After much activity last week I am now safely in Maine. Poor Osprey is almost ready to be put to bed for the winter: sails and halyards are off, the topsides are buffed and polished, all stainless is rinsed and polished, the dinghy is clean and hoisted on deck and canvas repairs have been done (thanks Tonya!). We have taken a lot of stuff off the boat - especially things that wouldn't like freezing temps such as the electronics. I loaded almost all the food into the car to bring with me as I know Tom won't be cooking much whilst left alone and all my clothes are off as well. It is amazing how much stuff had been stowed away on board - I am not looking forward to squeezing it all back in again in the spring. Tom is still in East Greenwich coordinating the engine removal and then the haul-out of Osprey herself. Yes - that's right, we have decided to get a new engine put in. Although, overall, our 29 year old Perkins served us well we feel this is a good time to take the plunge and re-power. We don't want to wait until it dies on us in some remote location before replacing it. We have a trusted mechanic on-site in East Greenwich and he is more than happy to work with Tom to get this done. And, of course, we are not planning on going anywhere for a while - so this is a good time to do it without interrupting our travels. So the old engine will come out next week (brilliantly, Tom has sold it through Craig's list!), all being well the new one will get put in in the spring.

Having loaded a rental car full to the brim I drove up here yesterday. It was an easy drive and took about 4 1/2 hours. It was a lovely sunny day and the leaves are turning so it was a pretty trip. Mind you the temps are about 10 degrees colder than they were in Rhode Island, there was frost on the car this morning. The town of Skowhegan is quite small and there doesn't seem to be a lot to it. The nearest grocery store is "Georges Banana Stand" and there are a lot of logging trucks on the roads!!! The good news is that there are some good ski areas quite close by so we are glad that we hung on to our ski gear - this will probably be the last season for skiing for us. The hospital seems to be a well run friendly place and we have been given a nice large apartment to live in for the winter - there are 3 bathrooms - what luxury! All I need now is for Tom to come and join me and I will be very happy.