October 7

Cheryl's Notes:

We arrived here exactly one week ago today. The first few days were a blur of activity. We had some cleanup in the refrigerator, and then had to restock the staples for everyday living. The driving rain of Hannah caused the boat to leak in places that have never leaked before. It took us almost four days to open all of the different compartments to look for water. Some of the compartments do not drain into the bilge, so the water needed to be pumped out manually. Our next challenge was to fit a house full of belongings into a 36 foot boat. As we inspected and dried out each compartment, we promptly filled it with stuff. We quickly realized that we brought too much &*^% with us. We found the local Goodwill donation center and dropped off two boxes today. I am sure that this will be first of many trips there.

We are retired. So we decided that each day we will tackle a few new tasks, and then take time to blend into our new environment. We have met some wonderful new people. We have been told that there are twelve boats in the marina with full-time liveaboards. We have met couples from southern Missouri, South Carolina, and a couple from Stillwater by way of New York. We have our own mailbox and a locker in the bathroom facilities. We can now keep all of our shower products in our lockers instead of carrying them back and forth everyday. It feels a little like junior high, until I have a senior moment and forget the locker combination.

The marina here is very beautiful and the harbormaster, Bud and his assistant Dawn have been very helpful with answering all of our questions. We need to find all new resources to survive from day to day. Where do you get your propane tanks refilled? Where do we take our used oil after an oil change? Who can work on our refrigeration system when we discover that it just keeps cycling and not turning on and off correctly? That is another story. We have found all of the necessary stores in the area for provisions, both personal and boat essentials. The weather has been perfect. It has been in the upper 70's and lower 80's during the day and in the 50's at night for comfortable sleeping. Our hardest transition has been that all of our TV shows are on an hour later. It is really hard to stay up for the news when it comes on at 11:00 pm. Of course, we haven't been getting up until 9:00 every morning. Tuesday is our early morning. That is the day that the marina employees come around with the portable "honey wagon" to pump out our holding tanks. Yea, a clean potty for another week. Our new life includes many simple pleasures.

John's Notes:

I have always thought that "Retirement" would go something like.............Get up (time varies depending on what you did the night before), have absolutely nothing planned to do for the day, and hope that you get half of it done before happy hour. Well, that's what I always thought. Maybe I read it some place. Maybe I just made it up. Whatever, sounded like a plan to me. Reality, at least so far, has been totally different. We don't exactly get up early. It's not that we are lazy. The fact is that we have to wait till 11:00 for the news to come on. God forbid that we want to watch a little of Leno. I have been gone from the coast (west for me anyway) so long that I forgot that TV operates on different schedules here. There is just so much to do every day. At first, I thought it would slow down after a couple of days. It only took us a week to empty both cars. The regulars around here must have thought we were nuts. We could bring a dock cart piles high to the boat and then a couple of hours later bring an equal amount back to the car. If they didn't think we were nuts, I did. The way I see it, we have way too much stuff or not enough boat. Either way, something has to give. We brought clothing for every season. Well, maybe not deep Minnesota/Wisconsin winter, but deep fall for sure. All that stuff is now vacuum packed and stuffed in every available space we can find. People who have been doing this for years just smile and tell us that we will be taking it to the Goodwill as soon as we are convinced that we will never use it again. See above, already made one trip today. More to follow. I went through my T-Shirts yesterday. All of them mean something or remind me of something or someone and good times. I have shirts from Bayfield Race Week going back to the 80's I think. I have five others from Tom's Burned down bar. Now add in a couple of dozen of my favorite plain Eddie Bauer's and some assorted others that I can't remember much about.................you get the picture. Now do the math with shorts, sweaters, pants, sweatshirts, various weight jackets..........begins to add up. Books are another bone of contention. When I'm in the groove, I can read one plus book a week. At that rate, there is enough fiction aboard to keep me going till about 2012. Then there is the sheer weight and cube taken up by the various cruising guides, how-to's, etc. that every cruiser "must" have. We have every book authored by Nigel Calder and several others. Imagine the possibilities if I actually understood all that information. Just for fun some day I would love to total up all the weight we have aboard just in books. At this point, we are going to have probably add more to compensate for the three degree list we have to port.

Onboard maintenance is something you have to actually experience to appreciate. All of us freshwater sailors know that salt will kill your boat. Kill is too mild a word to use. I'm not sure how to describe what happens to your boat here. Everything, and I mean everything metal will tarnish, corrode or rust in a matter of minutes. I even noticed today that the grommets on my Tilley hat had corrosion on them. Today I spent a couple of hours polishing the wheel and binnacle. Tomorrow I will attack another area. The reality is that boat maintenance here is like painting the Golden Gate Bridge. As soon as you are finished, you begin all over again. The good news though is that some of the supplies needed to keep pace with the maintenance are much cheaper at Walmart. No joke. Today I bought a 16oz bottle of Starbrite Teflon polish that I have been using for years for $10.33. I have the same size bottle aboard that I bought at Port Superior last year for $17.49. As it happened today, I was also at the local West Marine. Same size bottle $25.99.

Enough for this week. I know you are all busy trying to figure out if you are ever going to be able to join us in retirement, given what has happened over the last couple of weeks. We are trying to figure out if we can stay retired or have to go back and re-join you.