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!!