by Michele | Jun 13, 2014 | Preparation Stage
Don’t let that innocent smile fool you, this is the face of a master of destruction
Living on the water comes with the inherent risk of losing items to the drink. I just didn’t realize that it was more an inevitability than risk until we moved on board with a three year old and two dogs. Never mind my natural capacity for not paying enough attention to my surroundings (see Getting Our Sea Legs).
Can you tell he’s excited about searching the mud for my keys?
One of the first rules that Dan instituted was “Never have your keys in your hand when getting on and off of the boat.” Alas, he knew me too well. One morning while Dan was at work, I was in the process of getting myself, Carter, and a large bag of laundry off of the boat. As I swung the bag of laundry onto the dock, I released the bag safely…and my car keys right into the water. I was honestly in shock and just stared at the ripples for a few moments before I could even think about anything. Our dock neighbor Gary, who I mentioned in the First Taste of the Cruising Community, graciously attempted to find my keys in the near zero visibility water but wasn’t able to locate them. Now I had to wait for Dan to get home and tell him that I had, in fact, done what he always told me not to do and that now he would have to dive in the disgusting water to find my keys. He only gave me a small “I told you so” and was able to find my keys, along with those of another unfortunate boater from the past.
Oops…
On our first day in Lantana, the water and I had a rough time together. It was a beautiful day and so I allowed Carter and the dogs to stay out in the cockpit while I made lunch for us down below. I regularly checked on Carter and would find him looking out and the water or petting the dogs. All was well…or so I thought. What Carter was actually doing was taking every loose item in the cockpit and throwing them overboard one by one to see if they would float. This included our hose nozzle, the dogs’ 2 leashes and water dish.
Gavin after his little “swim” and bath. He had a rough day.
I was so angry I could hardly see straight, so I sent Carter to his room before I overreacted and went back to making lunch. That’s when I heard a very strange noise from outside. I went into the cockpit to investigate and found only Winston topside looking straight down off of the transom at the water. Gavin had attempted to jump onto the dock to catch some landing ducks and, as his coordination is about as advanced as mine, fell straight into the water. I quickly climbed down the dock ladder and called him over to me as he sloppily dog-paddled his way around the boat. I’m sure the two of us would have been quite the sight to see as I had to get in waist deep to hoist him out as he flailed desperately trying to get out of the water, which he hates. He was none too happy with me as I had to spray him down with fresh water again.
At least I was able to rescue my shoe!
Our current tally is as follows:
Lost
1 bottle of lemon juice (thrown by Carter)
1 dog dish (thrown by Carter)
2 dog leashes (thrown by Carter)
1 hose nozzle (thrown by Carter)
1 small toy car (accidently driven in by Carter)
Dropped and Recovered
1 fishing net (bumped in by a friend)
1 car key (dropped by Michele)
1 wet dog (jumped/fell in)
1 shoe (knocked off by Michele)
Found
1 car key
I think that makes the score Davey Jones 6: Us 1: Tie 4. We’re hoping to even the score with some fishing and lobster diving in the near future.
by Michele | Nov 14, 2013 | Preparation Stage
No plans to revisit the maternity ward anytime soon!
With the recent public concern over the new healthcare law coming into effect, it’s no wonder that Dan and I have fielded many questions about what our plans will be for healthcare and health insurance while we are cruising. Spend any time on forums for cruisers and you will find the same questions. It is a legitimate concern considering we will no longer have insurance available to us through our employers, private insurance (up until this point) has been known to be extremely expensive in the United States, and that expense certainly would put a big kink in a limited cruising budget.
Luckily, there are some factors that help mitigate the need for expensive health insurance for us. First (and biggest in our opinion) is the fact that we do not intend to use the healthcare system in the United States almost at all once we start cruising, as we will no longer be located here. Anyone who has traveled abroad extensively will tell you that healthcare costs outside of the United States are significantly lower than here at home. Regardless of the reasons why that is true, it means that having insurance isn’t really a huge necessity like it is here. In fact, most international health insurance providers charge significantly discounted rates for plans that include everywhere in the world other than the U.S. With almost $75,000 in our own personal emergency funds, self insurance while abroad makes the most sense to us.
We are (currently) young and healthy with very little risk that any major health costs will be popping up over the next 5-10 years. However, we do plan to carry Divers Alert Network (DAN) coverage for all three of us. Their particular plan will cover our #1 greatest risk factor: scuba diving. We’ve already had a good experience working with DAN during my Rescue Victim episode and the coverage is highly rated. Basically, DAN covers any diving-related injury fully including recompression chamber visits and even repatriation to the United States from anywhere in the world if necessary. Not only that but it also covers up to $10,000 for any other non-diving medical expenses, plus even coverage for loss or damage of our equipment (like if our dive camera got flooded or we accidentally drop our gear into the abyss). I’d say that’s a pretty good deal for only $600/year.
There is one little catch in this plan that you may have noticed. What about the healthcare mandate starting in 2014? Well to be honest…we don’t really know. We haven’t gotten any satisfactory answers about what our legal status actually will be once we start traveling permanently; resident/non-resident – its somewhat unclear. Fortunately, we do know that according to all of the income charts (and assuming we don’t get filthy rich from writing this blog) our yearly taxable income should put us firmly below poverty level in the United States. Great news, right? In this case it is, because that means that even if we are required to get health insurance it will be free. We would become part of the <insert random percentage here> of people who receive assistance from the Federal Government. Isn’t that something…
by Michele | Nov 16, 2012 | Preparation Stage
Note the “multi-baffled” design with the vent through the middle. Keeps water out and lets the pressure release.
Okay, the pun is a little much I know. The important thing is, it’s true! You see, for some reason when I am scuba diving I have a very difficult time equalizing my ears while descending. For anyone who has ever felt that pressure squeeze, you’ll know it can be very painful and distracting when you are just trying to have a good time diving. There were multiple times even in our training pool dives that I just could not get my ears to equalize properly only going down to 12 feet! Not only was it a problem during the dive, my ears (especially my right ear) would hurt for a week or more and cause muffled hearing.
After looking up the problems I was having online, I discovered that the continuing pain was a good indicator that I was doing real damage to my eardrum, duh. I decided I needed to do something to protect myself from permanent hearing loss, but I didn’t know what. Dan uses a special mask that covers his ears because he has surgical tube implants in his right ear and can’t get his ears wet, but it’s a pretty expensive mask and I wasn’t entirely sure that would help my equalization problems. At this point though, I was starting to feel like I needed to find a solution or I wouldn’t be able to dive anymore.
Finally, when I was researching the problem I found what I thought might be a real solution. On a few of the scuba forums, people were discussing the use of vented ear plugs while diving. The idea was a little scary because one of the first lessons you learn about diving is how wearing normal earplugs actually creates a negative pressure zone between your eardrum and the plug and can cause worse damage than wearing no plug. However, the vented ear plugs have a vent to allow air to escape from that pocket. I wanted to try them out, but our local dive shop didn’t sell them and I was wary of buying some online without being able to see them first.
Then, on our trip to Bull Shoals (yes the one where I came home with staples in my head) the boat dock was selling JBL Hydro Seals. To quote the JBL website they “utilize an advanced multi-baffle polymer design providing exceptional protection against water entering the ear canal.” And they work! I used them for the first time on our advanced training deep dive, and I have never had an easier time equalizing my ears. To be perfectly honest, I’m still not entirely sure why they work, but I know that I won’t be diving without them again. Another bonus is that because of the vented design, you can still hear normally while wearing them, so you don’t have to worry about missing anything important or need to wait to put them in until you are getting in the water.
To recap: if your ears hurt from diving, buy some JBL Hydro Seals*. You won’t be sorry!
*Another popular brand of vented earplugs is Doc’s Proplugs, though I haven’t personally tried these they also get good reviews online.
by Michele | May 5, 2012 | Preparation Stage
I have a confession to make. I’m afraid of water. Growing up, my whole family was uncomfortable when in the water. I didn’t learn how to swim until I was eight years old, and I’m sure that Carter will be a better swimmer than me by the time he’s five. I don’t even like getting my face wet in the shower…yea, it’s pretty stupid I know.
A year ago, Dan started talking about getting our SCUBA certifications. Kyle and Becca, his brother and sister-in-law, had already gotten theirs and went diving in Mexico for their honeymoon and had really enjoyed it. The idea of scuba diving made me want to hyperventilate… which is somewhat ironic considering that I’ve willingly jumped out of a plane three times and I would have no problem doing it again. I just don’t like to be underwater. But I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet; if Becca could do it, then I could do it.
For the most part, our class was uneventful. I wasn’t even the worst one there! The only problem that I had was taking off my mask underwater and having to clear it again (see above statement about getting my face wet.) It was time for our certification dives at Haigh Quarry in Kankakee, Illinois. I wasn’t too worried, because I knew I could do everything. Unfortunately, I had decided to buy a new mask from our dive shop and hadn’t tested it yet. Bad idea. As soon as I would go under water, my mask would instantly start filling with water. I am ashamed to admit that I started freaking out, not quite hyperventilation, but definitely freaking out. I was done with this. Luckily, our instructor that day noticed my problem and traded masks with me so that I could complete my dives. Poor guy had to wear a pink mask all day.
I’m happy to report that while I’m not entirely cured of my fears of the water, I do really like scuba diving. Diving in the Caribbean was one of the most amazing things that I have experienced. For now, I’m happy to just go diving with Dan. I’m not interested in starting Divemaster training like he is until I am significantly more comfortable. However, there is something to be said for facing your fears. The confidence earned is definitely worth the cost.
by Dan | Apr 14, 2012 | Preparation Stage
So last weekend I thought it’d be a good idea to put my new SCUBA gear through its paces and acclimate myself to the new underwater goodies… I think God is testing me, making sure I have enough perseverance to succeed in the cruising life. My first sailing experience on the MacGregor wasn’t exactly encouraging. This diving experience wasn’t either. Let me add a disclaimer that absolutely nothing went wrong with the actual diving, gear, dive safety, anything like that. A lot else went wrong, however.
Some family friends were gracious enough to let Kyle (my middle brother) and I use their backyard rock quarry lake for our shakedown dive. Kyle and I met at my house and laid out our gear, dry tested it, etc before heading to the lake. Once we got to the lake we found out the wet winter had now made parts of the dirt road leading to the lake resemble the Bad Lands of the American west (think canyons, big ones). It’d be a walk. A long one. With SCUBA gear and tanks. We eventually got to the lake and suited up in our shiny new wet suits when Kyle says “Oh shit.” Now, some of you may remember from my first sailing experience that “Oh Shit” seems to follow my preparations for the cruising life. It continued. Kyle had forgotten the bag with his fins at my house. No biggie, our parents were getting ready to leave our family ice cream store down the road. They said they’d be able to drop his fins off for us. What they didn’t say was that it was going to be another 45 minutes. If you’ve never been SCUBA diving just know that you can’t really move without fins on. We finished gearing up and jumped in the water. We figured we could at least try out the regulators (part you breathe from) and the wet suits while we waited. And waited. And waited. You can see me towing finless Kyle in the third picture above. Well after about 30 minutes in 60 degree water we decided to take a break and warm up on the shore (see our sexy photos above or our flickr photostream for more. You might also notice Carter is wearing different pants and shoes in some pictures. He wanted to go swimming too.).
Kyle eventually got his fins and we were able to begin the dive in earnest. We expected cold water and 60 degrees definitely qualifies as cold, but it isn’t too bad with a wet suit on. We didn’t expect to encounter a thermocline at 15 feet down with Antarctica waiting to freeze us out below. For those that don’t know, a thermocline is a steep temperature gradient in a body of water such as a lake, marked by a layer above and below which the water is at different temperatures. WAY different temperatures in this case. I didn’t stay below the thermocline long enough for my computer to register the temperature but I’m guessing low 40’s. It was a bummer, but it was still possible to test out our gear and do some minor exploring in the lake above 15 ft.
My car after trying to wedge some logs under the tire (click to enlarge)
We finished the dive and began drying off. That’s when I realized Kyle wasn’t the only one to forget something at my house before we left for the lake. I had forgotten the bag with my change of clothes and extra towels. My parents were gracious enough to make the hike back to the car and go pick up the bag for me.
Dried off, with new clothes on we head out. Backwards, because there wasn’t enough room to turn around on the road between the cliff and the forest. Then we abruptly stopped. It turns out that I had forgotten to swerve around a 3 foot deep model of the grand canyon and now had my rear passenger wheel hanging in the gap. Glorious. We tried and failed to push, pull, drive, rock, lift, beg, plead the car out of the abyss with no luck. A quick call to my dad and a bruised ego later he had pulled my car out with his truck. Thankfully, European cars have this cool little door on the front bumper that you can hook up a tow hook to. We had fun, we wrecked a car, we froze, etc… what more could you want on a Friday night.
We are normal (well ok, not so normal) people that have a dream to see the world and live life as it was meant to be. We both have successful careers in the healthcare industry, even in this terrible economy. We want to break free of the current cycle of trading time for dollars and dollars for more and more things we don't need. So, we have decided to forego the fruits of our economic success and "retire" well before we are 30 and set out to see what is over the Horizon.