Our visit to California is now behind us. We had lots of fun with old and new friends, played some music, hiked, sailed and almost went skiing. We just ran out of time for that. We also bought many items for the boat that are really difficult to find anywhere else. The prize of the list is a new Dinghy. Our old one was developing seam to transom troubles, so we took the opportunity to replace it while we could. We bought an Achilles with inflatable floor this time. We loved the Zodiac, but dinghys live a hard life, and we were told that the hypalon models (like Achilles) are more robust. We shall see. We hear lots of people beating up on Zodiac (they are PVC), but for us, we have only praise.

It was a 20 hour trip back to the island – 6 hour flight from San Francisco to Honolulu, a 7 hour layover where we got to sleep on a nice hard, cold wooden bench just like the homeless. We now both have much more appreciation for the difficulty of such a life! Finally, we arrived in Majuro early in the day.

As always returning to a boat that has been sitting closed up for two months means that there will be work to be done. Our waterline was seriously dirty and took a good two hours of scrubbing to get it pretty again. Inside, we had some mold – not much, but it must be addressed or else it spreads. So, accordingly, Elisabeth removed all cushions and mattresses, cleaned them, cleaned and wiped down the surfaces with water and vinegar, all of the bulkheads (walls) and counter tops. Bugs? Well, yes a few, but not too bad. We found weevils in closed containers of flour. Since they were closed, we expect that the little buggers were in the flour from new. All in all not too bad at all, but it does take a bit of time to address these things.

For the time being, we will continue our work to get Proximity back into working (and living) shape, and then we want to explore that outer Marshall Islands. There are many, and we have heard that they are well worth a visit. We will keep you posted on all of this, but for now, we have yacht work to do!

As always, “Your Rock and Roll Argonauts” send you the best, and we encourage you to click the little “leave a comment button” and tell us a little about you - it makes us feel connected.