Well, it is the first day of spring (THANK GOD). As any of my friends and family know I spend much of my life in southeastern Texas and hate the cold; a trait that Amy and I share. Even though spring has arrived and the first day that we can launch Clair de Lune draws near we find new hurdles to overcome. Primarily the 18 inches of ice that occupies the marina where we will be slipping the boat this year.

In the mean time, Amy and I busy ourselves with projects and chores. The most recent boat chore was the replacement of the well aged tires that currently fit our trailer. These were replaced for 300.00 at a local shop were we towed our boat using our new F-150 (bought especially for towing Clair de Lune). We named the truck "Big Red", and let me tell you I do not look forward to filling its 30gal gas tank.

Amy has been busy with more domestic chores of preparing for our new bee hives/colonies that will arrive later in April. She has also started to get supplies for the boat (canned food/drinking water/etc.) and deodorizing the boats interior.

We estimate that we will not be able to slip Clair de Lune until late April or early May when my father returns to Iowa and we will be attempting to take my mother.....maybe.

Recently I have been doing research on the stability/speed of sailboats and have found that we lucked out with the 25' O'Day s/v. The boat has a stability rating of 1.9 (2 or less is generally reserved for offshore vessels) a fact that I will try to use to get Amy to let me sail from Miami to the Bahamas in the future (I highly doubt it will work, but its worth a shot). Amy has also fallen in love with another boat style that may end up to be our live aboard option in the future. The Hans Christian 33T (Google it) is a wonderful world cruiser....Big dreams in the middle of Iowa.