Tag: dogs

December 15, 2013

Second Sail Aboard SV Mary Christine

Another gorgeous day out on Charlotte Harbor!! We were absolutely thrilled when Jan and David (commutercruiser.com) wanted to go sailing with us again. The forecast looked promising and we decided to head out on Friday around noon. The sun was warm and we had 10-15 knot winds all afternoon. We were going 6 knots without even putting up the main sail!

Gunner loves when we are motoring through the channel out of the marina. He gets so many good smells and just loves to be out in the sunshine.

We also got a chance to play around with our newest toy. Santa came early and brought me a new Nikon D3200 DSLR!! I have a lot to learn!

Betsy kept a close watch on the flock of white pelicans on the sand bar as we came out of the marina. She is quite confident of herself when cruising around on deck. We still haven’t put up the lifeline netting yet but having the new harnesses on the dogs was so reassuring this time while we were under way. Having the second hip lift handle is amazing when the dogs were almost out of reach, but we can still grab onto their little butts and keep them from going any further in the wrong direction. A new post about the harnesses is coming soon, but we are just beside ourselves with excitement over how awesome they are in so many different applications. Check out our Products & Services page for a preview on where to find them!

Betsy loves having friends aboard when we are sailing! There’s always a lap for her to sit in.

All in all, it was another magical day on the water, ever reminding us how lucky we are to be starting this amazing journey. Every time we take the boat out our confidence and experience both increase exponentially and our smiles grow even bigger :) We believe everything happens for a reason and it all just keeps falling into place. We keep meeting amazing friends and hearing the most inspiring stories. Although it might be hard for some of you to grasp, selling everything to move aboard a sailboat and cruise the world feels like exactly what our little family was supposed to do!!

December 10, 2013

Shopping for new jewelry??

That’s right. Some shiny new jewelry for Betsy and Gunner!!

Okay, well they’re really just ID tags but Betsy SURE was excited to have a new pretty jewel for her pretty collar :)

I’m not sure if Gunner ever had a tag with his name on it. (Bad mommy!!) He had licensing tags and he used to have a tag for his chip number, but those have all been lost long ago. He actually doesn’t even have a collar anymore. He was getting all clean and handsome while his daddy was brushing him on the dock a few weeks ago and they decided to take his collar off to get a good brushing on his neck. When he was all done Peter put the choke back on him to get him back on the boat. We use a prong collar for attaching his leash since he still has a problem with lunging out at anything that moves. It doesn’t hurt him, but helps us have a small amount of control if he decides to yank the leash out of our hands. Some time between then and later that evening we noticed his waterproof collar was nowhere to be found. No doubt, it ended up in the water and settled down in the murky sand beneath our boat never to be seen again.

Back home we could have gone into the local pet store and printed up a super quick and easy ID tag for the pups, but now that we live on a boat everything is a bit more complicated. Every purchase we make, everything we bring on the boat has to be thought out in advance to make sure it meets certain criteria:

Material: How long will it survive in the salt, the hot Caribbean sun, and the humidity
Function: How many purposes will it serve? Its ideal if everything we own has at least 3 purposes (this saves on cost and space)
Size: How big is it? Do we have a place to securely stow it while under way?
Cost: Can we get it cheaper somewhere else without too much hassle? Are there discounts in bulk?

We knew we had to have ALL STAINLESS STEEL for our pet ID tags, and not just a crappy kind, but we had to make sure it was marine grade stainless steel to hold up to the salt water that we’ll be (literally) swimming in daily.

Function here is obvious. If our adventurous pups get separated from us for whatever crazy reason, we want them to have some sort of ID on them to increase the chances of being returned to us. This is a MUST HAVE before we leave the dock.

Size? Well, no brainer, they are teeny tiny and stay on the dogs at all times.

Cost? This one is kind of tricky. We could have gone for a cheapo kind for less than $3 a piece. Marine grade stainless steel is going to cost a bit more of course.

A common problem for companies that make pet ID tags is that most of them don’t let you use that many characters per line. This was a challenge for us because our boat name is 15 characters without spaces or ‘/’ marks. Betsy has her chip tag and she also used to wear a very pretty heart ID tag but we decided we needed some critical information on their new tag that Betsy’s old one didn’t have. We wanted to make sure to put our boat name on the tags so that if they were to get away from us while cruising, whoever found them would know they belong to S/V (sailing vessel) Mary Christine. We also wanted to use a Google Voice phone number that we would have access to via wifi. If something happened to one of the dogs I’m sure we would do everything we could to get within reach of wifi in hopes that someone is trying to contact us. We also wanted an email address on the tags since it’s a pretty universal method of communication no matter what country we are in. Although some places we visit may not have internet, most of them will and this is really our best shot at being reached while cruising. We put our hailing port on there as well so if someone sees our boat, maybe they will only remember the San Diego part instead of the Mary Christine part. The more info the better. Both dogs are chipped and we’ll update that info too but we’re not sure that the places we’ll be visiting will have the scanning capabilities for the chips.

After a lot of reasearch we decided to order from Boomerang Pet Tags. Free shipping, no tax, international orders welcome, discount bulk pricing… but most important feature was the non-magnetic stainless steel they use with engraved lettering instead of stamped. We got two of the bone shaped SS tags for a little less than $10 each and they are totally worth it. They are made of the right material and they got all of our lettering on there!

December 1, 2013

Giving Thanks

We are so lucky to be here, on our very own boat, really doing this, just going for it, living the dream!! Just in time for Thanksgiving, we are thankful for a lot of things but most of all that we are able to be here living this amazing lifestyle.

Holidays are a little different when you live on a boat but our first thanksgiving as liveaboards was nothing short of traditional. The number one must have item was a homemade pumpkin pie!! It’s absolutely against everything I was raised with to use a store-bought pie crust so in our tiny little galley I set out to whip one up. It’s so easy to make and totally worth the effort of mixing it and rolling out the dough. There is a secret family recipe I use that makes the crust extra yummy. Anyone who wants to try it is welcome aboard :)

We thought about cooking up a full spread on the boat for just Peter and I but that would have taken days in just one smallish 15″x15″ oven. We didn’t plan early enough and all of our neighbors were going elsewhere to celebrate with their families. The Harbormaster of Burnt Store Marina invited us over to her house, yet something else to be thankful for. Peggy and her husband Don had several other cruising friends over and we heard lots of great salty stories from some wonderful people who have “been-there-done-that”. We had a huge traditional meal with turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, fruit salad, cole slaw, stuffing, deviled eggs, olives and biscuits. Of course we brought the fresh-baked pumpkin pie and someone else brought a banana pudding dish. Delish!!!

The last few days have been really chilly here, dropping to an astonishing low of 40 degrees at night. Our days have been calling for sweatshirts and pants, oh my!! We’ve been snuggling up and keeping it cozy in our humble aboa-t. The day after Thanksgiving I caught the boys snuggled up together so cute. Gunner loves morning time with his daddy after waking up, going outside and then eating breakfast. Peter and the kids go back to bed and read for a while. Its Gunner’s favorite time of the day. For the cold nights we’ve been making yummy hot comfort food. Our favorite on the boat so far is pasta shells with homemade meat sauce. It had the perfect amount of spice and kept us warm and toasty.
Dinner up in the cockpit is SOO cozy!! Especially when its raining. We have our LED lights plugged in and a dehumidifier to add a little warmth and dry it out. A couple of blankets and a hot meal make this a real fun place to be when its cold and stormy. We leave the kids downstairs so its kind of like a date night too :)We hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving with friends, family and loved ones. Happy Holidays and thanks for following our blog!!!

November 19, 2013

Maiden Voyage

By definition, a maiden voyage is the first journey made after the shakedown. We definitely plan to do a few serious shakedown cruises before leaving Florida to make sure all systems are GO but Peter and I like to consider the sea trial we did in July to be our first shakedown. So, we would excitedly like to announce that our MAIDEN VOYAGE was on Sunday 11.17.2013 aboard S/V Mary Christine!!

We were so lucky to have our friends David and Jan from S/V Winterlude (commutercruiser.com) come out with us and “show us the ropes”, err should I say lines, for our first official cruise in Charlotte Harbor, FL. Thanks to Jan we got some great photos of our first family outing on our boat! The weather was perfect. It was sunny but not too hot. We waited until the afternoon when the winds died down to about 10 knots, then threw off the bow lines while Peter took the helm and guided us out of the slip. It seemed like only a two-point turn and we were on our way out! Easy. The engine purred and we motored out through the quiet marina towards the opening to the harbor. We got past the markers, pointed into the wind, set the autopilot and hoisted up the sails. The conditions were just right for us to get all three sails up without any trouble. We cut the engine and that was it… we were sailing!!!! It’s the most amazing feeling, we were free as the wind. Everything was so peaceful. We knew in our hearts that Christine was with us dancing up on the bow smiling back at us. All was perfect in our world :)

Betsy thought it was the coolest thing ever that our house was moving! We knew she would do great but this day just confirmed that she’s a natural boat dog, cruising around the decks like the little monkey that she is. Betsy was more than comfortable as we were underway and had no problem exploring on her own as we sailed along. She has excellent balance and we didn’t worry about her at all. The whole afternoon she made sure to stay alert where all the action was while scanning the water for birds and dolphins. Gunner did surprisingly well for his first time out on the water too! He was very curious about what was going on, but loved to be outside in the sunshine and he’s always happy as long as he’s with us. We tethered him up to the binacle in the center of the cockpit so he wouldn’t decide to go exploring like Betsy. His balance isn’t great in his old age and we don’t have the lifeline netting up yet so it would be easy for him to accidentally tumble overboard with the rocking from a wave if he were on deck. Once we turned off the engine he curled up in his bed and was rocked to sleep for his afternoon nap in the sunshine.

A few hours went by in the blink of an eye and it was time to head back while we still had some daylight. We neared the entrance to Burnt Store Marina and brought the sails down. Peter motored us back to the slip and did a fantastic job docking bow-in. We decided however that there was just no practical way to get the dogs on and off the dock in that position so we had to reverse out, spin around and re-dock stern-in. It took a few tries but we had a lot of neighbors standing by to grab a line and eventually we got it, damage free! We did learn which way this boat tends to walk in reverse, which is to the right. Now we know for next time, and hopefully it will be a little easier when trying to back in a 42′ drifing tank into a tiny little slip.

After we were all secured back at the dock, the puppies were anxious to get back on land to go potty and then hurry back onboard for their dinner. While the dogs ate, we grilled up some steaks, corn, potatoes and garlic bread and enjoyed a wonderful meal in the cockpit with Jan and David. What a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon!!

November 16, 2013

Betsy Turns 7

Betsy Jo turned 7 yesterday!!

She normally sleeps in a cozy little space that is above some drawers and level with our bed, but little Sue got to sleep under the covers snuggled between us the eve of her birthday! She didn’t move an inch all night to make sure we wouldn’t remember she was there in the middle of the night. (See our CREW page to read more about Betsy and to see all of her different names).

We woke up yesterday and began with our normal routine:

First set up the ramp to get the dogs from the cabin to the cockpit, then help the dogs jump from the boat to the dock.

Then, we hurry up to the grassy areas along the sidewalks so the kids can go potty. Gunner always finishes first because he is so anxious to get back inside for breakfast. For her birthday Betsy got to hunt for lizards a little longer than normal, but if we let her she would chase them all day! Gunner didn’t mind so much because there were so many good smells outside.

Back on the boat for breakfast while mommy and daddy have coffee, then Betsy got to wash out the cereal bowl that we shared. Minimizing dirty dishes and conserving water by letting Sue do the pre-rinse gets us a jump on the daily chores :)

It’s nap time for the dogs while we do some work on the boat outside, then they make another potty trip before we run some errands.

Jose’s birthday dinner was served on a special birthday plate given to us by Jody’s grandmother who we all call Bean, and was given a healthy portion of barbecued New York steak with her own spot at the table!! We said our prayers holding hands and paws, and enjoyed another fantastic home cooked meal aboard our cozy humble aboa-t. Betsy is such a good little girl that she wanted to help us clean up too :)

After dinner we finished watching The Bucket List so Betsy would be even more excited about all the fun and amazing adventures we are about to go on while I baked a cake on our boat for the first time. Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting AND filling!! Mmm it smelled so good!!

We of course sang happy birthday and gave Betsy a high-five. Even though doggies shouldn’t have sugar, we had to let Betsy Jo have a taste of her own birthday cake. She is pretty good at eating from a fork!

Betsy is a very special dog and anyone that meets her will understand. She loves everyone she meets and is the happiest dog we know. It was a blessing that Peter found this little girl 7 years ago and took her home so she could be here with us today.