Patrick Schulte's Blog, page 118

Act Now, Think Later

Act Now, Think Later. This has always been my mindset—for better or worse. I’d like to think that I intentionally choose to be this way, but it is probably more of a genetic defect.

To give an idea of how this works with me let me explain what I did today. Ali’s parents are visiting, so we moved off of the boat for the week and into a rental house down the road a few miles. Ali and I packed most of the stuff we would need on the first trip over and then I came back later to wrap up a few things on the boat like emptying the fridge and grabbing that pet of ours, Vanilla Ice Cream Goldfish (or Mango, the pet betta).

Now a normal person would think to themselves, “Hmm, what would be the best way to transport a fish in a bowl? Option A…B…C…”

Me? I don’t think. I grab the bowl, climb in the dinghy, wedge it between my feet, and take off. Worked pretty well on the dinghy ride. Then we got in the car. Not so good in a car. A mile down the road the water was sloshing all over the place and I was driving with one hand on the wheel and the other hand reaching to the floor of the backseat to cover the bowl as much as I could. I had it in back because I could reach it while it sat on the rubber floor mats. See, I was thinking. Anyway, that was the best I could do then, and my hand did cover 90% of the opening so I was 90% sure I’d have a fish in the bowl when I arrived at my destination. And that is how I think. I act now and think later—in other words, instead of trying to avoid problems, I deal with them as they happen. Very little forethought is involved in this method.

Of course a normal human being would have been on our boat thinking about transporting that fish and come to the simple conclusion that they could just dump the water in a ziploc bag, drop it back in the bowl like that, drive the ten miles, open the bag back up, dump the fish back in, and wah-lah, crisis averted.

What a boring way to go through life.

And yes, the fish was still in the bowl, though she gave me a good scare when I picked it up and couldn’t see her for a few seconds (long enough for me to scan the floor of the car) before she came out from under a rock.

Leading up to Grandma and Grandpa’s visit Ouest had been asking us if Grandma was going to bring her a mermaid’s tail. She’s really into mermaids lately, so much so that she tells us almost daily, “I really want to be a mermaid. A real one, not pretend.” She says it with so much sincerity that we both wish we could turn her legs into one giant flipper.

Anyway, we just kept telling her that we didn’t know if Grandma would bring a mermaid tail, that we weren’t sure if Grandma knew how badly she wanted to be a mermaid, and so on. We also tried to reinforce the idea that Grandma didn’t have to bring anything. Of course when every time a grandparent arrives they show up with a suitcase full of goodies for the kids that lesson is a little harder to teach.

And show up with a suitcase they did. And I think Grandma may have been even more excited to open up the goodie suitcase than the kids were.

So they dug in and wouldn’t you know it, Grandma knew about mermaids and did bring a mermaid tail. Exciting times.

A while later it was bedtime. While getting ready Ouest smiled and said to Ali in a voice filled with magic, “Grandma did know. Now I don’t need no more mermaid stuff.”

What about Lowe? He’s a boy—we all know boys get nothing. He ran around in a new pair of shoes and was thankful to get even that much.

Car

Ali’s parents arrive tomorrow and we had reserved a car for the week, but today decided we were bored enough with this place that we needed to get the car a day early and go to town.

When we got up to the marina building there weren’t any taxis around so I walked over to a group of guys sitting out front of the diver’s office and asked if they knew anybody headed towards town this morning. They didn’t, but then one of them got up and said he’d take us anyway. As we walked to his truck I asked how much for the ride and he said, “Don’t worry about it,” as in, “No charge.”

Without thinking we had him drop us off at the airport. I gave our friend some money which he gladly accepted, but I couldn’t help thinking that he would have driven off without saying a thing if I hadn’t. A thirty-mile round-trip in his rattle-trap truck would have burnt two gallons of gas, which as we all know isn’t cheap these days, yet for no reason whatsoever he offered to take us. Pretty cool, and yet not at all unique in our experience—which again makes it all the more cool.

Anyway, he drops us off at the airport and we walk through the doors to find absolutely nothing. I don’t know what I was thinking. There is like one flight a day into Loreto. They don’t man their little car rental counters all day long. If they did I probably would have given them a heart attack as I would clearly have been the first person to ever drop in on them like that.

We found a guy who told us the car rental folks show up around ten, just half-an-hour away, so we sat down in the empty cavern.

About quarter-after I walked over to where four security guards were sitting on one small bench watching cartoons together. They told me the car rental people would be in around one. Crap. I tried the number I had for the rental office but it was still disconnected (I did try to call the day before to have them deliver the car to us). Eventually one of the security guards scrolled through his phone and came up with the right number. I called and the rental guy said he’d be right over.

Ninety minutes after arriving at the deserted Loreto airport we had a car. We drove the remaining five miles to town and found a pretty hilarious playground for the kids to run around at. The baby swing seemed designed to choke, the teeter-totters sat in a mud puddle, and there was a crazy contraption consisting of a couple of automobile axles welded together, a three part chain system, and a giant metal wheel of death that spun about fifteen feet in the air—presumably with a five-year-old hanging on for dear life.

From there it was off to the book store, followed by fish tacos, and finally a grocery store run. We pretty much covered all there is to do in Loreto in two hours.

Nah, there’s probably some more to do, I’m just not sure what it is yet.

Crab Prison

There is no good beach here in Puerto Escondido so today we dinghied out about a mile south to see what we could find. What we found was a shallow, rocky, seaweed covered expanse. So thick with seaweed that we had to shut down the motor and row to shore. The kids didn’t mind though. There was just enough sandy bottom for Lowe to get on his “surfboard” and rock around, and there were tons of hermit crabs for Ouest to play with. Or torture, depending on your view.

We dug the crabs a swimming pool because apparently the ocean isn’t enough. Then when they started to escape from there we began to turn it into a prison, fortifying it with rocks and shells. And when those tenacious buggers still got out we just threw them back in and built bigger walls.

In the afternoon we hit the pool where Lowe continued to grow more daring. He’s now willing to dive without quite holding my hands, instead just diving to my hands. And he doesn’t mind a bit that I don’t catch him enough to keep him from dunking under every time. But when I take him underwater for the sole purpose of taking him under he isn’t too thrilled with me. He’s doing great though, probably right on track with where Ouest was at his age. I’m telling you, we’ve got two Mexican Olympians on our hands here.

Mailman

Ouest and I have been playing Mailman lately. I’m the mailman and I make deliveries to her. Before I give her the mail I say, “Special delivery for Ouest. Oh, hello, who are you?”

Reaching out for her stack of cards she blurts out, “O-U-E-S-T. Ouest Lill Schulte. Forty-three pounds. I live on Bumfuzzle. I’m from Mexico.”

And really, that’s all you need to know about her. With that information she should be able to find her way home from anywhere else in the world. At the very least her mail will always find her.

We’ve had something like three weeks now of nights in which there is not a ripple on the water. There is absolutely no motion on the boat, no way to sense that we are actually on a sailboat floating on the ocean. When living on land, staring out at the ocean, it always seems to be mayhem out there. From that vantage point the ocean seems so forbidding a place—even to me right up to this day. Which is why to so many people the idea of living on a boat is completely outlandish—you’d have to be out of your mind. But the reality of the ocean is that it lies flat for us more often than not—whether in port or a thousand miles from land. Which is why this outlandish lifestyle works I suppose.

No More Water

Last night we heard the noise that cruisers without watermakers dread—the long-cycling water pump—signaling we’d reached the bottom of the tank. A day or two earlier than expected, but not a big deal. We returned to Puerto Escondido, filled the tanks, grabbed a mooring ball, went to shore for ice cream, and then jumped in the pool. Needless to say the kids were not disappointed in how this day went down.

Lowe 21-Months, Ouest 41-Months

Another month zips past. Ouest’s Spanish is improving greatly. She knows dozens of words and is using them pretty regularly. And of course her swimming continues to improve daily. She is to the point now that we let her go out swimming to the deep stuff by herself. We watch her and call her in when she goes too far. And now when she gets tired while swimming she just flips right over and back-floats her way in.

Lowe took off yesterday. Literally. Up until now his running has been that cute little toddler run—tiny steps and penguin arms. Then all of the sudden yesterday we were on a hike when he just took off running—full sprint style with long strides and swinging arms. He laughed and laughed at how fast he was going. Seriously I bet his run speed at least doubled. He’s closing the gap on Ouest every day.

He’s also gone gonzo in the water. He’s not swimming on his own, but upon getting to the beach he immediately throws his body in as far as he can without going under. He kicks and walks his hands along like that until he gets bored and then he moves on to his boogie board. I swear his balance on that thing is better than mine. He jumps on it belly first and lands perfectly, then he pops right up into surf position. When we get back to the west coast of Mainland we’re getting these two a board.

Anyway we’re still hanging out in Puerto Ballandra. The weather has been pretty well perfect, and with grandparents flying into Loreto in a few days we really don’t feel like venturing too far away.

The bay has been inundated with bees—pretty much anywhere we look we see them and we always hear them. I got stung yesterday and Lowe finally got hit today. Right in the thumb while picking up a piece of driftwood. Oh man the sad painful cry.

I found a broken motor mount—a rather unhappy discovery. One of the two that I replaced, but not the original broken one. When I last did them I adjusted them until I got the shaft aligned as closely as I could. This meant tightening both the front mounts down about an inch further than they had been originally. I suspect this is what caused the mount to fail. So today I tightened them up closer to where they had been originally. This left the shaft a couple of thousandths further out of alignment, but seems to leave the motor in a more comfortable position. Time will tell I guess. I was happy to have the extra mount on hand, and was also quite pleased with my one-hour-fifteen-minute total job time.

41 Months Ouest, 21 Months Lowe

41 months Ouest, 21 months Lowe

Another month zips past. Ouest’s Spanish is improving greatly. She knows dozens of words and is using them pretty regularly. And of course her swimming continues to improve daily. She is to the point now that we let her go out swimming to the deep stuff by herself. We watch her and call her in when she goes too far. And now when she gets tired while swimming she just flips right over and back-floats her way in.

Lowe took off yesterday. Literally. Up until now his running has been that cute little toddler run—tiny steps and penguin arms. Then all of the sudden yesterday we were on a hike when he just took off running—full sprint style with long strides and swinging arms. He laughed and laughed at how fast he was going. Seriously I bet his run speed at least doubled. He’s closing the gap on Ouest every day.

He’s also gone gonzo in the water. He’s not swimming on his own, but upon getting to the beach he immediately throws his body in as far as he can without going under. He kicks and walks his hands along like that until he gets bored and then he moves on to his boogie board. I swear his balance on that thing is better than mine. He jumps on it belly first and lands perfectly, then he pops right up into surf position. When we get back to the west coast of Mainland we’re getting these two a board.

Anyway we’re still hanging out in Puerto Ballandra. The weather has been pretty well perfect, and with grandparents flying into Loreto in a few days we really don’t feel like venturing too far away.

The bay has been inundated with bees—pretty much anywhere we look we see them and we always hear them. I got stung yesterday and Lowe finally got hit today. Right in the thumb while picking up a piece of driftwood. Oh man the sad painful cry.

I found a broken motor mount—a rather unhappy discovery. One of the two that I replaced, but not the original broken one. When I last did them I adjusted them until I got the shaft aligned as closely as I could. This meant tightening both the front mounts down about an inch further than they had been originally. I suspect this is what caused the mount to fail. So today I tightened them up closer to where they had been originally. This left the shaft a couple of thousandths further out of alignment, but seems to leave the motor in a more comfortable position. Time will tell I guess. I was happy to have the extra mount on hand, and was also quite pleased with my one-hour-fifteen-minute total job time.

Get Off Your Boat

Puerto Ballandra, Baja California Sur, Mexico.

There are about ten boats here in the bay at the moment which has us scratching our heads because we never see anybody else go ashore. In the last two days we’ve seen one guy. We’re trying to remember if we sat around on the boat that much when it was just the two of us. We don’t think so, but who knows, maybe we did. Hmmmmm, I remember when we could lounge around and do nothing all day. I believe the last time was December 12, 2009.

Ali found this sand dollar today. Well, she spotted it and I swam for it. Ouest was pretty excited, but we warned her that she had to be really careful with it because they break easily. She protected it for a couple of hours as we played on the beach—protected it from Lowe that is. We then climbed into the dinghy to head home and not five seconds later we heard a clank on the floor and looked down to see the sand dollar in pieces. She dropped it on the home stretch. I thought she’d break down, but without missing a beat she reached down, scooped up the pieces, threw them overboard and said, “Papa, you find me more sand dollars?”

Slow Life

Ouest and I snuck out during Lowe’s nap today for a hike and a picnic. The hill we attempted to summit was made up of rock that crumbled upon being touched. So much so that we had to give up on reaching the top and settle for a picnic at Base Camp 3 instead.

That and a couple of trips to the beach pretty much rounded out our day. We are on the slow track right now.

Starfish

Motored a couple of hours north to Puerto Ballandra today. Weather has been incredibly calm the past couple of weeks and we’re looking at another week or more of it. It’s great. Even better than the calm weather is the cool weather. We’re still using a down comforter at night. We don’t remember being cool at all last season, so we’re enjoying it while it lasts.

Ouest has adopted a new saying recently. She uses it whenever she gets an answer that she doesn’t like.

“Ouest, come and get your lotion on so we can go to the beach.”

“Two more minutes.”

“No, let’s do it now, everyone else is ready.”

“You no talk to me that way. You’re not talking nice to me!”

But I should say that that’s pretty rare for her. For the most part she is amazingly polite when she talks. Please and thank-you are a given, but she also talks really nice to Lowe, especially when we ask her to do something for him. We often ask her to explain things to him, or to share something with him, or to take turns, or whatever, and she does it all very sweetly in a softer voice than usual.

And Lowe, being the younger brother, eats it all up. He copies everything she does these days and any attention she gives him makes him beam. He still wants to hold her hand whenever the opportunity presents itself. Watching him walk up to her, take her hand, and place his just right inside of hers has to be one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. He watches her so closely, inching right around in front of her and zeroing in on whatever it is she is doing at the time. When she moves on he immediately takes over and does the same thing.

Lowe has also become completely obsessed with playing with the lines on the boat. There are a few lines back at the dinghy davits that he is able to take and throw overboard, then methodically haul back up, then lower back down, then haul back up, then…over and over again.

He also can’t get enough of the dinghy. When we land on the beach he immediately walks to the back next to the motor, reaches around for the handle and the kill-switch lanyard and begins his motor noise. When we get back to the boat he doesn’t want to get off, he wants to stand there and pretend to drive just like me.

And both Ouest and Lowe have taken it upon themselves to remind me each time we get in the dinghy to put the “red thing” (the kill-switch lanyard) on my wrist. They never forget.

Ouest found a small dry starfish on the beach today. She was quite proud of her treasure, especially since starfish are something that we talk a lot about. Quite a few of her books have starfish in them and they’ve sort of become “a thing” around here. When we got back to the boat Ali’s enthusiastic reaction had Ouest smiling ear to ear.