Escape Artist

Caring for the boys while we try to run the boat and get prepped for our upcoming passages has been particularly too-much lately.  And it hasn't helped that Eric has suddenly demonstrated the ability to get out of, or over, the various restraints that we have on the boat for keeping him safe.

That's him today, climbing over the barricade that was meant to keep him from climbing up on the settees around the galley table, which present an unacceptably long fall back to the cabin sole.  He just started climbing up there a few days ago.  So I made a gate to block access.  And he climbed over it.
So I made a higher gate.  And he climbed over that as well.

And so on.  This picture shows the sixth iteration of the gate.  It's a spare sheet hung ridiculously high - I can barely get into the table for meals.  And he climbed right over it.  Sigh.

And yesterday, when Alisa and I were on the bow, messing around with a mooring buoy we were picking up, Elias suddenly shouted, "My brother's under the dodger!"

While we were all forward, Eric had climbed under the lap belt that had him "secured" to his seat in the cockpit, and was happily sitting on the companionway hatch.

Alisa ran back to grab him before he could fall down the six foot-plus drop down the companionway.  Later I counted - she now has five new gray hairs.

So the child-rearing dynamic continues to develop new challenges.  And meanwhile the old challenges of screaming and temper tantrums haven't gone away.

Luckily, the anchor windlass went down a few days ago, and the windlass motor has become my new pastime for whiling away the idle hours.  Just a few days ago I had never fixed an electric motor - now I've fixed the same one three times!  Which is great - when the kids get to be too much, I can go to the engine room to get my hands greasy in peace.