Erika who??

According to the current forecast track, Erika will come ashore as a cat 1 about 92 hours from now (at 8PM Monday) just south Fort Pierce.  She could be here 24 hours earlier though, in which case we're already inside of 72 hours.

I got all the sails and shade cloths down today and the sails all folded and stowed and we have a silly amount of canned foods, water, juices, batteries, and the like.

Here's what's left to do:

• add lines
• add chafe protection
• tie Lark centered in the slip
• deflate and stow dink
• move kayak to jeep
• pack valuables
• pack clothes for girls
• deploy fender boards
• disconnect power lines
• close all seacocks except drains
• clean everything out of cockpit
• get everything off deck
• get anchor out of roller
• get propane tanks, grill, and outboard in

Erika who?

First sign of an approaching storm: water half gone.  Batteries are also looking picked over.

Of course she won't come, but now we have the canned goods and UHT milk to prove it.

Summertime in the City

The girls and I just returned to Jacob, Sweet Pea and Lark after 3 weeks in Chicago. It was a hard decision to go so long without Jacob, I think it was the longest we have ever been apart since we met 13 years ago. In the end he decided to put fixing-up the boat over partying with us, which was a sweet sacrifice. Hopefully it will mean we can shove off the dock a little earlier then we otherwise could. 

As a kid I spent every summer in Chicago with my dad, and I have some really wonderful memories of those summers. The first thing on our list - lightening bugs! The girls had never seen them before, so I was excited to show them. My dad made them a nice jar, and we collected them a couple of times with some leaves and grass, and they got to fall asleep with their twinkling butts lighting their room. I would sneak in after they were asleep and release the little guys. 

We also made a stop at Play It Again Sports and picked up a couple of bikes. My dad's house backs the forest preserve, and we made several trips there. Audrey and my dad did one ride where they took off through the woods on a dirt trail, picked up the bike path and rode 10 miles. Lorelei also managed 5 miles one day. The rides were through beautiful prairie with tons of wildflowers, we all really enjoyed the bikes.

picnic at the forest preserve

Along with just summer living, we fit in some awesome Chicago experiences like: Navy Pier, a big Chicago musical, Shedd Aquarium, Science and Industry Museum, Medieval Times, and Great America! Whew!

exploring the Science and Industry museum with Uncle Paul

S&I with Grampsy

S&I museum

belugas at the Shedd Aquarium 

standing in line for the Whizzer

hugs from Daffy at Great America

Broadway in Chicago

Jetsom from The Little Mermaid

Medieval Times! We studied the middle ages this year, so the girls loved watching the tournament. 

Navy Pier

My favorite part of the trip though, was all of the visiting. I was able to spend time with long-time friends and my family. Oh- and the free running hot water was pretty awesome too! 

Hugs for Uncle Richard

more hugs with Cousin Ricky

visiting Uncle Paul on his turf this year

mini high school reunion 

the next generation

Evalyn and Audrey have been pen pals for a year now, so it was fun for them to hang out in person! 

Yay for cousins! 

dinner out with our friends

dinner on Grampsy's deck with the Nowaks

exploring Japanese gardens with my friend Kris and her son

roasting marshmallows with new friends (their mom is a very old friend of mine though!)

We came in like a whirlwind and left with deafening silence. I think my dad is missing us, but hopefully enjoying his peace and quiet again!

A few more fun photos from our trip:

The girls loved helping Grampsy garden

picking raspberries from the yard

Audrey did a 3 morning Apple camp where she learned to make ibooks. She made a book about Egyptians. 

Chicago Botanical Gardens 

brothers

a little dancing at the gardens 

Uncle Richard ballroom dancing at the Botanical Gardens

Checking out Grampsy's latest project

We loved eating all our meals outside. The weather was cool and the scenery was beautiful. 

More fun with the cockpit floor

 Work continues on the cockpit floor.

Mom and Dad came to help out some more yesterday.  Dad showed me his technique for beveling the edges and laying in cloth and epoxy.  I can't wait to do some myself, but it'll have to wait a little.  We went to do the port side and what looked like coffee started coming up out the spot that I started grinding.  Well I guess that spot wasn't quite ready, so back to the old epoxy and syringe routine.

This cockpit floor job is certainly not the first thing I'd choose to do, but I have to admit it it kind of fun to work on.  It is solid enough now that I got rid of those pieces of plywood that were covering it all those months.  That was cathartic.

Busy week working on Lark

I've had a really busy week on Lark.

Mom and Dad came to help out with some work on the cockpit floor and it's feeling much more solid, so that's great.  That's the biggest thing. I ended up working on it for a total of probably 12 hours this week altogether.

I replaced all 5 of the main overhead light fixtures with new LED fixtures.  The lighting is much nicer in here now.  I replaced the fixtures in the galley, head, and over the nav table with fixtures that switch between white and red.  Over the settees I installed fixtures with two levels of white for nice softly lit evenings.

I replaced the galley foot pump with a brand new Whale Gusher MK III.

I installed the first 12V DC charging receptacles this old girl's ever had aboard.  It's a cool triple receptacle from West.  I have 2 more of those to install.  I'm planning to put one in the cockpit pedestal and one in the saloon.

I've got a new propane solenoid that just arrived today to replace the old one which I discovered last weekend emitting a visible cloud of propane vapor from a hairline crack in the housing.  That was exciting.  It'll be good to replace that, plus the rusty old pressure valve, for which I also just received a nice shiny new brass replacement.  So I'll be doing that this next week.  Of course all this new propane plumbing will be fit to our spiffy new fiberglass Viking cylinders to replace the old Lites which no one can legally fill anymore.

I need to post a roundup of all the stuff we've repaired and replaced since buying Lark a little over a year ago.  Soon.

West Marine pro tip:  If you have a $200 order on the web site, enter coupon code WMAFF to get $15 off your order.  If you have a $400 order, figure out how to break it into two $200 orders and you can use the code twice.  I've used it 3 times the past couple months.