With the hurricane season finally drawing to a close, we are soon to be sailing away. Yippie! Over the past couple weeks, we returned from time away from the boat (we flew to England to see friends and family). Upon our return we put Britican back into the water, moved her to Charleston Harbor Marina and have been preparing for our imminent departure to Florida, Bahamas and down into the Caribbean.
We took the boat out of the water so to get our antifoul (hull bottom paint) issues remedied. For some reason something didn’t work right so we’re hoping that our CopperCoat antifoul story will ultimately end with a positive conclusion. Britican was hauled out of the water and CopperCoat touchups and sanding were completed. We won’t be for sure about how it’s worked for a couple months but I’m feeling optimistic. For more on that, check out my article and video entitled, Liveaboard life. Let’s hope that we’ll now be able to rave about how amazing the product actually is.
While Britican was out of the water we had our underwater zincs changed on the propeller and shaft, cutlass bearing serviced, mast paint job fixed and Simon painted the propeller with five coats of egg whites (a secret anti foul recipe).
At the marina we’ve been doing various boat jobs including getting the outboard serviced and a variety of jobs on our watermaker. Water comes at a premium in the Caribbean so we need to ensure we can make our own. Our primary pump died so we ordered a new one. And all our membranes need to be changed – the component that takes the salt out of the water. As with many things on our boat we started off thinking it wouldn’t be too challenging yet every step has been quite difficult.
Fortunate for us we have amazing friends around to help us out!
Aside from the boat jobs we’ve been socializing with other boaties, enjoying beach walks and preparing for our departure from the U.S. of A. I’ve ordered all of our daughter’s homeschooling materials. After recently discovering that she’s Dyslexic I took quite a bit of time to research the overwhelming amount of options. There’s loads of help out there…you just have to weed through it all! After weeks of research I decided to go with a program called, ‘All About Reading,’ and ‘All About Spelling’. These programs have been designed for children with reading disabilities.
I’m secretly thinking that while teaching Sienna how to read, write and spell that I might finally get my act together on the topic. Hahahahah.
So…the official countdown has begun. We’re aiming for a departure from Charleston around the beginning of December! Below is our latest Sailing Britican vlog style update. We hope you enjoy…
Soon to be sailing away video
Any questions, comments or stories that you’d like to add? Please leave them in the comments below 🙂
Beautifully done video, as usual Kim.
I’ve homeschooled/am homeschooling 9 children, most with learning disabilities. None had actual dyslexia but one had very similar problems. He was 10 before he learned to read. I drove him and me crazy for five years trying everything. If I had it to do over, I would simply teach the letters and their sounds very slowly until he was ready. I actually stopped trying to teach him to read during his ninth year and I think that’s one reason he was able to do it in his 10th year. Taking the pressure off freed him up and allowed him to get interested at his pace. He caught right up to his peers once he started getting it. My six year old is delayed so I’m following my own advice with him and not worrying about when he’ll start reading. I know he will when he’s ready and pushing him will just frustrate both of us and ultimately slow his progress.
Have you seen this blog:
https://homeschoolingwithdyslexia.com
I wish you luck (and patience : ) teaching Sienna. It’s not always easy to homeschool, but as a mom with three grown children and a few teenagers, I can tell you it is SO worth it in the long run.
Thank you for this Lona! It makes me feel so much easier knowing that I’m not alone! And interestingly I took the courses offered by homeschoolingwithdeslexia – that’s the website that I found most helpful! I’ve managed to put together a plan and a really nice set of bespoke learning tools/workbooks/methods. Also…I just found on Amazon.com today a bunch of books that are for homeschooling kids that like Minecraft (that are good for Dyslexic’s). There’s so much out there to help. Also – every since I’ve discovered that Sienna is dyslexic I’ve totally relaxed on the reading/writing side of subjects like history, science, etc. and she’s so much easier to work with. We’re enjoying life again! The pressure is off and life is better. Woo Woo! Thanks so much for commenting. Big smiles, Kim
12.29.2017
Happy New Year to all !
Britican tell us more about the five coats of egg whites on the propeller this article & just how it works!! Was the copper coat anti-foul issue on Briticans boat hull ever resolved ??
Have a question – whats the counter weight of Briticans keel?
Do hope your 2018 new year is a prosperous one
W.W.
Happy New Year to you too. I have no idea how the egg whites work or if it will work in the Atlantic/Caribbean. We were in Preveza, Greece for a month watching all the boats come out for the season (around 8/day). This one boat came out with a clean prop. We asked the owner what he used and he said ‘egg whites’. You apply each coat, letting the coats dry before applying the next coat. Regarding CopperCoat, if you watch our videos in October we give more updates. The boatyard that did the original job came down to Charleston and made right what was wrong under the supervision of CopperCoat USA. Now it’s a waiting game to see what the hull looks like in a few months time. So that’s a ‘watch this space’ story. The weight of our keel is 7.5 tons. Kim