Ita here! How we spend our time.

A lot of you asked how we spend our time on the boat. I thought I would answer that question in more detail today.

This is how I spend 90% of my day.

I get to sleep...lots! When I'm not sleeping, I'm either eating or playing with my toys. My favorite toy is a squeaky stuffed squirrel. He's really fun to play with!

Jim spends most of his time either fixing things, or making sailing plans. Something breaks on the boat almost every day. Two days ago we were out sailing when the wind got very light, so we wanted to turn the engine on. We turned the key, and.... Nada! Jim had to figure out why the engine wouldn't start while Debbie sailed the boat without using "Auto", the auto pilot. Auto does not steer very well when there's hardly any wind. After about an hour, Jim figured out that it was a wire that had gotten a little rusty, so he changed the wire and the engine started right up! Today it was the toilet that broke! EWWWWW!!!! Jim says that today is his least favorite day on the boat, EVER!!!!!!

When Jim is not fixing things, he is on the computer researching where to go and what the weather will be like. It is very important to know what the weather forecast is before you go sailing. It may be really pretty when you set off, but there may be a storm brewing that comes in later that day. He is always very careful to keep us as safe as possible.

Debbie spends a lot of her day cooking and cleaning. Pretty boring! But almost everything we eat on the boat is made from scratch, and it takes longer to do anything on the boat than it does on land. Also, everything on the boat has to be put away each time we go sailing so it doesn't fall over while we are sailing. Go into your kitchen at home. Imagine putting away EVERYTHING on the counters each morning, then getting them out each evening, then putting them away again each morning. The coffee pot, the toaster, the fruit bowl.... Everything! It's not hard, it just takes time. She also spends a lot of time reading and doing needlepoint, which she loves. If you need a good book recommendation, tell Debbie what you like to read about and maybe she can come up with a suggestion.

That's a normal day. Kind of boring, but we like it. There's also a lot of wondering what is just around the next corner.

Hope you liked the update!

Ita!

Ita's Columbus Day Post!

Hello!

Ita here!  In honor of Columbus Day, I thought I would tell you about my visit to Christopher Columbus’ tomb in the Catedral de Sevilla, or Cathedral in Seville, if you want to use the English spelling and pronunciation.  It is the largest Gothic cathedral and the third-largest church in the world.

Debbie and Jim decided to go visit the cathedral when we were in Seville since, according to the books, it was beautiful and because Christopher Columbus’ tomb was supposed to be inside.  Let’s face it, with a man who loves sailing as much as Jim does, you just have to go see the tomb of the man who sailed half way around the world and discovered the western world!

We went inside the cathedral, and, WOW, was it beautiful.  From 1401 to 1507, Spain built one of the world’s largest cathedrals on the site of Seville’s old main mosque.  They kept a beautiful minaret, or tower, called La Giralda from the original mosque, and incorporated it into the cathedral’s design.  You can easily climb all the way to the top of La Giralda because it was designed with a big ramp up to the top so the guards could ride their horses all the way to the top.  Once up there, they could look out over the entire countryside and make sure no one was sneaking up on them to attack.  You guys should definitely look at the pictures of the cathedral on Google.

Then we walked over to Columbus’ tomb.  It’s a huge, beautiful statue of four noblemen carrying a coffin with Columbus’ remains inside.  You probably know this, but Columbus left Spain in 1492 and after putting down a near mutiny when the sailors lost sight of land, they sailed on and finally arrived on an island in the Bahamas. 

You should find the Bahamas on a map.  Then you will know just how close Columbus came to discovering North America.  But, he missed!  Columbus then sailed on to find Cuba and Hispaniola, and then returned to Spain only 8 months after he left.  Considering the boats he was sailing, that was really fast.  Do some research for fun on Columbus’ boats.  Figure out what their names were, but even more fun, figure out how big they were, and how many people were in each ship.  Go out to the playground and chalk out how big the boats were.  Then try to imagine that many grown-up men all living together in that small space for 8 months.  Wow!

I think you all will be reading a book called “The Great Horn Spoon” this year.  It’s a really good book about a boy who sails away on a ship sort of like Columbus’.  You will really enjoy that book.  I know Jim and Debbie’s boys did when they were in 4^th grade!

That’s all for now!  I’ll write again next week!

Read a Book!

Ita

Hello from Morpheus!!

Ita, Debbie and Jim Onboard Morpheus

Hello from Ita, the Sailor Dog!

Hello!  My name is Ita!  Ita means “little one” in Spanish, and it rhymes with pita, as in pita bread.  Your teacher has asked me to create a blog so that you can follow me and my people on our sailing adventure in the Mediterranean Sea.  I have included a photo of myself with one of my favorite books, “The Sailor Dog”, by Margaret Wise Brown.

I think you may first like to know a little about me and my people.  Jim, my master, Debbie, my mistress, and I started sailing on September 10^th, 2010 from San Francisco, CA.   That is an easy day to remember because it was 10/10/10!  We went out under the Golden Gate Bridge and turned left, and have been on the move ever since.  We have a 50 foot sail boat named Morpheus that has been our home for the last 3 years.  Morpheus is named after the Greek god of dreams.  I love living on a 50 foot sail boat.  That means Jim and Debbie can never get more than 50 feet away from me, and that makes me very happy.

As you may be able to tell from my photo, I am a chocolate colored Miniature Long Haired Dachshund and I weigh about 10 pounds.  I have very short but strong legs, which means I have a very low center of gravity.  That comes in very handy on the boat because it means that I don’t lose my balance very easily when the boat is rocking around in a rough sea.  It also means that I can’t jump up on the counters or places that I could fall off of and hurt myself.  When it gets too rough, Debbie puts me in my safe plastic kennel, and I just curl up and go to sleep.  I am pretty small, which means that I can go almost everywhere with Debbie.  She just puts me in her big purse, and I curl up and go to sleep.  No one ever sees me!

So far, Jim, Debbie and I have traveled about 16,000 miles.  We went from San Francisco through the Panama Canal, to the Cayman Islands, Roatan, Cuba, Key West, Florida and then spent the summer of 2011 in Newport, RI.  In the fall of 2011 we left the United States and went to Bermuda, the Virgin Islands and a bunch of the islands in the Caribbean for the winter of 2011-12, then Back to Newport for the summer of 2012.  We again spent the winter of 2012-13 in the Caribbean, and then in April, 2013, Jim sailed the boat across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe and the Mediterranean with some of his friends.  Debbie and I got to fly across the Atlantic because it can be a very long and rough crossing.

Lots of people ask Debbie what the most difficult part of traveling with a pet on board is, and she always answered, “The paper work!”  I always answered, “The shots!”  Every country in Northern and Central America and the Caribbean have different requirements of what kind of shots I need to have before they will let me come into their country.  Debbie had to do a lot of research on the internet before we went to each country in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, and I had to go see the vet before each country to get a new Health Certificate.  We are in the European Union or EU now.  Most of the countries in Europe all got together a few years ago and made a common decision as to what shots pets need.  I have my very own EU Pet Passport, so it’s really easy to travel around now.  I had to clear into the EU only once in Lisbon, Portugal, and now I get to travel all over Europe without seeing a vet.  And, no more shots for a while!

Well, I think that’s a pretty good introduction for now.  My Next post will be about Spain and Barcelona!

Read a Book!

Ita!