Me Voy's new hood

Giddy with success as we take Me Voy to her new marina. It feels momentous, coz it signals that the hard core restoration work is over! No more tornado like clouds of dust  and 5 gal buckets of epoxy for this girl. At least we hope! The buzz around the marina is that we are moving, but just to put those rumors to bed, we are staying put aboard Tara for the winter, and will move aboard Me Voy in the Spring. For now there is still upholstery to finish and other fun things like cushions and curtains to make.

Chopper enjoyed the new cockpit very much, as he was able to smell and therefore long after the yummies that are that much closer. For the most part though, he wasn't much impressed as we motored for about an hour to our new destination. We, however, were giddy, feeling again like we have just stolen someone else's very nice yacht. The only thing that tempers that feeling, bringing it down to reality, is the fact that both of us have touched every inch of that boat, sometimes in very uncomfortable positions.

We docked like pros, pulling into the slip with ease and confidence. It may have had something to do with the fact that the water looked liked this, you know almost dead calm. But whatever, it was still a classy entrance. Did you notice the spiffy main sail cover? Yup that old Singer and I went for another round of dancing and that old girl hung in there and then some, until we both came out saying did we just do that? Anyway its not completely finished, needs some different straps at the head and some zipper ends, but that will get fine tuned over the winter. But that's in the future, for now we are enjoying the next step of our ever evolving plan.

Table/Bed

This is what is staring at me right now. Chopper. He's always reminding me of the importance of play time. We've been listening, trying to keep a balance between work and play, but there has been much to do. We were tossing around the idea of a table for the salon in Me Voy. To have one or not to have one. We decided that it would be great to have one, even if it did cut into the yoga space on the floor. We also thought it would be fun if it was somewhat funky and interesting, tying the colors of the interior together like a good rug. So this is what we came up with...

 The center is a yellow submarine puzzle, that we worked on last winter. Its epoxied onto mahogany with some stenciling around it, and varnished.  It was the first puzzle we ever did together, and it may be last.  I knew Travis was a freak but until that morning, when I saw him hunched over the half finished puzzle, eyes spinning, hands shaking as he compulsively searched for a piece of the Blue Meanie, I never realized the full scope of his madness. "It can't just sit here, we must finish it" was his mantra, while I said "Lets just work on it little by little". Needless to say it was Travis who finished the puzzle in about 34 hours and collapsed from exhaustion.

The table also converts to make a bed, by removing the locked in legs and substituting them with shorter pieces. The table top lays in small ledgers around the satee and has a cushion that makes the entire satee into a nice big bed. We rarely sleep there, but it has happened, and Chopper for one loves it coz he can easily jump and hog the bed. He has BTW been staring at me the entire time it took me to write this blog and just now went to stare at Travis. However I feel another pair of eyes digging into my back and turn around to see this ...

... I am one lucky person

we've been busy

 We've been four and a half years in the making of this dream called Me Voy. Neither of us has ever stuck with a project this long! We're at the tail end of our work and are down to making some fun stuff.  Here is a cockpit table Travis made over the last couple of weeks. Just for shock value the last two pics are of us in the  cockpit, when it was called the "hellpit". Back then it was nothing more then a big hole at the stern of the boat covered by, you guessed it, a tarp. So you see things are really possible if you work hard, persevere, keep the big picture in mind, and smoke a little pot every now and then.

in the beginning there was only the hellpit

Travis in the hellpit doing some hell work

B&S Boat Trick #1

One thing you just can't get on a boat, or at least on most boats is a long hot shower. Ironically during the summer, when our water hose is bypassing the water tanks, and laying on the deck absorbing the sun's heat, this is not an issue, but who wants long hot showers in the summer? In the winter, however, our shower practice looks something like this: turn on water til warm, get all necessary parts wet, turn off water, lather all necessary parts, turn on water and rinse til water begins to get cool. This takes all of about seven minutes. But somehow, thru some sheer luck I have stumbled upon the remedy for this, and I am calling it my Beer and Skittles Boat Trick #1. Ready? The answer lies in turning down the water pressure! If I seem a little excited about this its coz I am! With the water pressure turned down to an acceptable stream,  I am taken back to the steamy showers of land life, where I have time to lather, rinse and stand and stand under that lovely stream and relax. Ahhhh.

 Does anyone out there have any boat tricks they discovered? Do tell.

How do you remember?

Do you like the holidays? Are you one who dreams of Halloween decorations, Thanksgiving plumage and Christmas lights in September? Do you dream up creative costumes in June and wear Santa Hats as soon as they appear on store shelves?  If so, that's great, really is, we need people like you, I'm sure of it. It's just that I never got it. I never understood the holidays, and the equations I was observing were so unsatisfactory to me :
ghosts+candy = Halloween,
turkey+ family+ gratitude = Thanksgiving
Jesus+presents= Christmas
Champagne+high heels=New Year
bunny+ eggs+basket=Easter
 etc.

I'm sure this is some lack in me that doesn't allow the magic of all these Holidays to penetrate, but, so it is. Until now.

This year, having dome some searching and re-discoviering the power of ritual, I wanted in on the magic.  After all, that is what these Holy Days are, celebrations honoring our mystical humanity expressed in ritual magic. How did I not see this before?

So, with the Holidaze coming, I set out to reclaim the ancient meanings behind these popularized Holidays. It was almost Halloween and that felt like a good place to start.

Halloween or Samhain  as it was known in the Gaelic tradition, celebrated the end of summer and the beginning of the dark season. Because darkness is often associated with death, it was also called the Day of the Dead, and was known as the  night when the veil between the worlds (light/dark, life/death/ real/imaginary) was very thin. Candles were lit in the night to guide the passing spirits, and turnips or pumpkins were carved to scare the more unsavory characters.

In ancient Egypt the time was celebrated as the Festival of Isia, and celebrated  the return of the God Osiris who was magically resurrected from the dead by his wife Isis, becoming the King of the Dead.

The Greeks celebrated a festival called Thesmophoria,  which related to the myth of Persephony, who was kidnapped by Hades and taken to the underworld, becoming the Goddess of Death.

In Mexico the day is celebrated as Dia de los Muertos (Day of the dead) and the Hindu tradition celebrates Divali or a festival of related to Rebirth or New Year.

In the early Christian church the day was known as All Souls Day, and honored those who have passed.

 So what does it all mean?  How to put it all together and honor that which desires to be remembered at this time? The answer, I think, lies in the symbolic language of ritual. The symbolism of Halloween, Death, Rebirth, Change, Harvest, Spirit Connection/Communication can all translate into meaningful actions (ritual) that can help us to reconnect ourselves to that part of us which desires ritual in the first place. Tricky? Not really. I found that keeping in mind the symbolism of Halloween, allowed me to deeply appreciate actions such as lighting a candle or carving an owl in a pumpkin (in honor of inner sight).  Even though I passed on the Ouija board, grave cleaning, and costumes,  I feel my Halloween experience to have been richer then ever before. Next on the horizon... Thanksgiving, or maybe even Veterans Day?