Anchored in Ocracoke

Hey Ya’ll,
We’re out here on Wind-Borne happily anchored in Silver Lake on Ocracoke Island in North Carolina. Really cool place! We came camping here in the car on our first trip to NC. Awesome little village with lots of great little shops & beaches that you can drive on. Awazing coffee that is the best we have had this side of Montana, maybe even one of the best lattes ever actually.
This is where Black Beard lost his head. After he was beheaded, his body was thrown overboard & his head was attached to the bow of the navy vessel that captured him as a prize. It is said that Black Beard swam around the ship headless 7 times & still haunts these waters to this day seeking his head. There is a Blackbeard museum here that we intend to see during our stay. It is also said that he left his treasure here, but no one is allowed to look for it, because the part of the island that is believed to be the treasures hiding place is a nature preserve & no metal detectors or shovels are allowed.
We are currently listening to the most ridiculous radio traffic ever on channel 16. There was a boat that didn’t know its vhf button was down & two hillbilly fellas were talking about installing beer coolers & one said he could swallow a Coors right about now & no they couldn’t afford to get power, & needed showers badly. Then, on came a lovely back woods voice yelling to “red dog” to “come back, because we have a brunette as a seat cover…come back, come back…..”Now we have two boats with what appears to be teenagers taking turns screaming & yelling at each other into the VHF. Good times all around really. Quite entertaining, but the funny part is that the coast guard isn’t intervening at all tonight. Usually they come on giving warnings to people misusing the radio. They don’t’ really seem to want to do anything tonight. They were almost refusing to help a boat grounded in the channel on the way in earlier this evening as well. He eventually got help from a local power boat. It’s been an interesting evening listening in on the local vhf radio. I’m sure we haven’t heard the end of it yet either. The night is still young.
Well, off to cook dinner. Will write in soon. Pictures to come!

Out of Oriental

So, we left Oriental on the first (HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSICA!!!!!) and anchored at Cedar island. We had a great sail over with nice winds. Henry couldn’t resist the noise of the engine & the rocking of the boat & slept well for about 2 hours. I (Kristen) joined him. I never get a mid day nap, so it was pretty amazing!!!
Ben found a new beer that he reckons rivals Sierra Nevada for the best beer ever. Ive never heard him even put another beer in the category of his Sierra before. He always tries a new beer, then the first words out of his mouth are “it’s good, but it’s no Sierra” The reaction to this one was “this might be better…no…it couldn’t be…yeah, it might beat Sierra….oh no, I hope they keep making it…better stock up. “ It’s a New Belgium “ranger IPA” It’s funny, because he doesn’t really like the other New Belgium beers anywhere near as much as Sierra, but here it is Ranger IPA! Great name too!
Ben & Henry are sitting in the cockpit across from me right now reading a book. The sunset is beautiful & we are having a great mini vacation on Wind-Borne. We can’t put her up on the hard until our broker/boat hauler Paul gets back from seeing his boat in the Bahamas this next weekend. So, on Monday the 12th or so, we will be out of the water & on the way back home.
We have to shorten the drive on the way home, because we are staying on the boat longer than we intended. We may not be able to take the southern route home like we wanted, because we need to get home. We were hoping to see New Orleans, and lots of southern states on the way, but looks like the farthest south we are going to make it is Oregon. We had plans to stop in tillamock on the way home & see the cheese factory & the air museum ,and we hope to make it there still. We also might catch a bit of the redwoods too if we can make it. Just a bit of a detour instead of the big one we had planned, but I’m still excited about it.
Ok, got stuff to do, talk to you guys soon!

Road trip so far

We're off Superman style

Uncle Scott & Vito

New baby

A dog his size

Angry mom about to charge

riding an elk cowboy style

cold baby going to the barn to get warmed up.

awesome Wind-Borne blanket

Tyson & Neris

Chloe & Henry are good friends

Henry & Dad walking the docks

Obviously loves his life jacket.....even though it may squish his cheeks a little.

Part one of Team Davidson's road trip across America:

First stop: Bozeman Montana to see Uncle Scott & Vito.

Made it to Bozeman in one day. Henry did really well. We were pleasantly surprised! Came in to Bozeman around 9:00 pm, ate a late dinner & stayed the night at Scott's. Hung out a little in the morning, then on the road again.

Second stop: Buffalo Gap South Dakota to see family.
Arrived at Dad & Karen's house just before dark. Just in time for dinner, then out to the barn to pull a calf. It's calving season on the ranch & there were tons of cows ready to have babies all at the same time.There was one in the barn that needed a little help, so we watched as Jerry & Karen pulled it out. It's an interesting sight if you've never seen it before. They carefully attach a small chain around the hooves, then slowly pull the calf out by it's front legs.

We went out several times during our stay to check on the cows & see which ones had calves, would be expecting within hours, were having trouble, tag the calves ears, etc... It was really a lot of fun. We found a newborn calf that was still wet alone out in the field, then later found it's confused mother trying to steal another cow's baby thinking it was hers. The other cow was not to pleased as you can imagine, but couldn't get rid of her. We brought the confused cow & the abandoned calf back to the barn where they were reunited. We then headed out to the field again, because on the way back into the barn with these two Jerry spotted another lost newborn calf. Turns out it belonged to a cow that was in the barn already...oops..not sure what happened there. Anyway, they were reunited also & all was well. Back out to the field again the next day to tag some ears. You need to run down & capture the newborn calves before they get to old & can outrun you,(about 2 days old) then put ID tags in their ears. The hard part is trying to separate cranky overprotective cows from their babies long enough to do it. I'm not sure if any of you have had a mad cow after you, but I can assure you it's pretty freaky. We brought a pitchfork along to keep mad cows at bay & drove around the field. When we spotted a new one, we would pull up right next to it & someone would jump out & wrangle the calf & someone else would run over & tag & hold the pitchfork in the direction of the mama cow, then back in the truck & off we would go to find the next one. Ben took a few turns wrangling & had quite a run after a particularly fast calf & just as he caught it here came it's big mean mom running & mooing at him. Needless to say, he dropped that calf & ran for the car. Pretty funny actually.

Overall, this was a really fun stop with lots of action. We also got to see Grandma Elaine!! Henry's Great grandma. We were really excited to see her & Henry couldn't keep his eyes off her. The little man stared at her the entire time she was over. It was a great visit, although we wish it could have been longer.

Karen made Henry an awesome quilt with Wind-Borne on it!!! It's awesome & we will post a picture of it.

Third stop: Omaha Nebraska to see Tyson & Neris.

Got in late. stayed up a while & hung out. Poor Neris, we didn't know it at the time, but she had a benefit to attend the next day & needed to work until midnight. Henry could not get enough of her though!! He giggled & laughed so much. She even told him stories in Spanish. Tyson was a hit too & so was Chloe their golden retriever.

We were there the whole next day & went into the city to see Neris for lunch & take a tour of her workplace, which is a beautiful old building in old down town. I wish we had gotten pictures of it, because it was an amazing building. We all went down the huge slide outside her building & then went back to the house for some hang out time. Neris got to come back home for a little while & we had fun just playing with the the little man & watching tv. We went to the farm after that & saw all the cool stuff they have going on & all the animals. They have 5 golden retrievers there (Chloe makes 6) and they are all related. They have the coolest dog pen with like 5 acres to play on & a house that includes a real queen size bed complete with comforter & pillows, two chairs to sit on, and a heater. It's really quite posh for a dog house.

Henry met Tyson's brother Zach at the farm & his little boy who is 16 months old & walking & talking is the same weight as Henry!!!! He's about 22lbs now! Getting quite heavy to carry actually.

Off we went again in the morning destination Oriental.

Oriental at last:

almost 2 days on the road & here we are. We will update you on that in the next blog. Seeing lots of old friends & having a good time working in the boat. I'm sue I Left some stuff out, but I'm a little distracted trying to type one handed while feeding & entertaining Henry.

Will post more soon. Miss you all.

Almost on the road again

All ready to travel with his new passport!

Open mouth..insert frog

Happy little boy having a chat with mom

Hey Ya'll,

We are on our way to North Carolina again. We will be most likely leaving on Monday, making stops in Bozeman MT, South Dakota, Omaha, then on to Oriental. Wish us luck on our first road trip with the little man. He hates to be tied down in his car seat for any length of time & can stay awake in the car even on the freeway...we had to have the only baby on earth not put to sleep by a moving vehicle...Should be alright though. One of us can entertain Henry while the other drives.

Here are a few new pics from the last week. Henry got his first passport & is all ready to go to Australia at the end of the summer! He's really excited about it. You can see him clutching on to that passport all ready to go.

He's a happy little guy & smiles all the time. He grabs toys a lot now & puts everything in his mouth! He is still super active all the time! He just can't stop kicking & bouncing & punching his arms all over the place. He is extremely talkative too. He has so much to say & we can't wait until he makes sense.

Ben is at work today (saturday) finishing up a project & we will finish sewing up the spinnaker sock & packing for the trip tomorrow. We need to get taxes done too...yay.. Alright, gotta to get some stuff done. We'll be reporting from the road soon!

Potty time!

Newest accomplishment for Henry....Going to the bathroom in the froggy potty!! He actually loves it & he really goes potty in it every time you set him down on it!! You can see how happy he is. We are on our way to slowly getting him out of those yucky diapers! Wish us luck!

Sundays are fantastic!

Nap time.

Henry holding himself up quite well.

Found his hand & loves to put it in his mouth.

Loves to put bunny & everything else in his mouth as well. He's grabbing & holding toys all by himself now. Very fun!

Nap time again! Oops on the repeat pic.

And, nap time again! Sundays are great!

Sundays have become our favorite days by far! It's the only day of the week that Ben doesn't work, so I get to sleep in & Ben gets a nice long nap mid day. It's funny how used to a schedule you can get. I'm definitely getting better with the night shift that I have with Henry & Ben is so good at getting up anywhere between 2:30 & 4:00 am to take him after me. I don't find it as hard to get up at 7:00am as I used to either, but when Sunday rolls around... I get to stay in Bed until 9:00 am & sometimes a little later if I'm really lucky & I love it!!

Henry is slowly adjusting his schedule recently. He will sleep 2 1/2 hours at a time on rare occasion & more increasingly over 1 1/2!!!! This is a miracle, since for the most part of his life so far he has refused to sleep for more than one hour at a time & only took 10 minute naps (which he still does) during the day....leaving no time for me to nap with him. Thus, I was only receiving 3-4 hours of sleep nightly & feeling less than perky. It didn't help that our little munchkin has a need to bounce nearly every second of his awake time in order to stay happy. It's difficult to have the energy for that on no sleep. Somehow we managed, and now the hard work is starting to pay off. Henry is starting to sleep in his crib, which means we each get to go to bed in...of all things...our BED instead of on the couch & on occasion get to snooze more than an hour at a time. Things are looking up!!

On another note, Grandma Betty's birthday was on Friday & The family got together at her house to celebrate on Saturday! Happy birthday grandma!!! It was so nice to see everyone again!! Henry loves going to his great grandparents house! So do we!

We tried to measure Henry again today & with all the wiggling we got a few measurements, but ended up with somewhere around 26 inches, so he has grown one inch since 3 weeks ago. He has been averaging 2 inches per month, but it looks like he may finally be slowing down, although he is growing out of his 3 month clothes quickly. He's in a lot of his 6 month stuff already. We do not have a weight, but are guessing somewhere between 18 & 20 lbs! Big boy. I'm getting a really strong left arm from carrying him around all day. We don't get him officially weighed at the doctors until he is 4 months old & I can't wait!

I'm currently finishing the sock for our spinnaker & it's HUGE! I keep finding these ridiculously large sewing projects to do. The sock is just a foot shorter than the sail.. I can't remember how long it is exactly off the top of my head, but it's nearly a thousand square foot sail, so it's really long! Lots of material to sort through & wrangle. It's taking up the dining room at the moment. I'm also preparing to sew the sails for Doug's sailboat!! Finally!! I'm so excited & honored that I get the job. We are in the material ordering & design process currently & I'm hoping to finish the sails before we get too far into summer. Wish me luck!! This is a beautiful boat & it deserves beautiful sails. I hope I can do it justice.

Also, we are headed to North Carolina before the end of March to move the boat onto the hard. We will pull Wind-Borne out of the water & get her all covered up & squared away before leaving the country at the end of summer for Australia. We will be making the usual trek across the country by car so that we can visit family & friends along the way...should be interesting with a baby who hates his car seat...hmmm. We may be leaving next weekend depending on Ben's work situation etc... Of course we will keep you informed.

Ok, gotta go. Have a good week everyone!!

Blakely Island Diving etc...

Henry in his big boy bouncer.

Nap time

So much effort to go diving in cold water!!! There is an insane amount of gear involved. Ben & John took forever to get ready just for freezing cold diving with almost no visibility & no fish.

Brrr!! diving with snow on the mountains. Water surface temp 46 degrees.

Happy baby!

Here are a few pics from the latest adventure! We went to Blakely Island to see the parents/grandparents last weekend. Ben went with the plan to dive with his dad since they both recently got outfitted with new cold water gear. They tried a beach dive first to make sure everything worked well, then we all went out on the comet to a few rocky areas nearby. First dive from beach had way too much current & they could barely fight their way around. First dive from the boat had about 5-7 foot visibility & the only life seen were starfish & a sea cucumber....second boat dive had 10 foot vis and still no fish, but an interesting slug thingy & rock crabs... Hmmm...apparently we did not go to the right areas... It was a lot of time & effort for such a lame reward in the end. They will try again, but I think if it sucks just as bad Ben will give up & go back to tropical dives.

Anyway, Blakely was awesome & the weather was really nice. On the way home we stopped in Issaquah to get a few things for Henry. We got him a bouncy door jumper although he is technically too young for it. He is huge & wants to be bounced 24/7, so this gives our arms a break. He loves it!!! We also got him a mobile & as you can see in the picture above he loves that too. He is starting to want to be entertained all the time now. He is so busy & active & just can't sit still for a second. he is constantly kicking & throwing his arms around even in his sleep. He's almost always happy, which is nice, but he almost never sleeps. He loves to take 10 minute naps. The other day he actually went 11 hours without any sleep... & you just can't make him sleep! Even if you just leave him in his crib alone with nothing to look at he will flail & giggle the whole time & eventually get mad at you. So, until he decides to sleep someday we will just have to try & keep up with him.

Henry also uses his hands a lot more now, thats his newest thing. We could never get him to grab anything but fingers & unfortunatley my hair before a week ago, but now he grabs evrything! He holds his blankets & toys & reaches for his bottle a lot. It's really fun watching him change so much so quickly!

Hope you all enjoy the newest pictures!