Indiana

Click here for photos from our time last week visiting family in Aurora, IN.

The kids had lots of fun playing with their cousin Kaylee, attending the Dearborn County Fair, swimming and participating in a backyard family photo-shoot. We managed to sneak a few photos in over the photographer's shoulder, as you'll see in the photo album included here. We also got to see Uncle John's latest home creation.

We're heading West again... our itinerary for this week includes St. Louis, MO, Topeka, KS, and Norman, OK.

Reports from the Field: Mammoth Cave, KY

Jubilee's field reporters may have changed their mode of transportation, but this has not hindered their investigative reporting skills. Whether by land or sea, they will go to any height - or depth - to bring you their stories. Here's what the crew had to say about Mammoth Cave.

True or False, by Emily
1. Mammoth Cave was made out of carbonic acid and limestone.
(A. TRUE. Carbonic acid eats limestone.)

2. Humans die from carbonic acid.
(A. FALSE. It's the same as soado, but soado is 1,000x stonger than the acid that formed the cave!)

3. You can canoe in Mammoth Cave.
(A. TRUE. At high water the green river flows in to a part of mammoth.)

4. The new entrens of mammoth cave was just bilt.
(A. FALSE. It was bilt in 1920.


Intro. to Caving, by Drew
We visited Mammoth Cave National Park. It was awsome. There are many different tours you can go on with a ranger. We went on a tour called Intro to Caving. It is three hours long and you go off the trail and climb and slide and crawl in the mud.

Our ranger's name was Miss. Dr. Janet Smith and she was in her 70s and she kicked my butt at caving! It was so FUN. We had a blast. If you ever go to Mammoth Cave, you should do it. You have to be 10 or older, so me and my dad only did it.


Mammoth Cave, by Jake
Hi, it's Jake. I went to Mamoth Cave, and did you know it's the longest cave system in the world. So far the rangers have discovered 367 miles of cave and are still discovering more. They map a few more miles every year.

Back in the olden days people took 15 hour tours and walked about 10 miles. Now our tour covered about 4 miles of the cave in 4 hours. If you really want to see the cave, you can go on the Trog, Intro to Caving, Grand avenue or Wild cave tour. If you do, have fun and enjoy your stay! Also, watch your step! The End.

On the Road Again: Great Smoky Mountains & Mammoth Cave National Parks

We’ve traded in our Crocs and flip-flops for some proper hiking shoes and have been enjoying some great trail adventures... both above and below ground. Here are two new photo albums:

Click here for the Smoky Mountains.

Click here for Mammoth Cave.

The kids set a new “personal best” by hiking the Alum Cave Trail in the Smoky Mountains - an 11-mile trek that included a change in elevation of more than 2,800 feet. It took us over 6.5 hours to make it up and back with just a stop or two for Goldfish and juice.

Emily made the journey slightly injured... two nights prior she fell off her chair and right into the fire pit at our campsite. Fortunately, the only damage was to her shin, where she is now sporting a burn/scrape.

You may notice a new face in some of our blog photos... Neela the Cow. This was give to Emily by Neil, the salesman from whom we purchased our RV. She promised to show Neela a good time and lots of interesting sites on our travels across the country so you’ll be seeing her in photos from time to time.

At Mammoth Cave, Pat and Drew participated in an Introduction to Caving tour that included 3 hours of climbing, belly-crawling and more; their only light source being head lamps. For obvious reasons, the camera was unable to join them underground, but let’s just say they had a BLAST!

We all enjoyed the “Grand Avenue” tour which covered about 4 miles of the 360+ miles that make up the Mammoth Cave system. It was amazing how spacious some of the sections we toured felt, considering we were about 250 feet underground. For more info. about the cave, see the kids’ latest reports from the field.

Next stop: Indiana

Bon Voyage Jubilee

We've now said farewell to Jubilee. What a great boat she was for us. We were sad to leave her behind in Oriental, North Carolina. It was a FANTASTIC year aboard!

Congratulations to Sean and Margaret, her new owners. They’ll soon be taking Jubilee to their home - and one of our favorite places to sail - Cape Cod. We hope they have many good times and great sails in the years ahead.

Click here for a few parting photos.

We are now on to our cross country tour back to Portland. We'll of course be posting pictures of our adventures in the many National Parks we plan to visit along the way.

Stay tuned . . .

SV to RV

Hello from Oriental, NC. Click here for new photos.

You haven’t heard from us lately because we’re “moving”. Our transition from “sailing vessel” to “recreational vehicle” has been an interesting one. The two modes of travel are incredibly different, and driving on the open road after a year at sea is going to take some getting used to.

As far as transitions go, so far, lots has gone well. We picked up a 27' 1999 Gulfstream Yellowstone in Titusville, Florida earlier this week. It required a 12-hour drive south of our current location, but after much searching all along the southern East Coast, we were happy to find something clean, in good condition AND in our price range!

The dealer from whom we made the purchase was very helpful in getting us oriented to the inner working of an RV and making sure we were set-up well for our next adventure.

Also, the marina/boatyard where we’re staying in Oriental in order to move off the boat has been wonderful. They have great services for cruisers, including haul-out. Pat finds scrubbing the bottom of the boat much less pleasant in the murky water of the ICW than he did in the clear waters of the Bahamas, so we opted to have it pulled for cleaning this time!

There’s a pool which the kids are thoroughly enjoying; incredibly friendly people, including a few other boat kids; the town of Oriental is lovely; and as luck would have it... there’s a RV hook-up right in the marina parking lot!

Yes, that’s correct... for the past few days we’ve been living in a grassy patch between the parking lot and the marina owner’s mom’s house. We’ve made countless trips back and forth across the street carting our things from Jubilee to RV. It’s about a 100 degrees here right now, so air conditioning as been a welcome change! As for most everything else about RV living, we still have a some adjusting to do.

There’s a behind-the-blog story coming soon on that topic, but for now, we hope you enjoy our most recent photos. Despite a long drive and lots of work to do, we have found at least some time to play, explore and enjoy our final weeks on the water.

Our Provisioning List

This is a fairly complete summary of our provisioning list, based on a family of 5 spending 5-6 months in the Bahamas.

After the list is a summary of what - in our experience - was easy to find in the Bahamas v. what was either hard to find, ridiculously expensive or both!

A few notes about our eating habits: We ate virtually all our meals aboard. I baked bread almost daily. We were able to catch quite a bit of fish and lobster which helped stretch our limited supply of meats. With the exception of canned tuna, we are not canned food types and living on a boat did not change that.

lemonaid/gatoraid powdered mixes 20 containers
beer 18 cases
wine 14 boxes
coffee 8 lbs
tea bags 10 boxes
bottled water 4 lg jugs
peanut butter 20 jars
honey 3 x-lg jars
vanilla 2 bottles
flour 10 lbs
sugar 3 lbs
powdered sugar 1 lb
yeast 1 lg box
syrup 2 lg
bread crumbs 1 box
boullion cubes 1 lg jar
lemon juice 2 lg
olive oil 5 x-lg bottles
salad oil 4 x-lg bottles
balsamic vinegar 1 bottle
white vinegar 1 x-lg jug
dry milk 1 x-lg box
parmalot milk 15 boxes
tuna 60 cans
chicken 12 cans
canned veggies 8 cans
pastas 16 lbs
dry beans (lentils) 3 bags
dry sauces (pesto) 5 pkgs
canned tomatoes 12 cans
pasta sauce 12 jars
ramen 30 pkgs
jiffy corn mix 15 boxes
rice 3 x-lg bags
flour tortillas 15 pkgs
saltines 7 boxes
other crackers 8 boxes
granola bars 4 lg cases
Clif bars 3 cases
pistachios 4 lg bags
trail mixes, dried fruits/nuts 20 pkgs
oatmeal 2 boxes
couscous 5 boxes
baking soda 1 x-lg bag
baking powder 1 lg box
cereals 10 bags
pretzels 5 lg bags
salsa 1 lg box H&H mix
tortilla chips 5 bags
goldfish 4 lg boxes
black beans 4 cans
artichokes 4 cans
olives 6 cans
chiles 4 cans
pepperoni 10 pkgs
parmesean 7 chunks
onions 1 bag
eggs 6 dozen
powdered eggs 1 x-lg container
cheeses 6
cabbage 2
apples 2 dozen
oranges 3 boxes
carrots 2 bags
butter 8 sticks
potatoes 1 lg bag
soy sauce 2
marshmellows 4 bags
popcorn 2 lg bags
chocolate bars 15
graham crackers 4 boxes
chocolate chips 2 bags
nutella 4 jars
cocoa powder 1 jar
parchment paper 3 rolls
paper towels 50 rolls
toilet paper 50 rolls
paper plates 800
ziplock bags 6 boxes
foil 2 rolls
propane 12 @1-lb
AA batteries (for GPS) 300
C&D batteries 200
handiwipes 25
sponges 10
hand sanitizer 2 lg
dish soap - Joy 2 lg
lighter sticks 4
shampoo 5
toothpaste 5
rubber gloves 1 box
insect repellent 5
sunscreen 5
chlorox 1

freezer:
3 flank steaks
6 lb hamburger
3 bags chicken breast
2 turkey breasts
6 bags of veggies
frozen OJ cans
2 hotdogs

other:
condiments
spices
toiletries
first aid & medications
spare parts
lots of motor oil

Relatively easy to find in Bahamas:
romaine lettuce
green peppers
onions
carrots
eggs
butter
bananas
apples
flour
oatmeal
most basic fruits in places like Nassau, Georgetown, Marsh Harbor

Expensive:
any paper products
any convenience foods (chips, crackers, peanut butter, powdered drink mixes, etc)
Parmalot

Hard to Find:
meat that didn't look like it had freezer burn

Kept very well w/o refrigeration:
parmesean cheese
pepperoni
cabbage
most fruits placed in hammocks
jicama
carrots
all condiments

Glad we took:
cast iron skillet for campfires
large pot for steaming lobster
french press
"Cruising Cuisine" cookbook

Wish we took:
Valentine/Easter candies for the kids
even more peanut butter & crackers