One of the things that is on the down side of a cruising lifestyle, is that you are away from family and friends for most of the year. Add to that the fact that it is so easy to lose touch with people who you used to see on occasion. While we do make new cruiser friends and always enjoy it when we see them in an anchorage, it is not like being able to hop in the car or pick up the phone to see or talk to someone. It is a lifestyle where you main contact is your spouse. In our case that is just perfect since we get along so well and so enjoy being with each other.

I mention this because yesterday we received a Facebook “Friend” offer from one of our old friends that we had not seen or heard from in over 9 years. He is just starting to get into using Facebook and, like us, is in the process of learning how powerful it is. It is such a treat to be “friends” on Facebook with Harry and we immediately sent him a message in hopes that he would see it soon. We were rewarded with a nice long message back this from him this morning. It was Great!

Harry is now 92 and to get a long message was more than we could have hoped for. We had tried contacting him a few years ago when we were in Southern California visiting friends and family for the holidays. Unfortunately, he was not available and we never heard back from him so that contact got lost. Now it has been re-established and we are just thrilled!

We had decided to go into the marina tomorrow. We love being out in the anchorage here in the bay since the wind is nice and cooling and constantly blowing. However, there are a number of errands we want to run before our friends come in about a week and being in the marina will just make running those errands so much easier. Plus, it will making doing a few of the boat projects that have cropped up that much easier. We noticed that the top of our headsail has some stitching that has come loose around the sun guard strip that protects the sail from the sun when it is furled. I want to drop that sail and take it to the sail loft that is in the marina complex. We have also discovered that one of our three solar panels has stopped generating electricity. I believe it just a bad connection somewhere but I am anxious to get it fixed. I also want the electrician to check on the battery switch that isolates our starter batteries from the house batteries. This was a problem I wrote about as we were trying to leave Barbados.

Being in the marina will also make it a bit easier to clean and prep the boat for our friends who arrive on the 21st. Thus, while we really do not like staying in marinas, it will make life a bit easier, so we will grudgingly go in tomorrow.