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!
The keys to Zephyros!
First dinner aboard!
First sail - Daxton at work
First sail - Ronan at work
Jon at work
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.
A favorite cat spot - and the perfect height!
Low tide on top / high tide on bottom
Steep ramp at low tide (left) but easy at high tide
Exploring cats
Applying our boat name graphics
Name in Greek on port side
Name in English on starboard side
Christening the boat Zephyros officially!
Daxton gave champagne to the North god
Ronan to the West god - Zephyros!
Jon to the East and Megan to the South
A pizza ATM
We had to try it, and it was pretty good!
Sailing - testing out the Asymmetric Spinnaker
Stuff!
More Stuff!
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.
Due to the fact that I know that everybody (not just my Facebook friends) wants to see launch pictures of the boat and get an update on her, I'll skip over the last couple of weeks for now and write a more detailed post with pictures on that part of the adventure later.
For those that need some details, the short summary is that we drove from Texas, to Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky, to my friend (of 29 years now, oh my!) and her family's house in Ohio, to my Aunt's house in Pennsylvania, where we attended my cousin's wedding and stayed for a few days, to DC to stop in to see our house, to Orlando, FL (where things got interesting doing our last errands and avoiding a hurricane) to Miami (yes, Miami!) to catch our flight to Paris a day earlier than originally planned and about 7 hours before the airport closed due to Hurricane Irma.
We arrived in Paris on Saturday morning, tired, but happy and relieved to be out of the path of Hurricane Irma. We stayed with our friends, enjoying comfortable accommodations, champagne, good food and great company steps (literally) from the Eiffel Tower!
Tired kids and view from living room
Sunday we went to the playground in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower and continued to try to recover from our jet lag and reset our body clocks.
Returning home after park fun
Mocktail Preparations
Cheers!
Monday we drove out to Tréguier and saw our boat in person for the first time. The kids were completely excited and bounced all around it. Jon and I felt a sense of surrealism like it still had to be a dream or wasn't really ours (which technically she isn't completely as there is another payment or so left).
Zephyros at the yard, ready to drive to the port
Tuesday (today, Sep 12th), Zephyros was launched! All went well for the trip from the boat yard, to the port, into the water, and stepping the mast (or putting the mast up). We rode on the boat from the crane that puts up the mast to the dock with the two Jean-Francois' for our first trip on our boat (still feels surreal). However, nothing is ever perfect and she started taking on a little water from around the centerboard axel and ended up pulled back out of the water before the tide went out. No damage done as the bilge pump was keeping up, the problem was quickly spotted, and a plan was made to fix the issue. Even though Zephyros is back on land, the onboard preps continue with the rigging being tightened up along with other onboard work while they correct the leak around the centerboard. She is expected to go back in the water tomorrow around midday.
On the drive from the yard to the port
Getting ready to back up
Backing up
Excited Sailors!
Splashing!
Afloat!
1st underway
Coming alongside the crane
Pier side for the Mast
Ronan tossing his first line - we had our first trip from the crane to the dock
1st family picture aboard
Sitting at the dock - but taking on a little water
Back on land. :(
Centerboard
There has been some debate as to whether or not we should have broken or poured champagne on Zephyros today as tradition requires when christening (and/or launching a boat?). The debate is around the fact that she does not yet have her name on her as we continue to finalize the graphic so she can not yet be officially christened. Jon is convinced that Poseidon was not pleased with the lack of an offering today (hence the leak on an otherwise perfect launch), so we bought champagne for tomorrow and we will offer another bottle when we christen her with her name graphics... Hopefully this will appease Poseidon!
Champagne this time!
Ready to launch again!
It is now Thursday, and Zephyros did go back in the water on Wednesday around midday. This time with champagne - this also means that I don't really have pictures as we were all on the boat for this launch...so I've stolen some from the Boreal Facebook page.
