On the eighth day of Christmas….

…two raccoons gave to us…a munched upon gingerbread house.

Who knew!? We have never seen raccoons on the dock, let alone inside our enclosure. We leave stuff in our enclosure all the time, and never (until now) has a creature been stirring. Somehow the delicious scent of Madi’s gummybear gingerbread house was too much to resist.

Abby woke us all at 4am with her clarion barks to warn us of visitors. Pa in his kerchief and ma in her cap peaked out the window and saw two raccoons sneaking the gingerbread house out through our enclosure rain flap.

This morning, we present the evidence. They left the cookie bits, and all but one lone gummybear are gone.

Carnage on the deck

Carnage on the dock

Lost gummybear in the cockpit

The empty cardboard foundation

Congratulations, Madi

Madi graduated from high school! Congratulations, we are so proud of you!

Best quote ever (by Bob Bitchin) “the difference between an adventure and an ordeal is attitude”

Message in a bottle

Back in 2014 or so, on one of our gulf stream crossings, Madi decided to write a message and put it in a bottle to see where it ended up. Today, she finally heard back! She got an email stating that yesterday the bottle and a young man named Emanuel found each other in Pico Island, Azores!

Photo from Emanuel in Pico Island

If that bottle could talk about the nearly four year journey it had, riding the gulf stream. We speculate that it rode the current north towards Iceland, before it curved back around south to land on the Azores.

What a wonderful way to start 2018, as we prepare to move back on Tango in the spring and continue getting her ready for future cruising adventures.

Thank you, Emanuel!

Troublemakers

Quiet at dock, and not much boaty stuff going on at the moment, so another dog post…yes another dog post.

These two love each other like sisters, wrestling all day, and help each other find mischief. We left them on the boat the other night to go see a movie and came back to piles of fluff ripped out of a stuffed dog toy. They had also pulled grocery bags out and strewn them about. Silly mischievous girlies.

Getting ready

Tuesday marks the start of our fourth school year afloat. Madi and Peyton love school so much that they are spending a Friday night preparing notebooks and planners.

Beaching it

One thing the Columbia River has going for it are great sandy beaches with lots of huge driftwood and sandbars for great beach play.

Guessing contest

If you’ve been following our recent happenings, you know that we adopted a stray/rescue puppy back in April. Well, we are very curious about what breeds combined to make the most awesome Abby, so we just sent in DNA sample to find out.

We thought it would be great fun to have a contest to see who can guess her breed(s) correctly. Closest mutt mix wins a cool Madi-Peyton crafted prize!

So, what kind of dog are you Miss Abby?

Friday new crew kayak

The girls decided to introduce Abby to kayaking, but Max wouldn’t let them leave him behind. He kept leaping off the sugarscoop to join the kayak fun.

Boaty Mother’s Day

My sweet, sweet girls made me feel very special with homemade cards and flowers.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the amazing moms in my life!

More on our newest crew

Abby seems to be adjusting to boat life quite well, although every now and then she tries to jump to the dock. Little thing thinks she’s a big dog…and we have to remind her that the dark chasm between her and the dock is water. So far no dog-overboarding, but I’m sure it will happen one of these days. Only two times for Max before he decided to respect the water.

The hammock is always a favorite

Beaches are made for digging up

Abby loves popcorn!