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