Big anniversary today. Five years ago we made a major change in our lifestyle. Five years ago today we closed escrow on our little house in Ventura, California and moved aboard our yacht 'Buena Vista'. At that time Don had the entire galley ripped up and was rebuilding the refer, adding a bigger freezer box so I could have ice cubes. That was my main request. I wanted to sail to the tropics badly but I would not go unless I could make ice cubes! Well, for the first four weeks aboard it was a total mess. We were living out of an ice chest and there was junk everywhere...but...we had a dream! And that's the most important part folks. If you have a dream you'd best get the move on and make it happen now. I'm pretty sure you only live once so just get out there! Our dream is still evolving. Now that we've been cruising for awhile, boat life is pretty easy. We're completely off the grid which we're very proud of. We make our own electricity and water and we still make really great ice cubes as well. We're enjoying a season in Fiji this year, just like we planned it many years ago. After spending 10 months in Australia last year, Debbie has her 'permanent resident visa' so we can both live and work legally in either Australia or New Zealand . We've imported the boat to New Zealand as well so 'Buena Vista' can stay there indefinitely too. We've now spent enough time in New Zealand to say that we'd love to have a little 'bach' there, maybe an acre or two up in Northland somewhere . A 'bach' is a very small house with maybe one or two bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen, usually close to the beach. We'd love for it to be 'off the grid' as well. Ours will have a verandah all around (or Don will build one) because that's what he has always wanted. We'll have a garden where I can grow whatever I like, including feijoas and passionfruit, my new favorite (gee, I hope it grows in NZ:) Summers in New Zealand are lovely but during winter we'll either sail 'Buena Vista' up to Fiji or Tonga or New Caldonea for six months - or - here's the only recently developed part of the dream...we'll fly to America where we keep an RV. We'll travel around the states and Canada for their summer (New Zealand's winter) visiting all of our wonderful friends and family, and the many friends we've met the last several years. How to finance the next bit is the new topic of discussion but now that I've written it down...now that the universe knows what I want...I'll just kick back and let the UNIVERSE conspire to help me. Amen.