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4/11/2005 5:00:00 PM
San Diego, CA
Shelter Island, Kona Marina

We are a sailboat again

We settled in in our new marina and since we are official live a boards now we really feel good not to "fly under the radar" anymore.

Hallo you all,

As usual the German letter got already written a few weeks back and since then again a few things have changed. Nevertheless let me start from the beginning.

We settled in in our new marina and since we are official live a boards now we really feel good not to "fly under the radar" anymore. Our old boat neighbors Dan and Monica and their 7 year old son Jack have been next to us for a while and it is real nice to have somebody next "door". The boys especially enjoy the immediate company when Jack comes home from school, couldn't have worked out better! We also have some neighbors that come down to their boat on the weekends with their 5 and 7 year old boys, so we got lots of company and playmates around! We also had our first guest - our friend Luke from Santa Cruz was in LA and afterwards came to visit us for 2 days. He has been our most loyal guest here - 3x within 1 1/2 years! Luke is also a very talented musician and songwriter and he honored us by writing a ballade for us - "Sebastian's song" or "We set sail", which he played for us a few times during his stay, Robert and I were very touched and the boys enjoyed it a lot as well. We hope he'll have it on CD soon so we can put it on our webpage for you to hear. (Thanks so much Luke! :o)

Early March we took off for 10 days to go up to the Bay Area. The first weekend Robert and I got treated to a few days alone in Santa Cruz while the boys stayed with Maura and Bob. One night they stayed also with their friend Sammy, and I think they also enjoyed some time by themselves without us. On Monday we picked them up and drove up to Lake Tahoe (on the Nevada side) to visit our boat friends Cole and Toni, who invited us many times. We took them up on the offer for some skiing only 30 min. away from their house. Due to all that rain it had dumped so much snow, what a season! We had splendid 3 days with dark blue skies, warm weather and white powdery slopes!!! The boys already ski so well it is incredible - Sebastian is our stylist, nice posture, parallel swings / Benjamin still is our little rowdy, fast, daring and loves to go off into the woods! We already went down black diamonds and moguls, I had a hard time keeping up, what will I do in a few years?! Cole joined us for a day in Kirkwood, which was a treat for all of us. They both had been wonderful hosts and took us right into their family. Our second weekend we went back to see Maura and Bob since we only got to see them one night upon our arrival and our last night we spent with Hemma, Christoph and kids before we flew back to SD on Monday. We had a wonderful vacation with lots of different agendas, visits and family time which we all needed and thoroughly enjoyed.

During our absence we had our painter (he already helped us on the outside cabin top) to varnish all our "new" book shelves and cupboards, since we only had put on one coat or none when Robert had installed them almost 2 years ago. Unfortunately it did not turn out the way we hoped so it had to be redone - sanded off and varnished. Everything was pulled out of the shelves and cupboards so there was no place for us to sleep, sit,... For another 5 days.... Since our bags were packed already we just turned around and drove to Temecula to spend the week with Barbie and Jimmy. It worked out perfect because the two of them were leaving for 3 weeks Europe the week after and we would not have seen them until the end of April otherwise. That way the bad varnish job had a reason and we all enjoyed the extended time together.

The week before Easter the boys went to a YMCA sports camp - Sebastian for skateboarding and Benjamin for soccer. We had to leave the boat at a quarter to eight, which is really unusual for us (that's when we normally have breakfast...) and I picked them up later in the afternoon. So I had a full day to myself, tons of projects - a few of them got done, some were left behind. Nevertheless it was good for all of us and the boys had a blast, being totally exhausted at night. I spent 2 days at Robert's office to catch up on Internet work, which was nice for us to have lunch together - a special treat!

Other than that the boys and I have found a good school routine and I am confident that we are doing well. Sebastian is also getting a lot better at reading in German, which makes me very happy specially since he has basically taught it himself. Benjamin is starting to be good at his letters and first words at reading in English. In math he is surprisingly good doing a lot already in his head. A few month ago we met another home schooling father with his 6 year old son and 2 year old daughter. We all got along well right away and arranged to meet once a week to do a cooking class together. Each week another child has a turn to put it together and we try to do some fun and educational things around it - read about the country where the food is from, do crafts, etc. So far we have made pizza, sushi, homegrown herbs muffins with self-made butter, tortillas and Sachercake (Viennese chocolate cake) - we got to visit a big European bakery too and ravioli from scratch! It is a lot of fun and change in our routine. We still go on our weekly field trips to one of the museums, sightseeing sights, nature places, etc. there is so much to do in San Diego that I don't know how we'll be able to get it all in.

Well the latest news in the addition to our boat - yep, we are a sailboat again! The mast got stepped 2 weeks ago and since then we, specially Robert has been working hard and every free minute to get it all together. (finally the weather is cooperative again!) There is still many things to screw back on, fix, etc. It has been pushed so late and the weather the last 3 months has been so bad that we unfortunately have not been able to get it ready in time for the Newport-Ensenada race. We are quite disappointed but on the other hand there is no way to stress over it to the point where it physically hurts. One can only do as much as one can. Who knows maybe the weather will be bad and we would spoil the last years fun... Needless to say that we are quite happy to have a stick back in the boat. It is amazing though how much we had taken off the boat and how much there is to be put back along with all the other "rat tail" projects. We do hope to have her ready in a few weeks so that we can take her out sailing soon.

About all that I'll write the next time, hopefully with an Internet connection on the boat. I would love to write more frequently to you individually but that is really hard when I have to give the computer to Robert so he can download and send only in the office. It can only be a few weeks until it is finally installed on the docks. Don't be discouraged, keep on sending your mails and I hope to get back to you soon.

Till then lots of hugs from the 4 Schmids Niki, Robert, Sebastian und Benjamin

PS We'll have new pictures on the webpage next week, specially of our "new" sailbaot!

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