Is it all worth it?

Our keel. Hint: It's supposed to all be the color of the
bottom paint (black), without the chunk taken out of it.

Matt finally got a chance to dive on the boat to see the damage caused by the anchor chain during our St. Augustine adventure. This is the unhappy state of the keel. Apparently, the chain wrapped itself around the back of the keel and was acting just like a saw across the fiberglass. Did I mention that this all happened just a couple weeks after we were put back in the water? So we'll have to haul out again and fix it, at a not insignificant cost for the haul out. At least we think that this time on the hard will be more straightforward since we won't have all the projects that appeared during the last haul out. Yeah, what could go wrong?

Conrad finally lost his first top front tooth in a Drumstick. It
wasn't a really hard peanut as he originally thought. (Spanish Wells)

The sinking feeling I got when facing the prospect of another haul-out is one that I have experienced many times since moving aboard a little over a year ago. Even smallish issues can be very frustrating. So you might ask, "Why keep doing this? Is it really worth it?"

Funny thing is, once an issue has been resolved, it fades readily into the background. Although we definitely spend much more money, time, and anxiety on repairs and maintenance than we would like, it all pales in comparison to life overall. Life is pretty darned good. Of course, it's life. So there are downs (kids that don't listen, close quarters in bad weather, bugs and sweat) and ups (new experiences almost daily, oceanside views, mild weather). On balance, we can't complain. It helps to have a Matt on board that has a knack for resolving problems. Also, after a year it seems as if--dare I say it--we're running out of new things to break (but breaking things twice is becoming more common, so we've got that going for us, which is nice).

 

We made yet another friend named "Kyle" (or some

derivation thereof), pictured here with his Dad Chester.

Here's a project that I was able to tackle myself, with Conrad's help. Since Yamaha 2-strokes are the Honda Civic of the Caribbean (meaning they get stolen a lot), we defaced our motor with glittery flowers and hearts hoping that no self-respecting thief would want to touch such a display of girliness. Good thing Matt isn't easily embarrassed.

"Before"

 

"After"

 

We're currently at the north end of Eleuthera making our way south. Unfortunately, we will miss the reportedly big New Year's Eve fireworks show at Spanish Wells.