We awoke this morning to an e-mail from our friends Mary-Lou and Jay of Screech who had been in Newfoundland putting the boat up on the hard and getting it ready for a winter on the Rock. Mary-Lou's people come from the island so it was a sort of down-home get acquainted visit as well. We had thought that they would be staying there a little longer but the e-mail tells us that they had not only left but that they were already in Maine and planning points further south. Add to that so many other people also taking their boats along the magenta line we are starting to feel like quite the stay at homes. This is not where we thought that we'd be when I retired two years ago. Right about now my fantasy would have us somewhere at least as far as Beauford, NC and waiting for the insurance window to open so we can head on south. I would still be wearing shorts and we would be having a refreshing dip whenever we could be confident that the alligators were not waiting for us to dip toe into water.

Sigh!

Here allow me a call out to our friends that are further south even that that. Snoozer, are your back to Marathon or are you still traveling? Duane and Dianne, are you back in Punta Gorda or still cruising? Of course with your house on the water you are almost cruising when you are still at home. Joey and Rhonda, have you completed your great circle cruise? Did the Gulf disaster impede your trip at all or did it get you some good rates in restaurants and at marinas?

We paid a visit to Christmas at the Forum which is an Atlantic Canada Craft Show held at the Halifax Forum for three days each year just before Christmas. It occupies the space normally reserved for two hockey rinks so you can get an idea of the size. Our mission was shameless plagiarism as it is a great source of good craft ideas. This year was no exception and Barb has the idea of getting one of those stone polishing tumblers to work on beach stones, etc. Those things used to be available almost everywhere but I can't remember seeing one for quite some time. That might be a mission for Mikey for Christmas.

I have been reading Lin and Larry Pardey's book Storm Tactics Handbook and am quite happy that we have already done a lot of the things that they are recommending. However there are still a few things that they suggest that we haven't done which we will and still others that I simply don't think will work for us. Of course their boat is a lot smaller than Nelleke and I am in awe that in both a 24' and a 29' boat they have ridden out storms and even hurricanes. I see that as a damn good endorsement of their techniques. Especially if you get one of their DVDs and watch their 29' boat sailing along in relatively calm conditions with the swells nearly breaking over their bow and the lea rail almost in the water. They certainly have a lot more experience than we do and defiantly a lot more encounters with really heavy weather at sea. It's interesting how their advice has been distorted by the telling by several people who have cited them as the oracle. For example, I have heard from a couple of sailors that the Pardeys recommend against heaving to, and yet, if you read their book nothing could be further from the truth. They recommend against running under bare poles simply because by the time you decided that it's time to heave to it might be too late to be able to turn about and get the bow to windward. In fact running before squalls and storms is a delivery skipper's trick but he is a fellow that has to work to a schedule. Hopefully the rest of us can be more laid back and stop and smell the jellyfish while hove to and let the storm wash over you. Last fall we put Nelleke into a hove to position in the nor-easter in the Gulf Stream on the way to Bermuda to wait out the storm and I can say from personal experience that the boat was several orders of magnitude more comfortable once we had done that.

We already have a para anchor as our storm anchor, but I think that I am going to ask for a dual drogue for Christmas from Barb and the kids. We have them at the Binacle so I should be able to get them at a reduced rate, but they will still be in the vicinity of $500Cdn so I have to think hard. OK. Done. I want '