sv evi

I was talking to my sister Libby two or three months ago, and she said that it was hard because it looked like we are always on vacation and it’s always sunny in all our photos, and meanwhile it is rainy and cold in the PNW. I told her, you know boat life isn’t all fun — I just don’t write about the hard parts on the blog.

So, here goes.

Every year or so, a boat needs to be hauled out of the water to have the anti-fouling paint on the hull sanded off, then primed, then re-applied. Sometimes surprise jobs happen when you are hauled out, like replacing the cutlass bearing on the prop shaft, or the rudder bearing.

We hauled out on Friday April 5th, hoping to be out of the water just 5 days. It’s no fun living on a boat in a boat yard — you have to climb a ladder to get on your boat, you can’t let any water go down any drains or the toilets, and it seems like toxic paint. So the kids and I rented an Airbnb for 5 days. 5 days turned into a week, and we hurried and rushed to work as fast as we could to be ready. Riki sanded the bottom for 3 days, and stayed up painting until midnight one night in order to get the paint on before the rain came.

I spent 3 days buffing the topsides of the hull, and when I wasn’t helping Riki, I was solo parenting the kiddos. Luckily they still had school that week.

On Monday, Riki ordered a new cutlass bearing, because he was advised to replace it. All week we waited…but it never came, not even by Friday. So we had to spend the weekend in the yard, and the kids and I moved back aboard to keep Riki company. Then the following Monday the cutlass bearing arrived…but it was the wrong size! So again we waited. Tuesday the right bearing arrived and we were set to splash at 4 pm, but then the shaft was leaking, so they raised us out of the water again and we spent the night in the slings. Wednesday we were told we also needed a new shaft seal, so…back on the hard stand. The shaft seal came the next day and we got it installed, but then we were told there were no openings to be put back into the water until the following Wednesday…Luckily Sally worked her magic and we splashed again on Friday the 19th of April, 2 weeks after we had hauled out. It was a classic hurry up and wait situation.

The next hard part was that we found lice on Jade’s head the night before we splashed. My first time dealing with head lice from a parent’s perspective. Not fun! We did the lotion that sits on the head overnight 3 times in 10 days, washed all bedding, dried blankets on hot, etc. And I picked nits from Jade’s head every day for 6 days, took one day off b/c we had a busy schedule with Luz’s birthday, and continued for 3 more days. Also picking nits from Tomu and Luz’s heads, who had each had a few, but nothing like the hundreds that Jade had. We think she got it from school, as we got a note that it was going around the class. Each day we would go up to the lounge in the computer room, put on a movie from Disney Plus, and I would pick nits — for 2 to 5 hours per day. Exhausting! Riki cut Jade & Luz’s hair, and we may just shave the whole family’s heads before we get to Fiji.