The Leibster Award

Hey everyone – Melody here… it’s been awhile since I’ve done a post, but here I am because my dear friend Jessica from s/v Serendipity nominated our blog for the Leibster Award, a virtual award given from one blogger to another to show appreciation for their writing and online contribution, which is really an honor because no one understands the work that goes into blogging like another blogger. As Jessica explains it, it’s sort of a blogger’s chain letter from one to the other.

The nominating blogger gives the nominee ten questions to answer, and you in turn nominate your favorite bloggers and give them ten questions. I say it’s kind of like the Blogger’s Ice Bucket Challenge!

This is pretty awesome because a) we love s/v Serendipty’s blog and the fact that they nominated us is an honor and we’re very grateful, and b) we don’t have to come up with a topic to write about!

Before I answer these questions, I’m going to give the disclaimer here that “all opinions and versions of these answers/stories are my own, and do not necessarily represent the opinions or views of my beloved, Chris… although if my opinions or answers are funny or interesting, we’ll call them true, because as they say, “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.”  So here goes:

Explain yourselves. Take that to mean however you wish.

We’re just two lovers with gypsy souls. Ok, ok. We have no explanation. We’re just batshit crazy.

When is the first time you ever set foot on a sailboat?

For Chris, it was sometime in his childhood. He sailed a couple of times with his stepbrothers before buying his first boat many years later in 2006.

For me, it was shortly after I met Chris – he took me sailing on his San Juan 24 about a month after we started dating. He told me, “you’ll either love sailing, or you’ll think, ‘meh – too much work’.”

Well, I loved it. In fact, I fell in love with sailing so much that I jokingly credit it for our relationship. I mean, of course Chris is sexy, funny, kind and smart – but so was George Clooney. You might think it was a tough decision between those two handsome hunks, but I loved sailing, and Chris was the only one of them with a sailboat. It was a no-brainer.

Where is the worst place, traveling or stationary, you’ve been with your boat? Not a city/country you visited, but a place you were physically on the boat.

We were in Wrightsville Beach in 2012, and our toilet crapped out on us. (Pun intended). We pulled in to get fuel on our way down the ICW, so I took the opportunity to catch a cab to West Marine for a new one. Later that day once we docked in Southport, NC, we decided to install the new head.

My hands are tiny, and as such, the only hands that could easily reach down underneath the floor to put the nuts on the backside of the bolts. But let me back up… anyone who has installed a new toilet on a boat knows, when you take out the old one, there is bound to be some spillage from the hoses, and that spillage is a mixture of water, pee, and yes, poop. I should also mention that I have long hair. I wore gloves to help protect my hands from any residual body fluids, but what I did not anticipate was getting it in my hair as I was crammed down there. Yes. Pee. And Poop. In my hair.

I tried to do the job with a good attitude, but shit in my hair tends to set me off, so when I accidentally dropped one of the nuts into the bilge and Chris made a snide comment about it, let’s just say that I may or may not have thrown another bolt at his head and cussed at him for the first time ever in our relationship. It was a pretty low moment.

If a genie granted you a lifetime supply of one kind of alcohol, what would you choose?

Wine, for sure. It’s the nectar of the gods and as such, makes me ponder important questions in life, such as “What do blind people see in their dreams?” or “If a bulldog and a shih-tzu mate, would their puppy be a Bullshit?”

What’s the nicest thing the other person has done for you while traveling?

We bought Vacilando in Panama City, FL and promptly sailed her to the Keys. We were really conservative with our water usage since it was our first time sailing her and we wanted to make sure we had plenty of water for the 6 day trip. On our last night before going into Marathon, we anchored just outside of Little Shark River, and I felt dirty and cranky from not showering and enduring some pretty rough weather along the way. Chris then opened a bottle of wine, handed me a glass along with the rest of the bottle and said, “Honey, go take a nice, long, hot shower. Shave your legs, drink your wine, and relax. We’ve still got at least 45 gallons, so no rush. You’ve earned it.”  That shower was the best thing in the world. You could put me in a room at the Ritz right now and it wouldn’t be as lovely as that shower was that night.

If you had the option to transport yourself anywhere in the world right now, where would it be?

At this moment right now, I’d say Lunenburg, Ireland, the Azores, or somewhere off the coast of Spain. I’d go anywhere at this point!

What did your family say when you told them you were going to up and leave everything in order to travel?

My Mom told me it was the best decision I ever made. My family has been extremely supportive and has never once questioned our decision to travel. Chris’ family is also very supportive, although his Mom worries about us a little more and says she can’t wait until we get it out of our system so she can relax!

Do you think you’ve found the place you’d like to retire to?

Not yet. Being on a sailboat is great in that it allows you to see places at a slower pace, and we hope that once we do find “the place”, it will be like love at first sight, and we’ll just know immediately.

What language do you think would be the most fun to speak, even if you have no plans to learn it?

Pirate… Aaaargh!  No seriously, I would love to learn to speak any language fluently.

Outside of the US, where has your most expensive meal been?

Well sadly, the only place I’ve been outside of the US before is Mexico, and I don’t recall any expensive meals there. Chris has been to all sorts of places with his music, but I think he had a meal in Dubai that was fit for a king during his USO Tour in the middle east. He also ate guinea pig while in Peru once. Yuck!

In Conclusion…

So there you go! I have been promising Jessica that I would get this out for about a week now, so I wanted to get this posted so she could read it before she leaves the Azores headed for the Med! I have not come up with questions for my nominee, so once I have them, I’ll update this post with that info. In the meantime, I’m going to open a bottle of wine and celebrate the fact that I have no poop in my hair. Ciao!