Well, April is coming to an end and we must soon leave this wonderful place and all its wonderful people. We are waiting for our North Carolina registration papers and making arrangements to get our mast stepped and arranging to get trucked to the marina that will lift us into the water. We are on a buying frenzy, again, with 20 individual gallon jugs of drinking water, (water is expensive in the Bahamas) cases of tomato juice, orange juice, pineapple juice (for those pina coladas!) 4 cases of fruit juice and four cases of pop. Also, cans of lemonade, cans of iced tea and 25 packages of cool-aid for Eric. He loves cool-aid. I have just canned 12 quarts of butter. Very cheap here. Have ordered 12 dozen eggs from the farmers market to pick up next week. Have finished most of my sewing and Eric is finishing up with lots of misc. things. So hopefully in the next week or two we will take off.

Hi Everyone!

Eric finally got to see the boat that he purchased three months ago. No surprises. We got a beautiful suite by the water for a couple of days while we took some time to clean out the boat.
We are now on the boat. Trying to do some work, but its in the 70's today and it is way too nice to be inside, so we drove to New Bern and did some shopping. We love North Carolina, especially Oriental, where our boat is. It is a very small town about 900 people BUT there are 3700 boats here. It is the sailing capital of North Carolina. The people are sooo friendly. The houses, to die for! Will send some pictures tomorrow. We really need to get serious and get our boat ready, as hurricane season is fast approaching. The siteseeing will have to wait!

Hi Everyone!

Finally getting around to updating our blog! Needless to say it has been a busy three weeks. We had a wonderful roadtrip form Vancouver. The weather/roads were just awesome. We left Lethbridge, Alberta on February 14th. We have visited the following states. Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, St. Louis Missouri, Minnesota, Omaha Nebraska, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina. When we left Lethbridge I wanted to do my share of the driving as Eric had drove all the way from Vancuuver to Lethbridge. My intentions were good, but after the second day when the GPS said "turn left in 1.3 kilometers" things changed. I miscalculated 1.3 km. and turned left to soon and before I knew it I was on the other side of the freeway driving into oncoming traffic! Next thing I knew Eric was screaming at me and grabbing the wheel before I realized what I had just done. Needless to say, he never napped again after that day. Actually, he didn't like the fact that I was covering my eyes with my hands whenever I saw road kill so he preferred that I didnt drive at all!

To top it all off, after I gave the gas attendant a $100.00 bill instead of a ten, he didnt even want me to pay for any thing! Go figure! This trip was getting easier by the minute. Although, the 90.00 hurt!

"There is no thrill in easy sailing when the skies are clear and blue,
There is no joy in merely doing things which anyone can do.
But there is some satisfaction that is mighty sweet to take, when you
reach a destination that you never thought you'd make."

As always, cruisers plans are made in Jello. That includes our trip to NC. Because we now have a U-haul as well as a loaded van, (310 canned goods and 336 rolls of toilet paper!) etc., the added weight, length causes a few problems. Eric will probably have to do all the driving and road conditions will be a concern. Our PLAN is to stay away from snow and cold and take our time and visit some of the few states that we have yet to see. Weather and road conditions permitting. Our last sailing trip in 2005 took us on a road trip covering the northern states and as you know we sailed down the east coast and a road trip back to Canada took us across the southern states and up the West Coast. So this trip will be right across the middle. I have always wondered what the fascination with Aspen, Colorado is. There must be some reason all the celebrities go there! So after leaving Lethbridge, Alberta we will head directly south through Montana, Wyoming, Aspen, Colorado, then on to Kansas City "Little House on the Prairie!!" and then to St.Louis Missouri, and then finally to see "Graceland" in Memphis, Tennessee! Im not sure which of the above stops really interests Eric but, oh well! Next stop will be in NC where Eric will able to see the boat he's purchased but never seen!!

It's time to retire, put our feet up and really enjoy life! Although we are not going in the direction we initially planned we are extremely happy to just be retired, sailing, and the Caribbean is not such a bad way to spend a year or two! Being sailors our travels are usually dictated by, first and foremost the weather and secondly the political situations in the countries we plan to visit. In this case it is the pirates. We have been advised that it is extremely unsafe for sailboats to make the passage from Gulf of Aden up the Red Sea. Sailboats have not much speed (5 kts!) and not much freeboard so we are considered "sitting ducks". So in light of this, going west is not an option at this time. We will visit the Florida Keys, spend a month in Cuba as we visited the Bahamas on our last sailing trip. We will visit Haiti and then spend hurricane season in the Dominican Republic.