12/22/2007
Dear Friends and Family
As 2007 draws to a close, we stand in awe of the greatness of our God. What a wonderful year it has been, filled with both joy and sadness. We are looking forward to all that 2008 holds for us and for you.
A merry, merry Christmas from all of us.
Philip, Sharon, Luke and Ruth
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12/19/2007, Woodbine, NJ
Sharon and Luke have gone to the theater in Atlantic City, after scoring some great tickets from Debb. That left Bill, Ruthie and I, free to enjoy the boat yard.
We went up to Bill's friend Jimmy from Allyn Steel, where they have a 100 year old oyster boat in dry dock. When Jabulani was there 2 weeks ago, getting her mast pulled out, the shipwrights working on this oyster boat had just started cutting out the bad wood with a chain saw. Now the new 2" white oak planks are in, and it was time to caulk the seams. Two layers of cotton, and then a layer of oakum was prescribed by the experienced man on the job.
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12/16/2007, Randolph, NJ
We have really been getting into the swing of Christmas now that we are back in our old stomping ground. We have snow on the ground and a chill in the air. We were at dear friends, the Richardson's, last night; the same family we stayed with for the two weeks leading up to our departure on Jabulani in November. They had a wonderful Christmas party complete with carols and great food. We slept over at their house again last night, which was a blessing indead considering we were all only ready to get into bed at around 12:30 pm. Of course, with small children we slept in this morning until a wopping 8 am, hardly a sleep in some would say!
Today was another eventful day in that the kids had a birthday party of an about-to-turn 7 year old friend, Chenika. They had an absolute ball as the party was at an ice skating rink. They were flying across the ice at sometimes very rapid rates, mostly holding onto little walkers but occasionally venturing off without holding onto anything at all. Great fun was had by all.
I guess most of you are wondering what is up with our schooner shopping and when we'll finally settle down somewhere. In that regard too this has been a great week. We have begun to get the process of purchasing the schooner started through a broker up in Maine, who is very knowledgeable about wooden boats and seems to be a highly thorough individual. We are very excited about this development and have grown more and more to admire the knowledge and camaraderie between the group we have working with us on this project. Neal Parker is one of these whom we are so grateful to for his sound advice and wise counsel. Bill Noe, of course, has become a dear friend and compatriot. He and Debb have made us part of their family and truly we would not be in the position we are today without their open hearts and willing hands.
Thanks also go to all of you who read about us and continue to share interest in our journeys, on the sea and in our faith walk. We have faced some most uncertain days over the last month, but here we are at the cusp of something great. Keep reading, it's only going to get better from now onwards.
Photo credit : Don Dunbar (http://www.easternmaineimages.com)
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12/10/2007, Woodbine, NJ
While we helped out back in North Jersey, Bill had Jabulani hauled and blocked for the winter. Last week, we had strong winds, and snow and ice that prevented Jabulani getting hauled out while we were there. The truck was rescheduled for today, and Bill once again has helped us out, taking good care of Jabulani.
Now, one might think that Jabulani is sitting in Bill's yard, but the soil was too soft and muddy for the truck, so again, Bills friendship paid off for us, and Jabulani is sitting in the yard of a friend.
A big thank you Bill from all of us!!!
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12/06/2007, Woodbine, NJ
Some of you have been wondering why it is that we are having our boat hauled out for the winter. We have been a little vague on that subject because until recently there have been some negotiations on future opportunities that were not finalized yet. The time has come, though, to reveal to you what the next few months will hold for us.
Before we give you a snapshop of our future let us take a few steps back in time and remind you that from early 1995 we have felt that our great dream as a family would be to operate a large sailing vessel with the main purpose of taking groups of people on board to do leadership development programs and team building excursions, with the aim of taking teams to destinations where they can participate in outreach initiatives and missions activities. As a matter of fact, when we arrived in America our first year here, 2000, was spent predominantly interviewing boat builders to prospectively build us an 80 - 100 ft schooner.
Toward the end of that first year we felt that God was reworking our strategy and calling us to be faithful with what we had right then in terms of our financial resources and our experience level and so we purchased Jabulani, which was what we could afford at the time without getting into debt. We assumed that once we returned from some long distance sailing, we would be in a better position to raise money to build a larger boat.
Various opportunities started to become available to us from October this year that involve us purchasing a large schooner for next season. We never expected these opportunities to present themselves to us prior to us doing some long distance sailing, but they have and we would be remiss if we did not spend the time following them to their conclusion.
Having this opportunity present itself at this particular point in time has presented some challenges to us in that Philip has already resigned from his job and has been working full time on this opportunity since November 16. We always expected and planned to live off various investments in predominantly 3rd world environments, which is not going to be the case if our offer on the schooner is accepted. We will not be earning any income from the large boat initially and living in the NJ area could make the next 6 - 12 months or so financially constrained for us with regard to living expenses.
Our highest aim has always been to follow as God leads us on the journey of life. We appreciate your prayers for us during the next few weeks of decision making. Due to us leaving our apartment and living with friends for the next month or two - we have no fixed contact numbers but our e-mail is still the same. We would love to hear from you. We appreciate all those who have been following our blog and will keep you all updated as things progress.
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12/05/2007, Woodbine, NJ
While Philip and Bill were down at Jabulani getting the mast pulled this morning, Luke and Ruth did school. It is great to have a bit of routine in their school hours again.
Luke spent some time before lunch practicing his tractor driving skills and apparently did some off-road excursions into the woods bumping into trees many times. Bill and Luke came back looking none the worse for ware - not sure about the tractor though.
This afternoon we took a really nice walk in the first real snow of the season down here. We took a slow 2 mile walk down to the close-by pond, meeting one of Bill's neighbors and stopping to visit with the cows on the way back. We wandered a short way through the woods, but didn't want to get too far off the beaten track as it is still deer hunting season.
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