mariah sea

Sailing to Miami!

A couple of hours ago we left the dock at Key Largo! We’ve been sailing smoothly and our autohelm is working great. Lucky even came out and visited for a while, so it seems like he’s getting his sea legs backs. We’ll probably be there around 7 or 8 pm. I’m so excited to go to the boat show! I already have a list of all the seminars I want to go to. 

1. Galley Secrets or Mediterranean Magic (at the same time, so i have to choose)
2. Yoga
3. Yacht Financing & Insurance in the new economy
4. Sailboat Buying 101
5. Prep for Offshore cruising
6. Basic Diesel Maintenance
7. Sailboat Safety and Stability
8. An Overview of Celestial Navigation
9. Beginner’s Guide to planning a cruise, or Kids 4 Sail

I’m particularly excited about 2,3 & 4 because I’m hoping to buy a boat and do some of my own sailing this year. The boat I want is actually a Pearson 28, and it’s a gorgeous boat. It’s in really great shape from what I can tell, seems dry, barely needs any work and is a good size. It also comes with lots of equipment and the price is fantastic; For that price I would barely be able to buy all the equipment that comes with the boat! So I’m really excited about that.

This past weekend we rented a car and drove up to Boca Raton for Garrett and Erin’s wedding. It was beautiful! There was a 40s theme and the bride was just gorgeous, and I got lots of compliments on my outfit as well. It was such a nice simple wedding and a great party. Sunday we had leftovers for lunch (which was delish, the caterer did a wonderful job) and went to the beach for a bit. I got to meet all of Nonnie and Twopa’s family which is so so nice! I really feel more like a part of the family now that I’ve met them all and gone to one of the infamous family parties! I got to hang out with all the other kids and it was just great.

I’ll update again once we’re settled in Miami!

New books and new opportunities

I bought the book ‘Taking Charge of your Fertility’ this week and I’m already almost done with it. It’s all about how the menstrual cycle works, what exactly happens and how to chart your cycles. You chart by recording Basal Body Temp and cervical fluid and use that information to find out when you ovulate and avoid or achieve pregnancy. It’s all soo informative, and I really hope to stick with it.

I also e-mailed and spoke to the director of the Lamaze instructor seminar at Duke which was really great. She basically just wanted me to understand that people may be resistant to having a young teacher, but that she really admired my passion and she was interested to know what I wanted to achieve as a childbirth educator (CBE). I told her I might want to focus my attention on underprivileged youth and even just young women in high school that aren’t pregnant. Something I really want to see is less fear associated with childbirth. We as a society are raised to think it’s some horrifying traumatic event when in reality it can be one of the most life-changing and spiritual and lovely events of a woman’s life. So that was a really great conversation and I’m so looking forward to taking the seminar and becoming a CBE (and a doula!)

This weekend should be exciting- I’m staying at Isabel’s tonight, tomorrow I’m going up to Miami with Joey and Michael and staying there until probably Sat or Sun. Should be really fun! Hopefully I’ll get to dye my hair back to red again too.

Cozy rainy day

It was raining on & off here in Key Largo today, so we had a nice cozy day on the boat. I got to watch some of my ‘Western Philosophy’ movie which was very interesting. I’m going to have to watch it at least once more to fully absorb everything though. One huge accomplishment of today was installing Snow Leopard (OSX 10.6.) I just completed that and I’m ironing out some of the little kinks. (Somehow I got downgraded to Safari 4, and I have to update the software to get the Mac App Store.) After that I’m installing iWork and, if I have time, iLife. Probably the most exciting part of this new software will be getting to uninstall Microsoft Office! I loathe having to use Word and Excel for my default programs, it’ll be so nice to have Pages & Numbers.

Today I contacted the director of a Lamaze certification program! The program consists of online modules and then a two day seminar, and i really hope I can go. The director asked to speak to me tomorrow so I’ll have that phone call in the morning. It seems like she’s wary about me signing up because of my age, which is understandable but aggravating. Hopefully she’ll realize that I’m very serious about my future career in childbirth.

This also got me thinking about what I want to offer as a doula and Lamaze instructor. I’ve definitely gotten a few great ideas like weekly coffee happy hour type things, offering a service where I prepare and freeze 1-2 weeks worth of meals, prenatal yoga, nutrition consultation, and obviously Lamaze instruction and breastfeeding support.

By the way, the reason I haven’t posted in a while is because last weekend I unexpectedly was in Miami for a few days, was busy all this week and this weekend we had two guests and a wedding! Very busy, but very fun. Hopefully I’ll stick to updating more often!

Change in plans…

So instead of going to The Bahamas on Thursday we’ve decided to change up the timeline a little bit to make things easier. We’re waiting for a part for the dingy motor and then on Saturday we’ll make our way to Ft Lauderdale. We’ll stay there until February when we go to Boca Raton for a wedding and then Miami for the boat show. Finally, in March, we’ll get to the Bahamas. This is great for a few reasons:

• We can take our time. No need to wait for specific weather or try and beat the Gulf stream when it’s not a good time
• I get to spend some time in the city which I really need. Hopefully I’ll get to a UU church and definitely some yoga classes.
• James gets to see his friend who has a timeshare
• We don’t have to rush around the Bahamas looking for internet so my dad can work. In Ft. L we’ll have our own reliable internet. We also would’ve had to rush out after just a couple weeks because of the boat show. This way we get a nice long month or so to chill out.

So I’m excited! This seems like a much better plan to me. In other news, I recently decided I’m going to become a Lamaze Childbirth Educator, and along with that (though later in the year) a DONA certified Birth Doula and I’m going to become prenatal yoga teacher certified so I can do private (or group) prenatal yoga to my doula clients. Exciting stuff! Hopefully I’ll have some news on that and will keep updating on my progress.

Chili picnic for the dock.

Dad made chili today for everyone on the dock. It was a really nice picnic! I also made this really delicious apple spread, seasoned with sage, rosemary, fennel and a few other things and it was the perfect blend of savory and sweet. It made a great addition to the chili when stirred in too. So everyone came over and people brought cornbread, coleslaw and drinks. It was a great time to talk to everyone and say goodbye since we’re leaving on Thursday.

We were going to leave today but we just weren’t ready at all, I don’t even have a new inner tube on my bike which got a flat last week. Thursday has fair winds and will give us enough time to clean up, finish stowing and get out of here. We’re going to go out in the afternoon about 5 miles and wait there for the wind to turn from the west or southwest and then make our way to Biminy where we’ll check into The Bahamas.

Today on reddit somebody was looking for advice on learning to sail and getting a boat to cruise in. I wrote several paragraphs about choosing and buying a boat, cruising lifestyle, home schooling, etc that I’m going to edit and start pasting into this blog as a little series, which should be interesting. 

My one New Year’s resolution.

I’d really like to start using this blog on a regular basis. Also, more extensively. I’ve become to passionate about becoming a midwife and natural childbirth advocate that I want to devote some of my writing to that, perhaps commenting on articles or what have you. We’re leaving Key Largo pretty soon, after 3 months here this season, and going to the Bahamas which should make for some more interesting and exciting tales. I really want to focus on my yoga study and meditation. I’ve been so negative lately (for me at least) and I really want to change that. I also want to try writing short essays just to work on building a portfolio. So! Here we go. Hopefully this turns into something.

February 10th

It seems we’ve really established a routine now that we’ve been here a couple weeks. We haven’t been doing anything very eventful, but we have settled in and gotten comfortable. Yesterday we went to the beach with my mom’s new friend Heather and her daughter Phoebe. It wasn’t a very big beach at all, but I got a nice nap in the sun and got to wade in the water a bit. Phoebe is a cutie, too. Today I completely cleaned my room, vacuumed, folded my clothes, and aired out my bedding. It’s great, my room is nice and cozy and clean! I was working on my yoga class schedule a little bit tonight, for the class I’m teaching at Green St., but I’m going to finish it later on. My parent’s started working on their new website this afternoon, and it looks great so far. It still needs work, but for the most part it’s done. I’m going to really try and update this blog more. I probably say that every other entry but I really want to. I might also start posting some writing. My dad and I want to write about the phycological and physical effects the cold weather had on us while sailing. It’s hard to believe we have to start packing up next week. Although, to be honest I’ve been a little homesick. I’m going to make the most of our time here though. I’m looking forward to getting home and seeing family, (and having my own shower!) but I’m definitely not going to be thrilled with the cold weather.

February 1st

Today is a rainy day, so we’re just doing chores and things around the boat. The past few days we didn’t really do anything big. We went to a really great Cuban restaurant the other day, and before that my mom and I took a bike ride down to Shell World, a cute little touristy store a few miles down. I love having access to fresh fruit every day. I’ve had a couple very delicious mangos and my dad made pork stir fry with pineapple the other day that was so good. Yesterday we all got to see Joey, Danielle and Juli on the webcam which was great! Juli is so cute and talking and everything. Well, now I’m off to go make some chocolate chunk cookies!

January 27

Today seemed so long. I had oatmeal and cantaloupe for breakfast which was super yummy and healthy! I worked on my SAT prep book and read Fountainhead for a little while and then James, my mom and I went to the aquatic center in town. They have a lap pool, diving boards and a play area with slides and fountains and things. It was nice to do laps but also exhausting; I haven’t done them in ages. We stayed there for a little while and then about 3.30 we went over to the strip mall and waited for my dad to walk up from the boat. In the meantime, we split a delicious rasberry smoothie from EcoEats, a health food restaurant. After we bought some fruit and James practiced his spanish at the fruit stand my dad took my bike and they all went to K-mart while I went back to the boat. We had a great dinner and after cleaning I felt like I could pass out I was so tired. Hopefully I’ll be going to bed early tonight.