We’ve had a fun week, filled with lots of mini projects, and Christmas decorating!
The weather has not really been the greatest (what a surprise!) and we have not gotten out on the water again. We’re stuck in a holding pattern, hamstrung by the insurance clause that requires us to have a competent captain onboard. We’ve reached out to three separate training captains to get time on the water with no luck. One of them is out of town working, the other has injured himself and is out of commission until the New Year, and the third has asked us to complete a classroom course first (scheduled to end in April!). At this point, it looks like we’re stuck in the marina for a few more months. It’s frustrating, as it would be so nice to just go and cruise, but there’s not a whole lot that we can do but wait. In the grand scheme of things, a few months shouldn’t make much difference, we’ll have lots of cruising time in the years to come.
Our time stuck in the marina does give us lots of opportunity to work on maintenance projects. Its seems that each time we look closely at anything, we realize that we’d like to change it or upgrade it.
This week we tackled lots of little things. Firstly, Matt installed a node that will allow us to remotely control our furnace. This means that we can turn the heat on/off when we’re not onboard. If we’re heading to the boat, we can start the furnace when we leave, and it’ll be nice and toasty by the time we get there.
Spice racks were added to our kitchen. Storage space is at a premium, being able to store our spices in the rack opens up cupboard space for other important things, like the Nutella jar.
We also started the task of removing the old lettering from the boat, so that we can install the official Eudora lettering. Having never worked with vinyl lettering before, I naïvely went into the project thinking that it would be simple…unfortunately it’s very finicky. Its hard to get started with the peel, and then only my fingernails seemed to be small enough to pick at the corners. Finally I resorted to using a hair dryer to warm up the surface, and then the lettering was a bit easier to pick at and peel up. It’s an exercise in patience for sure. One hour in and one of the three name badges has been removed…only two more to go!
Our highlight of the week was most definitely the neighboring yacht club’s Festival of Lights. Traditionally, they decorate their boats with Christmas lights, and then cruise along the shoreline for others to enjoy the light show. We had private front row seats, as all of the boats drove right past the end of our dock on their way out of the harbor. Being new to boat life, it was so fun to see Christmas lights on the water, and with the backdrop of the city lights, it was pretty spectacular. Lots of inflatable snowmen and reindeer also decked out the boats. It was such a unique experience for us, so fun to see.
We’re getting into the festive spirit now, with only 10 days to go ’til Christmas! We’ll be celebrating Christmas on the boat, and I definitely want to decorate. Fun stuff coming up this week!
