Patti Story

There are only a small percentage of boaters who have the opportunity or the time to travel the "Great Loop." My husband James and I are fortunate enough to have made it half way, from Florida to Canada, but we are also more unusual in that we are doing the first half of our trip, 96 days, with 4 children on board. Hence the name of the boat, Summer School. While cruising we've often been asked if we are teachers or if we're home schooling. We're neither, we are just supplementing our children's public school education. My husband, likes to tell to those who ask that, "they've been bad and have to go to Summer School." We always get some inquisitive looks on that one followed by a request to join us.

How do two adults and four children survive on a 46-foot boat for the summer? First of all while underway we developed a routine. We like to think that we are spontaneous but have found that more often than not, we are, because we tend to be creatures of habit and this is especially true with children. I must say this does help for everyone to be on the same page and know what's going on and what to expect. Our "typical day" starts of with me waking up first, showering and making the coffee. It's rare for the children to awaken first. That sounds normal. We awaken them, and have a light breakfast before we head out.

Karyn, age11, carries the bridge bag up to the helm; it contains the two GPS's for navigation, charts, binoculars, sunglasses and sun tan lotion.

Then boys unplug the power cord, (sometimes cable TV and telephone cable) and the water hose. We wait for the captain's orders and undo the lines, Jay, age 12, is usually on the bow and Aaron, age 13, is on the stern. I watch midship while James steers away from the dock and the boys stow the lines and fenders. Laura, age 8, is still sleepy.

My husband is excellent at explaining to the children to how things work and getting them involved in helping. I think having managing fourteen employees at one time helped him with this one. If we do come across a repair they know exactly how to assist him, where the tools are and to watch and listen for directions. The children have all taken turns at the helm and we go over navigation with them. We also have them look out for deadheads as well as crab and fish traps.

Cruising on the intercoastal waterway is basically a matter of following the "dots," (buoy or day markers on the chart). Our youngest, Laura, enjoys helping out by looking for the next marker. We use "sign here arrows" from the office supply store to plot our course and different color arrow to move along and represent the boat. It takes all the guessing out of knowing where we are, especially on quick notice. Our other "trick" was James' red and green buttons Idea. They are two small painted wooden disks with Velcro on the back. We switch them from port to starboard depending on which color markers is on which side. Simple idea but very helpful especially when we go through areas where the colors switch a lot or there is a long gap between markers. When we go outside (in the ocean) or have a long distance between marks we have Aaron plug in the coordinates on the GPS as well as follow the compass coarse on the chart.

We generally don't eat while we're cruising, we found that that can be a distraction. If it's a long day we might have a sandwich underway, however l tend like to wait until our next port. Once while cruising on the Rideau Canal we saw another boat take a mark on the wrong side. We tried to radio and couldn't reach him. Luckily he made it through ok, later he confessed he was distracted eating his sandwich and forgot which side to take the mark on. Maybe he needs James' "Buttons." Underway the children occasionally make themselves lunch, they are also allowed one snack item and all the fruit and vegetables they want. We made that rule after our first day of cruising. When we arrived at the dock, we had found out the children had eaten most of the snacks down below while we were underway. We knew it was too quiet.

We don't tend to over do it by traveling great distances each day. While cruising north on the intercoastal we covered the same amount of ground as the sailboats and trawlers, just in less time. In fact one day a sailboat we had been cruising with commented to us that we passed them earlier then they had expected. They had our MO as leaving the dock about 10AM and passing them about 2PM. So much for being spontaneous. We would generally get in to our next port about 3- 4pm. That would then give the children time in the pool time which we generally look for when picking out a marina. At Montebello, Quebec the children had a pool, tennis, golf and horseback riding available. There's always time for fishing and three of the four are licensed to drive the sea-doo jet boat we carry on our bow.

We always look for easy access to tour the town, preferably within walking distance. Some marinas may provide a car, golf cart or bicycles. Other times we have been offered a ride, have taken a taxi or have chosen to rent a car, usually from Enterprise, "they deliver". So far on our trip we have been able to tour several museums, national parks, mansions and one castle. Specifically we have been to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, mansions, castles, The Rideau Canal Museum, Hershey Chocolate Factory in Smith Falls, Smith Falls Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario. In Ottawa we saw the Rideau Hall, the Governor-Generals Historic home and workplace with footmen wearing bearskin hats, Parliament, National Gallery of Canada, Royal Canadian Mint and army exhibits outside of the Canadian War museum.

The children were very helpful on the Erie, Oswego and Rideau Canals. They help fend the boat off from the walls and have learned the several different ways of riding the locks. Some have hanging ropes that we have to grab, some have ropes that the lockmaster throws down, some have a cable we attach to and a couple had a floating dock we would cleat on. Part of the fun is finding out what the next lock was going to be like. Jay even got to help the lockmaster at lock 12 on the Erie Canal raise and lower water by pressing the buttons on his control panel. Karyn made a friend and exchanged e-mail address with a "Brat" at lock 1 on the Oswego Canal. Brats are children who work at a park during summer next to the lock. You can order food from the local restaurants and their "job" is to go get it and serve it to you while wait at table on their dock. They also sell drinks and ice cream sundaes.

When arriving at our next port, we would have our docking "routine." After we find out which side we're tying up to and weather or not it is a floating dock. Jay puts on the bowlines, Aaron attends to the stern lines and I usually attach the fenders on the sides. The boys tie up; usually there is dockhand to catch their lines if not they do it themselves. After admiring the dockhand's lasso work at Beach Marine in Jacksonville, Jay has learned to rope the dock cleat from the bow of the boat. Aaron learned how to tie on to a piling with out going over the top in Belhaven, North Carolina.

Then they plug the power in to get the air conditioning going again. (We could run the generator if we wanted while underway but never felt the need). Then if TV, cable or phone lines our available they plug those in. Karyn would close up the bridge; she would bring down the bridge bag with all the equipment and close the openings. She would also write down the engine hours for our log.

The best part was they got so good at this Jim and I would go check ourselves in at the dock office and would come back to the boat already getting cooled off with the air conditioning and Aaron making frozen drinks in the blender. Oh, this is the good life.

Laura would always do an excellent job washing down the boat and even would sing while she was doing at it. Jay often helped her and they would receive compliments from the other boaters. When they were done washing they would check to see if we needed to fill the water tank, (we do this through a filter) and then they plug the water hose into the boat. Some days we might need to pick up diesel fuel, this would be done before docking overnight or occasionally right at our slip.

Then it's time for laundry, check the e-mails, check the charts and guides for our next day, work on the ship's log, have dinner, relax a little and go to bed. We continued the Summer School theme by buying each child a Composition Notebook. This works great for a journal or just to have paper to draw or doodle. Our children especially like to work on this while waiting in restaurants. They also have books from their school's summer reading lists to finish. We did bring the nitendo on board. They played a lot at first and then we had to limit it. They actually seem happier when we took it away. Sometime when we've been on the water for long days, we would notice that ashore we might feeling landsick, missing the movement of the boat. To follow our voyage you are invited to visit our website MVSS

Updated:4/26/02 Printer Version

Updated:4/26/02
Printer Version