Sorry for our absence but we have been rather busy what with dentist and banker appointments, but here I am back at the keyboard with some great news. Yesterday we traveled down to Shelburne and re-viewed a property that we first looked at two years ago. It's a large old home on the main drag whose garage has been converted into two flats. The main building needs some mostly cosmetic work but could be moved into pretty much immediately. We have put in an offer which, if accepted, or not countered too fiercely, we should be able to pay the mortgage from the rental income and make an additional $100/month. We have asked the realtor to keep an eye open for some additional rental properties as we have decided that with the current low interest rates it makes more sense to have our investment monies in income generating real estate than to get 3% return fro the bank.

We have not given up on cruising. No indeed. In fact our plans are as mentioned in an earlier post - to keep Nelleke in the Chesapeake from April to September or October while we spend the summer at home here in Canada and then drive down to join her with the grind part of the trip already accomplished. We can then leisurely sail down to Florida and jump accross to the Bahamas, DR or somewhere else in the Carribean and satisfy US customs with having the boat out of the country each year for at least 15 days. I can't believe that we hadn't thought of doing this sooner. We won't be paying for furniture storage; We will have what Barb calls a pied-a-terre back here in Canada; we will maintain our Canadian residency status which is important for Medicare; we won't have the twice yearly slog accross the Gulf of Maine; and best of all our travel time to warmer climes will be cut in half.