Hurricane Sandy

Are you sensing a trend? We arrived in North Carolina 'just in time' for a hurricane warning!

We got back to the boat on Thursday late in the day, only to find we'd had a couple leaks over the summer, and some flooring was ruined and a stack of school books were black with mold and saturated with water :( We ended up in a hotel for one more night until we could get a handle on things, but I can't say the kids broke down crying about the school books (Rachel and I did!) 

Friday consisted of cleaning up the boat, moving things we've stored onboard into our trailer to try and move , and getting situated for what looks like a pretty serious storm. 

Today is Sunday afternoon, and we're about halfway through the storm, it's been downgraded to a tropical storm and then back to hurricane. The eye of the storm is about 150 miles off-shore, but as of this morning, we've seen almost 3" of rain so far, and plenty of high winds.
We are really glad our boat is out of the water during the storm, but try to imagine challenges like: walking up to the bathrooms in the mud, getting off/on a wet cockpit, living out of an ice-chest with no running water, and and all of us cramped in here, running a small space heater to dry things out. We've managed a few movies to be sure :)
We're just trying to keep our spirits up and know it'll only be for another couple of days, and then we can get on the process of starting a life. Although, for right now, this IS life, and we've learned that as long as we're together as a family, we can do ALOT!! We keep trying to remind and encourage each other, and know we've already done some really hard things and this is just the path to something else. 

The plan, as of 5 minutes ago, is to paint the bottom of the boat later this week, get it launched back in the water, and make the trip down to Wilmington, NC. We will then be living on the boat and then it's job hunting time and looking for a house to rent. Wilmington is loaded with historic homes, and boasts over 300 blocks of "historic district"
We'd love to find some old homes to fix up as rentals ourselves, and if anyone has some money to invest, from our research this looks like a growing spot. I also know an excellent contractor/remodeler who is currently out of work! Seriously, drop us an email if you know someone interested.

So, that's an update, we'll send another note once the storm is over, and let you know everything is OK, thanks for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers!

~ Soggy Hems

Eastbound

Our time with family in Missouri has come to a close :(  and time to head east toward Mehari back in North Carolina.

It's been 5 months since we've been road nomads.......all the way to Alaska, fishing, and camping, and all the way back. And we thought boat life was hard! I think we'll all be glad to be in our 'most familiar' beds, back on the boat. The boat has been sitting out of the water in a boatyard just north of Beaufort  NC, a place called Bock Marine. We're also a bit curious how she's done sitting empty all this time.

Cousins' farm in Missouri

playing in fall leaves

Some of the highlights from our time in Missouri were Levi and Erik going to John's basketball practice every morning and getting a thorough workout. Of course, all the cousins (12!) had a ball hanging out and riding a mototrcycle, a quad, and feeding chickens, turkeys and a horse. Our kids got a little taste of farm life, doing chores in the early morning.......they managed to survive. 

making sure the hotel beds are *soft enough.

Erik managed to squeeze in a VW bus show in Springfield, the girls had a shopping day, the 'boys' went to a gun show, and we had a few game marathons, mostly Apples to Apples, and the grownups even managed a date night ;) and the house was not burned to a crisp when we got back.

Now, we've been scootin' along through Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and finally, North Carolina. 

ice cream break in Kentucky

Catching up......

Ok, we've been a bit occupied the last couple of weeks, but finally sat down for a minute to catch up with the blog and give everyone an update of where we are and what we've been doing!

We spent almost 3 weeks in Arizona all said, catching up with a LOT of friends, family and also doing some work 'stuff' on a commercial property we own. Maggie and Levi and Emma were put to work in between visiting friends, doing a lot of painting, cleaning, staining, sweeping, and organizing our life up to this point. I must say, even though the boat life has it's challenges, living day after day out of suitcase is no cup of tea either. I would rather have everything unpacked, even if its into a small 400 square foot catamaran! Which, I am excited to say, we will be back on in a few short weeks! (Not everyone shares my excitement, but I think they're warming to the idea)

We are now in Missouri, (not Misery!) visiting Rachel's sister for a week or two and all the kids are catching up with their cousins after a long time away from one another. Rachel's sister and her husband, Stacy and James, have 6 kids as well, including 2 teenagers they've adopted from Russia two years ago, so while there's "only" 18 people in the house, it's a good chaos and were really enjoying our time here. 

Photos to follow when we get a spare few minutes of peace and quiet, and pry the computer back from the kid's fingers!

Hems