Update long overdue. It has been a tough year for the crew of Puddle Pirate. One of our crew members “Gabby” left the boat to attend school in Florida. Things were going good until the funding ran out and we had to move her to a new school. Change is hard for Gabby, so the move didn’t go well. We tried to move her to Arizona that way she could be close to family but this didn’t work out. So we moved her to Washington, our home state. The adjustment was very hard on her emotional skills. The good news is she is just starting to settle in to the new school and routine.

It has taken all summer to facilitate the transfers and get everything lined up for her. The new school is located in Tacoma; Crystal our eldest daughter is visiting Gabby weekly. This is helping Gabby with the transition. Having family members close to her is beneficial to her emotional needs as well as her academic growth. This brings us to a new issue.

The crew of Puddle Pirate will have to relocate to Washington to help with the emotional growth of Gabby. Rose, the youngest crew member would like to attend high school in Washington as well.
What you say no more cruising? Not so, we will still go cruising but we just have to take a little break. After this season we plan on putting Puddle Pirate back on the hard in San Carlos then heading back up to Washington to start this new chapter of our cruising lifestyle. We hope this break will only last 1 year then we can return to our boat and kick start our cruising plans.

Ok now that I have brought you up to date. Presently we are in San Diego bay anchored in A9 anchorage. We are enjoying the warm weather and getting Puddle Pirate ready to head south. As to when we will be leaving is up to how fast it takes to get everything ready to go. Oh and also the weather topic. The hurricane season has been a bad one this year. The last thing we need is to head out right into a storm. Been there done that!

The crew of Puddle Pirate has expanded by one new four legend member. Teddy the Terror is a small black Terrier mix who loves to swim and play in the sand. Rosie has taught her to relieve herself on a small green turf located on the back deck now called the poop deck.:) With the rough summer Rosie needed a little friend to help her through it all. So now we have Teddy, and she is a terror but a welcome addition to the crew. She barks at everything that goes bump in the night so her job is night watchman. I can’t wait until she sees the dolphins and whales when we head south.

We plan on heading south after thanksgiving. Rosie misses her friends in La Cruz, so this will be one of our stops before heading north to San Carlos. I am so ready to head south. I will miss not being able to head further south to Costa Rica and join the rest of our cruising family. But I know we will catch up someday. That is the nice thing about cruising. You have family everywhere and you never say goodbye, just say until next time. The world is not as big as you think!