What is home?

     As of June 14th, we are officially “living” on our boat.  Living is in quotes because there are still unpacked boxes and until the chain plates (& subsequently mast) are reinstalled, we don’t have a vanity for the head (bathroom) nor cabinets for the galley (kitchen).  So there’s a little challenge there.  But we are sleeping on it and using the very nice showers at the marina. We’ll use our boat’s shower when we’re underway.   I am able to do some simple cooking so while our meals aren’t fancy, we don’t have to eat out all the time.

     The children and I have had conversations about "home".  I keep referring to the boat as "home", but that confused them at first.  I explained that the house we own is just a house.  Where we live together is home. 

     Day by day we do a little more reorganizing.  As I squirrel things away into hidden storage compartments under the cabin settee, I indicate where it is on an alphabetized list on the iPad.  I’m sure the locations will change, but at least for now, I have a prayer of finding things. 

     This morning, we moved the boat to slip E28 from slip E12 simply so that we could be adjacent to the Wi-Fi antenna.  I sometimes need to work and have been taking the American Camp Association’s online director training in the evenings and being closer to the Wi-Fi supports both activities.  The rest of the crew is pretty happy about this move, too.  They know that come September, internet access will be spotty at best, and are enjoying it as much as they can now.   The other neat thing about moving to a different slip is that we’re now across from the Dawn Treader.  M&M are quite familiar with that book.

      This weekend, we head to Two Sentinels to open the camp.  Its in the Sierras, so its winterized in the fall and takes a long weekend and then some to get it ready for campers.  We already know of a couple major repairs (a tree fell on the corner of a shower-house) in addition to the usual sweeping and cleaning and emptying shelters of boats and benches and such. We all look forward to our weekend in the mountains and then the following Thursday we head back up for 11 days at camp.  Dave will be doing maintenance jobs, rowing in gear, food and propane (heavy stuff is rowed to camp – light stuff is hiked in) and driving backpackers to trailheads.  I’ll be “seasonal director” which I’m told involves a lot of inactivity because so much is planned and done throughout the year.  I’m sure I can fix that.  8-)  It really is a job of maintaining situational awareness of the whole camp and resolving issues as they come up.  Since I’m still lifeguard certified, I may spell a lifeguard on occasion or give a counselor a much needed break by leading her campers for a bit.
     Happy Birthday USA - 238 years young!