Home Again: Aboard Due West
In mid-October, Kirk held down the fort at Casa Kines and aboard Due West while Heidi took a trip to visit her parents. She also saw one of her favorite cousins, Nan, before she and Erik moved to Germany for a year. We will miss them while they're away, grateful for Zoom!
Tikka did NOT want Mom to leave, she tried to fit into her suitcase! A lovely SLC sunset greeted Heidi. And don't mess with Nan! LOL. Heidi and Nan didn't get any pix together this time, but Heidi found this photo in a family photo album—an oldie but a goodie!
Salt Lake City Family Visit
A daily 3-hour nonstop flight from PVR to SLC (where we have family) is a huge benefit for us when flying to or from the States. It’s easy to overnight with cousins or Heidi‘s brother David and continue the next leg the next day.
Thanks, David & Sharon, for treating Heidi to a magical theatrical experience of The Magicians Elephant at Hale Center Theater…in the round with lots of interesting special effects. Wow, so much fun!
A bonus of staying with David & Sharon are their beautiful cats, our fur niece and nephew, Utu (left and right below), and Innana (center). Utu, a.k.a. “Weasel”, reminds us so much of Tosh, not only in his looks but also with a very similar, curious, interactive personality.
One afternoon David and Heidi took Willa (David‘s mom/Heidi‘s stepmom) out for her favorite chocolate malt. And David serenaded them with his guitar, which Heidi and Willa both loved.
Sadly, Willa is in a memory care facility with Alzheimer’s. She seems to still know David who visits her several times a week, but it’s not clear if she really knows who the rest of us are anymore, although she always remembers to ask for a chocolate malt! And she knows we are familiar and is happy to see us, even if she may not know exactly who we are.
Heidi also had a great visit with her high school best friend and neighbor Nancy, (thanks for the airport shuttle ride, Nancy!) It’s always such fun to see each other and catch up.
Arizona Family Visit
On Heidi‘s quick trip between Salt Lake City and Tucson, to visit her parents, she had a very cute seatmate! The gal in the seat next to her was delivering this golden retriever puppy to its new owners, and Heidi got to play with it while they waited to board and again on the flight.
It's always wonderful to see Jean & Pete, both in their late 80s, still doing very well. They continue to live independently, at a multi-level senior living center. Jean has a lovely group of women she gets together with for brunch and jigsaw puzzling. (Some of the 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles they complete are quite difficult, and Heidi was very impressed with their skill level!!)
Jean & Pete are doing an amazing job of weeding through boxes of 80 years of accumulated stuff. And each time Heidi or one of her siblings visits they get through more and more boxes, giving things away to Goodwill or sending them on to various siblings or grandkids who want some of the family heirlooms, children’s books, childhood games, etc.
We have worked out a good system—Heidi takes photos of everything and sends them out in a family group chat, first to respond gets it… If no one responds within 24 hours, it goes to Goodwill. If two or more people respond at the same time, they have to Rochambeau with emojis!
Then boxes get packed up and taken to UPS to send to the family members who have requested items. Heidi also spent a lot of time taking photos of their childhood family photo albums and texting various photos to different family members. (Names have been blurred to protect the innocent, but you may still recognize your mug below!)
Home Again: Aboard Due West
All too soon, it was time to head back to Vallarta and get ready to vacate our summer housesitting gig at Casa Kines, to move back aboard Due West.
We love the chance to get off the boat for a while in the hot summer months. It's a great opportunity for Kirk to work on fiberglass and painting projects that are too stinky to do while living aboard. And this past summer was especially fun taking care of Toopy-cat and getting to know him.
However, we also miss our home and our super-comfy bed (thanks Seaview Boatyard!). And Tikka is much more relaxed in our smaller, cozier space aboard. So it was a good mix of time in both places.
We miss taking care of Toopy, the upstairs cat. He is very shy but has amazing, loving energy once he warms up to you. And we look forward to caring for him again next summer. Thank you Mona & Brian for entrusting us with Toopy's care!
Before moving back aboard, we spent about a week thoroughly "Spring-cleaning" every nook and cranny aboard. We also keep a good checklist of everything we initially bring from the boat to the house so that when we return, we make sure we take everything back with us. (And so far we have only left one small pairing knife behind!)
The daytime temperatures were still quite hot at the end of October and although our air conditioner works very well, we need all of our cabin fans working to keep the air circulating.
Of course, as soon as we moved back aboard one of the main fans quit working. Luckily we have spares of just about everything on board, and after multiple fan replacements over the years, Kirk now has the electrical connection down to a science using quick bayonet plugs. He was able to replace it and get the new fan up and running within 10 minutes!!
A few days later, in mid-November, we got an unusually late-in-the-season, all-day rain. The photo above was taken at sunrise, and there was even a bit of a double rainbow for a minute. But the skies quickly turned gray, and it was overcast and raining for nearly 24 hours. That almost never happens in Vallarta unless there's a hurricane. This was a spin-off from some disturbance off the coast, and it turned into a nice cozy day aboard. It actually really reminded us of one stormy day on the hook at Pelican Beach at Cypress Island, WA, in the San Juans.
A World Circumnavigation
Just as we were getting settled back aboard Due West, we got word that our friends Kimi & Trevor, on s/v Slow Flight, were preparing to complete their circumnavigation.
They had left Banderas Bay in 2017 (below). We had a going away party for them at that time… seven years later, they were completing the circle after amazing adventures in Indonesia (where they built an elementary school after the earthquake!) were stuck in Saint Helena, a remote island off the West Coast of Africa, during the beginnings of the pandemic, and worked for a yacht charter business in the US Virgin Islands among other adventures. You can read more about their adventures on their blog here.
We were super excited to greet them as they returned to Banderas Bay, Mexico, to end their circumnavigation. Their boat, Slow Flight, is now for sale as they return to the US and resume “normal“ life again. It was fun to get a few friends from their sendoff party together for dinner before they returned stateside.
General Contractor for Hire
(A.K.A. Acting as General Contractor for a new water well drilling project 2,000 miles away!)
Another thing that has been keeping us busy for the past many months, is overseeing a new water well for the rental property we help manage for Willa in Wyoming.
When Heidi’s dad first built this cute little cabin in the woods back in the 1960s, they shared their water well with the next-door neighbor. But the next-door neighbor is now building a guest house and needs all of their well water for themselves. So we were asked to get our own well last spring.
Never having overseen a well drilling project before we were very surprised by what all goes into the process! We mistakenly thought it would be as simple as getting some bids from well drillers… and choosing one. WRONG...
Little did we know the well drillers only do the drilling, LOL! They don’t excavate the ditch for the pipe to get the water from the wellhead to the house or connect the electric or plumbing between all the pieces of the project.
So once we got drilling estimates and chose the driller, we then had to find an hire an excavator, an electrician, and a plumber… And micromanage all the moving pieces via phone, from 2,000 miles away… No easy feat!
Initially, they were going to drill the well at the end of July. Honestly this project felt a lot like Mexico, when the well drilling got pushed into early August and then late August and then September, and then October before they finally started drilling! By the time they were ready for the excavator, the snow was flying, and the ground was freezing… fun and games. No doubt our project was small potatoes compared to everything else on their plate, which is why we kept getting pushed back and back and back. Good thing we are used to "mañana"!
Thankfully, Heidi’s brother Paul was able to go in person and pick the well site earlier in the summer, so the drillers knew where to dig. They estimated they would have to dig between 300 to 500 feet to hit the water table, and finally hit water with 10 gpm at 420 feet. Sweet!
Grateful for text messaging and that we could set up a group text with everyone on it: driller, excavator, plumber and electrician… and that everyone did their piece of the project without any hitches. Thankfully, Paul, who has the most experience with general contracting, was available to chime in as needed, and David held up the other end, paying all the invoices in a timely fashion.
Just before Christmas, we got the water quality tests back and the water is good and clean. So the last piece will happen in early January where the plumber comes back to connect the new wellwater to the household plumbing. We literally started getting estimates for this project in April and cannot believe it took nine months to finish!?! Kinda like having a baby, LOL!
As we moved back aboard, Heidi also made a huge jar of sauerkraut (half green cabbage and half purple cabbage)… which has to ferment for 4+ weeks, so we decided to wait to open it until Christmas Day… yuummmmm-can't wait!!
We are happy to be all settled back aboard Due West—just in time to decorate her in her holiday finery. And looking forward to catching up on some movies this holiday season.
Speaking of movies, we recently watched The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (2013), and highly recommend this “visually stunning and heartwarming adventure that follows the journey of a brilliant 10-year-old boy who secretly travels across the country to accept a prestigious science award at the Smithsonian. With its whimsical storytelling, breathtaking cinematography, and touching exploration of family, loss, and self-discovery, the film captivates viewers of all ages.” It’s one that will stick with you for a long time. Though it is not a Wes Anderson film, it has some similar characteristics and feel about it. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Friends visiting, and holiday lights and travels up next!