Up: Finally finished installing our new Monitor self-steering wind-vane. We will not be able to test it fully until we go sailing but it certainly looks good.

Down: Right when I finally had time to work on the blog again, my laptop appeared to be infected with something. It was working incredibly slowly and erratically. I could not open my security software to test anything. Randall will try one more thing and then we will have to find a professional computer wrangler...

Further down: Randall's laptop suddenly opens 15 copies of the calculator...uh oh, do we both have some malware?

Up: Randall's patience pays off and after fixing the Windows glitch in his own laptop he downloads Malwarebytes, and uses it (via a USB-drive) to fix mine...hurrah!

Down: Due a misunderstanding, Randall is upset that I am not willing to help him apply fiberglass to the leaking spot on our water tank right at the moment that I am irritated that he had hogged the WiFi for so long to listen to a basketball game and now I planned to use it to try to fix my ailing laptop.

Up: After a few hours of stony silence in the boat (other than stifled grunts and groans of exasperation at the water tank and my laptop, respectively), we manage to resolve the misunderstanding and maybe the water tank leak is fixed.

Up: The cruisers in our marina hold a potluck dinner.

Down: At the potluck, I hear that a fellow female cruiser, who just bought a boat with her husband a few months ago, is worried that this may not be the life for her.

Up: At the instigation of Jenny on SV Plan Sea, several women take a cruising journal to Michelle suggesting that she may find that writing about her fears, irritations, worries, joys, surprises, etc., over the next few months may help. Members of this informal women's group regale Michelle with stories of doubt from our first months of cruising. To me it is strangely comforting that we have all been through the same trough in our sailing lives. Hopefully we were encouraging for Michelle too.

Down: I have not seen one of our neighbors in several days. She has obviously been seriously ill, moving very slowing and drastically losing weight, but she prefers not to discuss any details. We start to wonder if she is in the hospital.

Up: We saw Vladimir and Galina yesterday. When I said how good it was to see her and she replied that she had been staying below but now she had to go for a shower, she actually laughed. I said how good it was to hear her laugh and this produced the first smile we have seen from her in weeks. I do hope that she is getting better.

Up: I knocked a minute off my personal best time at Parkrun this morning...the cooler weather helped, perhaps along with carb-loading I did by eating more desserts at yesterday's potluck than is probably good manners.

Up: We attended the Whangarei Ratha Yatra Festival this morning. Derived from an ancient traditional festival from India, a large (more than 7 m or 23 feet tall), colorfully decorated chariot (Rath) is pulled by hand through the main streets of town accompanied by music and dancing. Organized by the local and active group of Hare Krishnas (formally, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness) this was a fun event and, after talking with a member, it sounded as though many of their beliefs have the potential to be globally beneficial. It also provided interesting illustrations of some of the things I have been reading about concerning the evolution of religion in humans.

Down: We noticed a rather discouraging separation of genders in the activities of the Ratha Yatra Festival. Men were leading all of the music, chanting, and spontaneous dancing; young women performed more sedate, ritualized dances with scarves while mature women stood on the sidelines watching. It was clear which gender was in charge and having more fun. Reading further, I have serious concerns about the attitudes towards women in the movement, with men having to be concerned that they do not make mistakes in this life that cause them to be reincarnated as women...the horror!

Up: We have selected a date for our haul-out (January 30th), when we will finally be leaving this marina and moving on to new adventures.

Down: We have selected a date for our haul-out, when we will finally be leaving this marina and all of our comfortable routines and friends here.

Down: A friend and former colleague of ours in Gainesville had to undergo surgery this week to remove a tumor from his brain.

Up: He came through the surgery without evident collateral damage.

Seriously down: The tumor was found to be malignant.

Seriously hoping for the UP: A strong and otherwise healthy man, he will undertake the journey of radiation followed by chemotherapy. We wish you well and are keeping you and your family in our thoughts, Mike.