Sympathy for Shackleton

     The year is almost over, and December has been a crazy month for Kyrie's crew, as usual.
Rachael had her dance performance early on, which she thoroughly enjoyed, but emerged thoroughly exhausted with all the work involved. Classes, rehearsals, two shows, Joe and I volunteering to help during one of the shows--we were happy when it was all over!

Rachael and one of her dance classmates
during their performance. It was hard
to get good action photos from far away!

Happy kids on Christmas morning

Harris Harbor is mostly frozen over
right now.

   All the snow that fell during November melted away with the 40+ degree days we had, but right before Christmas, temperatures decided to drop. There wasn't any snow, but we had a white Christmas after all with all the hoarfrost. The kids had a ball, waking up at Grandma and Grandpa's house on Christmas morning and seeing the tree! We managed to keep it low-key enough that even Megan didn't get overwhelmed. In fact, she was totally into it and tore into the presents with the best of them!

This was before I broke up a bunch of
the ice around Kyrie's starboard bow.

     And now, the cold has settled in with a vengeance. Our thermometer says it's 21 degrees outside and the wind is gusting to 34 knots. For a personal first, I have a bit of sympathy for the Shackleton expedition. I keep having to go out and bust up the ice around Kyrie's rudders because the harbor is frozen over!

Joe says there needs to be 9-12 inches
of open water around the rudders. We've
broken up ice twice now since midnight
last night.

  Last night, the gusts blew Kyrie back and forth into the ice, so Joe and I were out at midnight, adding docklines to keep the big girl from beating herself up. I have to admit that I never expected to have to break up ice around our boat here in Juneau! The current weather report says it is supposed to warm up, cloud over, and snow, starting either tomorrow or Sunday. As far as I'm concerned, it can't happen soon enough. I am grateful, however, for Kyrie's winter coat this year. It has held up much better than last year's setup, plus the Reflectix over all the hatches and big windows means much less surface for water to gather and freeze on. I for one am happy to spend so much less time wiping down as many surfaces. I remember last year having to sound the retreat and go to Joe's parents' house because it was so cold in March. The amazing thing is that it's just as cold now, but Kyrie is much more comfortable this year. I think next winter's cover will look much the same as this one...
     Today is my mom's birthday (Happy birthday Mama!), tomorrow is our anniversary (Happy 17 years to us!), and the day after that is New Year's Eve. 2017 is almost over and 2018 is nearly here. We only have about a year and a half left here in Juneau before we leave for our big adventure. So much to do between now and then. As I moan about the cold, I keep reminding myself the time will go by quickly and then we're southbound for the sun!