Cruising Contacts

This past weekend we had the pleasure of spending some time with experienced cruisers Bud Campbell and Jill Bebee from Sailing Vessel Earendil.  The day was filling with stories of weather, electronics, gear, people and destinations. 

Earendil has sailed the Gulf coast and extensively in the Bahamas and we loved hearing all about the adventures that had during their time cruising. 

Spending time with fellow cruisers sure puts fuel to our fire and makes us really really want to get going on our own adventures.

On another note we had dinner with Tim and Cindy Miller to help celebrate my 50th birthday.  The evening just made me realize how much I am going to miss these two good friends.  They promised they would visit us in some of our cruising destinations....I am going to hold them to that.

Kooky Dance Has a New Home

We moved into our new marina today.  We are at Bayland Marine in Baytown, TX.  It is very nice and QUIET....

The "sun cover" is mostly done....

One more step closer to the dream....The sun cover (a must have) is done, well the mid section (the hardest section) is set up and ready to provide us with an abundance of shade.  Scott came up the the design and we both worked on the sewing.  The front section will be pretty straight forward and should only take a couple of days to complete.

BTW - we ordered our Wind vane today...another big step forward.

More Cruising Prep

Right now every step seems like a huge leap forward toward our dreams.  This past week we got our Bimini supports, clocks and barometer.  That may not sound like a lot but each represents an item checked off the "to-do" list.  We attended Texas Mariners Cruisers Association's Spring Fling to take in several seminars including, Anchoring techniques, cruising medical and prep for coastal cruising.  We made a lot of plans for additional work on the boat including mast steps, ladders and miscellaneous installations.

The Bimini supports

Work continues on the sun cover but expect that to be done by June 1.  Speaking of June 1 - we are now planning on moving our boat to Bayland Marina - we will save almost 1,200.00 in slip fees and that is enough money to purchase a soft dinghy or a dinghy motor. 

After the book sort.....

I am very proud of Scott - he hung in there like a real trooper......90% of the books are either donated or recycled.

Down Sizing Part 2

We spent the day sorting books, photo's, CD's and tapes.....it was exhausting.  We are making progress toward our dream.

November 1st is our projected departure date.  Exciting and scary all bundled together.

Before the book sort.....

After the book sort.....

Coming soon.......

The Dinghy is Done!!

We put the last coat of paint on Dinghy Dance on Sunday and we are putting her in the water this weekend!  It took us 7 months to build her and she is a thing of beauty.  I will post photo's of the first launch soon.