From USA 2015

I think it's about time I started up this blog again- the USA trip is over and a new cruising season has begun! It always feels odd to be chronicling our lives this way but then again it's great to be able to keep in touch with friends, family & followers and even to be able to look back ourselves on what we've done! So here goes...
From USA 2015

The two months we spent in the USA went quickly but it seemed like we got a bunch of things accomplished, the most important being seeing as many people as we could fit in. None of what we are doing here would be as rich if it weren't for all of you in the background of our lives. We got right on the stick with Ebay and were able to sell a bunch of junk, I mean valuable items, that we were never going to be able to use again- mainly boat parts but some other things like cameras and electronics. You really can sell just about anything on ebay. The money we "earned" wasn't that much but the feeling of getting rid of some of the stuff that we have to step over & move every time we want something out of our shed was really good. The Thetford list-serv came in handy because we sold our old truck that way to the first caller! It was nice to have that go to a good home rather than rust in peace. Despite the fact that we came home in late March, we both really enjoyed the weather much more than in previous trips in dead winter and since the days were lengthening & temps warming, it was exciting to watch Spring unfold. We made a trip down to Wash DC in time to hit the cherry blossoms in full swing which was so nice. In all the places we've visited, we've never met a match for the Smithsonian nor a capital city greater than our own. And even though there were lots of people there to celebrate the blossoms with us, it didn't feel crowded or obtrusive. What a fun trip made better by seeing great friends all along the way. We got our kid fix & were fed royally by Dan & Liz, we got to taste homemade meade wine while visiting Kevin & Claire and Jon even got to taste (and survive) one potent drop on the tongue of scorpion pepper oil- the second hottest pepper available after the ghost pepper. I don't think any of the guys will be in to eating buffalo wings covered in it though! We watched giraffe's drinking each others' urine at the Providence Zoo while visiting John & Cindy and then had the most fantastic meal at a hole in the wall restaurant in the city- survived that.... and Cindy & I were very good this year about staying away from the Pyrat rum bottle so that we could visit while sitting up this time! And then I had to leave my friend Charlie after a visit that wasn't nearly long enough with so much more to say.... we'll pick that up again next year.

From USA 2015
From USA 2015
From USA 2015

From USA 2015




Being able to use our car and just drive around as we pleased felt so freeing. What a change from having no car while cruising or having to rent one whenever we need it. To show our appreciation of it, we erected yet another fabric garage (in record time) before we left to store this car better for future use.

From USA 2015
We made lists of things we wanted to do with our parents and places we wanted to walk, bike or visit and tried to cross off as many items as we could- there's still a bunch left though. We tried to help with whatever house projects we could since many hands make light work. Our moms did a good job of stuffing us with our favorite foods which is good since I don't think we'll be getting much of those items in the coming months through SE Asia! Jon got some good publicity on his cruiser's website VentureFarther from Noonsite & Blue Water Sailing and logged some programming hours in his spare time. He also built a backpackers guitar with his dad using the best quality materials he could find and although it isn't completely finished, most of it is done and he enjoyed the time spent with his dad. Some of my family came to VT to visit, we were also there for mother's day this year which was fun and we even celebrated a milestone anniversary- Jon's parents' 50th which insured a great get together on his side of the family too. All in all, lots of fun memories made this trip, thanks to you all! By the time we left Vermont, it was gloriously beautiful and it felt like summer. The apple trees were in full bloom and the one just outside the window in Newport had a robin's nest nearly at eye level so we could see her in there among the pink flowers sitting on eggs.
From USA 2015

From USA 2015


In keeping with our newest perspective on boat projects & money spent, we tried to minimize the amount of stuff we had to buy to drag back with us so the ordering and packing of Salvation Army suitcases wasn't terrible this time. We only had four heavy bags, well, the computer bags were pretty heavy with all the chocolate chips but no one weighs those! Now we'll probably go through a period of everything breaking and wish we'd lugged more spares but hopefully that won't be the case. One luxurious boat item that we are adding this year is a deck washdown pump- to save our backs from having to bucket up salt water to clean the anchor chain.

On our way back westward, we stopped for a day in LA to both give ourselves a breather and to celebrate our anniversary. We rented bikes and did the LA beach bike path, then met up with friends John & Camille who we spent last Christmas with in Sydney for a nice dinner before our midnight flight. It was such a nice day all around and definitely a memorable way to finish out our USA trip. Everything went fine with our flights, it is just that we are wide-eyed awake the whole time- just can't sleep on the plane no matter how hard we try. So.... after picking up a rental car and getting back to the boat, we took a 15 hour nap before getting upright again and starting to unpack. After a trip like this it always seems inevitable that we are both extremely glad to be home on our boat but at the same time homesick for family and all that we left behind. It's just that way, every time.

From USA 2015

So we busied ourselves getting the boat cleaned up (easy since Newport Marina is such a great place to leave the boat), getting things put away, making several trips to the grocery store to provision with food for this season (our life is all about stocking up and moving things from one place to another) and visiting the travel clinic for a few vaccinations. Whew! It's expensive trying to stay healthy! We said goodbye to friends Laura & Peter over a great dinner at their house of roasted duck and got to do the bike path one last time after returning the car the day before we left. Then yesterday, ol Evergreen nudged her way our of the slip nearly fully stocked and loaded up for the trip northward. I say nearly fully stocked because in reading more and more about SE Asia, we are fearing the inevitable inability to get the things we want/need over these coming months and any place we see in the boat to stash another must-have item you can be sure will be filled before we leave Australia! It was sad saying goodbye to the birds at Newport Marina. We got so attached to their song and it was sometimes hard to tell who was actually doing the singing- the birds or Jon & I since their tune was so catchy & animated you couldn't help but whistle along. They managed to break the spike off our windex which is solely there to prevent birds from sitting on it, but I forgive them.

We're now underway to Lady Musgrave Island, doing day hops because there's a cold front coming. As soon as it passes, we hope to pull in there for some diving, boat bottom cleaning and some R&R. Then we plan to cruise up toward Cairns over the next month trying to see all we can of the famous Whitsunday Islands, Great Barrier Reef, hopefully another inland jaunt to the Outback I'm hoping to see a few more fuzzy butted koalas, a wild cassowary and maybe a big old croc to really make our Australian experience complete. The Sail 2 Indonesia Rally meets July 1 in Cairns. We'll be traveling up the AU coast to Thursday island, then crossing to Indonesia where we'll cruise until mid November before continuing on to Malaysia. We know a few boats in the rally already and hope to meet some more over the coming weeks. I'll be gathering info to enter onto our website for cruisers who will pass after us. We've been seriously joking about what we'll be doing without or having to endure once we leave Australia but at the same time we're excited to be on our way to someplace so strikingly different than what we've seen so far. Maybe we'll get religion there!

Our heads are feeling more clear, we're pretty much rested up and it feels good to be moving again. The sun has been shining every day since we've been back and aside from the fact that it gets dark by 5:30 now, the weather has been great and it's cooler now than before we left- 60's at night, 70's during the day. We have to enjoy it because equator, here we come!