Deck work

Dear Friends and Family,

Three weeks have passed and its time to give you a quick picture of what we're up to. Just as you have heard many times before, we aren't up to much and yet we are up to a lot.

Jimi is still doing deck work. At first he was going to complete the job in sections, but has now decided to do it in its entirety, This involves removing everything from the deck. All fittings, hardware, winches, cleats, and rails that surround the boat. He will then paint, apply non skid and re-bed all the hardware. This should stop most future leaks and make for a dry boat. He estimates this to take a couple more months.

A couple of weeks ago we were invited to a BBQ by our boat yard neighbor, Gary. He and his wife live in New York, but are here working on their own boat. They stay with a friend of theirs who is the Captain of a cargo ship carrying relief food to Somalia and the rest of Africa's East coast. We were astonished to meet this guy and listen to his stories. What an incredible and dangerous job he has. At the same BBQ, we were introduced with and exchanged numbers with other large sailing boat owners. Particularly Bill and Linda who own a 52 foot Endeavor and invited us to crew for them sometime in the future. We are looking forward to that day; it just can't come fast enough.

We are doing fine with only one vehicle. Sharing is not so bad.

I'm still putting together our wedding scrap book album. I had to put it on hold until I am through with Valentines Day cards.

Not much to write about,yet we wanted  to check in. Hope all is well with you and your family.

Love everybody,

Lorie & Jimi

We enter in to a new year - Welcome 2012

Dear Friends and Family,

We had a wonderful Christmas. After opening our presents, we skyped with our family in Nebraska and watched them open their presents. It was so touching - I cried through most of it. My parents and I think this may have been the first Christmas apart since I was born. Being able to skype felt like I was almost there and we really enjoyed it.

We went out with some new friends. We were invited by a guy Jimi met at the boat yard to go to a sports bar to listen to a well known local band, We shared the evening with him, his wife, and the boat yard's manager. We watched, listened, and danced staying out until 1am. I'm proud to say us old people can still "hang" once in a while.

For New Years, we went out to dinner for sushi, and came home to watch TV taking the Cole's approach to New Years and leaving it to armature's night.

Because it is so expensive to register vehicles in Florida and because I only drive about 10 miles a week we decided it was not worth it to register two vehicles. We transferred insurance and registration to the truck and saved at least $500.

I'm finishing up my 2011 scrapbook and hope to have it published on our blog in a few days. Every time I made a new card design, I also make one for my portfolio. Well my portfolio is now hundreds of cards thick. I have taken photographs of each card, which I will load to our blog and I will begin using or giving away my stock.Let me know if you want any.

Sanibel update: We purchased a self steering wind vane locally off Craigslist. There are a variety of styles, this one is called a servo pendulum. They are used as a sort of mechanical auto pilot during voyages or longer sails. It uses no power but instead uses the wind to adjust course. JImi will go through the unit, clean it up and rebuild it. As typical, these are very expensive as much as 5,000- $6,000. We opted for the "needs work" model for $1000.

Jimi continues with the deck work. The cock pit sits waiting for the final paint and non skid. He's repairing another area from the bow measuring approximately 2' x 1'. He removed all the hardware, set up new locations for the cleat and the wind lass and filling any old unused mounting holes properly. The life line on the bow of the boat has been removed for these repairs.

Looking forward to what 2012 will bring; our final year on land for a long time (hopefully).

God bless and love to all.

Happy 2012

Lorie & Jimi

PS: Thank you for the wonderful Christmas cards and gifts!