The Excellent Adventure

I am absolutely sick to death of the rain.

This is, natch, not a unique sentiment around here this year. Given half an opportunity, pretty much everyone I know will hold forth about how they’re really, really done (really done) with the wetness. I hear from my landlubber pals that the ants are invading in record numbers, that people’s yards are sliding down hills, that gutters are backing up and floods are becoming way more common.

I know that the incessant, uninterrupted, freaking persistent moisture from the heavens is adding another dimension of learning curve to our liveaboard adventure. I am really grateful we got a boat with a huge cockpit, because I can’t imagine where else we’d put everyone’s rain gear. The REI stuff we got for the kids last year just isn’t going to cut it much longer; both sets of their pants are no longer even pretending to hold the moisture out. But of course, while they’re still both growing like little weeds, it’s tough to justify shelling out for The Really Prime Foulies. I’m beginning to think I should organize an online swap for liveaboard parents, who surely have faced the same problem.

One huge success in the gear department, that you can see in this photo, are the Crocs Georgie boots. Bright, colorful, lightweight, durable, easy for the kids to get them on themselves. I can see these working out for years to come.

But back to the cockpit… while there’s plenty of space, we still haven’t come up with a solution that hangs stuff well, and yet doesn’t make us look like total tramper vagabonds. Jason’s temporarily strung some lines up under the bimini, and we’re clothespinning stuff to the lines, but it’s clearly just a stopgap until we figure out The Perfect Solution.

Inside, it’s been great to have our little space heaters going. I’m pretty sure we’d all have an inch of moss on us otherwise. (Thanks Grandpa and Grammy!). We’ve been staying pretty dry in the boat. And while on the one hand everyone’s jokes about us already living on an ark are funny, they’re also spot-on. This deluge has been a great test for leaky hatches, uncaulked seams, and other forms of pernicious moisture intrusion. Cause lemme tell you, if it was going to leak, it is indeed leaking. Mostly, we’re pleased, although there’s still one leak in the workshop (port forward side) that has eluded pinpoint detection.

Jason, being the total Google Earth geek that he is, has decided that his own weather prediction skills are superior to that of weather.com, and I can’t say that I disagree. The satellite weather KMLs for Google Earth give all kinds of great info, and after a few weeks, it gets progressively easier to figure out what’s coming, and what’s going to fly past us. It also helps figure out what’s happening in the water, because land forecasts are pretty much useless for marine application. Doesn’t mean I’m not going to leap at my next opportunity to take Lee Chesneau’s Weather Prediction series, but for now, it’s a good solution.

And speaking of the sky… have I mentioned that it’s raining? All kinds of amazing astronomical phenomenon have been happening lately; the asteroid flyby, the Venus, Jupiter, and crescent moon conjunct, and the space station flyby, have all occurred behind thick layers of precipitation. I keep hoping that maybe, as for the lunar eclipse last year, the clouds will part and let some of the celestial show through, but so far, all I’ve gotten is rain in my eyes.

Whew. OK, that’s enough whining. For now. But if this lasts much longer, I make no guarantees.

Tags: Crocs, Environment, gear, Google Earth, KML, spaceweather, weather

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