Minor things, major difficulties

So we had a bad day. It was pretty pitiful, really, all of us sitting around, staring at each other mournfully. We're back on track now, though. We've still had to do battle with some high winds and huge waves, but nothing terrible has happened, we're all still getting along reasonably well, and things are looking brighter. It's just in time, too, because we've evidently reached the part of the trip where things start breaking. Our radar detector doodad fell off, and we've got some little holes in one of our sails. Nothing disastrous. Yet. We ended the terrible day with a dinner of tuna muffins, which tasted just as revolting as they sound. Yesterday we had some sunshine, then black beans and quinoa for dinner, followed by a rousing game of seated charades.

Grace is helping me out today with a description of our day-to-day existence:

Hi everyone! Have you ever noticed how easy it is to get dressed in the morning, or brush your teeth, or eat soup? It's really easy to do all of those things without falling over or spilling it on yourself if you are on land. Unless there's an earthquake of course. When you wake up in the morning, do you have to climb out of a cage? We do. We have to put a canvas cloth from the side of the bed to the wall so that we don't fall out during the night. Ater you've (literally) climbed out of bed, to get to the bathroom you either have to hold onto shelf ledges and walls constantly or crawl in an attempt to not fall and bash your face in. Once you finally reach your destination, to brush your teeth you have to open the cabinet, and get your stuff out super fast, so that all the contents don't slide back at you. We all learned that the hard way. When you are done brushing your teeth and bracing yourself against the wall, you have to get your face as close to the drain as possible so that as the boat tips, the spit doesn't come flying back at you. Wouldn't that be exciting, though? Finally finished being tossed around in the bathroom, you can tackle the challenge of getting dressed. The first step is relatively easy. Put on as many layers as you can while sitting down. (You still slide but it doesn't hurt as much as it might if you were standing.) Now you may not have realized thi,s but putting pants on is actually an art with various techniques. There is the quick-stand-up-shove-your-feet-down-the-legs-and-yank-up-the-waist-before-you-fall-down method, or the slightly more graceful put-your-feet-in-while-sitting-down-then-stand-to-pull-them-up, or you can just skip 'em. Thankfully, so far everyone has managed to get pants on everyday, no matter how difficult. Now on to making and eating breakfast. We normally have rice cakes and peanut butter that we all use the same spoon for. You have to watch, though, because someone might try to lick the spoon before everyone has used it, and no matter where you are on earth, it's gross. Breakfast is downright easy compared to the rest of the day. Waiting for lunch, we sit in the cockpit with our lifejackets on and leashes attaching us to the boat so that if we fall off we just get dragged behind until someone notices, or we die from the frigid water. The leashes, however, don't keep us from tumbling around and bouncing off of each other, so we just brace ourselves and pray. When it comes time for dinner, it's a group effort. Papa is in charge of minimizing the rocking as much as possible, Nora, and Mama, and I take turns fetching ingredients. cooking, and washing dishes. When the food is ready to eat, we are not very civilized anymore. We crouch down with our faces as close to the dishes as possible, in hopes that the wind won't splatter it all in our faces. Somehow, I'm the only one who figured that out the messy way. Why no one enlightened me, I don't know. Finally, after waiting all day to go to bed so that we can wake up in the morning and repeat it all, we go through the whole toothbrushing-undressing adventure again. Next, we climb into our sleeping bags and sleep. This is pretty much how every day goes. The only variety is what we do to entertain ourselves and what we eat for dinner.

Sidler-Dever family: We opened the survival kit yesterday and were so excited! Nora and I tried the peanut butter cups immediately and were practically bouncing around in excitement. We tested the Whoopie cushion soon after and discovered that it is pretty convincing. Thank you so so so much. Your box made our day.