Merry Christmas everyone. hope Santa brought you everything on your list. it sure doesn't seem like Christmas here, the sun is shining and it's in the high 60's. however, the town is all dressed to the nines and they really celebrate here. they, of course, celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, with parades and festivies including the posada (going from inn to inn looking for a place to stay). the whole town shows up and they end up with a mexican feast to celebrate the arrival of Jesus. it puts a whole new spin it. we are staying home today and enjoying our blessings. we didn't exchange gifts cuz we don't really need anything. Dan just got a new SSB radio and is installing it, that's his present and i just got some silver jewelery. two bracelets, a chain for my anchor and dangly earrings, that's my present.

we have been working on getting some pictures on here and i think we are going to be sucessful, keep your fingers crossed. if they come through, the first ones kinda start at Bodega Bay and the sealions on the dock, then we meander down the coast a bit and hopefully, we end with the Ensenada Cruisers Christmas Party.

we are going to Michael's boat for NewYear's Eve. it's the same one we had Thanksgiving on. it's a wooden sailboat from Greece. it's huge with 6 staterooms and the stern is set up with a table for 12 and nice soft cushions with a pull down movie screen for watching movies after dinner. it's great fun and he and his nephew are great hosts. it should be a good drunk night since we don't have to drive anywhere and only have to worry about falling in the water!!

Now that we are up to date again, I will sign off with the usual. love and miss you all. hugs

here goes again. update time. we are still in ensenada, but may not be for long. we may be leaving, getting antsy for the ocean again. cant seem to stay in one place for long before the seas start calling to us. it is so nice here, i hate to leave, but La Paz is still on our agenda. lots of friends that we have met so far are heading to costa rica. we have kinda gotten the itch to go there, too. not too much happening here, the weather is nice, but we are having a little rain and wind every day, (seems like home,) and i need some hot sun, now. dan bought an SSB radio system for the boat and is busy installing it. when he is done, i'm thinking we will head out. he needs to go up to san diego and pick up the antenna and install it and i think terry will drive him up sometime next week. we have really enjoyed the amenities at this marina tho, and the hotel is almost empty during the week so the prices are right, if anyone is interested in spending christmas with us, hint, hint. some of you newlyweds could have a great honeymoon. we cant really go into town when it has rained, cuz the roads are full of water. they are not used to having much rain, so nothing drains well. we are going to town on wednesday evening for a dinner, auction, raffle christmas thing for the homeless here. they make quilts and hand made items to auction and buy needed items for the shelters. worthwhile cause. also sunday afternoon we are having a cruisers christmas party in the hotel. itś a potluck and white elephant gift exchange and we are going to go, just for kicks and giggles. cant figure out what i want for christmas and dan keeps bugging me, but i was up in the gift shop a few minutes ago and saw some really cool earrings i like, so they will go on my list. thatś it for now, until next time, i love you all and really miss you. hugs

november 28, saturday.....hope this finds everyone healthy and happy. did anyone overeat thanksgiving??? i sure did. had way too much food and pie. but sure was good. got to say happy birthday to rose last night. hope they aren't too hung over today. our weather has turned on us a little bit, overcast, windy and raining. sound familiar? the difference is we excpect sun and warm weather again on monday. guess we have to swim inside today. picked up my prescription yesterday, but they only ordered 6 days worth. guess i have to go back to wal mart again next week. oh darn. more shopping...lol. also got our costco cards, so that's another shopping trip. i need to get an iron and a fry daddy. so far i haven't found either down here, but i haven't given up yet. i'll keep looking. i was going to wear a dress for thanksgiving, but when i got them out, they were so wrinkled i threw them in the laundry bag and wore pants. so i NEED an iron (never thought i'd say that). a fry daddy because the shrimp would be so good deep fried or tampura'd. nothing much going on today cept watching the tube. we did see "Pirates of the Caribbean, World's End". was a lot weirder than the last one, but still good. gonna be another one, of that i'm sure. probably The fountain of youth, or something like that. now we are watching Sleepless in Seattle. one of my favorite all time movies. gotta make dan some lunch, so will close for now. adios mi amigo y amigas hugs

today is monday, november 23. just a few lines today to let everyone know we are healthy and doing well. enjoying the weather, ha ha. it really does get chilly around 3 in the afternoon and the wind comes up pretty brisk. by evening, tho, it is warm again. hasn t been uncomfortably hot at all. dan got to be the controller of the ensenada net this morning. itś a station on the sailors radio that broadcasts every week day morning at 8 am and is just newsy for all the boaters in the ensenada area. he was great and added just enough humor. everyone was giving him kudoś up and down the docks today. his head size grew alittle bigger i think. i ordered some freshly made tamales from a local and they were delivered a short time ago. i ate all three before they could cool down. yum cant get that in the states. we went to walmart this morning to load up on supplies. it is kinda interesting to get groceries when you dont speak, read, or understand very much spanish. i think i bought some stuff that should be a real surprise when i open it. but we did stop by the shrimp truck and bought a kilo (about 25) of jumbo shrimp. they are about as big as my foot and are fresh from the water that morning. they are amazing. so now you know we are eating good, exercising regularly and enjoying the mexican way of life. anything that doesnt get done today, is good enough for manana. sending our love to all. hugs

friday, nov. 20th hi all, thought i would write a short note today. just finished my swim, hot tub, steam bath and shower and am ready to get something else done. we have been working on the mast boot for the last couple of days. we took all the old glue and junk off the old one, repainted the bottom of the mast and have re-sealed the wood and put on a new boot and sealed it. today i am sewing on the blue boot cover with my sail mending kit. not an easy job and my hands and fingers get really sore after about 10 minutes. i took a break for my shower and when i get back to the boat, i will try to finish it up. the baja 1000 is running this weekend and it is noisy and confused in town so everyone is staying close to their boats and the marina. early next week, we will go into town for some supplies. i really like shopping in town at the open veg & fruit stands. they offer a great variety of fresh ¨ picked this morning"goodies. we also want to stop and get some more jumbo shrimp. they were as big as my foot and really delicious. we got a kilo (25 shrimp) for about $10. also need to check the pharmacy at wal-mart for my prescription. everything else is pretty much the same. blue skies, warm sun, (not too hot) , and happy thoughts. we are doing well, fat and sassy as usual and hope everyone out there in the rain is taking good care of themselves. lol do not know what the problem is with me, but i just don´t miss the rain!!! love u all hugs

well, itś sunday in paradise, we had a swim this morning and have been just hanging around the boat today drinking cervesa and enjoying the day. not much to do around here except enjoy the day. the dogs love it here and we take them up for a run off leash almost every day. there is a beautiful beach where they can go for a dip and plenty of grass to run in. we are going to have dinner tonight at the bar in the hotel. good regular tacos and good fish tacos tool and of course a margarita or two. everyone is good, healthy and actually losing weight. not that we needed to, lol. the swimming every day is helping my muscles cope with all the health problems and i actually do feel much stronger, so i am going to keep at it every day. until the next time, be safe, keep healthy and laugh alot. hugs

we got into ensenada tuesday night, around 6:15pm, it was dark and really hard to see the enterance into this marina, but we finally made it without hitting any other boats. it is so warm and beautiful here and the people are so friendly that when we paid for our moorage wednesday morning, we paid for a whole month. this marina has a hotel, two outdoor swimming pools and a hot tub, indoor pool with hot tub, a spa with sauna and steam room, a beauty salon, which by the way Sue, i need desperately. the marina van took us to town and helped us with customs, immigration and the boat. we are good for a year and it took less than one hour. we heard horror stories of it taking a whole day to do the paperwork, so we feel very lucky. we passed the "Black Pearl" on the way into town and when i have a chance, i will take pictures of it for you, Lori. they also have the set here that the movie was shot so i'll look into that also. we went into town today to do some needed grocery shopping. caught a ride with Terry who has the sailboat across the dock from us. he's also from washington. what a small world we live in. anyway, we went to WAL-MART!!! i checked out my $3000.00 a month prescription with their pharmacist and it will only cost around $60.00 here. what a rip the US pharmaceutical companies are pulling on us. We stopped and bought fresh produce and fruit from some local vendors along a block long street. wow. spent around $5 for lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pomegranite, limes, kiwi, oranges, avacado,and some other stuff. i'm thinking of staying the rest of my life. lol. then we stopped for fish tacos and coca cola. i had a fish taco and a shrimp taco...oooh la la. never tasted better. dan had his first fish taco and is a real believer now. we stopped and picked up terry's laundry. they took it in at 10 this morning and got it at 3pm all washed, pressed and folded. how neat is that??? less than they would have paid at the laundromat. i might have to give that a try. we went up to the hotel bar for dinner tonight and had a hamburger. i also had 3 margarita's on the rocks. much better than blended ones. absolutely perfect. dan had 3 pacifico beers. so that's got you all up to date for now. call on our cell phone 253-670-2702 if you want to., we signed up with a mexican plan that gives us 900 daytime minutes and 1000 weekend and nights, plus they roll over at the end of the month if we dont use them. quite a deal. hope you are all well and i send all our love.....hugs

we took the rental car back this morning and are getting things stowed and battened down. got our mexican fishing licenses and some fishing gear so we can catch dinner on our way to baja. we are leaving in the morning and going to ensenada to check into mexican waters. we will stay tues and wed. then leave thurs for turtle bay. i think we will be traveling the same route as the baja ha-ha so we can pretend we actually did the ha ha. lol. we are still officially part of it and will receive our 3rd place trophy in cabo. lucky huh? after today our cells won't work so e-mail and snail mail will have to do. once we get to LaPaz we will be getting our mail more regularly, so that may be the best way to reach us. we will be staying at the Palmiera Marina in LaPaz so you all know where we are. ha ha. the weather is beautiful here and i really hate to leave, but we must be mov ing on. so until the next stop. hasta manana and hugs, of course.

i'm in the clear. whoo hoo! got the results todayand i'm good to go. i have to continue with the injections for 3 months. i'm in the donut hole for medicare and i had to pay for 30 days worth of the shots, it only cost $3000.00. yes, that is the correct amount of zeroes. hopefully when we get to mexico, it will be a little cheaper. we will be leaving san diego on tuesday, nov. 10th. we are celebrating tonight with steaks and salad. i am really looking forward to dinner, after having hospital jello for so long....yuk. hope all is well with all of you. l love you all. take care. hugs

hi all. sorry this has taken so long, but here goes...got into san diego without any mishaps. has some fog for awhile, but it cleared up and we had blue skies n blue water. we left santa barbara on oct. 15 and in to san diego the next evening around 6 pm. had to wait in the chanel enterance for a submarine going out, that was kinda cool. got fuel and into our slip, #122, put things in order and went for showers. what a beautiful city. the harbor here is so full of boats, you could spend hours watching them. we met a couple from seattle on this dock. they are on the Bristol Blue and they are ned and kristen. they are flying to seattle tomorrow for a grandchild fix, but will be back in a week or so. we have a mechanic coming to fix a small oil leak that we can't trace. after he got here, i started feeling really bad and had an ache in my left back and down to my pelvic area that just wouldn't go away and kept getting more severe. then i started vomiting. after he got the mechanic settled in and working he asked me what was wrong and when i told him he asked if i wanted the paramedics and i said yes. they came and took me away. i was in university california san diego hospital for 10 days undergoing tests. they think i had a kidney stone and passed it, but a few of the tests they gave me showed a blood clot on the artery to my intestine and some swollen lymph nodes. i am taking a blood thinner to keep the clot from getting any bigger, by injection twice a day. we won't know the results from the lymph node biopsy til tuesday or wed., so we are kinda stuck here for a few more days. we missed the baja ha ha fleet, but are still entered so we will get third place when we finally get to cabo. i have to be checked in a week, so we are planning on leaving here on saturday. we didn't have any trick or treaters, but kimberley and garth are here on the irish diplomacy and they came down for a wine cooler. they i went over to dr. dave's boat and trick or treated for a beer. dr. dave is an ob/gyn and has a boat right across the dock from us. he has beer on tap and his wife bought him a cooler for it so the beer is always at the right temp. whatta life. this is a wonderful marina and has a great deli that has daily specials. sometimes they pull out the bbq and have hamburgers and hotdogs. they make great breakfasts, too. we met another couple that left with the ha ha. they are steve n rita on the lady j.. guess it was a good thing we didn't leave when they did. they had 30 foot waves and a horrible storm. one boat was sunk when they ran into a pod of whales. they were all safely rescued, but their boat sunk in about 5 min. not a good thing. so that's about it for now. no worries everyone is safe and sane still. take care and love to all of you. hugs

good morning everyone....it is 11:30, monday, oct. 12. we are in Santa Barbara Harbor Marina. we got in saturday afternoon and were only going to stay for 2 nights, but there is a storm coming in with northeasterly winds, so we are going to stay til wednesday and let it blow over. then on to san diego. we have to be there before too long or they will be doing the ha ha without us. lol. we have met lots of people here that are doing the ha ha also, they are all flying their baja ha ha flags, as are we. they are really noticable, as they are bright yellow.

i had quite a scare when we were pulling into our dock here. i fell off the boat trying to tie us up and had to hold onto the lifelines. i wrapped my legs around the big blue fender and hung on for dear life. the guy on the boat next to us tried to grab my legs, but only caught one foot before the boat drifted away and i was literally hanging over the side. dan finally got the boat closer and dan grabbed my legs and got me onto the dock. if i had fallen in, i would have been crushed between the dock and the boat. not a good thing. but all is well, and i just have a few bruises and a bunch of sore muscles. thank god. i was shaken up pretty good for a while, then everything settled down and i could actually stand up again. my legs felt like jello for a time. lol. it is beautiful here and it is the biggest marina i have ever seen- over 1000 boats are moored here. there is a west marine, chandlery, small market, several restaurants, boat brokers and a haul out yard.

our new autopilot (nicknamed "ray") is so wonderful. it's hard to describe the difference between the old one and this one. we don't have to touch the steering wheel, we have a remote control. how decadent is that? it was pricey ($7800) but omg was it worth it. it is really quiet and we have put in all our waypoints to san diego and it will take us there automatically. even under sail. its darn amazing, i tell ya.

i talked to my nephew David and his is going to try to take Tuesday off work and drive down to see us. it's about a 2 hour drive, but he's my favorite and i'm his. can't wait to see him and we'll be able to spend a whole day with him. we're going to wine and dine him before he has to go back.

before we got here i thought there was a cruise ship convention out there in the middle of the ocean. i swore there were 3 ships anchored and 1 at a berth on shore. dan was sleeping, but i woke him to see what i should do. he said to stay the course or go around them since they weren't moving. i chose to stay on course and would make adjustments if i needed to. dan went back to bed. about 20 miles closer, they took on a whole new perspective. the one i thought was berthed turned out to be vandenberg AFB and the 3 others were oil platforms. honest, i didn't smoke any wacky tobacky either. some things just don't look the same out here. i'll never live down the cruiseship convention, tho. we still giggle a little about it, and of course dan likes to tell people about it. ha ha ha.

so that's the update so far. i haven't had many comments back from you people and i'm anxious to hear from you. please add some feed back. love u all.... hugs

guess it's time for an update. we are still at spud point marina in bodega bay. day 14. we have a representative from raymarine installing our new auto pilot. it is taking a whole lot longer than we want, but he had to fabricate some things to make the new, larger one fit. it will, however, handle this big boat without question. i got an angry bug up my butt saturday and e-mailed the c.e.o. AND the president/ owner of west marine and complained about the circumstances up to the point that this inadequate pilot went tits up. only i think i was nice. well, since then we have had 3 phone calls and 3 e-mails from the above mentioned mucky mucks plus the manager of the west marine store in fife and one of her employees. they will completely refund the money that we paid for the first one and have been very cooperative. guess it pays to go directly to the top!

we have had a tsunami warning, 3 days and nights of gale force winds and today seems to be warm and not much wind. i use to like the sound of the wind, but not so much any more. it just howls through here. the locals call this blowdega bay, now i know why.

if fred, the raymarine guy gets the pilot in today and working, we will leave tomorrow morning, but i don't have my hopes up since it is almost 3'oclock today and he hasn't showed up yet. i realize that he has had his work cut out for him on this project, but i want to go south where it is a bit warmer.

hope everyone is well, as we are. blog more as events happen...hugs

hi everyone. it's saturday, sept.26th. we left newport, oregon on monday, sept. 21. since the weather is so changeable, we had to stay longer in newport. we left around 11 am, got into the channel and out past the jetties then the wind and waves decided to make themselves heard. it was a pretty rough ride and all three dogs got seasick. dan was below for a few minutes and came up nauseus, but kept everything down. after we got out a few miles and turned south things quieted down pretty good and the seas smoothed out pretty nice. around 3 am, the engine started revving up and then died. dan got it started but it wouldn't stay going. we talked to elias on the stepping stone and he and dan figured it was a clogged fuel filter, so dan changed it and about 3 hours later it started up and we were off again. just a little bit of excitement.....bobbing around in the middle of the pacific in the middle of the night. dan laid down for some much needed sleep and my watch was pretty uneventful, except i screwed up the way points when i had to change them and had the boat on the chart plotter going the wrong direction. duh. dan got it corrected when he got up. boy am i glad he knows what we're doing! so thanks to our industrious captain, we are still heading to mexico. we left oregon waters on sept. 22. dan saw a couple of grey whales on his watch, but i haven't seen anything but some dolphins or porpoises, whichever. by evening we have nothing but fog, and mist. it is colder than a witches tit at night. the dogs huddle up next to us a keep us a little warm and we wrap up in lots of clothes, jackets, and blankets. plus we can open the lazarette door and put the blanket over it and the hot air comes up under the blanket. still plenty cold. the fog has stayed with us and we have the stay sail up to keep the bow a little more steady. it's been really choppy. the engine started revving up again and we don't have a spare but we talked to elias and he has 10 of them. he is going to drop one off to us.. they came up beside us and passed in front of our bow, dropped a package in the water, dan fished it up with the dog net and viola! we have a clean fuel filter. quite a tricky maneuver, but it worked. but we really didn't need it quite yet. around 3 pm on thursday, sept. 24, it got really cold, and foggier than ever. it just will not let up. but on we sail. aroung 4:30 in the afternoon the auto pilot quit and we were hand steering. that's a bitch. just about tears your arms out of their sockets when the waves are this high, but doable. just need strength and courage. some of which we have. later that afternoon the fuel filter gave up again and the engine quit. now we are dead in the water and hand steering. anyone want to be me right now?? i'll bet if we had any crew members at this point they would be jumping ship at the next port. had to call the coast guard from bodega bay, ca. to come and tow us in. we had already passed bodega bay and was on our way to san francisco, but we turned back and the coast guard rescued us about 5 miles out. it sure is amazing to watch these guys in action. they are truly professional and know just what to do. the teamwork was so awesome. i'm sure glad they were available. we would never have been able to negotiate the chanel on our own. it is very narrow and shallow in spots. the coast guard towed us by our bow until we got to the chanel and then they came around and towed from our port side. put us right into a dock, secured us and then came aboard and inspected us. we passed. that's about the best thing that happened all day. so here we are in bodega bay, california. fixing things. well sort of....dan broke a piece off the water filter, so we had to replace it too. west marine is in santa rosa, which is about an hour drive from here inland. called enterprise to rent a car. they are in sebastopol, which is only 45 minutes away. charged $50 pick up fee, $500 a week for a mini van. oh well, we can now drive to santa rosa and pick up parts. the west marine store is very small and didn't have a new fuel filter casing, so we bought 10 filters, all that they had. after dan broke the water pump, we had to drive back to west marine today and get a new one, but they had a fuel filter casing. we bought it and 3 filters for it. went into to sebastopol to find a safeway and while i was shopping, dan read the directions for the fuel filter thingy and it is for gas only, well we are diesel. oops now we gotta go back into santa rosa on monday. hopefully the guy at west marine will have gotten us the one we need. the weather has been beautiful today, saturday, sept 26. it has been so foggy you couldn't see across the chanel, but i have shorts and a tank top on today; it was 101 in santa rosa when we were there this afternoon. life's just a bowl of cherries, sometimes sweet and sometimes its the pits. i love you all, keep the comments coming.. hugs

well, it looks like we have our overheating problem solved. whoo hoo. we are planning on leaving friday morning and going straight to san francisco. the weather window is good for a few more days so we are going to get as far as we can south before it turns real nasty. after cape mendicino we should have fair winds and an easier sail. keep your fingers crossed. lol. we've met a lot of really nice people that are all heading to mexico. some with the baha ha ha, some not, but all are headed to cabo or la paz. it's really neat to meet people in one port and run into them again at another one. like seeing long lost friends.

the dogs are doing great and love to run loose in the sand dunes. that makes a nice mess when they come back on board, but handy dandy dirt devil takes care of it just fine. they have gotten used to doing their business on the selected place on the stern and aren't afraid to use it when need be!!!

we rented a car and have been taxiing other sailors to town when they need to go or just give them the keys if we are too busy. it's nothing but a good thing. hopefully if we are someplace and need a ride, one will be available to us. that's how it's supposed to work, right?

hope all is well with you all, keep up the comments. love to hear from you. hugs

to answer all your questions: ron , yes, you got it right. keep the comments coming. say hi to toots for me and give her a great big kiss and a great big hug. i love u guys.

bev. the dogs are doing really well and have adjusted quite nicely. how is your truck running? hope everything is still hunky dory with you guys hugs and kisses

andy & candy: don jose marina in la paz. we'll be there with bells on so come on down.

we made it to newport, oregon on sunday, sept.13. mostly uneventful with just a bit of a blow now and then. the engine has been overheating and we figured out a temporary fix but need to do some serious work on it. the fog rolled in about 4 am on saturday night and stayed most of the day. it lifted in the early evening but stayed overcast the rest of the trip. we took 6 hr shifts for the two nights at sea and that seemed to work out well for both of us. we didn't have any trouble crossing the bar into newport so we feel we are pretty lucky. staying here for at least 3 nights to do some shopping and go to a b.o.a.t. store (for you who don't know what that is, it stands for Break Out Another Thousand). met up with some people we first met in port angeles here on the "Intrepid", kelly, carol, adam and edie. have also met Garth and Kimberley on the "Irish Diplomacy" and elias on the "stepping Stone" all are heading to mexico so i expect we will see alot of them down the line. we had a diesel mechanic come down to the boat and he did some troubleshooting for us and gave us a good idea of what to do next with the overheating problem. dan took the heat exchanger off and we rented a car and took it to a radiator place to have it flushed. should get it back tomorrow and then we can see if that was the problem. did up all the dirty laundry and the bedding so everything is clean and fresh. gotta love it. we walked over to "flashbacks" for a burger and ice cream cone. they didn't have licorice so i had banana pudding. was sooo good. take care all and stay in touch. hugs

after a very pleasant sail from pt. townsend, we are moored in pt. angeles. this is a great marina, nice wide docks and no problem getting in here. the weather was perfect all day and the seas smooth. that is suppose to change tonight with rain and winds through tomorrow. we will stay here til thursday morning and then off to neah bay to top off the fuel tanks and on into the pacific. next stop newport, oregon. had a great hamburger and a couple of beers for dinner at the castaway. long walk but well worth it and it's always good to take a long walk after eating...lol. met some people here from portland who have been cruising for a couple of months. they are on their way home. lots of good information about places to stop and places to avoid down the coast. nice folks. the kids seem to be adapting well and i think they might even like it. maggie is still a little uncertain, but daisy and max love it on deck. they look so cool in their life jackets. we met a lady in pt townsend that had a mim aussie, but was black and white with blue eyes, sure was a cutie. she came down and introduced emma to max, maggie and daisy. really well behaved dog...what happened to ours??? can't wait to get to southern california where the water is warmer and the seas nice and smooth. love u all hugs

we are resting up in Pt. Townsend after battling rough seas and high winds. took a long time to get here and a long time to find the entrance to the marina, fighting all the way. didn't get in until around 2 am. tied her up and walked the kids, then straight to bed. needless to say, we were exhausted. today seems to be much the same. last night the wind blew 43 knots...today its only about 35 knots, but we are tied in and don't really care. we are staying here until at least tuesday. this little front is suppose to blow over by then and have sunny skies and mid 60's. i am keeping my fingers crossed. and anything else that's crossable. the dogs faired pretty well for their first trip out of the marina. don't think they were really happy, but didn't kick up too much of a fuss. took them for a nice long walk around the marina this morning after breakfast and tried to wear them out, so they are all snoozing, including our illustrious captain. there is a really good restaurant here call "Sea J's" and is within the marina, so it probably will be our breakfast stop each morning...good fish and chips. there is a west marine (can you say B.O.A.T.) here too so of course we had to stop and shop. also a safeway within walking distance. i hope we can make it to downtown before we leave, cuz i love it here. it is really an artists community and very quaint. so far it has been an exciting, exhilerating trip and i am looking forward to getting back out there and continuing our journey. hugs to all

first post

august 27,2009 well, here we sit in the marina. we are so ready, but Tim is still working on the dinghy davits and then needs to hook up the solar panels. we are going to try to get out of here before the weekend is over. so far we have added refrigeration, water maker, 4 additional wilderness batteries, a windlass with 250 ft of chain, an inverter/charger, a water heater (11 gal.) a new dinghy, a 9.9 mercury outboard, a new bbq, dodger, bimini. now we have proven the acronym for a boat....break out another thousand!!! the dogs (crewmates), max, maggie, and daisy have aclimatized to boat life very nicely. we seem to think they will do ok on our voyages. we are all stocked with the necessities of a long cruise at sea. plenty of seasick pills, ginger ale and barf buckets. we have said our goodbyes to family and friends, drank a toast or two with them and cried quite a few tears.. some of joy, some of sorrow. sorrow for missing everyone, but lots of joy for finally doing what we planned on doing when we retired. just think, no more housework, no more lawn mowing, no more of the dreaded yellowheads (dandelions), no more commute in traffic (no car or truck), no bills, no nothing but the sky above and the sea below. please enjoy our trip with us. rain and dan