Roots

It's been some long years on the road, a total of nearly 5 years since we first left the US and moved to Costa Rica, and then onto the sailing adventure. We have been able to travel in all sorts of conditions, not all of them comfortable, but none of them boring. We have also been able to see a lot of once-in-a-lifetime things and even now, telling some of the people we meet our story, it doesn't seem real. A few times, I've had to look back through the blog and pictures to remind myself how incredible and epic it has been.

The "sevensailors" have put down roots: as it were. We found a house in the Historic District of downtown area of Wilmington, a 'short sale' from a bank, and since we first saw it, Rachel knew it was the one. We put in an offer, and things quickly fell into place for us to be able to buy it. Actually, the closing was moved up a whole month from January 15th to December 17th! No one on board Mehari was disappointed as I've mentioned, since moving back on board two months ago it has felt like "The Incredible Shrinking Boat". With winter weather quickly approaching, we've been spending more and more days in places like the public library, the mall, or anywhere but the boat. 

A few days before Christmas, we moved in for our first night's sleep in the "new" house. I guess new house is misleading, as the house was built in 1920, but it is a two story 'colonial revival' and has lots of character. It needs some work, which is exactly the kind of house we were looking for. The yard is in rough shape, weeds, overgrown, etc. It also is in need of painting, and a lot of small cosmetic work. 

But the 'bones' of the house are good, it is very solid, and it came with everything to get us started, even a refrigerator and a washer and dryer! No more laundry-mats!! It is completely wood floors, old plaster walls, dormer windows, and lots and lots of room! Our whole world could easily fit in the dining room so once we move in it will be the task of getting furniture, beds, basically everything! We brought over our things from storage, including a folding tables and folding chairs, so we're off! For the first week, we're so used to being in small spaces together, we kind of move from room to room as a group thinking and dreaming of ideas for the house.

empty rooms......pretty much how they still look!

We're really excited for the new adventure of getting settled in here, finding good deals for furniture and  learning all over again how to adjust to land living and setting some sort of routine. 

Rachel's goal is to quickly set up her school room, and get the kids back in a routine for doing school. We also joined a YMCA fitness center located only a few blocks from our house, so she'll be there quite a bit with the kids, swimming and hanging out.

That's the update for now.  We'd love to hear from you or better yet, swing on by if you're near the East Coast! We'll go hang out at the beach and stare at the horizon..........

Stop in Charleston

We spent the weekend down in Charleston, South Carolina visiting some friends that we'd met in Turkey almost 3 years ago! It is only a 3 hour drive from here in Wilmington, North Carolina. 

They finished a 3 year circumnavigation by boat last year and now since we're "neighbors", we wanted to catch up with them. It was a great time hanging out with them and their sons, Emile and Peter. 

This photo was in a toy store in downtown Charleston and this may be as close as Emma may get to France for quite a while!

River Rat ;)

On the house hunt

We knew that once we landed in Wilmington, our days on Mehari would be short lived. Since coming back to the boat from Alaska, it has seemed to be shrinking literally by the day.

We are now heading into winter, which for boat life, means mildew, condensation, and very chilly nights. Although we've been pleasantly surprised by how mild the winter has been so far, we have had several COLD nights into the mid-upper 30's and we have no heat! We do have a small propane heater we can use to 'take the nip' out of the air, but nothing we can safely leave on all night, which translates into: pile on the blankets!

All this means, we need to get in a house, and soon. Rachel and the kids are feeling like they need to devote some serious time to refocusing on school. School has been a challenge, for at least the past year, as life has had us pulling into a lot of other directions. I'll have Rachel write more about transitioning school from the boat. 

Also, we have come back with a trailer full of household 'stuff' half of which is in a storage unit, half in the trailer at the marina, and half in the boat.......wait a minute, that's 3 halves! You get the idea! Stress!!

We looked at rentals for a bit, and found them to be expensive and all requiring a one year lease! We just want to get off the boat for a few months and get our bearings....is that asking too much?!