No Match

Tuesday July, 25^th – Its Skylar’s birthday!!! Today Skylar turns 16 and we haven’t even seen a car in days. He’s gone through all the necessary drivers education training and passed all the tests with flying colors. Now all he has to do is go online and print out his temporary drivers license before his real license is mailed to him. These days, kids can get their license when they are 16 but can’t have anyone in the car with them except family for 6 months after they get their license. He wanted the 6 months to start the day he turns 16 so we were equipped with a printer onboard but need cell or wifi to give us the connection to the DOL site.

The Octopus Islands didn’t have any cell service so we departed the islands timing Hole in the Wall (another tidal rapids area) for slack water. Once we were through the rapids our cell signal lit up. I found the right website and hooked up the printer. They wanted his name; permit number and last 4 of his social security number. Crap, we had everything except the SS number! I looked on his passport and found what I thought was his SS number then entered it into the system. “Error… The information you entered does not match our records”. I must have entered something wrong I thought. I entered the information again with the same result. Thinking somehow magically it would work, I entered the same obviously wrong information a couple more times. On the last try it locked me out saying there were too many attempts and I would have to try again later. Later?, I thought, what does that mean, 1 hour, 1 day, a week, what.

Skylar was ticked, he wanted his 6 months to start as soon as possible and now we didn’t know when we could get the right info and try again. And it was all my fault, the number I was entering was not his SS number at all. I emailed DOL and got an automated response back that said they were backed up and it was going to take “more than 24hrs to get back to me”. What does that mean?!

Fast-forward…. The next day I called work and got his SS number. I thought it was probably a 24hr lockout thing so just after 24hrs I entered it again with the same message “the information you entered does not match our records”. Not wanting to get locked out again I waited until the next day so I could verify his SS number with Michelle who found his SS card at our house. I had it wrong again!! Now, with everything entered correctly we printed out his driver’s license. Sorry Skylar, my bad, now you have to wait 3 extra days before friends can ride with you. He might need the extra practice!

Todd’s cousin and his family were scheduled to come stay on the boat with them for a few days and needed they to get picked up in Lund. Rather than pull the anchor on the big boat we decided it was a beautiful day and a 24 mile round trip in our dinghies seemed like the way to go. Todd needed to get his cousin and we needed groceries and fuel for the dinghy so Skylar and I took off ahead of them (our dinghy is much slower). It was an awesome adventure as the sun set with smooth water all the way there and back.

Wednesday July 26^th – We are going to spend the next couple days in Tenedos Bay. Zach and Skylar had a grand plan that involved carrying in 2 kayaks to Unwin Lake and fishing for trout in the lake. The lake trail starts at the head of Tenedos Bay. It’s about a 10-minute walk but to portage kayaks would take them much longer. But they were determined to do it all on their own.

Equipped with a handheld VHF radio so we could communicate with them they took off paddling for the trailhead. They could only carry one kayak at a time but after 45 minutes they had them both on the lake. They were gone for hours on their own adventure exploring every part of the lake. However, as much as they tried the trout were not biting that day. They were both completely exhausted when they came back but they said it was all worth it.

The next morning Julie, Ava and I sat in the dinghy just outside the bay were we could get cell reception. We worked on emails and did a blog post but mostly just relaxed in the sun!