F'in Dockyard

So here's some catch up posts that I had written on my phone over the summer but never managed to post them... back tracking a bit but thought you'd all enjoy.

"Its 'F-ing' Dockyard Man"

Preface-
I'm using 'F-ing' instead of the real word for my conservative readers but you are going to have to read between the lines on this post. After all, when talking about a marina, marina and ship yard workers and boats its kinda hard not to swear like a sailor. So there's your warning; don't be offended its just the local lingo!

I love living in Dockyard. True our dream is to one day let go of the lines completely and sail the seas but for now Dockyard is the perfect little community. It really is a special place different from the rest of the island. You have a wide social, racial, and economical spectrum of people all living together in this place and co-existing better than fish in the sea!
I've touched briefly on my neighbours and different boat people around but the entire community of Dockyard really is the beez-knees!
This praise and appreciation for my people comes from last weekends antics. Firstly Mark and I never really get out socially much without the kiddies. Not because we don't want to but we love spending time with our children, we are forever busy and we only have a small selective group of family and friends we are comfortable leaving the babies with. We have never actually hired a babysitter before. Its tough; 1)We live ALL THE WAY in Dockyard 2)We live on a boat and 3)We have 2 kids- one of which requires full hands on attention as he is just a baby. This as well as our own reservations towards babysitters narrows down the pool to almost no one. About a year ago we started flirting with the idea of finding a hired babysitter just for some evening date nights. We had one great girl when we were living in the condo and who really helped out when we were loosing the baby, we also have a close family friend who we would be happy with but we feel super guilty about having them ride all the way to Dockyard and then have to ride home so we never really pursued it. Then we thought about another girl who conveniently lives right in Dockyard when she stays with her dad and is very familiar with boats as her dad is also the head of one of the Dockyard shipyards. She also was part of my Sandys 360 swim team so I can speak to her character, at least a little.  It took us a while to slacken the reins but on Fri night we finally asked her to babysit on the boat. The kids were great, we had a wonderful time out at a friend's 30th birthday party and our new babysitter was thrilled to bits.
It was Saturday night that really awakened me to our great little community though. Doug at Westend yachts held himself his annual birthday party and everyone who is anyone in Dockyard was there. There was my little ferry crew; Thom, Jim, and their respective other halves. Biancia and Henry were there with little Eli (Jacobs baby boat buddy!), Doug and all Joanna's girls, Anna, all the Fantasea and tour boat people, Spirit crew, all the restaurant staff from around the area.... Really everyone! Its funny to think of these people outside Dockyard and I realised that's what makes them so special. If we all lived in town there is more space and choice so the high up exempt company folk would be dining at Harbour Front and drinking at Harry's (Suit and Tie venues)where as the boatyard trash (and I mean that in an endearing way as I am in that category) would be grabbing a bite at The Beach or Rosas (lower end restaurants). Because there are only a handful of restaurants and hangout spots we all hang together no matter the box that the outside world may put us in.
I look forward to my morning gossip sessions with the ferry crew, playdates with Jakeys latest neighbour, meeting Sunday in the laundry and chatting about the kids, waving to Audrey and Audrey's mum in the mornings on the way to the ferry, calling out to Sonny as he makes his way home for a break during the day, waving to everyone's boats as the leave and enter the camber, tickles from Aunt Gerri (for Marley and Jacob not me!), chilling with Mac and Captain and catching up about the Spirit, having waiters and waitresses know the names of our kids and understand when they act a little crazy if we eat at a restaurant, hanging with Ana and Mushu, yelling out to Dirty Uncle Smitty, being cat called every morning by Marine and Ports, attempting to impress Dawn by doing my evening run because she's a trainer at Sandys 360.... As we danced and carried on with the party our neighbours commented on us enjoying ourselves and telling us how wonderful our kids are. It was the epitome of family and community and a great way to start off the summer!

Boat Cleaning

Now that I am back at work the house chores have really been getting away from me. So much so that last week after a screaming fit Mark smashed the life out of two unwelcome guests who were not paying rent to stay on our boat (the dreaded cockroaches) EEEEkkkkkk! Things were obviously out of control!
We had started about a month ago out sourcing our laundry.  It was just piling up and we realised that $7 a wash at the mini mart was a great deal but the added cost of time of actually finding quarters, washing it (I can't just drop it off and leave it for the day; not very neighbourly for the other marina tenants), and then folding it and putting it away was too expensive really.  We couldn't get anything else done on weekends, and things were starting to deteriorate.
We researched local laundry mats and our solution was a small local business nearby my school. The routine is now that I can drop it off first thing in the morning and pick it up either than afternoon or the following morning. Its quite reasonable, had cut down on saving quarters, and the only time I spend is putting away the laundry at the end of the day. I still do the kids laundry in the mini mart (or at one of the grandparents homes on family visits) as I have special detergent and its a bit weird to drop off kids clothes I guess.  Marley is also doing extremely well with sleeping through the night but we still have the occasional accidents that require immediate laundering. 
Then last week Mark and the kids were home sick one day with the flu and Mark must have had a dose of my crazy pills as his O.C.D. kicked in and he "couldn't believe the amount of dirt that was on our boat".  Hahahaha haven't I been saying that for weeks I thought? But sometimes you have to let them figure it out on their own.  Instead of him resting as he should have been on his sick day he ended up using "roll-off" on all the plastic fans, and wiping down the picture frames and counter tops.  We finally decided together this was over our heads.  Living on a boat, working full time jobs, volunteering all that we do, and raising two kids was causing things to loose rank. We had toyed with the idea of hiring a cleaning service when I was pregnant, tired and having a hard time getting everything done but it never formulated.  Plus who would come and clean a boat? Not everyone is familiar with products you can use to clean a marine toilet vs a household toilet so that's a problem first and foremost. We research a little and there was someone in the marina that could probably do it but then I was home for the year and had plenty of free time to get all the cleaning done (all the S.A.H.M. are laughing their asses off now). But I was able to stay on top of things for the most part until Sept.
Last week we made the decision to give it a go.  Today was the first day I came home and things were tidy, put away, the dishes were done.... I didn't even want to use the head it was so sparkly clean :) :) While we have gone back and forth with the idea of "we potentially can do this ourselves and we are never going to be able to get on top off all of this" I couldn't be more than happy with our choice to have a cleaner come once a week to pick up our slack.
I think these are steps in the right direction to making sure our priorities are in check.  The reality is that we can do all of these things however we are determined to make the most out of our boat living, raising our kids on boats experience and while we will still do our own laundry and clean up after ourselves the occasional helping hand does not hurt.  In fact it allows us to do what we love most. Spend quality time with our children, on our boat <3

30

Well it happened! I turned 30 this year! In fact, on Tuesday Nov. 13th :) Unlike many of my peers I have been embracing the idea with a very positive attitude... a little too positive for some. I started early planning a big trip to some enchanted resort with as many people born in the year 1982 as would like to go... but snobbishness, pettiness, and immaturity got in the way as even though some were turning 30 earlier they couldn't get past silly high school stereotypes from 15 years prior.  I decided to move past it and make my own life a little simpler.  Over all though I was pumped all year.  I feel like I have achieved a lot in 30 years and was really excited to celebrate all of that.  I also figured its gonna happen anyway, better to embrace it than fight it! I watched as the year moved on and friends did themed parties, fancy dinners, spa days, and the like. It was fun, but i knew I wanted something uniquely me.
Tomorrow night I am hosting an Old Skool Reggae Cruise on a charter booze cruise boat. I am SO pumped. 80 or so of the best people I know have agreed to rock the night away with me and celebrate the big 30!!
I also came up with a list; many of my friends did a sort of "bucket list" of before they turned 30, 30 things to do 30 days before you turn 30 etc. Mine is again a different kind of list. I have this sensation this is going to be one of the best years of my life, so I came up with a list of things to do the year i'm 30. Here it is;

1. Live off the dock for more than a week
2. Get my Bermuda Engine Drivers Licence
3. Run a few running races
4. Reach my ideal weight/ size
5. Snorkel at North Rock
6. Take that trip to Venezuela
7. Eat a new food i've never tried
8. Go on Spirit at least twice with my school kids
9. Run every night I can with my family, maybe even every other morning
10. Get married
11. Continue with my tattoo

I'm Baaaccckkkk!!!!

I know its been forever and I hope you all haven't given up on me.
After May the summer really settled in, life in Dockyard was bustling and I lost time to post. We had an exciting last 5 months or so. We celebrated Jacob's first birthday. None other than a pirate theme with many of his closest adult friends out on Somerset Long Bay.

Jacon Turns 1

We also got a lot of sailing time in, especially over the cupmatch holiday (2 day cricket match celebrating emancipation in Bermuda)

We started off at 9 beaches but our batteries died quickly so came back into the Marina for a night and recharged. We then went back and anchored off in Mangrove Bay, back round to 9 beaches for 2 more nights then headed back to Mangrove Bay for the Annual Non-Mariners race on the Sunday.  It was a full 5 days off the dock and the kids handled it really well. By Sunday Marley was pretty worn out and spent a good 3 hours in her room 'reading' to herself.  It was an interesting time which allowed us some insight to how they would make out if we finally did let go for a while.



Family Vacation, Kings Dominion Virginia USA



We also manged to get off the rock for a week. We went and visited my parents in Virginia. They have a log cabin in the middle of the woods outside Richmond. It is a peaceful place and another venue in which the kids could be at one with nature.  Marley enjoyed herself thoroughly, riding the horses, spotting deer and squirrels and enjoying all the adventure that the great USA has to offer.

The summer ended quickly with the slow disappearance of the cruise ships and the arrival of 2 near miss hurricanes. So far we have been lucky, especially given the disruct Sandy has done recently.
I am also back to work. This is a new challenge but I have to say it is good to be back. Marley has settled into her pre-school year at nursery and Jacob is enjoying his one on one time with Nanna and Grammy and Papa. He also finally figured out walking for the first time last Friday.  I was lucky enough to have caught him as I picked him up from Nannas house that afternoon. It just finally clicked for him and now there is no stopping him!
I will be posting again soon, as i'm hoping you missed me and we have a lot more to share. Heres a recap in pics... enjoy


Tide Pool swimming at Spittal Pond





"Jake and the Dockyard Pirates" Summer 2012 theme song




learning to paddle board



Our cupmatch hoist in memory of Adam



Marley making the most of her summer





I entered my first running race in June (will probably be my last lol)



Marley sails her first Opti with buddy Rachel, Cupmatch 2012



My best friends wedding in Oct. Marley was the flower girl and me a bridesmaid. A beautiful day and end to the summer