Creating our Sailing Dream: November 2015

Well, knowing that I was having another surgery in October, I bought more books. Now I have so many to read, I can't catch up! If you don't already know this about me, I am not a reader. Yep, you heard that right. Except, I LOVE to read true stories about people who go and live their dream on the water.

During the summer, I would grab a book, sit on the deck, soak up some rays and plow through a book. Now that winter is here, I haven't spent as much time reading as I normally would.

Right now I'm reading "Living on Island Time, All the Time" by Kristen Miller. She and her husband are in their mid 20's and buy a small sail boat and sail to the Caribbean via the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway). They live a very primitive lifestyle. For example, during hurricane season, they rode out the season in the Dominican Republic in Luperon. Because they only had a couple hundred dollars to live off of for six weeks (before they could tap into their savings), they didn't do much except exercise & clean the boat. I give them kudos to that, as I know we couldn't do that. We would probably spend the days drinking and soaking up the sun.

The book is only 154 pages, so when I bought it, I thought, better have a backup book. As I searched for another, I came upon a three book series by David Beaupre. His first book, "Quest and Crew" is an autobiographical memoir beginning in 1999 when he came across an article about living in the Caribbean for $15,000 per year. Now he had to convince his wife. And so began his adventure and soon his second book, "Quest on the Thorny Path" came out in 2014. Finally in April 2015, his third book "Quest for the Virgins" was released. I haven't read them yet, so don't ruin it for me. I think I'll have some great reading material for our trip to Antigua in January!

This past summer, one of my favorite books I mentioned a few blogs ago, "Convergence. A Voyage through French Polynesia" told a story about a sailor, John Silverwood they met one day. John & his wife Jean had two kids and they became friends while anchored one week. Soon that family had to set sail for Figi and then Australia. About one hundred & seventy miles into their trip, disaster struck. They were hit by a rogue wave, lost their boat and had to be rescued. John was severely injured and lost his leg in the ordeal. He also wrote a book about the event, called "Black Wave". While I try to only read happy go lucky in the sun type books, I was intrigued by this one, as it could save our lives some day. I haven't read this one yet, but probably will wait until after our two sailing trips in Antigua. (that will be another blog, but we are so excited).

Knowing how much information I am trying to absorb, Scott gave me a handful of books for my birthday - all about living aboard.

The two on the left, are simple and basic. Great tips and guidelines. Right now I'm reading "Living Aboard a Boat" by Mark Nichols. This is a great book for anyone considering living on a boat. He starts from day one and shares with you the pros and cons. He tells it as it is. One thing Mark doesn't do, is tell you the obvious things you should do (i.e. buy life preservers, etc). He gives in depth detail about buying a boat and he learned by experience, as one of his boats was a lemon.

I haven't read the fourth book yet called "All in the Same Boat" by Tom Neale. I figure, I better save something to read for next year! Scott's parents saw the books and asked us "so when is this happening". Well, actually we get that question all of the time and we don't know yet. It will all depend on when I go back to work now that we sold the wine shop. Then we can save up some money, pay off some debt and hopefully go boat shopping by next summer!! That's the plan at least. So stay tuned for more new reads! Cheers! Ally

Yes, it's true. I'm obsessed with the weather. We live at about 750 ft above sea level looking down onto the valley. From our deck we face Southwest, straight to Tacoma. Looking north we see the SeaTac tower. So when bad weather is coming our way, we see it long before the folks down below do.

On Facebook, I post a lot of weather photos & videos and often, they are just the same shot over and over. Like I said, I'm obsessed with weather. Weather determines everything when it comes to boating. It doesn't matter if you are going out on your 25' Bayliner on Lake Washington or going sailing in the Puget Sound. Nasty weather can sneak up at any time.

Here's an example of the many photos I've taken of different weather patterns coming our way:

Obviously, if you are on a boat in the middle of the ocean, you can also see what's coming your way. But if you live here in the Pacific Northwest, often our mountain ranges will block any bad weather coming your way. That's why I love the weather site www.weatherspark.com as it uses data from NOAA and gives you a lot of detail and information.

We live at the base of the Cascade foothills and often, when I am traveling towards our house, I run into all kinds of crazy weather. Imagine what it's like in the Cascades? Here's what I'm talking about:

I have lots of weather apps on my phone, including NOAA, Accuweather & Intellicast. All of these weather apps will send you a weather alert and keep you updated. Living at the base of the Cascades, we get a lot of wind and with no protection, we get a direct hit. Add rain to that formula and it's like being on a boat as the windows get pounded by wind and rain.

One thing is for sure, we live in a region that brings us all kinds of crazy weather, beautiful skies & gorgeous sunsets. If I could get paid for every weather pic I've taken, I'd be rich by now. Enjoy some of my favorites including ones I've taken on our trips.