Skagua n. place where the north wind blows

In these last months leading up to these last weeks which will lead up to the last few days and minutes of our current time in Santa Cruz,  I'm seeking to be present and thankful for moments with friends and family.  Here are a few I want to not forget.

Along with trimming out the windows for the pilot house, and sanding, Brian, Eddie, Myles, and Graham have been cutting out holes for the new hatches that need to be installed over each berth.  Hatches are important for airflow, light, and safety egress. That's Myles peeking out of the new hatch hole.  Graham chopping some trim, and Brian masked up for sanding.

For some time now, we have had no direct thoroughfare from the newly remodeled pilot house area and forward to the foredeck and forward trampoline.  This last week, Brian and crew got it cut out and trimmed.  Here is our youngest posing with 3 stuffed animals peeking out of her jacket.

What feeds each one of these creatures?  Anchovies.  There are swarms of them in the harbor and in the anchorage.  Especially last week.  In the calm water of the mornings, we could hear the flick flick flick of anchovies hitting the bottom of the top of the water.  It makes concentric circles just like a raindrop would, and sounds exactly like a gentle drizzle.  The sea lions, which don't seem to sleep all at the same time based on their 24 hour a day barking and moaning, make a quick "pff" as they come up for air under and around Skagua. They are hunting the anchovies.  When we hear a long slow"pfffffff" we know it's a humpback outside instead of the lions.  That's when I scurry up the stairs and call Eila out of bed, "There's whales, there's whales!" The whales are doing the same thing as the sea lions.  Slowly, they trace the path of a slow sine wave...gulping on their way up to the top of the water, "pffffffff" at the top, then descending down, then upward for another scoop of wriggling silvery breakfast.  They track back and forth across the anchorage .  I wonder how many thousands of tiny fish they scoop with one bite.  

While Daphne and I took 5 days to celebrate our big birthday out of town with our kids and Mom, Brian stayed back at Skagua and built me a birthday surprise.  As you might imagine, storage on a boat is a high commodity.  I had asked him to build a space for my spices to sit on a ledge near the stove.  Well, he took that request to the next level. I now have ledges on both walls of the galley.  As you can see in the photo, many jars and condiments and spices now fit along the hull.  The other side of the galley (not shown) has a similar amount of storage for silverware, dishsoap, etc.  This significantly frees up space for larger items to occupy the lower cabinets.

4  days ago, we moved aboard.  This consisted of Brian motoring Skagua in from the anchorage by the Santa Cruz wharf and tying up to a dock in the Santa Cruz harbor.  We brought down garbage bags of bedding, a few days' worth of clothing, and our coolers with food.  A couple of months ago I had already stocked the galley with pantry staples, canned food, pots and pans, etc. The best part about our first evening aboard was the joyful gathering of family who joined us for a meal of hamburgers (Brian got the grill working!!), Mexican street corn salad, cherries (whose seeds Eila stored in her mouth and enjoyed spitting overboard) and berry cobbler (baked by Eloise in the onboard oven).  Brian's two sisters, their oldest sons, and one girlfriend made for a happy time amid the not-quite-organized and still-under-construction belongings.

A week and a half ago, on top of having a nasty cold, Brian and I started the big push to get every last personal item out of the house, finish final deep cleaning and set the house up to receive some out of town paid guests.  ONE hour before the first guest arrived, we walked out having fully left our home of 12 years and 4 months.  It is like losing a comfortable friend who is available any time night or day with a familiar smile and reassuring reminders of past memories.  So we are squaring our shoulders and moving toward the next step.  This week, we have spent time deep cleaning the berths aboard Skagua where the girls are to sleep. Brian is working on installing windows on the upper "house" part of Skagua.  Today it was kind of funny because he has a chop saw set up on the aft deck for trimming out the window sills.  Two guys in a fishing dinghy motored past and I heard an incredulous, "....table saw..?" across the water.  Brian says it's normal for people to be confused to see a saw set up on a sailboat which is at anchor.  

Our goofy dog is almost 10 years old.  He is not a boat dog.  He belongs with land, and sticks and squirrels to chase. Otto is loyal to his people and obsessive about things he wants us to chase.  Not motivated by food, his best reward is a friendly scrub behind the ears or above his tail.  A very close second best reward is a game of fetch, or hide and seek. Since Christmastime, Otto has been limping with the pain in his hind leg seeming to get worse steadily.  Given his velocity and enthusiasm for chasing, we had assumed he was continuously reinjuring a sprain.  In fact, in January, I was in the orchard working when all of a sudden, a brown furry blur sped up the road with Otto right behind. As the coyote in front disappeared into the forest, I heard a yelp from Otto.  His sprinting had exacerbated his pain. Our neighbor, who is a vet tech, pointed out recently that his joint was getting larger which could indicate bone cancer.  Otto created a lot of Drama at the vet office not cooperating for an X-Ray to confirm cancer (he is very afraid of vets).  But, he was sedated enough to allow me to manually feel the bulge on his rear "knee".  It is hard as bone.  So, we have accepted the likely presence of bone cancer.  With or without treatment, he has a short life expectancy.  Currently he is still enjoying attention, ball tossing (very short throws), and walks on his 3 legs and long naps in the sun.

Well folks, it's been a fast two weeks. It's been hard. We've continued to pack up the dome and did a great big push this weekend.  It is so clean and new looking.  Makes us wonder why we have all that stuff we are able to live without.  We have no renters secured yet, but have some good leads.