Friday, January 20, 2012



Deep freeze 2012!
Before you start, you should know that this is a LONG post! We had no internet for a few days, so I just kept this post running like a captain’s log for a few days until I could put it up. I tried to separate days by putting a few spaces in between them.

(Tuesday)
Hey guys!!
Of course in the true nature of Team Davidson, we chose the coldest week of the year to move aboard Wind-Borne! Why would we make it easy on ourselves? We are sitting here in the main Salon looking at our glowing white windows covered in snow! It’s literally a blizzard out there. 30 knot winds and snow coming down pretty thick. The boat is listing and making howling creaking noises, making the storm sound worse than I’m sure it probably is. We got to the island yesterday and luckily spent a fairly warm night on board thanks to our two electric heaters working round the clock to keep us thawed out. This morning however the temp took a dive and we are getting pretty cold. I have noticed that throughout the morning each of us has added several extra layers of clothing. Ben is sitting at the table working on some plans wearing a carhart coat and wool hat, and I am typing in two jackets and wool slippers with wool hat as well. Henry is having his nap and is wearing full clothes plus my bathrobe wrapped around him with several blankets and a heater in the room with him. ….um, maybe it’s time to rethink things a bit? Maybe put it off until the snow storm ends?
Well, if nothing else, we got some good pictures to show you guys right?.
I forgot to tell you all that Ben is awesome and got me a late Christmas present less than a week ago that I have been pining over for quite some time. A new Camera!! I’m so excited! Ours don’t’ seem to last too long (probably due to our traveling lifestyle) We have lost quite a few to humidity including our last one in Australia. That’s a huge part of the reason we haven’t been able to post many pictures in recent months. Almost all the pictures we have posted are from our phones.
Well, other than the freezing conditions outside, Wind-Borne is working out just fine for us, minus the usual projects that will always need working on. We are settling in and making ourselves at home. It’s really pretty comfy in here.

We just recently returned to the boat from the cabin where I was packing the rest of our things up, and man is it cold outside!! The wind is brutal!! It’s so cold! I watched a few minutes of the weather report and we are definitely supposed to be getting down well below zero tonight. The boat is staying fairly warm, but we are all still well bundled. We are all in long johns under our clothes. I think we may start the engine for a while to make the water heater warm up. Ben is worried that it may freeze. I can’t wait to curl up and watch some BONES in bed tonight. Ben got me a couple seasons of it on DVD for my birthday in May, and he still hasn’t seen them all. I love a good Bones marathon!

(Friday)
We managed to stay warm and cozy on our boat through the worst of the winter storm we had. The snow is thawing and starting to get slushy now. I watched the news a bit again yesterday, and found out that 180,000 homes lost power the last couple days!! With all the freezing rain sleet, and snow trees have been snapping in half and branches have been falling all over the place knocking power lines out like crazy! The governor declared a state of emergency and the Seattle area is basically shut down until the roads thaw out. If you have been to Seattle you know it has crazy steep hills all over and there is no way I would drive on them covered in ice. All the schools are closed including Orcas Island!
I called my brother and mom to see if they had power, and it turns out they both were. My mom luckily has a gas fireplace where she is staying in Issaquah, so she was warm and toasty. Although I didn’t talk to my brother, mom said he was out of power and had to vacate their house, with no other means of heat other than electric, and go stay with his wife Sarina’s parents in Issaquah who are also out of power, but luckily have a generator.
It’s good news for the Seattle area is thawing out, but I hear it’s supposed to result in a huge amount of flooding, so it’s unfortunately not the end of the trouble people will be seeing from this storm. I feel quite fortunate to be out here on Blakely where it has not really affected us at all. We are warm and cozy here. It’s funny, without stopping into the house to check the news we would have no idea what was going on out there in the “real world” It seems a world away. Apparently we got tons of snow at our house in Ellensburg, which people are way more prepared for over there, so it’s not too big of a deal. Luckily we turned our water off this time when we left the house, so no danger of pipes freezing and breaking like they did a few weeks ago. There was however a nasty accident on the freeway between Cle Elum and Ellensburg involving 7 semi trucks and a state trooper that shut the entire thing down for a whole day!! Yikes!! Everyone is ok though luckily.

It’s Friday mid day and I finally have some time to try and figure out how to download pictures from my new camera onto the computer, so hopefully I’ll be able to post this today and show you what’s been going on. One thing I especially wanted to post were new pictures of Wind-Borne’s interior. I realize it has been a very long time since many of you have seen a picture of what she looks like on the inside and it is prompting quite a few of you to ask us questions about life aboard. I would love to help you understand how we live on the boat a little better.
We keep getting asked what Henry thinks of the boat, and how will we keep him on it, and how will we cook, and keep warm. We also had one person ask if Henry has to wear a life jacket to bed in case he falls over board!! Clearly we have not explained how the boat really looks or functions recently! None of these are bad or silly questions, just ones we’d like you to have the answers to.
Here goes, As you can see from the pictures, Wind-Borne is a 36 foot sailboat. Inside we have 6’3” headroom. There are two cabins with double beds. One at the front of the boat for Ben and I and one in the back that is supposed to be for Henry, but he doesn’t like to sleep there. We also have an L shaped settee (or couch) on the left (port) side of the boat that has an insert to make it a double bed (this is where Henry likes to sleep), and another smaller one on the right (starboard) side. We can comfortably sleep 6 adults and one child on Wind-Borne. The dining table folds down from the wall, and can easily be put up in a few seconds to leave the whole main living area open for Henry to play in. We do have a functioning kitchen (galley) with stove, oven, fridge, and sink. We also have a functioning bathroom (head) with sink, toilet, and drum roll please…a BATHTUB!! There is also plenty of storage and closet space plus a small desk (nav station)
So, since it’s cold outside we don’t’ spend any time on the deck or in the cockpit, so keeping him on board is not an issue. Obviously, he does not need to wear a life jacket inside since there is no danger at all of him falling overboard. (we do have two for him on board though, just in case of course) We stay warm with two electric heaters. We will need to find another heat source if we leave the dock, but that’s a whole other post in itself. We can easily make meals on board, do dishes, wash our hands, everything you would do in a normal house, just on a smaller scale, and you can’t use as much water, because we are limited to the amount we can store on board. I can’t quite remember how much we can have at one time but I think it’s close to 150 gallons. Ben knows the answers to that stuff. We have the laptop with us, and can watch movies on it. We are supposed to be able to get internet there, but it’s not working at the moment. Hopefully we will get that fixed soon. The only real issue is phone service! Neither of our cell phones work here on Blakely (Ben can get texts) And, of course we have no land lines on the boat, so we are out of luck If we want to make a phone call. If we had internet and it was an emergency or something we could skype from the computer to make a call, but it doesn’t really work for Ben’s business or for people getting ahold of us, thus we return to the cabin to use the phone if we need to for now.
I hope this helps. If you have more questions for us please ask!! No question is a bad question!! We realize not everyone is familiar with boats, especially not living on one! That’s why we try to write our blog in a way that doesn’t include tons of boat lingo.
Oh, I almost forgot, Yes, Henry does like the boat!! He has a lot of toys and books on board, and has us to play with, so he’s pretty well entertained. When we put the table up there is quite a bit of room. We even played soccer in there this morning. He can also watch movies if he gets too bored and we can’t entertain him. We are never inside all day anyway, so he gets a break from the boat for a few hours either in the morning or evening no matter what.
The only thing he doesn’t like is the fact that helping me cook is not as fun or easy as it is in a house. He likes to be involved with cooking meals. The galley is just too small for him to stand in with me, but he can watch from the settee on the other side of the sink. He has also been getting into trouble trying to blow the flame out on our alcohol powered stove. (he is not used to a stove with flames)He also bumps his head occasionally when he is tired and grumpy, because he tends to show us his frustration by throwing his head around…which is no good on a boat. The only other thing that he gets into on board is the VHF radio at the nav station. We have to make sure he doesn’t use it, because we could get in big trouble if he ties up the coast guard station. He always wants to call people on it like a phone.
Alright, the little man is waking up from his nap now, so my typing time is over. Hope you enjoyed our marathon 4 day long post!!! Hope those of you in Washington are staying warm and safe!!


We went sledding at Snoqualmie pass on the way over to the island on Monday!! Woo Hoo!! I had to take pictures quickly and shut the camera off so snow wouldn't get on the lense, so there aren't too many. We all had a lot of fun!!







Up at the island:

Snow everywhere!



Henry checking out house plans with papa on Wind-Borne



The dock. Don't worry, it was snowy, but not slippery.



Brrr!!




Snowy boat.



The view into our cockpit. (Don't mind our recycling pile)



We had some ice form on the inside of our windows.


This may give you an idea of how windy it is here. The snow was all blown into drifts.



Ben headed out to check the lines.



Cooking in my winter hat and jacket. (The boat did eventually warm up.)
Here are a few pictures of Wind-Borne's interior.

This view is looking foreward to the bow from the galley. I'm sitting on the stairs leading to the cockpit. You can see the two settees that double as beds, and our table is folded down, but not all the way out. The other leaf folds up to make a really big table.


This is our bathroom. Don't mind the coffee maker, thats temporary. :)


Here is the galley.



This is our bedroom. As you can see we have a nice large, and rather comfy bed. Henry's cabin is smaller, but the bed is the same. We are currently using Henry's bed as our garage right now though until we are all moved in. It's a mess in there!


This is the view from our bedroom (cabin) back to the galley. You can see the nav station on the right just after the closet.


Henry is working very hard on that drawing.



This is the settee just in front of the galley. It's not quite long enough for a tall adult to sleep on, but works great for kids. We keep our canned food and Henry's bedding under and behind the cushions.


Hope these pictures help you to get a sense of how we live on board Wind-Borne. It's not as cramped as you might imagine. It's really a lovely boat!!







































Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Moving back aboard!!

Ahoy there blog readers!!
It's official, Team Davidson is moving back aboard our beloved Wind-Borne!!
No, you didn't miss any big decision to sail the Pacific or anything, but we have her home now and it only makes sense to stay aboard again while Ben has work up here on Blakely. We will still have the house in Ellensburg for when Ben works on the Suncadia jobs and we will probably spend more time there in the summer when work slows here, and Tie er loose comes up to take Wind-Borne's slip in the Blakely marina. Luckily we have a boat with two cabins since we have the little man now.
As you know by now, a boat is a constant work in progress. As soon as we made the decision to move back aboard we noticed that in the cold weather we need a few changes as she is a "tropical" boat. For starters, we have no heat source! Brrr!! We did a bit of shopping this weekend in Ellensburg for some storage bins, a shower curtain, etc.. and we shopped our house for things like kitchen utensils, extra silverware, and things like that. Ben built shelves into three of our hanging lockers leaving us only one half of a locker for hanging, but this will help so much with storage now that we have Henry and all his clothes and things to store. We really only hang coats and life jackets anyway.
I'm looking forward to some simple boat projects myself like getting the corrosion buffed off the metal fixtures and hanging a little art, and getting things stowed. I want to change it up a bit this time with the food storage and I also want to have a lot less clutter, so we'll see how that goes!
As for water, I'm not sure what is going to happen there. I'm not looking forward to showering on board in the winter in the Pacific North West with our tiny water heater and cold boat. And, the marina is closed for the season, so just getting water in general is a bit of a tricky situation. We have a little in the tanks, but will run through it quickly. We brought jugs for water that we can fill up at the cabin and bring down, but I'm pretty sure that will get old. I'm sure we will find a solution soon. We are also having a bit of an issue with having a messy little man with my beautiful white upholstery on everything! It is now a no shoes boat, because someone likes to climb all over the furniture (of course) and muddy foot prints do not make me happy.
Henry has his own large cabin complete with double berth, but refuses to sleep in it at all, so he will be sleeping in the small sea berth (couch) just forward of the galley. I have already made a lee cloth (to keep you in your bed at sea) for the larger settee on the other side of the cabin, so I will just take it in a little and attach it on his little bed so it will resemble a crib with fabric instead of wood. He will be in the middle of everything, but I kind of like it that way. We can store his bedding on his real bed during the day and pretend he uses it.
Well, that's about all the updating I have for you at the moment on moving back aboard, but I'm sure we will be updating you again soon. Something about Wind-Borne just inspires blogging for us. Probably, because the boat is always on our mind when we are on board. And, we have no tv or other distractions, so we have more time for writing and keeping in touch.
Thanks for checking in again.
Have a fantastic new year everyone!!!

Happy New Year Everyone!!

Happy New year!! We hope you all had an awesome holiday season! We sure did!
We kicked ours off with that fantastic visit by Santa, then celebrated Henry's birthday (which was on the 20th) with Henry's grandma Contratto and his great grandparents in Teanaway a few days early. He got some nice presents including some wooden blocks, a race car, and Rock Elmo! Great grandma put trick candles on his birthday cupcakes, so every time he blew them out they re-lit and now he is obsessed with trying to find more lights that will "blow on" by blowing out every flame he sees.
Next, back at Blakely, Henry spent his real birthday with his Davisdson grandparents. He received more great gifts and cupcakes! In fact, he got a ridiculous amount of presents!! Ben & I got him a really cool Radio Flyer wagon with wooden sides and by the time John & Laurie were done bringing gifts over he had a full wagon of new toys. I'm sure you don't really want the full list, so just to name a few quick things, he got two of the same twilight turtle nightlight from us and his grandparents, a tool box with tools, and a set of super cute books from his aunt & uncle Janet & Doug.
Fast forward a few days and we awoke Christmas morning to find that Santa had also brought Henry quite a few Christmas gifts. he was obviously very good this year!! Ben and I did not do to badly ourselves!! Ben got a few new "manly non kid movies" a new watch just like the one he killed diving (they say water safe to 100 meters, but apparently it's only if you don't try to use the indiglo down there to check the time!) he also got a new subscription to Surfers Journal, and some great stuff from his parents like his new carhart coat and pants!! I got a new sewing machine that is ridiculously awesome from John & Laurie and I love it. I have already sewed several things with it. I also got a gift certificate for a massage on Orcas!! Yay!! And, because Ben knows me so well he got me some delicious new spices from Penzey's!! All in all, I'd say we did pretty well. Ben and I chose to make the majority of the gifts we gave out this year including some new house warming gifts for the parents new house, and a Henry picture book.
Wow!! It was holiday central around here for a few weeks! We just had our new years eve on the road heading home to Ellensburg. We left the island around 8 am and had to run some work errands getting lumber etc in Mount Vernon, then back to drop it off on the boat with john & Laurie, then to Bellingham to go to Hardware sales and have lunch with Kevin Honda and see Jones of course., then we realized Ben accidentally left his ladder at the dock in Anacortes, so back we went... By the time we got home to Ellensburg we had spent 12 hours in the car...Henry was super pleased as you can imagine. Oh, forgot to mention, we got a speeding ticket on the way home! Awesome! When we got to Ellensburg around 10:00 Pm we had to go to the grocery store to get milk & staples for breakfast. After a quick stop ( we got champagne too yay!, it was new years eve after all!) We arrived at home to find that a pipe had frozen and broken (outside luckily) and was gushing water at an alarming rate! It sounded like Niagara falls and who knows how long it had been leaking like that! We had been on the island almost 2 weeks...I guess the water bill will tell us.Luckily, my cousin Jessica happened to have the parts we needed in her work truck so she brought them over the next morning and they had the pipe fixed in no time. Henry stayed up until 12:30 since he had all that pent up energy from being in the car all day, so we all stayed up past midnight to celebrate the new year! Woo Hoo!!
On new years day we celebrated by clearing out our storage unit including snowmobile with the help of Jeccica & Randy's trailer and four wheeler (snowmobile doesn't start) and took everyone including my mom out to lunch. All in all the start to our new year was great minus the coffee maker breaking new years morning. Yikes!! Luckily we have a french press, instant coffee, and an aeropress to get us through!!
We are now back up on Blakely until Friday night when we will return to Ellensburg so Ben can work on the house he is starting to side in Suncadia, then we will return to the island again on Monday morning early (I mean like 3 am early) so Ben can finish things up here...so go the story of our lives... logging some serious travel time here at Team Davidson headquarters.
Oh, I totally forgot to mention that we are in the process of moving back on to Wind-Borne this week!!!! Can you believe it? The boat that started this whole blog writing thing!! So, I suppose that is worthy of a new post all in it's self. Stay tuned for a Wind-Borne post coming next!!!