Free...damn

Well, that didn't last long. The same day I received my final paycheck from the company that laid me off, I received a contract from that company for sixteen more weeks of work. Last summer I went to California to work on a project with the rest of my group. We worked about 80 hours a week and finished the design in about half the time it should have taken. That product was accepted by the customer "as is" with no modifications required and is currently being sold to new customers. I was laid off because I asked to be, but a new customer requested a modified version of the product we created last summer, so my former boss asked me to come back to help with the new design. I wasn't sure, but the money was too much to pass up. Sixteen weeks will keep us in Florida through the end of the year and past hurricane season. I was already regretting my decision the day after I signed the contract. Wendy and I were able to do a lot of work on the boat in August, we got the opportunity to do a bunch of diving with my nephew and his girlfriend and I'm already missing the free time I've lost. However, it appears that we're going to be stuck around here for the next couple of months, anyway.

Two days after signing the contract, Wendy was stepping into the cockpit of our sailboat and miss placed her foot. She had her hands full so she couldn't catch herself and got all her weight on her foot at an odd angle. Her fifth metatarsal shattered like a dropped bottle. It's a small bone, but still ended up in four pieces. She had surgery on it two weeks ago and the doc put the puzzle back together again then added some pins and a plate to hold it all in place. Wendy went back for x-rays last week and the doc said it looks perfect. She had half her stitches taken out this week and she’ll have the rest done next week. It was a long cut on a little foot. She will be non-weight bearing on that leg for six weeks. We've spent some time hanging out at my sister's condo, but we don't want to leave the boat too long, so we’ll be going back to the boat on Friday. We both miss the boat and want to get back there, so we'll give that a try and see how it goes.

We have a seat called a boson's chair that is used to lift people up the mast. Since Wendy is non-weight bearing she won't be able to climb up and down the ladder to get on and off the boat. To get in and out of our dinghy, I'll need to hoist her up and down using the boson's chair. When we get ashore she has a rolling knee walker. That sort of looks like a scooter, but you just put one knee on it. That keeps the weight off her foot while allowing her to be mobile. Very mobile, it can be hard to keep up with her.

So, life isn't quite what we expected, but at least it’s interesting. Wendy said this was the best summer of her life. Well, before breaking her foot. We got to do a lot of great diving, spend time with lots of family, make new friends and get the boat all ready for cruising while living at anchor. While everything didn't go as planned, we still had a great summer and are loving our lives.

Boat life problems

Ah, the joys of life on a sailboat. Last week I needed some groceries, so I decided to go over to Publix early in the morning before I started working. There are two ways to go from here. One is to go to the park, tie up at a low dock, climb a short ladder then walk about a half mile. The other way is to take the dinghy across the water to a very tall, abandoned dock about a block from the Publix. Since I was by myself that morning, I picked to tall dock and short walk.

Since I was going out in public, I cleaned myself up. Wendy had gone back to Dallas to visit her mom and sister one last time before we sail away and I had been on the boat by myself for a few days. Since all I had been doing was sitting in front of a computer all day, every day, I had worn the same clothes for days and hadn’t bothered to shave. I take a shower every night before going to bed, so at least I was clean. I washed my face and shaved, brushed my teeth then put on a clean shirt and clean cargo shorts. I looked and felt like a respectable human being again.

I usually wear cargo shorts when I’m leaving the boat and that day was no different. They have lots of pockets with buttons, so things like money, cell phone and keys stay safe. Early on I learned that stuff likes to jump out of pockets when climbing on and off boats. I climbed down into the dinghy and attached the kill switch to the engine. A kill switch is just a little clip that attaches to the front of the engine with a little red lanyard that goes around your wrist. If you fall overboard, the lanyard pulls the clip off and the engine dies. If you don’t have the kill switch you can’t start the engine.

The tide was high which meant the water was clear and the reach up to the dock was as short as it was going to get. There was no ladder and the dock was about chest level when I was standing on the side of the dinghy. I locked the dinghy up with a chain, threw out a small anchor to hold the dinghy away from the dock then pulled myself up.

It was a short walk to Publix and the morning was still cool. I got in and out quickly, but the day was already heating up. I made it back to the dinghy without getting too hot then had to get myself and all the groceries back down into the boat. I put my hands on the top of a short piling and lowered my body down. Fully stretched out, my feet just reached the side of the dinghy. I let go, grabbed the dock and balanced myself. No problem. Reaching up and grabbing the groceries, I loaded them into the dinghy. Then I just had to unlock the chain and I was good to go.

I unlocked the lock and pulled the chain down from around the dock piling. I was congratulating myself on a job well done as the chain dropped into the boat when I saw a small flash of red hit the water. I had a sinking feeling as I checked my pockets for the kill switch. Not finding them, I looked into the water and could clearly see them on the bottom just under the dinghy. The water didn’t look that deep, so I reached down to see if I could grab them. No luck; I’m going to have to go in.

I emptied my pockets into a grocery bag, took off my belt, removed my shirt and flip-flops and was left sitting there wearing only the clean shorts I had put on an hour before. I hopped over the side onto some rocks then slowly walked down into the water. My hope was I could reach the kill switch with my toes before the water reached my shorts. Nope. I was up to my waist when I got to the kill switch and tried to pick it up with my toes. Unfortunately, it was between some big rocks and I couldn’t get a good angle on it. All I managed to do was push it farther down in between the rocks. I realized the only way to get it was to fully immerse myself. I pulled the anchor over close to the kill switch so I would have something to help pull me down then dove under. So there I am, completely underwater, upside down, eyes closed, with one hand on the anchor and the other digging around in the rocks. I stuck my hand down in between the rocks hoping there wasn't a crab in there and fortunately, I was able to retrieve the kill switch. Now fully wet with salt water I climbed back aboard, started the engine and motored home to the boat. Arriving at the boat I went straight to the shower, rinsed off, rinsed my shorts, found some other clothes, hung my wet shorts out to dry then unloaded the groceries.

That’s life when you live on a sailboat. There are so many pluses, like sunny, coconut palm lined beaches, beautiful blue water, great scuba diving and a slower paced life, but there are some down sides like when you drop your keys you don’t just bend down and pick them up, you go swimming.

Freedom!

I got laid off. Today was my last day working for Exar. That pretty much takes care of our whole work group. All the designers and test engineers are gone (or going), they only kept a couple of people in sales. For most of them this was a bad thing or at least they feel that way now. For Wendy and me this was great timing and we’re both happy I’m free. Working for Exar gave us some extra money which allowed us to spend more money on the boat because a boat will take all the money you have. On the other hand, work prevented me from working on the boat or cruising full time. So, next week we plan to really start cruising.

Our current plan is to finish up a few more things here in Palm Beach then head down to Miami. From there we will cross over to the Bahamas and sail down to the Exumas which is a chain in the south eastern Bahamas. We hope to leave here by Aug 15 and be in the Bahamas by Aug 20. We’ll see how that goes.

In the meantime, Palm Beach isn’t a bad place to spend some time. The diving at Blue Heron Bridge is great and we can take our dinghy right to the beach where we start dives. It only takes us a few minutes to walk to a grocery store. My sister owns a condo about ½ mile from here where we can do laundry and use as a shipping address. It’s all very nice, but it’s not the Bahamas or the Caribbean, so it’s time to move along.

Now our future is sailing our boat, working on our boat, scuba diving and maybe finding a shop in the Caribbean where I can teach scuba for a while. Teaching doesn’t pay anything, but it’s a lot of fun and I get free diving!

Hopefully, I’ll have a little more time to write and more to write about, plus lots of photos of beautiful beaches and underwater creatures.