Tuesday, August 6

Tough Choices on Leaving

How much longer?
After much researching, organizing, and updating to cruise to blue water, one of your crew may not be up for the trip.  We apply the daily eye drops or ointment so he can see.  Bring his favorite food and toys which he ignores when he is at sea.  Why, is he motion sick? 


The seas are relatively calm. He leans to the side & pants or closes his eyes to sleep.  He ignores the dolphins while the Golden Retriever is barking and running around the boat and going crazy with excitement.  He might just hate sailing.  Now the destination he loves.  Or it is just getting off the boat?

The Golden Retriever is always between our legs helping us turn the wheel since a puppy.  Bud always stayed in the head on the Hunter 27 by the v-berth stabilizing himself between the doorway.  With the bigger boat he stays in the cockpit with us and seems like not-happy Bud.  But he doesn't cry and complain

While we never want to leave a man or dog behind, staying with family would be better.  We could always pick him up midway but there would still be a Gulf crossing or a Gulf stream crossing. In the beginning Bud was a horrible traveler, crying and whining a few miles from the house, and he has improved exponential over the ten years since I have had him.  He has been forced to change since we had family all over the country.  We love to wander and explore.  Just like people have games for their children in the car.  We have games that we play with the dogs on the long drives which they interact with.  

With his eyesight quickly fading he can not play as well and gets frustrated and lies down.  On our recent trip to Moody Gardens with HYC we kept a lifejacket on Bud since they are fixed piers.  He almost fell in once but the line and lifejacket saved him.  (shh, but Whitley jumped in the Bayou when the fireworks went off-ruined my evening plans).  The cold weather (under 60F) makes him stiff and his joints pop.  We help him up and down the boat stairs.  Balls are harder to find but he can always find the closest cat droppings.  So his sniffer still works well.

Well the new davits from Garhauer are working great (except for the new perch for the birds on the stern), replacing the year-old AGM batteries with new AGM batteries (read twitter for a back story), new autohelm needed, waiting for the worst of hurricane season to be over, and the temperature to drop, then set sail using our new Quickie Guides of the Gulf Coast to find blue water and white sand.
Ginger pills for dogs?
Whitley says, "Bud just lay down and enjoy the ride.  We may see snow."

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