We’ve won the Leibster award!  Thanks to http://astrolabesailing.com for nominating us!

The Leibster award is passed from blogger to blogger.  Liebster is a German word for beloved, and this peer-to-peer recognition got started on the web in 2010. You are nominated by a blogger who enjoys reading your blog and they ask you a series of questions and then you in turn nominate some other blogs that you admire. It helps connect bloggers in a fun way!

The questions below I was asked to answer by http://astrolabesailing.com:

1. What sort of boat do you have? What do you love about it and what would you change if you could?

We have a Steven’s 40′, a Sparkman and Stephens design, center cockpit Marconi Sloop. We love many things about this boat.  She is super comfortable, not only underway, but also to live in on a daily basis with 5 people under her deck.  She handles the open ocean well and sails up wind comfortably. She can also be managed single-handedly, by Christian, not myself  🙂 . There really isn’t much we would want to change if we could.

Here is a diagram that closely resembles our layout, but not exactly: Ours does not have a center board. We draw 6.5 feet.

 

1. If you have a partner – are you both as passionate about sailing as each other?

Christian is the sailor in this relationship. He grew up on a boat and sailed the ocean with his father, Gene Lauducci. My interest in sailing started before we met, but grew emmensly after meeting him. As for the kids, we’ll see what their connection to sailing becomes.

1. What are your future sailing plans?

We plan to leave San Francisco Bay Area in August 2015. We will take our time sailing down the coast of California and leave for Mexico in October 2015, (hopefully right before or after the Baja Ha Ha). We hope to stay in Mexico over the winter and then head up into the Sea of Cortez for hurricane season. After a year of Mexico, we are open to what is next, but probably the South Pacific to New Zealand or another option might take us through the Panama Canal and beyond. We’ll see. Our ultimate goal is to be sailing about the World over the next 6 to 10 years, which includes working as a RN in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and possibly in the UK.

1. Where is the most amazing place you have visited?

I am answering this questioned from the sailing standpoint. So far, all of our sails have all been great. We have really enjoyed our times anchoring around the Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara, CA.  We are really looking forward to Mexico.

1. What do you love most about the sailing lifestyle?

Simplicity and the freedom to roam. Connectedness with the world. The sense of self sufficiency in many ways. The community.

1. When were you most frightened?

I’m sure my experience differs greatly than that of my husbands. As a novice it doesn’t take much to get me excited. There was a moment this last summer when our engine would not start due to our trip line wrapping itself up the propeller shaft earlier in the day (a another story). We were sailing between Santa Rosa Island and Santa Cruz Island, the waters are pretty much always confused in that area on any given day, but this particular day had additional contributing factors. Wind gust up to 35 knots in a down wind sail, with South swell and a current funneling from the North.  Waves were smacking us on and over the transom and it was nightfall. The bioluminescence was illuminating the white caps that surrounded us with every breaking wave. Thankfully the kids were all asleep at this point. Christian was out on deck dropping the jib and a wave came over the deck from behind. It wasn’t much, but at the moment it felt like it. The excitement died down as soon as we sailed out of the current about 20 minutes later. The next day I laughed at myself as I knew that I will be having much harsher conditions in my future. At least now I know a little more about what our boat feels like in those conditions and how much it can actually handle.  It also reinforced my trust in Christian’s sailing abilities.

1. Do you have any plans to go back to dry land at any stage?

Maybe when Christian and I are in our 70’s we’ll be part-time land lubber mountain ramblers and part-time warm weather sailors.

1. What is the biggest mistake you have made?

In life or sailing? I’m going to go with sailing… Probably our trip line experience that we had this past summer.  Long story short, DO NOT use a trip line in an anchorage full of kelp and do not let out too much of it or it may contribute to dragging anchor AND get caught in your propeller and sucked up the prop shaft, cracking the fiber glass and seizing our engine. Embarrassing mistake that hopefully our readers will never do themselves. And YES, we learned our lesson.

1. How do you afford your lifestyle?

I work full-time as a RN at UCSF Children’s Hospital in San Francisco in the Intensive Care Nursery. We are penny-pinching and saving for our cruising kitty. Our hope is to find Travel Nursing jobs in other countries as well as canvas work/sail repair and boat maintainance and deliveries.

1. What is your favourite book and why?

Christian and Nina are the readers in this family.  I usually read for research/educational purposes. However, one of my favorite books is The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abby.  One of the most read books on the boat is Maiden Voyage by Tania Aebi.

So there you have it! I would like to nominate the following super cool blogs for a Leibster award too!:

http://svsophie.com/

www.svfamilycircus.com

www.gonefloatabout.com

http://sailingwithkids.net/

http://familiacoconut.com/

http://www.sailingtotem.com/

http://www.theceolmors.blogspot.com/

http://zachaboard.blogspot.com/

http://logofdelviento.blogspot.com/

http://astrolabesailing.com

My questions for them to answer are:

1. What inspired you to start your blog?

2. Who is your target audience?

1. How or why did you end up with the boat you are currently sailing on? If you don’t have kids, what has been your hardest moments in cruising?

2.  What has been the hardest part of boatschooling your kid(s) (if you have kids)?

3. What has been the most enjoyable/satisfying part of boatschooling?

4. Do you plan on traditional schooling at any point? If so, when?

5. What sea creature do you most identify with (what would you want to be?) and why? And how about the rest of the family?

6. How do you divide your watch hours? Do any of the kids help if you have kids?

7.  What is your favorite recipe for your first 3 days of a passage?

8. What is your favorite Ice Cream?

www.gonefloatabout.com since you don’t have kids, skip questions 4-6) instead I will ask you, what draws you to the cold weather/water sailing? and How did you meet each other?)