What an amazing adventure. It totally sucks that I didn’t write about it. Bad move on my part. I will write soon and post pics, I promise. For now…we’re home. We’re safe. We had an incredible time. I’m getting the kids off to school and then I can focus.
I woke up WAAY to early for my taste; 7am. I closed my eyes and tried to fall back asleep, but it took about 30 seconds for my brain to recognize what today is….THE day. My belly started doing flip flops, my brain started racing…sleep was no longer an option.
Today is the first day of our adventure. Cayaman Islands here we come!
The trailer is packed. The rooftop storage is packed. And, well…I’m up so that means, the cleaning shall commence. Estimated departure time of about 7 pm…
I’m very nervous. VERY excited. And VERY VERY ready!
Tonight we’ll drive to NJ or so and get a hotel. Makes it easier on the kids and we’ll miss traffic in BOS and NYC if we go tonight. That means tomorrow we’ll get to Savannah around dinner time. We’re all looking forward to quality time with Uncle Charlie in Savannah.
The Preparation continues on land and sea. I’m still collecting odds and ends to get ready for the adventure; pillows, beach towels, hanging net for fruits and veggies, sheets, games and of course food! Jesse has made his way back to Key West and has been diligently working on our ride. He has dismantled the stove in order to fix a propane leak, reattached many of the doors that have broken loose, worked on the self steering mechanism and cleaned up all the dead cockroaches from a successful debugging! He has also gotten into some shenanigan’s, but I won’t throw him under the bus. Let’s just say he’s back to his KW ways!
I decided with all of the stuff I had to bring down to KW, I had to get a trailer. Luckily, my olympic hopeful sailin’ buddy, Lara, had one I can use! So I cruised to Newport on Friday morning and met up with her to acquire this little beast! I wanted to walk in the docks so badly and look at all those amazing boats! It was so cool there. How did I have no idea? Needless to say, a trip to Newport to walk the docks is now on my ‘to do’ list.
Today, I woke up in a panic. Only 7 more days! My stomach lurched. Am I ready? Will everything be ready? Will the boys behave and be happy on the boat? Will we have enough to eat? Will we have enough wind? Will it be too hot to sleep? Oy!
I spent the rest of the day getting the little beast trailer ready, reading boat galley blogs in the sun and weeding my garden. Now I feel a bit better.
T minus 6.
To begin…We have a Westsail 43, Giuseppe. We are going on an adventure this summer. We have been preparing for this trip for a good 4 months. It took us a bit of time to decide where we wanted to go. Figure out where would be good to go in our time frame, where we would experience favorable weather and where is safe to travel with four little boys (my three: Jaden 9, Cole 7 and Quinn 5 and Jesse’s son Joey 11). The little islands of the Caymans became our choice. We will spend the majority of our time at The Brac. The middle in size and population of the three islands of the Caymans. We would like to venture over to Little Cayman to see the 8 foot iguanas and explore a bit as well.
Our first order of business, besides our destination, was getting passports, figuring out the harness/life jacket situation and getting the boat ready. After a considerable amount of time at USPS in Ipswich and Key West getting the four boys passports, all four have finally arrived. I have been unimpressed with the life jacket/ harness options available for children vs. what I can afford. Therefore, Jesse has made life harnesses which will tether all four boys to the boat at all times. In addition they have their life jackets, the three bigger boys will only have to wear theirs if the weather warrants. Quinn must wear his at all times, unless sleeping below deck. I’m so glad Jesse made the harnesses. It saved us a ton of money, we made them to custom fit the boys and I feel so much safer knowing they are they way I want them to be.
Jesse and I went down to KW in April with the intent of working on the boat…which didn’t really happen. We did a bunch of sailing on the boat, but we slacked a bit on the whole work thing. So, Jesse will be heading down to KW ahead of me and my boys to get Giuseppe all ready to go and to install the new water maker we bought.
I have been spending the majority of my time reading cruising guides, galley recipes, food storage and organization. I’ve been ordering a lot of stuff online and making and jarring a lot of stuff too. Mostly just trying to keep us healthy, happy, clean and hydrated for six weeks. So, figuring out how to my job at home on the sea! To begin, I started collecting foods that don’t need to be refrigerated and are healthy; dried fruit, nuts, cereals and rice and wheat noodles. Then, thinking of sauces, dried veggies, and condiments. UHT milk, freeze dried veggies and fruits, butter powder, freeze dried cheese, electrolyte packages for our water. I made all natural sunscreen, after sun spray, body wash, laundry detergent and lotion. I bought 100 pouches of organic squeeze fruit, and at least 150 nutrition bars for kids and grown ups!
I still have so much to do and then the real challenge….fitting it all in the car!! We leave in 25 days. I’m getting anxious and excited and so are the boys!
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These packages are the pile that will be traveling down with us in the car. Most of it is the heavy jarred and canned food and things that don’t fit well in a box for shipping.
I am concerned about the products we will be using on the boat draining in to the water and our impact on the environment. I have spent a great deal of time researching body washes and detergents that will be god for our skin, have no chemicals and will not harm the environment. I have packed up to ship a bunch of the stuff I made already, but here’s today’s batch. Lemongrass laundry detergent, eucalyptus body wash and tea tree body wash.
This blog is getting a bit underused now that I have the website up and running for my little skincare business. If you haven’t already, please visit the website at http://www.sailinmamaskincare.com. Right now there is even a promotional deal if you Like and Share on FB!! Please go to the website and link to our FB page. If you Like and Share Sailin’ Mama Skincare, you will be entered to win two Sunscreen Dive Bars and a Windswept Lip Balm delivered to you for free! Drawing will be on June 1st!
Speaking of June 1st…That will be the one month mark until we leave for our trip. Because this blog is being underutilized, I’ve decided to dedicate this space to my Sailin’ Mama Life. Including; the skincare biz, the sailing, Grady, my kids, my life. All things Sailin’ Mama. So June 1st, come here to read all about it, starting with our prep, planning and journey to the Cayman Islands!
Here’s a taste of what’s to come:
Making sure our snorkel gear fits! Even if our pants don’t!
Been a Sailin’ Mama this past vacation week.
Sailin’ Mama Skincare has a bunch of events in the next few weeks. First, for my local friends and neighbors, Sailin’ Mama will be at the Georgetown PTA Fashion Show on May 2nd at the Hilton in Danvers! Come by and sample some of the products and say hi!
The second, Sailin’ Mama is making an In Kind Donation to support the Community Sailing Center of Greater New Bedford. This is an amazing program to help get At-Risk youth off the streets and out on the water. After working with At-Risk youth for most of my professional career, I am honored to support this program. Thanks Elizabeth Hurlihy for hooking Sailin’ Mama up! Please remember to give back to your community and support great causes and if you live on the South Shore…support this one! http://www.communityboating.org
I am also trying to get my website up and running this week to make it a ton easier for all of you to order my products instead of trying to navigate this blog. I will let you know as soon as it is up and running!
I am working on developing sunscreens to nourish and protect our skin during the summer. I started with taking my Dive Bar recipe, the bars are a favorite of Sailin’ Mama fans, and adding sunscreen to it! The bars feel good and I have been able to make the bars in approximately 15 SPF and 30 SPF.
I need volunteers!! I am heading to Florida to sail soon and will test the bars myself, but I would love four people who are interested in trying these bars and to use them and give me feedback. If you are heading on vacation or live in a warmer climate and are interested, let me know ASAP! I will ship you a bar of 30 SPF for free and you can help me perfect the recipe. Comment here or on FB, I will take the first four volunteers.
Hmmmm… I had spring fever, until this morning when I awoke to 8 inches of snow. I was really hoping winter was over. Oh well.
I have been working hard on Sailin’ Mama and getting my products marketed. I’m excitedly preparing for the Topsfield PTA Auction Fundraiser and the Georgetown PTA Fashion Show Fundraiser. AND…working on a new receipe…but it won’t sell unless the sun comes out and warms us up!
Fingers crossed this is the last snow.
I’m still happy to deliver locally, so place those orders if you live nearby! Or USPS shipping gets your products there, I’ve been shipping all over the country! Either way, thanks for your support!!
Sailin' Mama's Adventures! 