Category: Laura

Sea turtles rescued!

UPDATE! Thank you for your support! Kids have chosen a local turtle education / rescue place to give some of your donations! It’s called campamento tortuguero boca de tomates. To make direct donations to them you can PayPal nakawe.ac@gmail.com. Don’t forget to tell us if you’d like earrings or a bracelet! Hand deliver sometime during the next year would be ideal but shipping is a possibility. They are great conversation starters to help raise awareness.

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The kids made this video of four turtles that we encountered tangled in a fishing gear ball of trash. We were about 60 miles north of Punta Mita/Sayulita/La Cruz/Puerto Vallarta. We were able to remove the hooks and line from all turtles and they all seemed to be strong when they swam off. It took about 30 minutes to untangle them and thankfully the conditions were very calm and we just drifted with engines off while carefully dealing with the mess.

We believe they were Olive Ridley turtles. We saw many (~50?) this day swimming in the ocean as we motored past. I am learning that one of the challenges turtles are facing is that sea temperature is connected to if they are female or male and the warmer oceans is producing too many females for the populations to balanced appropriately.

Aurora, Coral, Forrest and Sierra are making some earrings and keychains out of the ball of hooks and line that we removed from the sea. We are planning to visit some local sea turtle sanctuary/ non-profits to learn more about these creatures and the kids hope to donate some of their savings and any profits from their creations to help support conservation efforts in the local area.

Mike and I were in a daze after the experience. It was thrilling to be helping these creatures in such a tangible and immediate way, yet we were saddened by the reality of how frequent this accident happens. We are grateful that the kids were able to participate and feel the euphoria of helping these innocent creatures. We hope that this video might inspire you to donate to your local organizations and seek opportunities to volunteer.

Exploring Yosemite.

We were in Sausalito for over 5 weeks but it went by really fast. We were in Michigan and Maine for 10 days of it, backpacking in Yosemite for another 5 days and visiting friends in Sacramento and East Bay for other overnight trips. In the city we visited The Academy of Sciences, Exploratorium, 6-Flags, Bay Model, The Marine Mammal Center, rode the Trolley, participated with local girl scout troop events, walked the Golden Gate Bridge, entertained long time friends, rode some single track and played at the beach. Mike worked in the city some days and the kids did a great first month of 1st and 4th grade. The kids have created a video of their favorite parts; two backpacking trips in Yosemite National Park where we camped above 9,000 feet in perfect weather at alpine lakes accessed from Tuolumne Meadows. Ok, their favorite was probably Great Wolf Lodge (we went twice because I needed to dry out our camping gear somewhere), but they are nice enough to tell me it was Yosemite.

Orcas Island to San Francisco.

The kids interviewed the 4 crew that joined Mike for the trip from orcas island, WA to San Francisco. We (mom and kids) drove the car south for that part so we could have a car for the month in California and so the boat could give useful crew a dedicated berth. The delivery crew saw some great wildlife and had a mix of motoring and spicy sailing…and they didn’t even have to eat any vegetables! They did compose a custom song for the trip and all 20 bags of chips were gone upon arrival though 😂. Enjoy!

Introductions!

If you have met me for even a few minutes, you’re probably aware that I am slightly obsessed with planning and spreadsheets and wringing every single drop of life out of every second we have on this planet. Sympathy (or pity?) may be one of the first emotions that you feel towards the 4 kids that have transpired from the 10 years of marriage that mike and I have shared. I feel incredibly lucky that all 4 of them have good attitudes *most* of the time and are generally eager to participate in whatever shenanigans we have planned.

I’m trying to savor the moments of this adventure, remaining focused on observing the present. Yes we take videos and photos often and I’m looking at my phone more than I care to admit. But I’m not reaching for the selfie stick or setting up the camera for every experience we have. These videos are essentially research project presentations created by 6 and 9 year olds. You’ll see interviews of visiting crew and friends, demonstrations of our safety gear, explanations of how we produce electricity, lessons on how to wing foil, what we eat, what boat-school is like and if you’re lucky, the names of the 10,000 stuffed animals that occupy most of the volume of the boat.

Enjoy these short glimpses into our life and come along on this adventure with us!

Sv Lyrae Part 1: Introductions!

2022 Egypt

Ancient Millers at the Pharonic Village, Cairo.

It’s November 2022 and we are finally traveling again! It feels good to get on international flights and use our passports. What a long 2 years it has been with Covid. Our move to Orcas Island (Feb 2020) has been a dream. All of us have embraced and adapted to this unique small community and are so grateful for it. Yet we long for adventure and tropical waters. We hope to depart on Lyrae late summer 2023. This month trip to Egypt (by plane) is a warm up. Forrest and Sierra are loving 3rd grade at orcas elementary school and Aurora and Coral think Salmonberry kindergarten is the most fun place on earth.

We have split the 23 days of Egypt into 3 sections. The first Nov 3-9 was Cairo/Giza museums and pyramids and a fantastic land cruiser safari to the White Desert and Bahariya. Here is Forrest and Sierras narrative: https://youtu.be/pm0eYaYvzCo

Wind sculpted limestone of the white desert.

Our second part was Nov 9-12, flight to Aswan, temples temples temples, nile cruise, tombs tombs tombs, and Luxor.

Sarcophagus in the tomb of Ramesses IV. Valley of the Kings

Final part of the trip Nov 13-24. Starts with a “vacation from vacation” at a swanky air-bnb in El Gouna paired with daily wing surfing lessons. Beach buggy and camel rides. Then 7 days aboard a scuba/“family safari” on a boat in the Red Sea.

Gazillions of kite surfers at El Gouna. What a perfect place to learn this sport.

2020 plan B

I learned long ago that an important lesson of being a cruiser is that your plans are in constant flux. In fact the best approach is to have say 2 (or 100?) plans in the works. Maybe there is a storm looming. Maybe someone needs to get medical attention. A visitors flight gets delayed. A global pandemic stifles travel across the globe.

2020 started well for us. We were on track to accomplish our refit goals for the boat. Mike had sorted out his work. We had a plan to rent our home. The kids were excited and ready. We got our snow and ski fix. Then March happened.

There we were in Kirkland, our home literally 2 miles away from the Life Care retirement home that had the first outbreak in the USA. Instantly everything changed and we moved to Orcas Island where we stayed until October. There we appreciated the open space and absence of temptation to socialize with anyone. Our days were filled with beach and ocean play, building stuff, homeschool, art and play. We were grateful to have each other for company and that the kids could play, practice sharing, and have a collaborative homeschool experience. Yes it was/is challenging at times. But it’s like that normally.

Mike continued to work at home, escaping to any number of his “office” spaces. Those being the cab of the truck, the engine room or helm of the boat, a hike, a paddle, a hidden corner of our property or the lawn mower. He expressed appreciation for the change in pace of life and the additional time with family.

With Mike more available to help with kids, I ended up having a significantly larger amount of time to myself than since I became a mom. I took time away and fed my introverted soul by building stuff and keeping my ear protection muffs on at all times so I couldn’t hear the kids screaming, fighting, whining or crying. Mike and I essentially took turns for 4 months working on the boat while the other taught school and did child care. I’ve been happy during this pandemic.

This brings me back to plan B, C, D through ZZ. For October through December this year we drove 7,500 miles in 11 days to Maine and Michigan. We isolated and tested and stayed inside the RV during the trip and then merged bubbles with our parents for a total of 42 days. We are in Kirkland for Christmas and hope to ski a bunch this winter, using our land boat as a basecamp. We don’t know what the future holds for our trip plans. But we will go on a trip. Maybe / maybe not in 2021. Hopefully by 2022. I don’t expect a vaccine for our kids until fall 2021. And we want to be able have our kids go ashore in remote places and make friends. Not stand at an arms length, avoid interactions, sing together or have our smiles hidden. We can wait until that’s possible. Until then, we will take adventures on Lyrae closer to home and explore with our 32’ class A Winnebago land boat.

Take care friends! Wear your mask.

Inside our Winnebago land boat
School on Lyrae
One of my Orcas projects, a garden. It made 4 unripe tomatoes and 6 raspberries. I need to work on my green thumb.

We found a boat!

Hello! If you are reading this, then you probably received a Holiday Card with a link to this blog and are thinking “what crazy idea are the Millers planning now”? Welcome! This website doesn’t have much on it right now and that’s because we aren’t actually cruising yet. We are still living on land, shuttling the kids between kindergarten, gymnastics, soccer, drum lessons, church events, rock climbing, cub scouts and playdates. Mike and I are focussed on working in the boat yard getting s/v Lyrae ready for this adventure that will start in September 2020. So maybe you have a few questions? This post will briefly say how we arrived at this choice to do a big trip, how we found our boat, and what the next year could look like!

When did you get this idea?
I will give Mike credit for making this dream move forward. Even though I circumnavigated the globe with my parents when I was a kid for 6 years, I will admit that I didn’t really want to do it with my own family. I hadn’t yet explored the opportunities that cruising kids have today to meet other kids and stay in touch. In 2017 we decided we would start looking for a boat and planning out a potential route. We didn’t know where the boat would be found, what the boat would be, or where we would go. Mike had never sailed off-shore or done an overnight passage. I was daunted by the idea of homeschooling 4 kids. We had a lot to accomplish before embarking on this adventure responsibly.

How did you decide on an Outremer 49?
For 2 years, Mike and I entertained the idea of basically every boat ever designed on earth. Nothing seemed to fit our long list of criteria. Criteria like “large and center cockpit” “fun to sail” “four staterooms” “two seating areas” “safe” “simple systems” “separate engine room” “manageable sail area” “shallow draft”. We had help from an amazingly patient broker that eventually found Lyrae for us even though she wasn’t for sale. We eventually settled on either an aluminum lifting keel monohull under 55′ or a performance catamaran (with daggerboards). Our research involved viewing dozens of boats, hundreds of hours searching yachtworld on our phones, attending boat shows (we even went all the way to Sweden for one!), and I made a whirlwind trip to France to visit manufacturing plans of the top contenders. Since I had never really sailed a catamaran, I was initially hesitant to consider anything but a monohull. Most of the two years was spent educating and convincing me that they are the ideal yacht for equatorial cruising! So thats was we got. A 2010 Outremer 49 catmaran with 4 staterooms. “Baloo”, as she was called then, literally sailed right past our house on Orcas Island this summer by her previous owner. I saw her and said that’s our boat.

Millers on O49 - Copy

What does the name mean?
Lyrae (pronounced Lee-ray) is a double-double star in the constellation of Lyra. This means that it is four stars grouped in two sets that are all orbiting one another. Like double twins! Lyrae is visible to the naked eye right next to the bright star Vega (also part of Lyra). With a telescope you can see the split of the binary pair. Also, in mythology, Lyra is the harp that Orpheus plays so loudly on the expedition of the Argonauts that the sailors are not tempted by the music of the Sirens.

What do you need to do before you leave?
We have a list (of course!). It’s over 400 items long. Items like “sell cars” and “learn how to homeschool”. But right now, Mike and I are focusing efforts on preparing s/v Lyrae for her next adventure. Lyrae is hauled out for approximately 4 months while we inspect, clean, install and provision every inch of her insides and outsides.

Will the kids go to school?

Forrest and Sierra will be boat schooled starting with First grade. I have a lot to learn about curriculum but I have great resources and friends available to me and I’m excited to use my organization skills to incorporate our daily experiences into the basic math and language standards. They are good kids, focus well on things they are curious about, and love the water. And I only have to teach 2 grades for 4 kids!

Can we visit you?
If you like sailing and kids, then this could be a fun opportunity to help us stay connected with friends and family! We will have additional crew with sailing experience on board for passages. We know generally where we will be when, but weather and other circumstances can always change that.

First post

You found us!  We are a young family composed of Mike, Laura Jean and four kids (two sets of twins), eager to explore the world together.  This website will serve many purposes for us and for you.  For us it documents adventures of our life and the processes to achieve them.  For you, it might provide inspiration for a trip or encouragement to adventure with your family in tow.  Good luck with your own adventure!

This site will continuously change and be updated.  We started it in 2018.

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