Our Little Fireman

Hallowe'en was much anticipated at our place. We have started preparing Henry for upcoming events by talking about them a lot ahead of time. This seems to work well for everything from having a babysitter to taking the train to Nana and Poppa's house. Hallowe'en was no exception.

I asked him a couple of weeks ahead of time if he would like to be a fireman for Hallowe'en. He agreed whole heartedly! My inspiration was his love of firetrucks and the fireman raincoat he already had hanging in his closet.

As the big day approached I got Henry a fireman's helmet and pumpkin bucket to carry. We taught him how to say 'trick-or-treat' (which came out 'ko-keat') and told him about costumes and candy. He could hardly wait!

On the big day I put electrical tape around his yellow rubber boots to make them into fireman's boots, found a pair of pants to match the coat, and smudged some mascara soot on his nose and cheeks. He looked perfect!

We had dinner at Whit and Ally's place and trick-or-treated on Ward's Island. There is no better place to go...no cars, plenty of houses decorated for the occasion, and everyone knows everyone. Perfect. Henry had a great time, and didn't even fall asleep on the way like he did last year!!

It's amazing how all of the holidays come alive for you again when you have a little kid seeing it afresh. What fun!

Autumn on the Island

I don't know if it's the changing of the seasons or the way my little boy is growing up so fast, but lately I have found myself very contemplative.

Spending the vast majority of my time with Henry has been a very rewarding experience. He has taught me so much!

Another name for toddler should definitely be Dawdler! Henry spends a lot of time riding his car around the island. He seems to have two speeds...fast and stop! Some days I carry a book with me so that I have something to keep me occupied while he is stopped, but the other day I thought, 'why not stop and take it all in, too?', so I looked at the sky, listened to the rustling of the leaves, and smelled autumn on the wind. It was so rejuvenating to take the time to just be. Henry has taught me that old cliche, stop and smell the roses!

Over the past six months Henry's imagination has really taken off. It is so much fun to just pretend together! He has the language skills now to explain what it is we're playing, whether it's that I'm the Algonquin Queen (QCYC's Tender) and he's sitting on my lap driving across to the city, or he's making me eggs in the 'kitchen' we've built at the park, oh and 'here's your fork, Mum!' I chose early on to keep Henry's TV time to almost nil, and I feel that these are the times that it really shows. He keeps busy all day with his various games and made up adventures. I think it's truly wonderful!

I really can't believe how quickly my little man is growning! He looks and acts like he's well over two, and has such a quiet, thoughtful demeanor. Sometimes it feels like he's a wise old man in a toddler's body. I don't know if this is a Capricorn trait, or if it's just Henry, but he's an incredible little man. I love being in his company. You never know what he'll say next!

This is such a wonderful time in our lives. I'm so lucky that Andy has worked so hard to make sure that I can spend the formative years with Henry. Sure, we'd have more money if I went back to work, but living the simple life and sharing it with Henry has been invaluable!

I just feel so blessed.

Home Again, Home Again

After a very eventful three and a half weeks we have safely arrived home to Queen City Yacht Club. Hooray!!

We ended our trip on a high note. It took a long time to re-rig and re-wire after the mast went back up, so after a long, busy day we set out across the lake at 11:00pm. Andy really enjoys the overnight sailing, so he was happy to do his watch alone with 20-30 minute naps between his look out. All went well until the seas got a little lumpy in the middle of the night and Henry woke up sea-sick at 4:00am. He and I went outside into the cockpit for some fresh air and gave Andy an hour long sleep while Henry played happily and I kept watch. By 8:00am when we awoke again the seas were much smoother and we had a wonderful day! Andy took a two hour nap to refresh a bit and then we enjoyed the rest of the much anticipated sail home together. I didn't realize just how stressful this trip had been for him until I saw Andy doing a 'happy dance' on deck when he spotted the CN Tower!

After all of the experience I got on the helm doing 31 locks, Andy insisted that I be the one to dock her at home. It went beautifully, and I slid her into our slip to the sound of cheers from the lady yacht club members watching from the club. I've come a long way since that ugly attempt at our first anchoring with Sassy!! Andy is an excellent teacher.

Island Eclipse drew a few curious members of the club over for a tour on Saturday night, and so many Sunday morning that it felt like we were at the boat show! That's okay, we didn't mind a bit. I was so proud of Henry. He has really come out of his shell lately, and with his ever increasing vocabulary he was happy to give everyone a narrated tour of the boat...starting with his room, of course!

So we've been home two full days now, and spent today unpacking all of our stuff from the locker. I'm tuckered right out and off to bed shortly. We'll have another big day tomorrow, as Andy is back to work and Henry and I will be entertaining my Mom and Dad for the day. It will be great to see them again after almost six weeks. I'm sure they'll see a big change in Henry.

Oh, and I was able to post these pictures because they were emailed to us today from Mary Martha, a really sweet lady we met in Catskill Creek. Thanks, Mary Martha! We also found my battery charger today in the locker! What a relief!! So, more to come, pictures and all.

Through the Erie and Oswego Canals

Our trip is coming to a close. We arrived today in Oswego, NY on the south east end of Lake Ontario. It took us five days in total to get through the Erie and Oswego Canals.

Day one was fairly uneventful, we got an early start, did the first seven locks with little incidence, and arrived at Lock 8 to find it closed as they were having technical problems with the lock. We tied up for the night on the wall below the lock. It was in a very secluded area, so we enjoyed a quiet evening and dinner on the boat. We really noticed the seclusion, though, after dark when every bump in the night had us jumpy! It's amazing how you get used to the noise of civilization!

Day two we travelled from Lock 8 to Lock 16. We had initially worried about doing the locks without extra crew. Our worries were unfounded, as we handled the locks like old pros. We had Henry in his lifejacket with a tether to the binacle, and he was told that in the locks Henry's job is to look after Henry so Mommy and Daddy can look after the boat. It worked! He's getting to be such a big boy! We tied up for the night on the wall below Lock 17, the biggest in the canal system. We were next to the town of Little Falls, and set out to walk to the nearest store. After about half a mile, though, we discovered that it was unrealistic to go that far without a stroller. Henry likes to walk, but not when you need him to! We met a rock climber, though, who offered to drive Andy to town after he conquered his rock. He was really nice, and Andy was able to pick up a few essentials and bring back MacDonald's pies and sundaes to boot!

Day three was to be Lock 17 through to Lake Oneida...didn't happen as planned. There must have been a lot of muck in the water around the lock because we sucked enough of it in to clog both the engine strainer and the thru-hull. The raw water intake was clogged enough that the pump ran dry and caused the impeller to fail. After Lock 17 we managed to go only a mile to the nearest marina, where Andy spent the day travelling around searching for a replacement impeller, then installing it and a T valve so he could flush out the thru-hull and get us up and running yet again! He had a few choice words for the boat by this time! He even threatened to burn her to the ground. Not our best day, but, on the bright side, they had hydro hook-up and nice hot showers and Henry and I got a quiet day to rest and recover from our colds.

Day four we were underway and running beautifully. We got through Locks 18 - 22 and stopped for the day on the east side of Oneida Lake. We had dinner at a little bar and grill with some fellow Canadian sailors. Of course they are headed in the right direction for this time of year, South!! After dinner Henry and I took a walk and found a little park to play in. It was a lovely day until I had to retire early with a migraine. The cloudy unsettled weather is getting to me.

Day five...today...We crossed Lake Oneida with 3-4 foot following seas. The boat handled it with ease and we arrived at the west end of the lake ahead of schedule. We decided to skip the fuel stop after the lake and just get through the Oswego as we thought we'd be hard pressed to make it by the five o'clock lock closing time. Oops! We ran out of fuel between the first two locks on Oswego. Luckily Andy had 12 gallons on deck in geri-cans. He fueled us up in the pouring rain and bled the system like a pro. We were only drifting for about 10 minutes in total. I really am proud of my Handy Andy! Don't know what I'd do without him. So we got through the rest of the locks, turns out they were closer together than charted in the canal book so we were done by 4:00! We tucked into the Oswego Yacht Club and called it a day. Dinner was delivered by a local Italian restaurant and we are all tuckered out and ready for bed.

Tomorrow we have an appointment at the Marina across the channel for mast stepping, and then it's off across Lake Ontario. We have a two day window of fair weather, so I think we're going to skip the originally planned stop in Cobourg and just head straight for Toronto. It's about 125 miles across, so if we do an overnight Friday night we should be in mid-day on Saturday and have a day or two to rest before it's back to work for Andy.

When we started this journey Andy said we'd be two weeks, which to me meant three...and he says to him meant probably four. It will be four weeks on Tuesday since we left. Not too bad, I guess, and we got a new home out of it, not to mention a whole lot of memories!

Without Bad Luck...

We have arrived at the south end of the Erie Canal system in Waterford. I am delighted to find wireless internet here, and so will endeavour to catch up the blog on our adventures thus far.

I'm sorry to say that the pictures from this trip are nonexistant, as I have managed to misplace the charger for my camera battery. Andy says I should throw in a few pictures of the Hudson from last year's trip, it hasn't changed much! I did manage to get the few interior pictures of Island Eclipse that I've posted here just before the battery died. This was, as it turned out, the first of many system failures on this journey.

After two nights of living on dry dock in Deale, just outside of Annapolis, we were finally splashed. Living out of the water sure is hot in this weather, so I was thrilled to be back in the water. About an hour later I was trying to flush the forward head and was having no luck. Andy checked the bilge and discovered that we were taking on water at a rather alarming rate! The leak seemed to be through a thru-hull in the forward bilge...and the bilge pump was not running! Andy found a spare bilge pump (hmmm....I wonder why George had that onboard...) and installed in quickly. He was able to tighten the thru-hull enough to slow the leak and get the newly installed bilge pump to keep up with the flow. Phew! Good thing he's so handy!!

And so the next thing we knew we were back out of the water! We spent another night on dry dock so Andy could install a new gadget in the leaky thru-hull, fixing the leak and adding a transducer at the same time. He also peeled some paint off of the speed meter on the hull and got it functioning again.

When we got underway at last, our first day's plan was to travel up Chesapeake Bay from Deale to the C & D Canal. We motored up the Bay, as the wind was on the nose. We really enjoyed the first couple of hours...then the engine started to sputter! We were losing power quickly! I am so thankful that Andy is so resourceful, he went to work diagnosing the problem and was able to get the engine running well enough to finish the day. We docked in Chesapeake City for the night, and carried on the few miles to Summit North Marina the next morning.

Boating is definitely not for the Type A person who plans out their trip! Something always comes up and delays always happen. We spent three days at Summit North Marina. There was a hurricane tracking up the east coast, so even without the boat repairs we would have been holed up there for awhile. It was a great hurricane hole, though! Very sheltered.

So Andy had several days to work on the engine trouble. The marina had a complimentary shuttle service that we took advantage of several times to get parts and groceries. By the time we were ready to head out again we had restocked, done laundry, fueled up, pumped out and changed the racor and the fuel filters and reprimed the engine. Andy also cleaned out the bilges and purchased an emergency bilge pump to keep on hand.

Andy, being the kind, considerate guy he is, helped repair the engine on a neighbouring boat at the marina, and in thanks the boat owner Brad invited us to spend the next night at his marina in Cape May. So on Saturday we set out bright and early for our trip through the C&D Canal and down Delaware Bay. The weather following the hurricane made for quite the adventure! The winds were about 30 knots (our wind gauge isn't working), and the seas were 3-4 foot and following when we entered Delaware Bay. The further south in the bay we got the wider it got and the rougher the seas got! We were in 8-10 foot seas by the time we got to the turn off for the Cape May Canal! We sailed down the bay at 9 knots with the staysail, a triple reefed main, and the engine off. It was a lovely time, with the only casualty being our littlest sailor. Henry got sea-sick and he and I wore it. Ugh!

Since Henry was feeling ill we decided to enter Cape May Canal instead of rounding the Cape outside. The fixed bridges were charted to be 55' at high tide. Our mast height is 55', so we figured we'd be okay....storm surge, who thinks of storm surges? Needless to say, we hit the first bridge with our mast! Luckily Andy was a little leary and approached the bridge at idle speed, with the boat in reverse. The second we hit he was backing out! He climbed the mast to check the damage. Our wind meter was knocked clear off, but we were otherwise unscathed. So, despite Henry's poor tummy we had to head back out into the rough stuff and circle Cape May to approach from the east. I gave him another dramamine tablet (Gravol) and he slept blissfully through it. We did, however, experience more intermittent engine trouble!

Brad's invitation included our mooring fees for the night, as well as participation in their marina's Labour Day festivities. There was a live band and pot luck dinner. A fun time was had by all, but we called it a night pretty early after the day we had! The next morning there was a 'dock master's breakfast' being served, complete with bacon, eggs, fruit, coffee, juice...the works. We were refueled and ready to go! Andy got a ride to West Marine before we left so he could pick up more fuel filters and additives, as he suspected that we stirred up some muck in the fuel tank when we rolled in the rough seas, leading to the reappearance of our engine issues.

We left Cape May around 3:00pm with the plan to go as far as Atlantic City. That would have been about a five hour trip just off the Atlantic Coast. We talked about it while we were underway, though, and decided that since the weather forecast looked good for the next couple of days we should just keep going and do an overnight to New York. The engine continued to give us issues, and neither of us enjoyed Atlantic City much last year. We certainly didn't want to get stuck there for any length of time this year! And so we saw Atlantic City come and go in the distance as the sun set. Henry and I took Gravol and went to bed and Andy planned to sleep in 1/2 hour intervals while the autopilot helmed the boat. There isn't a lot of action a couple of miles off shore in the Atlantic overnight, so you get up, look around, and go back to sleep if you don't see any other boats. Unfortunately Henry and I went to bed and the invertor stopped working, so the batteries died and took the autopilot down with them! Poor Andy had to stay awake at the helm all night alone! Needless to say, he was exhausted by morning! When Henry and I got up we were just coming into New York Harbour. Andy took a three hour nap as I motored us up the Hudson River. We continued up the river another 50 miles to Torches on the Hudson, our favourite restaurant from last year's trip. We did a total of 180 miles in 28 hours! Our new boat sure is faster than Sassy was!

We had three nights at Torches, enjoying their wonderful food and nice atmosphere while Andy emptied, scrubbed and serviced the fuel tank and had the alternator rebuilt. Henry really enjoyed Torches' beautiful, 25 foot aquarium. I really enjoyed eating out for a few days, and taking advantage of the lovely, clean showers at the marina next door. We took the $5.00 flat rate cabs around Newburgh several times for parts and a Walmart run, and by day three were ready to go again. The engine was finally bug free and purring like a kitten.

The run from Torches to Catskill Creek was easy and uneventul at last! Andy commented on how nice it was to finally have a day free of maintenance! We just enjoyed the ride. In Catskill Creek we found a nice park for Henry, a dog park for Buddy and Charlie, laundry facilities, showers, and met some nice people. Andy spent a full day prepping to take the mast down, and after two nights at Riverview Marina we were ready to step the mast. This morning the mast came down and went on deck with no incidences, and we set out for Waterford and our first lock.

We had another nice day today. The weather has gotten warmer and sunnier than it's been in a few days, and we didn't have any more issues with the boat. We did, however, arrive at the visitor's centre in Waterford only to discover that they aren't accepting transient boats this weekend as it's their annual Tugboat Festival! Again, it's a good thing that Andy is so friendly! After speaking to a few Tugboat Captains he arranged for us to raft up to a Tugboat for the night!! I wish I could take a picture!!!! Here we are rafted up to a 76 ft tugboat, surrounded by tugboats of all sizes alongside tents and vendors of all sorts! There was a live band and a fireworks display to top it all off. We sure do find adventures!

Well, I've finally caught us up to today's events. I'm bushed and off to bed. More soon, as soon as we have another internet connection! Until then, fair winds!

Life Aboard Island Eclipse!

Another adventure is underway. It has been a very busy few weeks. Andy has been a man obsessed with finding us a bigger boat. He has travelled as far as Maryland and Florida in search of the perfect new home, and has spent countless hours on the internet researching and reviewing virtually every prospect on the market. Once we had decided on the boat for us we needed to sell Sassy II. At last our plan has come together.

Sassy II sold a little over a week ago, and with the money in the bank we packed up all of our things (some in storage, some into a van) and once again set off for a great adventure. We left Toronto on Tuesday, August 24th at 12:00pm. Andy, Henry, Buddy and Charlie and I all climbed into our friend Doug's van, along with Doug and all of our belongings for the trip. Doug drove us to Buffalo, where we had a car rental reservation to take us the rest of the ten hour drive to Annapolis, Maryland where Island Eclipse, our new Gulfstar 44 awaited our arrival.

The trip was a little rough. Our rental car was an SUV with an incredibly squishy suspension. The constant roll made Henry car sick. The poor kid couldn't keep much down. With his budding vocabulary we were hearing a lot of, "sick!". Unfortunately, for one of the first times ever, we were very organised before embarking on the adventure and we prebooked a hotel room online through the inexpensive, but non-refundable Hotwire. This meant that we had to press on to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania the first day despite Henry's car sickness. With added stops for fresh air and clean up we didn't arrive at the hotel until almost midnight! Poor kid!!

Wednesday was a better day, as we only had two hours left to drive. With a continental breakfast in our freshly showered bellies we were feeling rejuvinated and ready to go. Henry got sick, yet again, but he is such a trooper that we were able to press on and arrive at the boat yard before noon.

Island Eclipse had been out of the water for three months, ever since we told her owner George that we wanted to buy her. He had a fresh coat of paint applied to the bottom following some blister repairs, and there she sat on her jacks looking pretty.

Three months worth of dust and dirt, combined with a bachelor's housekeeping habits left us with quite a load of cleaning to do. We spent the next two days working nonstop, between scrubbing and shopping for our trip we fell into bed each night!

Today the work was finished, Island Eclipse was dropped back into the water, and we were able to sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labour. She really is a lovely boat. Sassy II was great, and I loved her, but she was pretty small for a live-aboard. I didn't realize how small until now. Our new home is just that, a home. We have two bedrooms, not just two beds, but actual rooms! We have two bathrooms, ensuite to each bedroom. Andy tells me that he'll share Henry's so I can have my very own! Wow, living with a man, a boy and two male dogs on a boat I never dreamed I'd have a ladies' room! The kitchen is much larger than Sassy's, and the fridge is a dream! If there was one thing I hated about living aboard Sassy II it was the itty bitty little fridge! My new fridge is 4x the size and so much more accessible! If you live on a boat you'll understand the luxury of this. I also no longer have an icebox. No more ice, no more drainage, no more smell! Hooray!! The main salon (livingroom) is quite large, and quite cosy at the same time. As you may have noticed, I'm extremely happy with our new home.

We did have one minor hiccop today, though! It could have been major had Andy not been the smart and resourceful problem solver he is. About an hour after being launched this morning we noticed that we were taking on water! The bilge was filling quite rapidly, and the bilge pump wasn't coming on...yikes! Andy was able to find and solve the leak and install a new bilge pump within a very short amount of time. Thank goodness, sinking our new boat on day one was not an option!!

Henry seems very happy with his new home. He has slept with me for way too long now, and so a couple of weeks before we came on this adventure Andy and I started to tell Henry all about it, including his very own new room! We took him shopping on Tuesday and bought his Cars bedding, then set all of his toys up on his shelves. We installed a bed rail and a monitor for safety, and Henry was all set to have some new found independance. His transition into his own bed has been unimaginably easy. It has only been two nights, but he has slept right through, not missing me a bit, both nights! Hooray! I'm finally back where I belong, with Andy! The dogs have been kicked out of the bed for good, too. Our bed is too high for them to jump onto, and so we've been able to easily enforce our new 'dogs in their own bed' rule. Life is good.

Tomorrow George is meeting with us to go over all of the boat's systems before we embark on our two week journey home. I don't know how often we'll have internet access on the trip, but whenever I can I will give you an update, and failing that I will have plenty to tell in two weeks when we get back to QCYC.

So for now, signing off from Island Eclipse.

Values

Raising a child is a very interesting job. Every day presents you with challenges, with some days certainly being easier than others! The one thing I try to keep in mind every day is that Henry is going to model his behaviour after ours. He is learning how to live and think and be from the ways in which Andy and I interact with him and the world. When I stop to think about it, this is quite an awesome responsibility.

I am happy to say that for the most part we seem to be doing a good job. Henry treats others with respect and kindness. He has a love of nature; collecting leaves, branches and pinecones for the trunk of his little car, but never picking flowers (flowers are to look at and smell, but not pick!). We watch bugs, but never squash them. We hug and kiss and don't hit each other. We are trying to teach Henry to live by the golden rule, 'Treat others as you would like to be treated'. I believe that this one rule will take you far in life.

This is not to say that I never feel frustrated with him. I just try to handle every situation in a way that will teach Henry to be a good person. Instead of yelling at him when he is being a typical independant toddler and doing exactly what I have asked him not to do, I try to correct the behaviour and then when I'm at the end of my rope he hears a lot of, "You're driving me crazy!". The exasperated tone and head shaking for effect usually get him giggling, and then we both feel better.

I always vowed not to yell at or spank my kids. It would be all too easy on the difficult days to lose my temper, but if I can remember the big picture, the frustrations of the moment will pass, the lessons taught by how I handle those moments will last a lifetime.

I am so thankful to have this opportunity. Raising Henry to be a decent human being is the most fulfilling job I can imagine.