ht, sunny and cold (although the northern contingent does contend that it is not really that cold here!). I am wearing a tracksuit, a turtleneck and a fleece sweatshirt, along with fleece socks! When we were packing clothes for this trip, I knew I was taking too much, but I couldn't decide whether to focus on warm clothes or clothes for the warm weather - so I gave up and brought both. To date I have worn everything from a swimsuit to what I would wear out walking in the Yorkshire Dales in January (no boots yet though!) and everything in between.Wanted to modestly and demurely announce that I am the reigning Bananagrams Champion (nah, nah, na-nah-na)! It was close, very close, but in the end I snatched to the title away from Steve. However, he has captured the title of 
Master of Pizzas! (It's amazing all the new talents which are emerging - cocktails, pizza, Bananagrams, anchor resetting - all essential life skills, I'm sure!)
Yesterday was spent indoors and last night was even more woowoowoo-y. There was a long enough wind lull for sunset toasting before tucking back in below with the oven on making pizza (our version of central heating) and watching of movies. It was Steve's choice, The King and I - always makes me cry.
We held a Communications Summit this morning, an analysis of all our different types of communications and how we can use them most efficiently. This was driven by 'ouch' phone bills - mine 500 and Steve's of 121 - that's not in the spending plan! Okay, UK mobiles are now moving from the regular usage to emergency usage only. Actually the biggest aspect of that was data on my Iphone, uploading / downloading so that is now shut off. We're going to have to be a lot smarter and more selective about what technology we use for what type of activity. It seems to break down into some pretty clear categories:
Posting to the Blog - not going to give it up, love it, great way to communicate and a wonderful record of our journey - daily or at the most every few days
Master of Pizzas! (It's amazing all the new talents which are emerging - cocktails, pizza, Bananagrams, anchor resetting - all essential life skills, I'm sure!)Yesterday was spent indoors and last night was even more woowoowoo-y. There was a long enough wind lull for sunset toasting before tucking back in below with the oven on making pizza (our version of central heating) and watching of movies. It was Steve's choice, The King and I - always makes me cry.
We held a Communications Summit this morning, an analysis of all our different types of communications and how we can use them most efficiently. This was driven by 'ouch' phone bills - mine 500 and Steve's of 121 - that's not in the spending plan! Okay, UK mobiles are now moving from the regular usage to emergency usage only. Actually the biggest aspect of that was data on my Iphone, uploading / downloading so that is now shut off. We're going to have to be a lot smarter and more selective about what technology we use for what type of activity. It seems to break down into some pretty clear categories:
Posting to the Blog - not going to give it up, love it, great way to communicate and a wonderful record of our journey - daily or at the most every few days
Talking to Jess and the rest of our families (voice or video) - not going to give it up, love it, want to stay in touch frequently - every few days
Emailing - a necessity for communications and for managing our affairs - daily or at the most every few days
Internet access - research and affairs management, we're still constantly running into things that we 'need to look up' - once or twice a week
Weather - must have for both safety and comfort reasons - once, twice daily
The goal is to use the least expensive communications method possible while maintaining the desired frequency of contact and the options are VHF radio, HF radio, computer with antenna, Internet stick, mobile / cell, wifi via 'internet cafe' or land-based wifi piggybacking. So, after much discussion and the creation of a matrix (or two), it looks like the processes are:
Posting to Blog - First go for the free options - HF (anywhere), Kindle (where there is a cell signal), wifi via antenna. Think we really can always find a free option for blog posting of text. osting of photos will involve a really good wifi antenna connection (rare) or land-based wifi access, so photos will often appear a few days after the blog text is posted
Talking to Jess and the rest of our families - Jess and I are getting wifi (Skype) phones so wherever there is a wifi signal (land or on boat) we can chat. I've also set up Skype Out which allows us unlimited calls to landlines and we can continue to use Skype on the laptop for video calling with a good wifi signal. Skype also has the voicemail feature so we're going to use that more. We're keeping the mobiles / cell phones for emergency usage only, but they will be on should you need to call us
Emailing - HF (anywhere), Kindle (where there is a cell signal), wifi via antenna and the land-based wifi options. Think we really can always find a free option for sending and receiving emails at a minimum daily. We will be switching our email addresses because 1) the HF Sailmail goes to a dedicated email address and 2) our current email addresses get too much rubbishy spam (much of what was included in that whopper bill was spam and I am rather unhappy about paying to download that garbage). So continue to email and we will get it via one method or another, and we will email you with the new email addresses once those are set up
Internet access - Unless it is a really important question 'which must be answered right this minute', write down the things we need to do on the web and do them when we come across a good connection
Emailing - a necessity for communications and for managing our affairs - daily or at the most every few days
Internet access - research and affairs management, we're still constantly running into things that we 'need to look up' - once or twice a week
Weather - must have for both safety and comfort reasons - once, twice daily
The goal is to use the least expensive communications method possible while maintaining the desired frequency of contact and the options are VHF radio, HF radio, computer with antenna, Internet stick, mobile / cell, wifi via 'internet cafe' or land-based wifi piggybacking. So, after much discussion and the creation of a matrix (or two), it looks like the processes are:
Posting to Blog - First go for the free options - HF (anywhere), Kindle (where there is a cell signal), wifi via antenna. Think we really can always find a free option for blog posting of text. osting of photos will involve a really good wifi antenna connection (rare) or land-based wifi access, so photos will often appear a few days after the blog text is posted
Talking to Jess and the rest of our families - Jess and I are getting wifi (Skype) phones so wherever there is a wifi signal (land or on boat) we can chat. I've also set up Skype Out which allows us unlimited calls to landlines and we can continue to use Skype on the laptop for video calling with a good wifi signal. Skype also has the voicemail feature so we're going to use that more. We're keeping the mobiles / cell phones for emergency usage only, but they will be on should you need to call us
Emailing - HF (anywhere), Kindle (where there is a cell signal), wifi via antenna and the land-based wifi options. Think we really can always find a free option for sending and receiving emails at a minimum daily. We will be switching our email addresses because 1) the HF Sailmail goes to a dedicated email address and 2) our current email addresses get too much rubbishy spam (much of what was included in that whopper bill was spam and I am rather unhappy about paying to download that garbage). So continue to email and we will get it via one method or another, and we will email you with the new email addresses once those are set up
Internet access - Unless it is a really important question 'which must be answered right this minute', write down the things we need to do on the web and do them when we come across a good connection
Weather - VHF when local, HF where there is no VHF
Otherwise, expenses seem to be in line with projections. We're still doing a bit of 'getting stuff for the boat' (wetsuits and a new anchor this week), but that has slowed considerably. We have spent no time in marinas (which would run somewhere in the 80 to 120 per night range), but we do spend time on the mooring ball at Boot Key Harbor (100 per week). Our restaurant eating out seems to be confined to lunches, primarily seafood and / or chicken wings, as we tend to be a bit far out in our anchorages to dingy in for dinner and our preference really is for dinner on the boat - all that cooking research is paying off! (Actually, I think if you want to cut down on restaurant expenses, becoming a really good cook is the way to go. If you cook well, you become very, very selective about what restaurants you will go to and pay for an expensive meal - the food should be much better than you can do yourself!)
It looks like the weather is going to give us a break and we're sailing for Key West tomorrow! Then on to the Marquesas!
Otherwise, expenses seem to be in line with projections. We're still doing a bit of 'getting stuff for the boat' (wetsuits and a new anchor this week), but that has slowed considerably. We have spent no time in marinas (which would run somewhere in the 80 to 120 per night range), but we do spend time on the mooring ball at Boot Key Harbor (100 per week). Our restaurant eating out seems to be confined to lunches, primarily seafood and / or chicken wings, as we tend to be a bit far out in our anchorages to dingy in for dinner and our preference really is for dinner on the boat - all that cooking research is paying off! (Actually, I think if you want to cut down on restaurant expenses, becoming a really good cook is the way to go. If you cook well, you become very, very selective about what restaurants you will go to and pay for an expensive meal - the food should be much better than you can do yourself!)
It looks like the weather is going to give us a break and we're sailing for Key West tomorrow! Then on to the Marquesas!
Seems even land based internet can be difficult, so I am not sure if my previous comment posted. But I wanted to add a personal thought envoked by both of your great entries. I love the cocooning, the isolation, the adventure, the getting down to what you can do yourself, even just eating dinner at home as you are both rediscovering from life. I finally have Bill understanding the joy of dining at home with just ourselves or with friends. What I would miss from your lifestyle is green........yes I would miss my pallet of green. In these difficult times of reflection, one begins to wonder; what is your talent, what is unique or at the very least, rememberable characteristic about what you can do? I am discovering I am artist of sorts with the color green as my backdrop, the oils are any living plant, and my canvas is anywhere things can grow. As for you to putter with charts, wind, reading, re-learning/remembering what you are is fantastic and you are creating your own art within your life. I would miss after too much time, without my friends from the soil and the ability to paint with them. God gave me a "green thumb" and it is a great gift.
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