On Monday, we motored to Kingman Yacht Center for the survey and all went very well except the forward sling impinged on the rub rail on the starboard side and opened a crack that runs about 15 feet along the underside of the rail. We will need to seal it ASAP, but for now it seems to be no problem.

Once we accepted the boat after survey, tons of things had to be done. My funds from my 457 deferred compensation account had to be wired into escrow for the closing, which was scheduled for Tuesday, the 22nd. We had to secure insurance, buy a liferaft, a dinghy and a new outboard for the dinghy.

I had Al Golden, president of IMIS (Jackline policy) standing by for the insurance binder, and we had someone at the credit union watching for the incoming deposit from Hartford. We hurried to West Marine where we had already had the manager, Todd, bring in a HP-350 dinghy - Yvonne wanted the larger model at 11.5 feet. We had taken a ride in John and Juli's HP-310 and I thought 10 feet would be fine, but it seemed a bit small for us, so we went for the Hp-350. We also bought a Mercury 9.9 outboard for it so it will move along nicely when we need to cover some distance.

We bought a new LED spotlight that has a red floddlight as well as white, which preserves our night vision. We also bought some engine oil at John's recommendation, for the main engine and the genset. Diesels need their oil like sailors need their rum! Why is that, Captain Ron?

With the dinghy and motor crammed into the rental car, we drove to the survival shop, LRSE http://lrse.com/ We bought a 6-person raft - here's the page:

http://www.lrse.com/prod-DSB_6_Person_Valise-422.aspx

We jammed that into the rental car and sped off to John and Juli's where they had graciously put us up in their basement apartment.

Somewhere in the midst of this running around on Wednesday, we got a call from the credit union that our funds had arrived. A quick call to Tom Morton, our treasured broker, set the closing in motion. I called Al Golden and he sent a binder to us via email. Tom then called to say WE CLOSED THE DEAL! All this on Thanksgiving eve left us with lots to be thankful for. Our boat buying days came to an end just like that. Now we own a boat and all that goes with it.

John and Juli had us over for a fabulous Thanksgiving feast on Thursday and we all had a fine time, swapping stories and vowing to stay in touch. They want to be able to buy the boat when we are finished cruising!