Dearest Friends and Family,

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting. March in southern italy is a time of very squirrelly, unstable weather. Snowball showers, howling winds, rain, sun for a day or so, then another low pressure comes through. So, we're waiting for a decent weather window so we can start heading west to Sicily via the volcanic Aeolian islands of Lipari and Volcano, and officially start our 2007 Mediterranean Cruising Adventures.

A few weeks ago, we returned to Vibo Valentia Marina, here in southern Italy, where we had left ChaliVentures "on the hard" for the winter. Her beautiful, shiny, freshly-painted blue self got re-launched in the water, and we returned to the marina without a scratch. schwehh. It's like having a new car... terrified about getting the first scratch or dent. Since that time we've (Chuck, that is, has) done typical springtime boat chores: put the sails back on, change the oil, did some re-wiring of our solar-panel/battery charging connections, tested out all the electronics, re-organized the quarter-berth/garage about 10 times, and did a few miscellaneous repairs. In addition, we've been socializing more than usual since there are 2 other american boat couples, 2 dutch, 1 german, 1 french and 1 british all here doing about the same thing that we're doing. And what do I do, you wonder? laundry, cleaning, cooking, shopping, walking zoey, reading, email. And in the evening if we're not socializing, then we're watching our DVD's.

We've gotten back into the groove of living in our 40' floating home, in a very small Italian town, walking everywhere, patronizing our favorite bakery, butcher, veggie man and grocer usually on a daily basis. Zoey has adapted to chasing lizards instead of her beloved Virginia squirrels.

So, we just wanted to check in; it's been quite a while, but unfortunately we don't have any ADVENTURES to report, yet. I DID finally update our photo website at snapfish with the pix we took last fall. You should have received an email with the link to "snapfish" to view the Italy-Fall 2006 album. If you didn't receive a picture link, and you'd like to see our pictures, just shoot me a note. it's hard to keep all my email addresses in sync across multiple systems. Alternately, if you'd rather NOT receive the link to the photos, let me know that too. i know that unless you have a fast connection, it can take WAY too long.

We are VERY ANXIOUS to get going. We're hopeful that Tuesday, April 3 will be the day. It's been so long, i hope we remember how to sail the boat!

Hope the next Chali-Gram is more interesting.

XO,

Alison, Chuck and ...Zoey of course