Our plan for the day changed as a result of weather…which is quite the norm when one lives on a boat. We were going to move a few hours further along the canal, but the weather was calling for rain, squalls and wind gusts to 35knots that didn’t sound fun to move in and would end up in a direction that would make the anchorage area uncomfortable. So we opted to stay put at the Locks for one more night. (of course the storm petered out and we just got a little drizzle!!). Good chance to finish stowing all the cans, get a bit more organized. Kids are happy to participate – today they worked on storing the carrots (you dry them then wrap a few each in tinfoil – prolongs their life in the fridge) and storing the eggs (buying refrigerated eggs – you dry them, then coat each egg in Mineral oil and then you can store at room temperature). Mike had a big list of little projects to work through – fixing small fans (now Henry and Emma both have their OWN in the aft cabin to sleep on hot nights), he went up the mizzen mast to add 2 running backstays, and climbed up the main mast (while Henry belayed him with the safety line) to adjust the genoa furler and reran the genoa halyard. He also added some permanent stainless bolts to the new solar panels to secure on the davits (metal arms that go off the back of the boat to lift the dinghy). Mike and Emma filled up our water tanks with another 100 gallons (we have about 250 gallons of fresh water in total). Henry and I spent some more time in the museum (it’s the only place to get 30min of free wifi)….he finished a huge life size wood puzzle of a manatee…hard doing a puzzle when every piece is painted grey with no designs! The kids have now listened to all the interactive displays so many times they are ready to teach it to their classmates in their next ACES class!
Emma, as I predicted, jumps at doing school work any chance she gets. I started unpacking the BES school books this morning and she grabbed one from Ms. Dew’s literacy class – “ I know what to do with this one” and proceeded to open it up and complete an assignment. Totally self-directed. This afternoon, she saw my clipboard of holiday art ideas and helped herself to a Christmas tree outline, decorated it, found the stickers of ornaments, cut it all out and had it posted on the wall when I got home from the museum. That is a girl that knows what she wants to do and does it! Henry has found a Sudoku book on the boat and has fallen love. Between that and having me write out math equations on our whiteboard “for fun”…he’s certainly getting some math practice in.
We treated ourselves to lovely long hot showers in the campground after dinner….that is hardest thing for me to say goodbye to on land!!
Off to sleep feeling so clean, humidity down, storms have cleared the air, and no bugs tonite. It’s a good evening.
Fun Afloat 