New location

We had a great time cruising and living down island. The kids got to explore forts, speak another language, use different money and learned what a Baguette is supposed to taste like.

Our plans for cruising seemed to be well in to the works and we were planning our next destinations.

Unfortunately my health had other plans.

A lot of the times the kids went to explore forts with Tim, I would stay back on the boat as the hike or walk was just too much. Even a trip to the store would take a day and half for me to recover from. Things were not getting better and were actually getting worse. The whole idea of going to new places was being able to check them out, not being boat bound because I physically could not do it.  After many doctors tests and ultrasound it was determined I am hypothyroid, adrenals are fried and estrogen is out of whack. (just sharing for others that might be suffering with the same awful symptoms) One doctor did not know what to with me so said take some iron as your iron is low and that was it, another wanted to take out my thyroid as it is encroaching on my windpipe. I didn't like either option and researched if their were other options. With the help of a ND and a great website Stopthethyroidmadness.com I have decided to try and heal myself with food,

I had done this in the past and have realized as much as I love sugar, gluten and grains my body does not function well with them. I need to take these things out in order to let my body heal itself. Along with meds prescribed by the ND.

So in order to do all of this we have decided to do this being land based.  Now some may think floating on a boat in the Caribbean would be the perfect place to do this. Unfortunately boat living can be much harder than it looks. It has many rewards but is physically taxing in the best of health situations. Finding organic food in the Virgin Islands is also very hard and expensive so we have decided to go to Maui.

We had been planning on sailing to Hawaii but this just pushed up our plans and our way of going there. We plan on being there for  a year and will assess things than. If I am feeling up to it we will continue sailing or if not Tim will come back and with Crew take Ushuaia to Hawaii.

It will be sad to leave our home as she is another member of the family. We hope that she will be well taken care of in our absence. We have not been out of the Caribbean for three years so going to the States will be different.

I will miss my VI friends dearly and hope to make friends half as wonderful as my friends here.

Finally left

Well we were able to do what many others have not been able to do...
That is to sail away from St Thomas! Even though the boat projects list is still long we decided we can do them along the way.
Our first thee weeks away were in a familiar place. We just went an unwound in Jost.  We also had good friends there and the boys were in heaven being able to run around the island with their buds.

Asher and his buddy Xander with his dog Taboo

My favorite spot to sit

Our friend Zack came down for the weekend and crewed on Ushuaia for Tim's first race. It was Foxy's 40th Wooden Boat Regatta. It was a lot of fun. We somehow even managed to finish fourth in our class. Julia crewed on our friend's boat (Morgan, the man who built Ushuaia) and they got 3rd.

If our big, yellow boat did not look like a school bus before we got to Jost, it did after.  My friend and her four boys joined us five days of cruising. So if you lost count we had 8 kids and 3 adults. It actually was a lot of fun. The kids were busy swinging from halyards, swimming, playing board games and eating!

We have been very busy since we got Ushuaia. Besides getting the boat ready to haul Tim had a buildout he had to complete.
I think it turned out well.

Build out Tim did for Virgin Islands Coffee Roasters

As soon as that was finished it was time to focus our attention on Ushuaia. There was a lot of prep work to get her ready to sail to the boat yard. We had planned to sail over on Easter but as we all know plan is a four letter word in the world of sailing. The weather just was not cooperating. We postponed to the next day. I am glad we waited as we had a wonderful sail! It was our first time sailing her and we were all amazed how comfortable the sail was.

Getting Ushuaia ready for the sail

After the great sail we made it to the boatyard. We were fortunate to have have the man who built Ushuaia sailing with us.  He sailed her on to the dock and made it seem effortless. Maybe one day we will have the finesse that he does.

After a bit of time on the dock it was time to haul her out of the water!

Before we hauled we had planned to just sand the bottom and add new bottom paint. Of course things did not work out that way. When we pulled her out we found many, many blisters. So instead of one day of sanding it turned into two days or grinding and patching. It is a very nasty job.

Too make it more difficult is the heat! Unless you have experienced a boatyard in the tropics it is really hard to fathom how hot it is.

It is exciting to see progress being made. Since the boat has never been powered there has never been a need for a prop. Tim cut out the apperature and saw what she will look like with a prop.

It is exciting to see color go on. She is a bright yellow so she won't be hard to miss!

The boys have had a great time playing in the yard. They have done a wonderful time entertaining themselves so we can get the work done.

They have also been very big helpers. They are good at picking up and are not too shabby with a paint brush or roller.

Tim has been beyond busy to make all of this come together. We had some help for a couple of days and Zack Zook helped out for a couple. 

We finally got to put on the first coat of bottom paint. She in now a bummble bee. It seems like there is light at the end of the tunnel. Of course we still have to finish the topsides but at least she is close to going back in the water. It is strange to be on a boat on dry land.