Jazzy Lady's 2019/20 Cruising Adventure

A Mouse and a Louse in our House

Due to popular demand, your regular blog poster is back

We confirmed, on Sunday, that 3 out of 4 of us had lice!🙀. We had picked up lice shampoo the week before since I had suspicions then but an un-named member of our party thought I was being paranoid. Therefore, we didn’t deploy it until we could no longer deny it on Nov 3rd...the DAY before Mark’s parents arrived for a visit😬 and two days before Annie’s birthday. So halfway through our day we changed our destination. We needed to find a spot with laundry facilities on site so we could wash and dry our bedding ASAP, before the kids’ bedtime since we had treated our hair that afternoon. This meant going further for the appropriate accommodations, which meant we didn’t get in until after dark. A nerve-wracking approach with me shining a flashlight off the bow to spot un-lit day beacons that are only visible of flashlight picks up reflectors on them. We narrowly dodged a couple. As soon as we’d finished tying up I ran to the laundry with my sailbag full of contaminated stuff. On average, there have been atleast 5 or 6 letters that come home from school, each year, notifying us of a child with lice in our kids’ classes. We’ve always counted ourselves lucky that A&A have never contracted it. Now, go figure, we are isolated on a boat and we get lice. Not only that, we had to inform our new (and only) friends from s/v Oceo, with the 3 girls (with LONG hair) that they, too, may have lice. The day after Halloween the kids were all rolling about in blankets in a bunk. So we weren’t surprised to hear confirmation that they have it too. Oh, the shame! We are keeping our fingers crossed that Mark’s parents will escape from this un-scathed. We’ve sealed all the stuffed animals away in a plastic bag for 3 weeks and washed linens, etc twice now. Not a pleasant experience, ESPECIALLY on a sailboat😷.
Mark’s parents’ arrival was a successful surprise to the kids. Their reaction was priceless. Just as the four of us are starting to get a bit tired of each other, it’s nice to throw a couple of other people in the mix. Great to have some extra hands on deck as well.
Annie has reported that her Birthday was ‘pretty good for a boat birthday’. I, for one, can’t wait to celebrate my 40th Birthday on this boat. But, for a kid, it’s different. No Birthday party with all your pals, etc. So, as often happens in our family, we out the emphasis on food. Annie got Cinnamon Toast Crunch for breakfast and, on our day route we pulled over to buy freshly caught shrimp and white perch from a packing facility. The fish were whole so, once we got underway again, I sat on the swim platform off our stern and gutted/cleaner the fish. (Practice for when we catch MahiMahi further south) Mark made us fish tacos for lunch. For dinner we had shrimp cocktail and shrimp pasta! Annie was a happy girl:)
Today, on our offshore trip, from Morehead City to Wrightesville, the kids got the pleasure of watching two🐬s playing in our bow 🌊 waves! Really up-close, super thrilling!
Yesterday morning we acquired an accidental pet mouse. Mark found mouse poo on the deck and, as he was telling us to close the companion way just in case, a mouse DROPPED from the open main hatch cover and onto our saloon floor! He scurried out of sight in the blink of an eye and we haven’t seen signs of him since! Alistair constructed a ‘humane’ trap to catch him live and Mark bought regular traps. ..... we’ll see if he ever turns up.....
Feeling too seasick to post a pick
Over and out