Phases of the moon

July 18, 2018 by Aimee Christenson In Uncategorized 5 Comments

I waffle with the idea of feeling the effects of the moon. I’ve read a bit, heard a bit and I think I’m experiencing it a bit. I felt foul for a couple of days this week. Actually, I just felt void of feelings all together which comes off as foul to those around me (Shane).  My responses are short and pointed without my normal amount of chattering. It doesn’t make for a pleasant environment on the boat. I’m blaming that on the full moon 😉

That was followed by a few days of mind melting heat. The kind that had me grabbing my geriatric dog and heading for the air-conditioned car once again. So really, my poor husband has had his patience cup emptied this week. We’re at the tail end of the heat so things are really looking up for him! During the “full moon/heat phase”, Shane has been diligently trying to finish up some of the projects on the boat before we head back to MN. I’ll be visiting family and working and Shane is off to crew on a sailboat that will return to Port Huron for the Mackinaw race. He’s been looking forward to this for months and I  consider it a well deserved adventure for all of his hard work (and patience).

This week’s agenda started with the  installation of the new teak handrails and companionway step. I gave them one shiny coat of varnish before Shane installed them and will be following up with two more once they are securely in place. When we purchased the boat, her teak was weathered and had seen better days. Personally, I liked the grey wood but Shane has dreams of restoring and/or replacing all of the teak on the exterior of the boat. I have to say, it does look pretty.

 

Next came the ongoing struggle to build and attach the engine mount and lift for the dingy.  We were hoping to just buy an over the counter model but with any older boat, nothing new and “standard” fits. So off to the hardware store for marine plywood, screws, bedding compound etc, etc, etc…  *While I was writing this, I literally responded to a 911 from Shane as he was hanging upside down in a cockpit locker and had dropped a nut in the water. Off to the marine supply store (thankfully located about a block away) for the third time today. When I delivered it to him, he was covered in grease, sweat and pasty bedding compound. He just looked at me and said, “this is the last project of the day” and regressed to the nasty hole at the back of the boat. That project isn’t quite done, I didn’t get a picture of him… I’ll leave it at that.

We also had to have the boat hauled out again. When we added the feathering prop, it was installed with the factory pitch settings. We didn’t change them and after spending a little time motoring her up the river to our marina, Shane just felt that it needed an adjustment. So out she came, the adjustment was made and she was placed back into the water.

 

 

We celebrated by taking her out for a much needed sail (and a motor up the river to test the prop pitch).

 

 

Before we could leave the boat, Shane insisted on finally inflating the dingy to take her for a spin. It had been tucked away in the back of my minivan for a month just teasing him to take it out. While I was out grabbing salads for dinner, he hauled the dingy out to the boat, inflated it and pulled it into the water where he managed to snag it on a nail on the way. For anyone who knows Shane, you know that he has a perpetual grey cloud that follows him around and makes fun of his determination. It doesn’t appear as often as it used to but every now and then, it sneaks in and gives him a nudge. So almost as quickly as the dingy was inflated, it was hauled out of the water to be patched. The dingy ride would have to wait until we returned from MN as we had to prep the boat for a couple of weeks away.

*Skipping ahead two weeks

We arrived back in MN just in time to celebrate the 4th of July with family and friends before turning around and heading to Northern WI to send Shane off on his racing adventure. Dropping him off was reminiscent of sending the kids off to camp. With a large backpack solidly attached to his back, we said our goodbyes but I think he was so excited, he hardly noticed Ethan and I  were even there!

 

On our way back home, I took Ethan through the town where I’d grown up and did the thing that all parents do when the have their kids held captive in the car. I took him all around and showed him my old neighborhood, school, where I used to hang out and basically bored him to death with stories of my childhood. Actually, he didn’t seem to mind and we had a lot of fun. We passed by a nature center on the edge of town and I told him how my mom used to take us hiking along that river when we were kids. I decided that we MUST kayak it the next day. After exhausting my search for kayak rentals in the area, I threw it out on the trusty FB to see if any of my local friends had a couple of boats they’d be willing to lend us. Success! So we were able spend a perfect day paddling down the river, climbing over downed trees and spending a very memorable mother-son day together!!

 

I also got to spend some time with our daughter Avery, helping her get her new farmhouse ready to move into. As Shane and I have made it our mission to downsize, she is heading the opposite direction and recently purchased a farm North of Minneapolis. It was the perfect way to have lots of mother-daughter time together and give her a housewarming gift in the process. After several long back breaking days and the help of a small army of willing participants, they are nearly finished with the upper level and ready to start bringing in their belongings.

 

It’s been nearly three weeks since I started writing this post. The moon will be bright in the sky again soon. Shane will be back from the race and we’ll head back to Rhythm again. I miss her. I miss sleeping on a moving bed. I miss all of the fresh air, the simplicity, the challenges and rewards of living on a boat. Mostly I miss Shane. We still have a lot of work to do before we can head out of the Great Lakes but for now, I’m cherishing every second I have here with my family before heading into the next phase of life.