We have been trying hard to get the boat ready to go south again while dealing with a lump on Bill’s leg that has been causing him a lot of pain. The lump has been a problem for over a year but it’s gotten much worse in recent months. Finally yesterday we found the right doctor to deal with it (we've been through two others already). The lump was biopsied last year but was just found to be excess inflamed scar tissue from a previous operation. The MRI Bill had yesterday seems to confirm that but it will be biopsied again this week just to be sure. Either way the lump needs to come out and the recovery period is going to have to change our cruising plans.

We had very ambitious plans to take the boat around the Florida Keys this winter, across the Gulf Coast and put the boat on a truck in Galveston and truck it to Seattle. We had hoped to cruise Alaska and British Columbia for the next two summers. Well that isn't going to happen now, at least not this year.

Somehow, even though our house has been on the rental market for over a month now, we haven’t managed to rent it. Thank goodness! Now we will be living in the house for the winter. We hadn't expected to have to cancel our trip but sometimes you have to just take what life dishes you.

We aren't sure when the surgery date is yet but there is still tons of work to be done on the boat. We are hoping to wait until mid November before Bill goes under the knife. The boat is still out of the water, as you can see in the picture above. I have been working on getting the teak treated. It’s a big job but the boat looks so much better when it’s done, and so much worse when it needs to be done! I haven’t been that happy about being up that high up but luckily that part is done now.

We are also still working on completely redoing the interior varnish. What a huge job! We are also replacing the steering system. We are trying to decide whether we leave the boat out of the water for the winter or put it back in. Someone mentioned to us yesterday that now we will have to winterize it! When we did that the last time three years ago we were hoping to not have to do it again for a long long time! Well at least Bill will have time to do all his sewing projects while he is recovering this winter.