With the new upgrade recently added to my sailblogs account I hopefully will be able to post on a more regular basis. The old format was very difficult to use, and my patience level was not up to the task of trying to post on a regular basis. The change in format also added "tracking" which will allow everyone to follow our location, and a picture gallery allowing us to save our many pictures over time and allowing everyone to view our pictures.
In the future I will hopefully be more diligent in keeping up with regular postings!

Well, let me try to bring this blog up to date!

My last post was in April, since then we have juggled our jobs, working on Avalon, working on downsizing our many possessions and getting our house into a sell able condition. In between all that, add a trip to Annapolis (Spring Sailboat Show) with our granddaughters, a "girls" trip to South Jersey for Bunny & our daughter Trisha to visit an old friend, a trip to Buffalo, NY for our friends Dean & Susan(s/v Autumn Born) 50th Anniversary celebration, and many projects, both land based(house) and boat based. We have been busier than ever before! It seems that there is certainly not enough hours in the day to accomplish what needs to get done, don't know how we did it all before retiring!

May 19, 2017 was my last official day of work-I had saved enough vacation time on the books to go out on vacation until my retirement date of August 22. Anxiously looking forward to the next stage in our lives (cruising aboard Avalon) and with mixed emotions I left my job as Assistant Director of Facilities & Operations at the Arlington Central School District. After a nice "Bon Voyage" sendoff party from my colleagues at Arlington (see pic,s in gallery), Bunny & I left our jobs and went on permanent vacation!. After some major sprucing up for Avalon this spring on the hard we "splashed" Her in early June and immediately began to get her ready for live aboard cruising.

Our plans for immediate travel were put on hold after we discovered that the waste tank on Avalon had froze and cracked over the winter. This was first of many unexpected repairs to surprise us., but such is the reality of owning a cruising sailboat!
*After a major retrofit to the area under our v-berth floor to accept the new waste tank we ended up installing a complete new waste system from the "head" to the thru hull. Finally that project was completed! Now ready to cruise? NO!
* Avalon's binnacle had been neglected for many years and along with the install of our new teak cockpit floor which I had worked on building over the winter, the binnacle rebuild became my next boat project. Once completed it really complimented our new cockpit floor, and insured that this vital steering system was dependable.
* Next project: installation of the bow roller purchased during our trip to Annapolis, and the new mansion supreme anchor. Top of the list on a cruising boat is a good ground tackle system to allow safe cruising. You don't want to wake up in the middle of the night and find that your boat had dragged into a shipping channel or worse. Everyone we speak to tells us how nice it is to wake up in the same spot you anchored in! Avalon is now outfitted with the best anchoring system available!
* With that project completed I started the install of a CD, AM/FM radio. A simple project until I opened up the circuit breaker panel and observed many sub standard revisions made to the electrical system by PO's. As they could fail at any time leaving us stranded or worse cause a fire, so began the next unexpected project: complete rewire/replacement of all on board electrical systems. After accomplishing the retrofit of the electrical system I even managed to install the radio which was the original project!
* On the list and in preparation to our October departure for warmer climates, a cockpit enclosure was a "must". Bob Sherwood from BAS Marine Canvas accomplished this while we were away on our trip to Buffalo, NY. We returned to a "new" Avalon with a full cockpit enclosure! This improvement along with the addition of our new helm seat and the install of our backup VHF radio really made big improvements. A side benefit - Captain Muttley claimed the helm seat as his own space where he can oversee all operations aboard Avalon!
* During the time I have been working on various projects, with much creativity, Bunny has transformed Avalon's V-berth and other spaces into areas where everything is stowed neatly but accessible in an organized manner-a must for cruising! We are slowly turning Avalon into a cruising boat and getting ready for our adventure heading south in the fall!