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Convivia was ship shape and ready to sail by the time my work day ended. We decided in the morning that today would be the day that we tested out the North Sails QuickCover (similar to a StackPack) and Monitor windvane. I was a little worried about the monitor because I had to guess on where to attach the control sheets and I hadn’t had time to read the instructions on how one actually sails with the thing. I was worried about the QuickCover because I have heard all sorts of complaints about the sail getting caught and other related issues. ...

We just passed the 100 day mark. On the upside, the anticipation of this 90º course change in our life has all of us sparkling. The recent addition of two Blue Latitudes cruiser’s guides to our library has us ooohing and ahhing over lovely color photos of turquoise bays and vibrant seaside towns. I’ve also become enamored with the laid back, islandy sound of my ukulele, often playing it all evening instead of knocking items off my todo list. ...

This was a pretty productive weekend. I had hoped to get started on the Monitor install but instead got all of the New England Ropes (Dyneema) halyards run as well as one of the genoa sheets. I had a very simple method planned for swapping out the old halyards. I was going to tape the old halyard to the 5mm Dyneema®, run it back up the mast, over the sheave and down. Then I thought I would just tape the new halyard on and run it back up. I tried it Friday night and it worked great until the new halyard got back up to the sheave. Apparently the tight turn was too much for the tape and the halyard and 5mm fell back down. ...

Today I got home to find several large boxes waiting for me. Okay, true, I did have to walk 1/4 mile up to the marina office to pick them up, and I did have to call Ed (the security guard/awesome guy) to let me into said office and then wheel those large boxes back to the boat; artistic license. In said boxes were: a) A Ukulele. Which I have been wanting for a long time but didn’t quite get over the hump until Merileigh (our boat neighbor) got one. ...

Convivia and crew spent the long weekend spinning around our anchor (very slowly) in Horseshoe Cove (a.k.a Sausalito’s Presidio, a.k.a Fort Baker). The anchorage was every bit as enjoyable as our last visit, and more so since they removed the flotsam collection from the mooring ball. When we arrived (around 1400 on Saturday) there were two other boats on anchor. Both the ~35’ trimaran and the ~48’ trawler had a lot less draft, and were closer into shore than I would have been comfortable with. The upshot was that Convivia dropped anchor almost exactly where she did last time (if the GPS waypoint can be trusted). We didn’t get off the boat at all on Saturday. Once we had settled the boat, covered the sails, and tidied up, we settled in for afternoon coffee (and lemonade). A few hours later (and in the pouring down rain) I turned on the grill for some awesome BBQ chicken. The kids fell to sleep quickly and early and Vick and made tea and read until the damp cold drove us into our berth. ...

I just got a note from Kevin at New England Ropes. Our Dyneema® line will ship from the West Marine rig shop today. With any luck they will arrive before the end of the week. I should be able to get at least the sheets installed before the long weekend. If so we’ll be able to test our new vang and some beautiful new line on our long weekend cruise. That will take some of the sting out of not getting the Monitor installed.

This weekend we attended our last NBOG event. NBOG or Nature Based Ongoing Group, is a small community of home-schoolers and their families who strive to teach their children awareness and respect for the interdependence and interconnection of all life. In addition to being a wonderful community for Ruby NBOG has provided us with an amazing group of likeminded parents. Saying goodbye was much harder than any of us expected. ...

The Garhauer Rigid Boom Vang arrived today. This is the first major system install since the windlass and it marks the beginning of a series of complex installs that will last until we shove off. I didn’t really think it would be all that difficult when I ordered it at the boat show. “Just drill a few holes, tap them, and bolt it on,” I thought. But when I started lining it up I realized I would need to dust off some of that trig that I had forgotten 15+ years ago. A few well written blog posts later I’m feeling much better about the install. I’ll try round two tomorrow (and document it if you’re lucky). The next project will be the Monitor Windvane. That should arrive Tuesday. With any luck I’ll have it installed before Memorial Day so we can use it as we tool around the Bay on our 3 day weekend cruise. ...

For the last week or so I’ve been in a terminal velocity free fall of stress. Yes it’s cruising related but probably not what you would think. The stress derives from the notion that I don’t want to own anything (after we drop the dock lines) that we can’t fit in the ManVan or on our boat. I don’t want a storage unit, or a bunch of stuff squirreled away in friends/family’s houses and I don’t want to save anything that I don’t love and expect to dream about regularly while we’re cruising. In fact I want the few possessions that we hold on to to be so significant that I actually consider swallowing the hook in order to be able to use them again. I don’t want to hold on to any sh…tuff. ...

Last week we had an unpleasant situation with a guy moving in next door to us. He claimed that he was going to be our new liveaboard neighbor. We would have been distressed if that had been the extent of it, but by the end of the day he had become quite unstable and we were forced to move as far away as possible. (If you are FB friends with me you can read the whole freaky story here.) ...

This low grade cold is demanding I go to bed, but I wanted to get at least some account of our Easter experience up before the day was over.

My best friend from elementary school (Ransom) and his family came out this Saturday for a sail. We planned this months ago, and as we seem to hold little sway with the weather gods, had to take what was offered on that front. When they arrived it was slightly overcast and the tide was negative. We wasted no time getting the boat ready to leave though, and made it off the dock in what seemed like record time. ...

A Friday ritual. A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. - via soulemama

I met Kevin Coughlin of New England Ropes (NER) this weekend. New England Ropes is the vendor that will be providing the finished Dyneema® product, and Kevin has been awesome so far at liaising between us and the contest organizers. I finalized our inventory (who would have guessed what a project that would be) and sent it off with some additional questions. From NER the Dyneema® spools will be sent to West Marine in Connecticut Newport, RI for splicing and then out to us to install on Convivia. He expects it to be here in 3ish weeks. ...

What an exhausting, fulfilling, and significant weekend. We purchased all of our major safety systems this weekend, and deferred the water maker for another day. We got the kids to sit for at least 20 minutes of Zac Sunderland’s talk and Ruby even admitted that she wanted to hear more (but just couldn’t sit still). We saw 2 boats (a Lagoon 400, and a Morris 36) and completely lucked into getting a free, two hour ride (with marine biology mini-class) sail on the 82’ steel schooner Seaward. ...