‘Twas A Productive Week!

We got out 2 times this last week!!! Finally feels like we’re making progress. -At the very least, it showed us that we haven’t forgotten how to use a boat!

On Thursday we decided the boat really needed a pump out. We haven’t been able to get out of the North Harbor for a few months. So it was long over-due! Finally, it wasn’t raining or snowing & the tide was low enough to get under the bridge.

What is a pump out, you ask? Well, we have a head, (toilet), & it has a holding tank. Instead of emptying it out in the harbor water, the harbor has a way of taking away everyone’s filth from their boats & putting it into a bigger tank. That bigger tank…. well, actually not sure what happens from there. I should probably be more aware of what goes on & be more knowledgable to make certain that it doesn’t hurt the environment….. I trust our harbor though.

There wasn’t enough of a window for us to sail & get back under the bridge in time, unfortunately. But it was nice to move MerSea again & make sure nothing major was falling apart.

However, we did get to hang out with our dock neighbors when we got back to our slip. It seems like it’s been forever! We are definitely so stoked to be on the dock we’re on. I can’t imagine that any of the other docks in the harbor are as fun or as nice to be on as ours.

We decided to spend the night on the boat. I think the last time we did, it was the end of October! And yes, we were able to re-appreciate our little boat heater once again.

Beautiful, sunny day. -Rare form for these days.

As far as we went on Thursday. -The fuel dock!!

The most glamorous part of owning a boat. -The pump out!

Zephyr, our bird alarm.

Guess what?! Today, Tuesday, we actually got to go out & sail! Basically we’ve been waiting for 4 months to do this. At first I wasn’t as amped about it as I wanted to be because it was in the 40s this morning. And I think it only got to 53 degrees this afternoon. But I wore 5 layers. -2 of them were jackets. That seemed to do the trick. Oh & my leather gloves lined with furrishness.

We brought our friend, Matthew, out with us today. -I know, there are a lot of Matt’s in our life. You have no idea! But only one of them is actually important. And I’m married to him. So that is good. 😃

Matthew is the first friend we’ve had step foot on our boat in a long time. -Mainly because we’re busy working on our boat most of the the time or we decide to go sailing the day before & that’s not enough time for most people. Anyway, he wanted to test himself out to see if he could sail again without getting seasick. Thanks, Matthew. Yes, we really get excited that you wanted to use our boat as a chumming experiment. Thank God he didn’t get sick. -I mean for his sake, of course.

The wind was around 12 - 14 knots & coming from the west. We were able to put both the mainsail & genoa up! And we made it up to 6.2 knots on a beam reach. So nice! The swell was about 5 feet but it was smooth. Pretty perfect day of sailing. -Video to come later.

This is our tabernacle motor.

Our boy is stoked that we’re on the boat for a second time this week!

Matt bringing our friend, Matthew, onboard.

Shore power. -Don’t forget to leave the dock without it.

No barking here. Just keeping an eye out on that flirtatious duck paddling ‘round MerSea.

Hooking the main halyard up.

Matthew taking his turn at being skipper.

Cuddling while there’s someone else skippering. Zephyr is trying to pucker his lips like his mommy. -In case you couldn’t tell.

Cold but beautiful day in Santa Cruz.

Today’s blog was more pictorial than wordy. To be honest, I usually start writing the blog before Tuesday & finish up on Tuesday evening. However, I knew we would probably be sailing today. And I wanted to wait until I actually had that to discuss amongst you all before starting to write the blog. So, hope you like the photos. My brain is exhausted tonight from going through all of the things I thought I forgot about sailing. Luckily, I didn’t forget. -Especially since we were responsible for another person today. That would have sucked, for him, if there was any “incident”.

I think the back of Zephyr’s left ear gives away that he’s actually a cheetah!

Thanks for reading! There were other productive things that went on from the home front. But I’ll save that for next week in case we don’t make it to the boat. We’ll have to see how this next week goes with the prediction of rain in the forecast. Adios until next Wednesday!