Goodbye Dear Friend and Companion

This past Monday we had to say goodbye to our eldest four-legged crew and family member Madison.  After her cancer diagnosis in August we knew this time would come but it still does little to prepare one for it.

Madison entered our lives in 2004 when she was about 8 weeks old. We adopted her from a local rescue and she has been a part of our family ever since.  For 15 years, she was a wonderful, adventurous, smart, loyal, and occasionally mischievous companion. She enjoyed playing in the yard (including chasing cats and squirrels out of it), our daily walks when I worked from home, hiking in the mountains, camping, car rides, and food.  One vet once described her as the most food motivated dog they had ever known.  It was an easy choice to cook special meals of steak and lamb for her the last few months.

Cruising seemed like a natural fit for her.  Getting to see new sights and smell new smells was something I know she liked.  Being able to lay out on deck while the house moved to a new location was something she really seemed to enjoy.  I guess it was like both laying in the yard and going for a car ride at the same time. Although she wasn't a big fan of water (or at least baths), she did like playing in the surf with her brother.

Having moved back to Colorado, we had access to one of the premier veterinary cancer centers at Colorado State University. While her cancer was found too late to cure, they were able to provide her comfort and make her last months with us more comfortable.  Thanks to their efforts in palliative radiation and chemotherapy treatments, she was able to go on one last family vacation, celebrate the holidays, and celebrate her 15th birthday with us. We are grateful to them for the added quality time we got to spend with her.

In her final days, we took her on numerous car rides and walks. Unfortunately the cancer was making her legs hurt and her breathing difficult so the walks were slow and fairly short.  But, just like always, Madison was a determined and independent dog and she seemed to still enjoy checking things out despite her failing body.  In the end she passed on at home surrounded by those who loved her most, her family.

Fair winds and following seas my dear, sweet, crazy little girl.

Approaching Storms

There is currently a storm of which most of my friends and the sailing community in general is aware.  Hurricane Florence is expected to collide with North Carolina in the next couple days.  Unfortunately Rover seems to be right in the middle of the predicted path and there is nothing we can really do about it that hasn't already been done.  Sails and canvas were removed and extra dock lines were added when I left her several months ago.  The caretaker we hired has added additional lines and fenders and done everything else possible to make her as safe as can be for the impending storm.  The marina, and her location within the marina, are about as good as anyone can hope for anywhere in the area. At this point, all we can do now is wait and see what happens. My concern regarding this storm is more for the many friends I have made that will be impacted far worse than us by Florence.

Hurricane Florence image from NOAA as it approaches the U.S.

But, for our family, there is another storm on the horizon that is of much more concern.  This storm is not a weather event at all, but has to do with the health of our eldest four-legged crew member.
 

Madison sunning herself on deck.

A couple months ago Madison developed a limp.  At first we thought she might have just slept on her leg wrong or pulled a muscle playing.  When it didn't get better, we took her to the vet to see what was going on.  Initially they thought a soft tissue injury and so she was given some pain medications and we were told if it didn't get better in a few more days to let them know.  It didn't. We went back. The vet thought it was arthritis. I pushed back as I didn't believe arthritis was such a sudden onset symptom when recent x-rays didn't show any arthritis.  The doctor said the only thing they could really do was to send x-rays to a radiologist to see if they could see anything.

Her favorite hobby when a big bed is available.

The radiologist report was not conclusive, but thought he saw something in her shoulder bone that would be consistent with cancer.  More x-rays were done and in the process they found a tumor in her lung.  Not wanting to mess around and having one of the premier veterinary oncology centers nearby, we immediately made an appointment at the CSU Veterinary Hospital.

Playing in the ocean.

More examinations and a CT scan later and we had our answers.  Not only did she have osteocarcoma (bone cancer) but there were 8 tumors in her lungs.  In the matter of a few weeks Madison went from "a very healthy dog, particularly for her age" to a terminal diagnosis.  To try and and improve the quality of life for the time she has left, she has now had two radiation treatments and chemotherapy.

Taking Madison and her brother Tucker for
a hike in the Rocky Mountans

Other than a limp (that has improved with treatments and medication), she seems to be in good spirits.  Her appetite certainly has not diminished and I don't know that she is at all aware of the seriousness of her condition. Meanwhile she gets lots of attention and some special treats.  But there are dark clouds on the horizon.

Heading into Southport

In case you missed it, the first part of the trip can be found here.  Continuing on...

During the second full day of sailing, the winds calmed down and we once again made our way using a combination of sailing and motor sailing in order to make reasonable headway.  I guess I can't complain though, if we were in the ditch, we would likely be motoring the whole way and, in addition, we would have to stop at night and that would make the trip take a lot longer. In the afternoon the wind started clocking around to the southwest, dead at our backs.  With the light winds, I decided to put up the spinnaker for a little while.  I do like that asymmetrical spinnaker, it seems to get the boat moving at over 1/2 the wind speed in broad reaches and downwind directions.

Spinnaker on the open ocean

Thus far I've typically planned trips using a speed of about 5 knots unless the trip is forecast to be beating directly into the wind and I want to actually sail it (I haven't figured out what speed I should use then, but am guessing about 2 knots). A good portion of this trip has been in excess of 5 knots, so it looked like we would be making it to Southport around 2am.  As evening arrived, the winds started picking up from the southwest and, a bit unexpected to me, the seas started picking up from the southeast to around 3 foot on a 5 second period.

Checking the weather forecast, it was now calling for scattered thunderstorms offshore in the Cape Fear area.  As night fell, we could see the thunderstorm clouds building to our east.  The lightning would light up the clouds.  It is a nice thing to watch...from a distance. Since the winds were continuing from the southwest and the offshore breezes would also come from the west, it should keep the storms to the east of us.  But since we had time anyway, we decided to turn the boat westward and make our way closer to shore.  We pointed the boat towards Myrtle Beach and made our way from 30 NM off the coast to around 6 NM.  When we got closer to shore, we also found a little calmer seas.

After the detour near Myrtle Beach, we ended up arriving outside of the Cape Fear river inlet at Southport around 6am.  Since we would be heading pretty much into the wind coming into the inlet, We went to start the engiines.  Unfortunately, the starboard engine, which had been just fine up to this point in the trip, decided not to wake up.  The attempt made the clicking sound that is reminiscent of a dead battery.  That same battery just happens to be the one that also starts the generator and the generator started just fine (and the voltages on the batteries seem fine).  My best guess was that there was some corrosion and the starter wasn't getting enough power, so I spent the next hour, as we slowly motored in on a single engine, down in the engine room cleaning all the starter connections.  Unfortunately that didn't help.  So, here we were again, one engine down and needing to navigate to a marina slip.

Another sunrise over the Atlantic

This time, having a bit more experience with the boat, I decided to give the marina a call and see if they have a dock I can get to without a lot of tight maneuvering.  They did, so I was able to bring the boat into the dock and then, using the lines, the crew walked it around the T-head to the slip.  The Southport marina also has a maintenance yard next door and, having just completed a 3 day passage, I was too tired to look into the problem myself.  They were able to send a technician over later that day and found that excessive corrosion inside the ground cable end had caused  the issue.  They cleaned up the cable, crimped on a new end, and added heat shrink to help protect it from future corrosion (the heat shrink on the original cable had failed and that is where the corrosion started).  Since I didn't have the tools or parts, it ended up being a good call to have them come do the work.

Tucker exploring the boat near the start of the trip

I guess I haven't really mentioned our furry crewmembers much.  For the most part, they are doing fine.  They seem to be adjusting to life on a mobile floating house OK.  To them it is probably just like a big car ride where we are taking all our stuff with us.  The one exception is dealing with the "potty mat".  Even though it should have the right smell to them, neither of them are really sure of the thing.  Tucker managed to do his business there after some coaxing, but our older dog Madison could only be convinced to pee there once.  She held her other business until she was back on shore.

Madison resting in the cockpit, tethered of course.

And for Pete, who jokingly mentioned something about eating Spam on passage, here is dinner the second evening...shrimp with a creamy tomato, garlic, and basil sauce freshly prepared en route.

Shrimp and pasta for dinner.

So, now we need to figure out where we are going from here since we still don't have a final destination in mind.  Oh, and I guess we have a couple more repairs to add to the list, so we may be looking for a place to haul out again.  Such is life on a boat.

Public Service Announcement

Just a quick public service announcement today.  Things always seem to take longer on a boat.  Even if you watch a how-to video and it seems really easy, it will take at least 4x longer than you planned...and usually more like 8x longer.

Yeah, I should have the lifeline netting installed in a few hours....so far a few has been about 8 hours and I'm almost half way done.

Just Another Crazy Week

If there is one term to describe how it has felt since I got back to the boat with my wife and the dogs...the word has been crazy.  The sailing vessel Rover is again under a bit of a time crunch. We have to get moving north before our floating chariot turns back into a pumpkin (O.K....until our insurance is happy with our location for the upcoming "H" season).  The past couple weeks we have been trying to move my wife and the last of our worldly possessions onto the boat, do some of the more important repairs and upgrades that required two hands, and get everything organized and ready to make Rover actually rove again.

Thanks to some recent rebedding work, we have reclaimed the two large storage areas in the peaks of the hulls from the leaks that have prevented storage there until now.  Of course, figuring out how to store items and what to store where has been a challenge.  Numerous trips to stores to find storage boxes to keep holds organized has eaten up a lot of time.  So has keeping a log of what we are putting where so we can find it again when needed.

We have also been trying a few new things to see how we like them on the boat.  We got a couple of relatively inexpensive folding bikes.  In order to try slowing down the effects of the corrosive sailing environment, we treated the bikes (as best we could) both internally and externally using car wax and/or linseed oil.  We also tried a clothes washing machine, but after it didn't meet our expectations, we returned it.  Meanwhile, we bought a bucket and plunger so we can do some laundry as needed without having to lug everything to a laundromat.

A true cruisers clothes washer...under $5

Since we didn't get around to mat-training our dogs (or tray-training or whatever you would call getting them to "potty" on a carpeted tray) before we got to the boat, we decided we had better get started on that as well.  You can actually buy pre-made potty mats, but they seem a bit pricey for a tray and a replacable grass pad.  I know others recommend getting a tray from a dog crate and a remnant of fake turf carpet, but I wasn't sure how long one of those would last. We ended up buying a plastic tray normally placed under a water heater and putting some fake grass in it that we found as a remnant at the local big box home improvement store and made one for under $20. The tray even comes with a pre-made hole in the side for tying the "dunking" line on. So far Madison has been unimpressed, but after trying a couple of tricks to see if we can make some progress, Tucker "watered" it this morning (good boy!).

One other thing we recently purchased for the dogs were new harnesses.  Basic collars are OK for suburban living I guess, but I wanted something a little better for them when they don't have their life jackets on. Tucker has always been able to slip out of a collar when he really wanted to, and I was thinking that something I could grab easily by hand or with a boat hook if necessary would be a good idea. We have safety harnesses so I figured the dogs should too. We found a Kong Comfort Harness that has a handle loop at the top of the harness, and it seemed like a perfect solution.

Madison showing off her new safety harness

Little did I know that two days later we'd be putting the harness to the test.  This morning as we were getting ready to make another run to yet another store, our older dog decided to try visiting another dog that was on the dock below.  Unfortunately Madison wasn't on the dock at the time, she was on the sea wall.  And when she leaned a little too far over the edge of the wall, she slipped and fell into the water in between the wall and the dock.  I'm glad to say that the handle performed as it should, and I was able to quickly pluck her out of the water by hand.  Other than wet, Madison was fine.  I'll definitely recommend buying a harness like this for anyone who plans to take a dog near the water...especially a naturally curious and fearless dog.  Thanks for adding just a little more crazy to the day, Madison.

Now that the stanchions are fixed, I think we'll be installing the safety netting on the lifelines today...to keep Madison (and Tucker) on board.

For Dogs That Don't Like Water...

I've long held the belief that our dogs just weren't all that fond of water.  But after taking them to the beach many of the days we've been here, it seems I was wrong.  They really like the beach and playing in the surf.

Who me...wet...nah.

What water?

I think they are adjusting to beach and salt life just fine...

So, I guess it is just fresh water...or more likely baths...they don't like.  They don't seem all that thrilled at the rinse showers at the beach but put up with it for the chance to go play in the surf.  I think the sea may have even shaven a couple years off of how Madison (our 11 year old - the darker one) feels.  It had been a while since I've seen her chase Tucker around.

I'm glad they are enjoying themselves.

House Calls for the Pups

People from my generation have probably heard the term "house call" but have never actually seen or had one.  It is a throwback to a time when we all weren't in such a big hurry and and there was a nod to the fact that customer service could be good for the bottom line.  I don't think I ever actually had a doctor come visit me at home, and I doubt a generation or two younger than I (at least here in the U.S.) even believe that there was a time when a doctor ever would come to your home.

Well, that may not exist for our medical industry, but today my dogs got to experience a house call.  My friend and former boat broker Pete told us of a veterinarian in St. Augustine that does most (all?) of his work as house calls.  While we currently have a car and can easily take our furry kids anywhere, there will be a time when that is not the case.  Knowing that we can have a vet come to us is a great thing.

Reason for the vet visit was two fold.  First, we wanted to make sure we had the dogs on the right preventative medications.  In Colorado we have ticks and mosquitoes that can carry a few diseases, but things like fleas aren't a problem.  In more humid environments where it just doesn't go below freezing that often (that is one of the reasons we wanted to do this after all), we could imagine that there are all sorts of new maladies that could befall our unsuspecting furry crew members. The second reason is that our older dog seemed a bit stressed during the trip and we wanted to make sure everything was OK since she has had some ongoing medical issues.

The vet arrived on time for our 1 pm appointment (Ok, he was a few minutes late, but I attribute that to the over zealous new security guards they've hired here at the resort).  He came right out to the boat and we talked for a bit about the dogs history while sitting in the cockpit.  Then he gave each dog a physical and we talked more about nutrition, preventative medications for the areas where we wanted to travel, dealing with high heat, protecting doggy eyes from the sun, and other issues.  All in all I think the vet spent over two hours with us...I think the longest vet consultation we've ever had and we've gone to some very good vets in the past.

The vet seemed very knowledgeable about a variety of general veterinary topics and gave us a lot of good information to keep our kids healthy.  He was also able to prescribe the needed medications and supply them right from his mobile "office".  As he even noted, we "are pretty savvy pet owners" so I think we are pretty good at telling when we've found a top notch vet...and I think we have.

Cost wise, especially for a house call and the amount of time he spent with us, we thought it was very reasonable.  There was a $55 (U.S.) "office visit" charge, the physicals were about $50 each, and the medications were inline with prices we found on the internet for the same medications. This is only a few dollars more than the vets back home would charge when we took them into the office for what was often a very brief encounter with the actual vet.

So, if you have pets in need of a veterinarian and happen to be somewhere in the St. Augustine FL. area, you might want to give Vilano Mobile Vet a try.  Oh, and our dogs...they are doing just fine.  I think they are enjoying the fact we are around more and will take them to fun places like the beach...which the doctor recommended we do often (so I think Madison and Tucker recommend the vet too).

What's in a Name

I haven't really mentioned this yet, but we have decided to rename our Leopard 38.  The previous owner had named it Breathe.

He was a doctor, so I'm not sure if there is a correlation there, if it was just a reminder that we all need to stop and take a breath from time to time, or what the story behind the name was.  Since we never actually met the prior owner (unfortunately timing and schedules just never seemed to work out so I only know his broker), we may never know.  All I can tell you is that it didn't really hold any special meaning for us, and we feel it needs to change to better reflect us.

I know a lot of people have blogs named after their boats...or is it boats named after their blogs.  While I like the name of my blog because it did speak to our intentions, I just don't think it makes for a good boat name. So what to name our boat.

Lots of people with catamarans give their boats "cat" names.  The other Leopard we looked at was Catzpaw.  I know of a Lagoon in St Pete named Meow.  Catatonic, Catatude, Catalyst, Aristicat, Magnificat, ...you get the idea.  We really didn't want to go that route.

We also needed a name that would pass the "mayday" test.  In other words, it needs to be a name that you can see using if you ever need to make that mayday call.  While Breaking Wind might be funny, how does "Mayday Mayday Mayday, we are Breaking Wind two miles off the coast of...." work for you?

Since we are more dog people than cat people (we have two that will be joining us aboard), we thought a more dog based name might work.  Dog Sled (a catamaran kinda looks sled-like, right) or Dogonit, Dingo, Fido (or to be confusing, spell it Phideaux) or Woof. We bounced around a lot of names, but in the end, it was actually Pete's suggestion that won out.

Our boat will be named...

Rover

It seems to work on several levels.  It is simple to say and easy to spell. It conveys the more nomadic life we seek. It pays homage to our furry companions that have enriched our lives.  And when I first told my wife we could have "a cat named Rover" it made her laugh.  Good enough reasons for me.

Now I guess I need to come up with a design...or at least a good font...for the decal. Have I mentioned that I'm an engineer...not really an artist...so this might be interesting. And then there is the whole boat renaming ceremony.  And I guess I need to go look how the current name is affixed so I can figure out how to remove it. Hmm...this might become a bigger job than I thought.

Teaching a Not So Old Dog a New Trick

I previously wrote about our dogs' first swimming lesson.  As I had mentioned, our younger dog is very timid and for the first lesson it was all we could do to get him to walk down the pool ramp far enough to get his paws wet.  We had been thinking about this issue. One of the problems with the "public dog pool" is that it is for employees and dogs only. We couldn't be in the pool to help coax him in. Another problem is that we couldn't bring treats into the pool area so that wouldn't be any help (not that he was as food motivated as our other dog anyway).  We figured at the apparent rate of progress, his learning to swim may cost us a fortune.

Well, while at a local discount store, we found an 8 foot round by 30 inch deep Easy Set pool (a.k.a. big blue blob) on sale for $35.  Hmmm...the cost of getting one of these and filling it would be about the same cost as a single half hour swimming lesson.  That might be worth giving a try to reduce the time and cost of introducing our timid dog to the water.  It's not really enough to swim laps in, even for a 40 lb. dog, but it should at least allow us to introduce him to the water and swimming at his own pace.  So, while I would prefer to be getting rid of things at this stage, we bought one.

Dog Training Pool - A.K.A. The Big Blue Blob

Since the dogs will need life jackets on the boat, we picked up those as well.  An internet/sailing/blogging friend on s/v Smitty recommended the Outward Hound jacket. The design appears to have changed from the one pictured, and we found the newer style was exactly the same as the one sold at our local Petsmart so we picked them up there (and they were even on sale, yay).

We set the pool up on a tarp on our patio as it was the only reasonably flat space that wouldn't kill grass. The blue blob is, as the name suggests, easy to set up.  You lay it out, blow up the inflatable ring around the top, and fill with water.  The result is a pool big enough to float a medium sized dog.  We then put the vest on our older dog and used it to lift her into the pool with one of us outside the pool and one in the pool.  The new dual handle design of the vest is handy for lifting a 40 lb. dog...at least into a pool.  When our older dog touches the water, she immediately begins trying to swim.  I don't think she likes water...or at least the pool...but she definitely can swim.  We wanted her to go first so our more timid dog would see and maybe think it isn't that scary...yeah, trying to play psychological games with our dogs.

We then put the vest on our timid dog and brought him over to the pool.  We slowly put him in the water with my wife in the pool. Lots of praise, but he just floats there as we hold on to the handle of the jacket.  And when he starts to tremble a bit, we take him out.  That's enough for the first day.  In the following days our timid dog and the pool meet several more times and each time he becomes more comfortable with the life jacket and the pool.  The last time he was in the pool my wife was able to take him to one side and I would call him and he would swim the 6 or so feet over to me unassisted.  He doesn't really seem much more comfortable than our other dog, but is definitely making good progress.  Thus far the pool seems to be to be a success.

Our older dog in her lifejacket

Our younger, timid dog

One thing we have noticed is that the life vests don't provide as much buoyancy as I thought they might.  Specifically, they don't seem to hold the dogs head as high as I would have thought they would with the extra flap of foam up front.  They do seem to keep them afloat and maybe we're just being nervous parents. The pool is fresh water, and salt water is more buoyant, so I'm sure they will work out just fine.

The other thing to note about this experiment is that even these small pools require constant maintenance if you intend to keep them filled for more than a day or two. The pool holds 640 gallons of water, so we don't want to keep refilling this thing.  And this pool doesn't have a pump, much less chemical systems to help out. We only intend to have it filled for two or three weeks, so we buy the less accurate test strips to test the basic chemical balance.  For chemicals, instead of buying pool specific chemicals, you can use a few household chemicals such as bottled bleach and borax.  To figure out what you need to do, there is a handy online pool calculator where you enter in your test info and it will tell you how much of what chemicals to add to keep your pool safe.

Thus far, the pool is working out well.  We will likely empty the pool this upcoming weekend and take the dogs back to the public pool for more of a real swim. Based on all the information I've been able to find, the treated water should be fine for the lawn, so it will serve one last purpose watering our lawn. Hopefully our dogs, and particularly our timid one, will find the pool a more comfortable experience on their next visit. Who knows, maybe soon our dogs will be as comfortable in the water as some dogs another internet friend has mentioned in their recent post.

If you're going to live on a boat, you should know how to swim.

Makes sense doesn't it?  If you are going to live surrounded by water, might make sense to know how to swim.  Of course, my wife and I know how to swim (we are actually PADI certified divers) but our two dogs haven't been raised around water. So, how does one introduce dogs that don't even like baths to swimming?  Lessons, of course.

When our oldest dog had surgery on her leg a number of months back, the doctor recommended physical therapy and gave us the name of a place that actually does PT for pets.  They did conventional stretching and exercises and they also had water treadmills and a pool. We found that, in addition to their clinical work, they offered open swimming and private swims for dogs as well (like a public swimming pool for pets). So, while we work on other aspects of our plan, we figured that we might as well get them introduced to the water. This weekend we did just that...our dogs had their first swimming lesson.

The "lesson" was reserved private pool time with one of their employees. We weren't sure how the dogs would do.  Our oldest dog has had exposure to their water treadmills during her treatment and in general is more of an adventurous free spirit so we figured she might do OK.  Our other dog is very timid and we wondered if he would even get in the water at all.

So, we start off by just introducing them to the pool area.  It is an above ground pool with a ramp leading up to a deck that partially wraps around the pool. While I was walking our timid dog around the pool deck to get him comfortable and my wife was talking to the employee, we hear a splash and there was our older dog in the water flailing around. She didn't look happy and was trying to get out so  I run over and grab onto the handle of the life vest as the employee (wearing waders in the pool) comes over to get her.  The employee then leads her over to the ramp across the pool so she could easily get out on her own.  Not the best start, but at least she was swimming.  I can only presume she fell in, but I wonder what she was doing.  The employee thought maybe she was trying to sniff at the water and lost traction on the slippery edge of the soft sided pool.

We managed to coax our older dog into the pool a couple more times, and she was picking up the whole swimming thing pretty fast.  When she wants to head to the ramp to get out, she can swim faster than the employee can keep up walking in the waders.  Overall, I think it went well, at least she found out she can swim (and hopefully when to hold her breath).

Our younger, more timid dog was another case.  In the half hour we had the pool, it was all we could to to coax him to walk down the ramp towards the water.  We did manage to get him, of his own accord, to step into the water.  We consider this a win (did I mention that he's timid?).  I think it will be a few more lessons to get him comfortable, but hopefully he'll get there.

Overall I think it was a good thing to do. Introducing them to water and swimming in a reasonably safe and controlled environment seems like it should pay dividends down the road.