Last night the wind rose, heavens opened and it poured torrents, and the forecast is for that same to continue all day and most of the coming night. A good time to be on the hard in a snug little apartment listening to the howling outside. Even Peri got only so far on his morning walk when he decided that he could hold the rest and dragged me for home. Smart hound!

We have begun to receive posts to the blog from many of the old readers which is very gratifying. Truth be told I was missing the communication with folk some of whom we had met along the way, but some we have never met. Interestingly enough, there have been people coming in to the store and when they see the name Nelleke on my cap or on the back of my foul weather jacket they step up and ask if I am the same Mike from the blog. That is really neat and a great way to break the ice and meet some very interesting people. Any of you our there who are current cruisers of sailors planning a cruise you really might want to check out sailblog.com. It is a great, inexpensive and easy way to get into setting up a site. It's surprising how many folk "cruise" this site either to find out who else is on the waterways or to fuel their own ambitions for the cruising lifestyle. If you decided to start blogging don't forget to look at joining one or more of the various groups that have been set up. Nelleke is part of several and I even started the Canadian Cruisers Group myself to see how many other Canadians are cruising or planning to do so.

Speaking of Canadians cruising, our good friend Ron is back with his 39' sloop, Jambalaya. He had hoped to take her down south this fall to be met there by his wife and continue with the cruising life, but sadly they ran afoul of a series of gales before they even got as far as Cape Cod and had to put back to Canada with some possible damage. His experience has certainly caused me to review my notes on storm tactics and we will make sure that our storm anchor and drogues are ready to be deployed before any other offshore trips. Barb and I have offered to help him take his bout as far south as Nelleke at Deltaville in the spring if that would fit in his schedule but since he was the fellow that came with us a crew on the aborted trip to Bermuda from Newport last year he just might see us as a jinx. Anyway, the offer is out there. It would be really convenient for us to not have to play musical cars with getting back to Nelleke, but perhaps not so attractive to them As they wouldn't like to go too much farther south at that time of year due to the temperatures rising and the hurricane season. Oh well, we'll see what they decide.