Well, we have been remiss in posting. Mostly we have felt that there has not been any exciting or noteworthy news that you would be interested in. But I guess hearing that we are alive and well could still be interesting. Plus there has been some news and progress: we have moved aboard, sailed her and are all settling in...so I guess it is time to catch up and show some pictures!
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| The keys to Zephyros! |
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| First dinner aboard! |
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| First sail - Daxton at work |
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| First sail - Ronan at work |
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| Jon at work |
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| Sailing! |
After Zephyros launched on the 12th we went to Le Mont St Michel for a visit and then back to Paris. The boys have each written a small piece on Le Mont St Michel that I should get posted with pictures. After about a week in Paris, we came back and moved aboard the boat on the 20th of September. We started regular, daily school work with the boys; we made Ikea and grocery runs; we set up with (spotty) local wifi; we did some sailing (Poseidon got sick, every time) and tested out systems on the boat; Megan returned the car back to our friends in Paris; we had some minor things fixed or changed; but mostly we waited. We waited for our shipment of things from Seattle. We waited for nice weather days that we could sail because the weather had turned cold and we didn't have enough warm clothes or the right safety gear with us. The boys also spent a rainy day playing with new friends - a boat with kids that was visiting for the weekend. It was a nice way to break up the days for Jon and I as well, as we all made a first cruising and cruising kid connection. We all spent time on their boat and ours.
We had thought that our things might beat us to France, then we were given an expected arrival to Antwerp of 2 Sep and delivery by 18 Sep. The arrival to Antwerp was then changed to 25 Sep and then to 2 Oct. Apparently the ship went from Tacoma to Houston to Antwerp - so Harvey, Irma, possibly Jose and some other hurricanes all continued to delay our shipment. So we waited and filled our days - some rainy, some sunny, which is still a far better fate then that of those who were actually hit by the hurricanes or then having our stuff get washed off the ship in a hurricane! Once our stuff did arrive, it cleared customs pretty quickly and was delivered to the boat yard on 10 Oct.
We took the shipment of our things to the boat in 2 loads, half arriving on Tuesday 10 Oct and then the other half came down on Thursday the 12th. We worked hard over the days trying to find a place for everything. Truth be told, school work went on hold a bit, because there was no table for a few days and Jon and I were both working to get things stored. Thankfully there was some nice weather to send the boys off playing (or to PE class if you want to be generous). But there was also rain so we tried to get things on the boat quickly so that they didn't sit on the pier or get wet.
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| A favorite cat spot - and the perfect height! |
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| Low tide on top / high tide on bottom |
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| Steep ramp at low tide (left) but easy at high tide |
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| Exploring cats |
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| Applying our boat name graphics |
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| Name in Greek on port side |
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| Name in English on starboard side |
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Christening the boat Zephyros officially!
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| Daxton gave champagne to the North god |
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| Ronan to the West god - Zephyros! |
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| Jon to the East and Megan to the South |
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| A pizza ATM |
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| We had to try it, and it was pretty good! |
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| Sailing - testing out the Asymmetric Spinnaker |
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| Stuff! |
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| More Stuff! |
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| Two cats in one cubby! |
We finally felt settled and set up enough to start looking to sail and then Ophelia was heading to Ireland - crazy that a hurricane headed to Ireland. While we didn't see hurricane force winds here, it was yellow sky (supposedly desert dust pulled into the atmosphere by the hurricane and/or dust from fires in Spain & Portugal) and quite windy on Monday. Also, as we are installing and setting up all the gear we are also finding a couple of additional tweaks and new questions. So this week we are continuing to get sorted and are hoping to start sailing a bit farther afield. There are really strong winds expected Saturday so we may settle for some more day sails or go farther quickly with a protected harbor to stay in.
We are anxious for our adventuring to get moving off the pier more, but we are getting sorted step by step. The kids have restarted daily school and we are working through the issues that we know about. We will certainly shake down the boat more and if / when any other issues arise we will get them sorted out as well.
Zephyros is truly becoming our home!
