Cheryl’s Notes:

There has been lots of activity since our last post. On Sunday morning we sailed through the islands to Bayfield. We pulled into Port Superior before noon. We were greeted by our friends Lee and Marlynn. They helped us tie up and then offered us a ride down to the Twin Cities. It turns out that their son lives less than a mile from our condo. They dropped us off right at our front door. It is great to make new friends, but there is nothing like old friends.

We spent Monday getting our mail and visiting family. We got up very early Tuesday morning and headed toward Cleveland. Long drive for John, as I am not proficient in driving his car. (It is a 5 speed.) My sister, Barb and Trish offered to put us up for the night. We had a great visit, including dinner at Panini’s. Wednesday morning we said our goodbyes and then backtracked to Sandusky. Julio the Jeep was right where we left him, although he was covered in spider webs. Now for the long drive back, each of us in our own vehicles. We made a few more stops than heading east, including the middle of Amish country. We made it off the road just in time at the Wisconsin Dells. Huge storm system that stretched form there to Janesville caused a sudden downpour. We had a snack while it passed. It rained off and on all the way to Hudson. We got home late and collapsed.

Today was a down day. Did some laundry, grabbed a few groceries and emptied out Julio. Now we can go back up to the boat and start clearing out more stuff. It was one thing to store everything on the boat when it was our only home. But now that we have an alternative, we can unload some more weight.

John’s Notes:

It’s only Thursday and it has already been a long week. I just can’t get excited about driving 1620 miles in two days.

Back to the boat tomorrow and then the cleaning begins. We will be removing everything that we don’t need for fulltime living aboard. That should allow us to remove about another thousand pounds. Just the mountain of books alone should take a couple of hundred pounds off.

We are good through the end of August for a home for Leprechaun. After that, we have to decide what we are going to do. Really wouldn’t want to haul the boat that soon before the end of the season. On the other hand, I can’t see spending a couple of thousand dollars for six weeks or so of dockage. Have to see who is willing to make a deal. The way I see it, if I were a marina this late in the season, I would rather have some income than none. If we haul at the end of August, we might miss Applefest.

Still keep thinking in the back of my mind that we might start looking for a trawler. The problem is that there are several that we are interested in but we still have to sell our boat first. Let the looking begin. Getting our boat sold might take a couple of years. In this market, it’s like trying to sell a house.