Two Houses and a 5th-Wheel on a Boat

Two houses and a 5th-wheel will not fit on our boat!  As cruisers before us have found, there is very little storage on a boat and what there is has vent hoses and wiring run through it and is NOT square.  Four days before we set sail and we find ourselves with half a storage unit of stuff we really don’t need, but haven’t found the heart to depart with.  Yes, I am still trying to squeeze my Cuisinart Food Processor onboard.  Thankfully, we have family that like quite a bit of our belongings.  Consequently, we feel quite at home when we visit them.

Bon Voyage Party

Our wonderful and best friends decided to throw us a Bon Voyage party this weekend. Not only did they provide us with a great party, they surprised us with some incredible going away gifts. The thought and care that went into these presents make us smile to the core. We are blessed and so grateful for such amazing friends.

The Motley Crew!

(Jim, Nick, Sherry, Stephane, Steve, Dave, Anna, Melanie, Mike,

Kim and Brian....Ian & Glynis missing, but in our hearts)

 

Jim, Steve, Melanie and Mike

 

Sherry, Jennifer and Kim

 

The Cooking begins!!

 

Brian and Jim

 

Sherry thanking Stephane for the bottle of Champagne

that we will drink leaving the dock as we head out.

 

 Our friends got us a beautiful sextant so that we can always

find our way back home.

 

They even provided books to make sure

we know what we are doing.

(I think they forgot I can't read)

 

The Booty!!

 

And to make sure we always follow our dreams,

the sextant had a beautiful engraved plaque to remind us.

 

What amazing friends we have... We love you guys!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





More Boat work

As the old saying goes, what does B-O-A-T stand for? Break Out Another Thousand...that is ringing very true these past few weeks. With projects getting finished and needing to be finshed, West Marine has become our unwanted but very needed friend. Here are a few of the projects in the works or getting finished.

Rigging: The boat is without mast, sails and a boom. The folks (Kevin) at Stix N Rig'n http://stixnrign.com/index.htm have been tasked with putting the rod rigging through its check out. While the mast is out, we are doing a few other projects as well. The mast tricolor light now has LED bulbs, there is a new anchor LED light added and a new VHF antenna. Oh, and a Windex wind indicator added so we can see where to point the boat.

The Radar arch is finally complete and looks AWESOME!  Simon Hameka at Custom Yacht Carpentry & Service did an amazing job, as he was on time and on budget. Thats the way we like things done. We also added the lifting block and tackle for the dinghy.