ever tried to sew these things you know what I mean)
Thanks again for reading up on us & keeping us company with your comments on the trip!! (Brian you crack me up everytime)
We are so excited to get back in the water!! I'm not sure if Ben mentioned it, but we are hoping to go Monday.
We are going to do a short shake down cruise to Beufort (20 miles away) or South river (even closer) to make sure we have everything in running condition & didn't forget any parts. If anything breaks right away we want to be close to here, because they have everything you could ever need here at affordable prices.
After that we might go out to Ocracoke island & some other places on the outerbanks, but leave pretty soon to sail south.
We will be headed in & out of the intracoastal waterway, bu thave no idea where we are stopping along the way. We have not really planned that & I don't think we will. I do know that we will hurry along & not spend too much time in one place. We want to get down to Pompano Beach/Miami area to see Grandpa Reg & the Jenkins for a few days before heading off. We have no idea what day or even what month we will be there. I'm thinking somewhere between Thanksgiving & Christmas..... helpfull right?
Something that I've realized..... & I think you will all come to understand eventually as well is that making plans ahead of time even a week or so at times is like trying to nail jell-o to a tree.

That just means we will have to post frequently while we are out so we can keep you as updated as possible. Our wi-fi antenna should be here soon, so we can get connections while we are off shore.

Hope to see some more comments.

We really do miss you all!!

Almost there!

Wow! Great to hear from all of you, glad you are following this! We will try to post more! We miss you all!

We are still in the boatyard, but we are working hard to get out of here. Kristen is reapholstering the boat and doing an amazing job! I think she may have found a new career. She is the envy of everyone in the yard

with her new sailrite

LZ-1. Unfortunately

it seems like everyone

needs to stop her and let her know that and ask

other fun questions like,

"How come you know how to sew?" Once again, people ore just so friendly here. I went into the store last night, and Kristen stayed outside with Skippy. She was laughing 3minutes later when I came out and said 4 or 5 people already were talking with her.

So, I have been doing Hardware thing and finishing the brightwork. We got our chainplates back from the machine shop, and I worked hard one day and got them all in and bedded with sealant. That was nice, because we basically had 6 gaping holes in the deck for a while. Everywhere I look, though, I am impressed with how the boat was built. the deck is solid fiberglass where all the chainplates go through the deck, so no worries on the old leaks... Some boats have exposed plywood in the holes...

I have spent many hours down in this cockpit locker... Not too glamorous, but many jobs like replacing

rotten hose that will keep the boat afloat!

I also rebuilt the manual bilge pump. It is a really cool dual action hand pump for when things go wrong... It will pump about 2400 Gallons per Hour if your arm will keep up.

We hope everyone is doing well back home, we are really sad that we will not be home for Thanksgiving this year. I will leave it to Lori to make sure Grandma doesn't work too hard.

Mom + Dad, glad your boat is coming along and have a great shakedown cruise!

Jess and Brian-How does the Bronco do in the snow? I looked at the used marine store for a cool brass coathanger, but was a day late...

Lori-We miss you!!!

Grandpa-Sounds like we may see you in Florida?

We can go for a sail! Or go to the Bahamas...

Buster-Skip dog says Hi! He hasn't met too many dogs here that he likes, and I can honestly say I think he likes you... Go get the trash!

Take care ya'all! Gotta get to work!

Here is a couple pics of where we are at.

The address is 1218 Lupton Dr in Oriental, NC

if anyone wants to Google Earth us. We are the second boat in from the water in the center row of boats.... just kidding