A random act of kindness

According to Wikipedia, today is World Kindness Day. I think it's such a beautiful concept that I decided to talk about this in school. We talked about being kind and what that means. We also watched this video, that I find very sweet, about random acts of kindness:

I also asked the kids to think of two situations where they were kind to somebody else and somebody else was kind to them. When talking about kindness, it is impossible for us not to think about 5 individuals who have impacted our lives immensely and continue to show their kindness to no end:

- Fred: Thank you so much for being our driver around Jacksonville. For patiently waiting for the kids to choose their Halloween costumes and even saving Halloween night by taking us to a better neighborhood for the kids to trick or treat. Thank you for the whole bag of candies for Halloween.

- Paul and Shari: Thanks for helping out with the boat projects and working alongside us. Thanks for spoiling the kids endlessly. Thanks for driving us for Matias's doctor appointment and for bringing mommy juice when Matias fell off the bike.

- Myron and Dena: Thanks for answering all the questions we have about cruising and helping us with the technical stuff. Thanks for the yogurt and the applesauce for Matias. Thanks for babysitting the kids. Thanks for being our mentors and just for being there.

You guys have made our lives so much more pleasurable and happy. When we think of kindness, we think of you. A big thanks to you!

Family, friends and a slap in the face

Five weeks ago we came back to Jacksonville, where Taia was sitting on the hard, after spending 2 months and a half in Argentina.

It was a great vacation. Contrary to what most people think, cruising is not always easy. There's always work to do, constant planning and decision making, non-stop weather watching and, in our case, school work. In Argentina, all we had to worry about was what and where we were going to eat. That was it.

It was the longest time we spent in Argentina since moving to Canada back in 2000. This gave us an opportunity to spend a lot of time with friends and family. The kids saw a parade of familiar and sometimes not-so-familiar faces. They even went to school in Bell Ville, Córdoba, where they made a bunch of really good friends. I kept joking that I was going to have to maintain a schedule for all of Camila's social activities. It was almost like having a glance at the future and seeing Camila's teen years. Oh, my...

And then it was time to come back. After spending so much time on land, the cruising life and all that it entails almost seemed something from the past.

The moment we stepped into the yard where Taia was, we met our friend Paul. Soon after, Fred and Shari arrived. Of course, they were there to help out as they always do. And so after two days of working in the yard, Taia was finally on the water again (insert clapping here). Very exciting stuff for us.

Ernesto cleaning the prop

Fred and Paul helping out, as always.

Taia ready to be launched.

Finally in the water again!

As soon as we were ready to leave to take Taia to our final destination, the Ortega Landing Marina, we noticed our chart plotter wasn't turning on. Funny, this was working just fine before we left. In the spirit of moving things along, we made do with Fred's cell phone as a plotter and off we went, with Paul sailing his boat close behind us. As soon as we were clear of all the boats around us. Ernesto decided to check the newly installed stuffing box. Not surprisingly, it was leaking water, a big No-No when you're on a boat. So we quickly put up the sails and turned off the engine. Ernesto adjusted it and on the engine came again. After doing this at least 3 or 4 times, we got it almost right. Of course, in the middle of all this, we managed to run aground in shallow water for a minute or so.

Afterwards, we were on our merry way when we noticed our mighty auto pilot wasn't veering to port. At all. Another instrument that was working just fine before we left and that we need to investigate.

In the marina, and after a lot of research on Ernesto's part, we realized we needed to buy a new chart plotter as our 5-year old one was no longer supported. What should have been an easy, 1-hour project, ended up taking a few days to finish. The cables for the new chart plotter were different than our old ones (even though they were both the same brand) so Ernesto had to re-wire it. After that, we realized our new chart plotter wasn't receiving any AIS information (something that we use to see other boats that are close to us). After trying pretty much everything he could think of, Ernesto realized it was the NMEA output that was no longer working and ended up re-wiring the unit so that the serial port connects to the plotter rather than the NMEA port. As our dear friend Paul says, "it's the Pi factor:" However long you think a boat project is going to take, multiply that by Pi.

At this time, we're thinking that the boat was hit by lightning during the time we spent in Argentina. We learned this lesson the hard way and next time we'll unplug all electronics before leaving the boat on the hard. Rookie mistake, I know, We still have to verify whether the auto pilot has been a victim to the lightning as well. Hopefully not.

Up the mast, to fix the steaming light.

Camila wanted to try the chair.

And Matias wanted a turn too.

So that's how, after spending a lot of relaxed time in Argentina, Taia received us with a slap in the face and showed us the not-so-loving aspects of the cruising life.

To top it all off, Matias fell off the bike this past weekend and ended up with 6 stitches on his chin and a broken jaw. It appears that, because he's so young, the bone can mend itself without surgery. But he's going to need to see a specialist for at least 6 weeks to make sure everything is OK. As the doctor said, "this is what happens when you encourage your kids to have an active life. But then you have to deal with the consequences when you have bad luck."

With these events, November 22 is no longer our departure date. We will stay in Florida until December and even that is still up in the air.

The only sure thing is that, as soon as we can, we'll start moving again.