The leaves have mostly fallen from the trees and I spent many hours raking and bagging them, at first with some resentment for the sheer pointlessness of the act. But I tried to see each leaf as a fallen protector from the blazing desert sun that would overcome our roof mounted AC unit but for the assembly of leaves above. It helped a little. Beer was a better cure for my frustration. You can't see the 29 degree Farenheit temperature in the photo but it's cold. Trust me.

Here I am in front of our little travel trailer, also known as the "Boat Trainer" which has allowed us to get a preview of the simple life and work with each other in small spaces. The boat seems big by comparison and it's an easy transition. I never did bring the garden hose in and wet everything to practice leaving a hatch open, and I didn't tip it over with a forklift to simulate a knockdown. We don't miss the "Big House" on the golf course at all. We will miss the simplicity of our trailer once we sell it, but we plan to get another one and tour North America after our cruising days are complete.

We leave today for Norfolk to get some rigging work done on the boat and then sail further south toward Myrtle Beach, Yvonne's home area, if we can get the rigging work done before New Year's weekend. Yvonne has to be back at work on the 2nd of January.

It was terribly hard to leave the boat slipped at Bay Point Marina in Norfolk, VA nearly three weeks ago having just bought her, but we had to take care of things in Las Vegas. My biggest concern was freezing temperatures there in Virginia, but there were no really cold nights since we've been gone. It's much colder in Las Vegas!

Yvonne received the final check for her sale of her driving school - Hoorah! Now we can afford electric winches for the boat. We like the Lewmar 55 EVO model. They are a bit pricey, but we think they will be a very important bit of gear for us over our years cruising.

I have a new Manson Supreme anchor and 300 feet of 5/16" HT chain waiting for me at West Marine in Norfolk and can't wait to install it on Abundance. I decided a 60 pounder would do the trick and we will have a CQR on the port side of the anchor rollers as a backup with 175 feet of chain and about as much nylon rode behind it. The Lighthouse electric windlass should be fine with these two sets of ground tackle.

We will take the boat to Hampton, VA tomorrow afternoon and get our riggers going on chainplate inspections and bolt replacement. They will get the chainplates sealed with new covers and new bolts where needed and install some needed spreader boots on the lower spreaders. Finally, they will tune the rig so we can do some ocean sailing.