Skip dog at home in Washington.
Kristen at the farmer's market
Ben with a fish he caught up at lake Cle Elum
Our house in Roslyn..bit messy. we were still moving in.
Some of the wonderful weather Ben encountered on his way home.
freaky clouds creeping inHi!
Kristen here, I know, I know, it's been months & months since we last wrote to update anyone. So much has happened that it is going to be way too much to fill you all in on, so I'll give you the quick cliff notes version of life after Panama.
We left Panama after realizing that the boat along with ourselves were not up to the challenge of taking on the Pacific Ocean this season & also found out that we are having a baby!
Took on a new crew member to help us back up to North Carolina where the boat was to be stored. Ben was my hero! He was so good about taking almost all my watches for me while I was feeding the fishes over the side rail, but there was no way either of us could live through the whole trek back with me that sick & him that sleep deprived, so our new crew member Russ was crucial.
I was sooooo sick (yay morning sickness combined with being in the middle of the ocean) that it was no longer safe for me or the baby to be on board the boat any longer, so I jumped ship in Grand Cayman & left the boys to take the boat up to North Carolina alone.
It was a nerve racking few weeks for me, because I was not used to being without Ben after all that time together on the boat & the second I got on the plane I missed him already. I was also worried about him out there with a new guy on the boat. We had a routine down & it worked really well for us. I also had little to no contact with him until he reached the states, which did not help me feel any better about the situation. The only thing that made me happy was the fact that I was now reunited with Skippy & we spent all our time hanging out & taking walks together. It was great! Meanwhile, although he did miss me he was having a lovely sail back up around Cuba with the brand new spinnaker that we had just made together & the trip could not have gone better.
The story changed dramatically when he reached Florida! Luckily I could talk to him on a real phone again! Unfortunately, the weather turned bad in a hurry & unless he got the boat out of the "hurricane area" quick Wind-Borne was uninsured until he hit North Carolina waters. He encountered the craziest storms & lightning showers. We had seen nothing like it before. He still gets a worried look on his face when he sees lightning after that. I'm not sure if you all know what lightning can do to a boat, but it can pretty much annihilate it immediately. There you are bobbing around in open water with a 50 plus foot metal lightning rod sticking straight up from the middle of your boat...... so,that's not a good start. If you do get hit it completely wipes out all your electronics. You have no AIS, no GPS, no radio, no depth finder...you get the point. It does this and can damage several other things on the boat as well. Long story short, he spent much of his time sitting under bridges in the ICW & anchoring out as close to boats with larger masts than Wind-Borne as he could get in the hopes that if lightning did strike, maybe it would hit the bigger lightning rod first..... Good news is he made it!!
So, now we had to decide what to do with Wind-Borne now that she was back home.
Russ took off for his home (Canada) and I flew back to Oriental NC to help Ben with boat prep & loading up the suburban (which we left at the boat yard) for the long drive home. I was sooo happy to be back with Ben & both be on land in the US! We decided to put Wind-Borne up for sale, because we didn't know when we would be able to return to finish the journey with the new baby & all, so that added a lot of work for us. We cleaned, re-stained, re fitted, & rechecked everything on the boat along with finishing up a few small projects we had put off & after about two weeks of working steady we were ready to go. We put her in her new slip, said a tear full goodbye & off we went.
We made two stops on the way home. One in Nebraska to see Tyson & Neris & one in South Dakota to see my dad & family over there. Nebraska was sooo much fun & we loved the chance to hang out with old friends again! Dad's was fun too. We just so happened to arrive the day before a big cattle brand. Ben was amazing!! He was assigned to be a cow wrangler, which I think is the hardest job & he looked like a prop doing it! He did manage to get his hand branded on accident, which was lame, and also bucked off by a nice sized cow, and had an impressive showdown with a big mean black cow with long horns that had it in for him. It charged & there was no time to get out of the corral, so Ben help his ground & armed with only a little plastic paddle he kicked that cows butt. It never knew what hit it. (I guess all that baseball practice really paid off) he whacked it upside the head so quickly & so furiously that it stopped in it's tracks & when he just continued to beat on it non stop it finally backed down. Very impressive!...and pretty funny when it was all over.
So, we made it home!!
Skippy was so happy to see us & have the whole pack back together again!! It was perfect.
We stayed with family until we found a place to rent in Roslyn. We have a nice little two bedroom house built in the 1920's right in town with a big yard & I started a nice little garden.
Ben got back to work and I settled in.
I started baking for the farmer's markets which was awesome to make some extra money & because I love to bake & Ben's business started to pick up. Things on land were starting to look pretty good.
We bought chickens. Yes, chickens... we had a big enough yard & we thought it would be cool to get our own eggs. Skippy was not amused by the chickens, but didn't dislike them either, so that was good.
Life on land seemed like it could not get any better, although we do miss Wind-Borne & the adventures we had. Not to mention the friends we made out there.
We found out we are having a little boy & he is due in December! He is very healthy & we could not be more excited!!
Life was indeed perfect for team Davidson. (or as close as it gets) then tragedy struck.
I'm sorry to inform you with some really bad news. We are still not over the shock of it, and are still unable to really talk about it, but about three weeks ago, Skippy was hit by a lumber truck at work with Ben & died almost instantly. We miss him everyday. He was with us constantly & made our lives better. Ben had him more than 13 years & they have traveled everywhere together. We never imagined life without him. Especially since he was so healthy & happy still at his old age. It has left a huge hole in our lives...
So, we have been trying to move on & continue getting ready for the little man's arrival. I am due in a month & a half, so that's great! We can't wait. Next step is getting the nursery together. It's a disaster area with all our extra furniture etc... crammed into it. I think we will paint it next week.
Farmers markets are over for the year, so I'm just doing side orders for custom cakes etc, but nothing big. We have had our first snow although nothing stuck to the ground yet. Its' been a roller coaster with the weather being warmish, then freezing cold. Today I accidentally went ice skating across the lawn in my slippers when I went out to feed the chickens. Brrr!!! Luckily I did manage to stay on my feet & did not end up on my backside.
We have a baby shower coming up soon & John & Laurie (Ben's parents) are coming over to stay with us tomorrow. We are excited! Oh yeah, and Ben's birthday was last week!!! he's 33! That went pretty well too!
Ok, so that's all the updating I have for now...I'm sure I missed a ton of stuff, but you get the gist of things I think. Keep in touch & we hope to keep this blog going even though we are land lovers now. We will have new things to blog about when the baby comes & maybe if we keep this up long enough it will turn into a sailing blog again someday. Who knows.
Hope everyone is happy & doing well.
-Kristen & Ben
