Journey's end. Nokomis is safe and sound and back at Barker's Island Marina. Paul and I had a chance to come up and visit with her. She is looking good and we are very excited to be back on her, sailing in our home waters of Lake Superior. After a good cleaning and getting it all back together we are looking forward to having family sail with us. We have grandchildren that have not even been aboard yet!

A truck came up and a really nice gentleman loaded me up and off we went. I have been on a truck before. When I was first commissioned I was trucked from California to North Carolina. So I know the drill. It is not nice having continuous wind rushing past me, and getting pelted with rocks. But the worst part - every hour we drive north it just keeps getting colder. What is in store for me next?

I had a wonderful couple of days and now this! Paul and Vicki met me on Tracer after my Atlantic crossing. It was so great to be in the water and having them at the helm. I was so sure they would get me all set-up again and we would be off sailing. Instead, they had me lifted off the water and stripped even more off of my deck. My mast was below me, my bowpit was removed and all my lifelines. Then I was at Cracker Boy Marina all by myself for 10 days. I was surrounded by really big sailboats, used in the Volvo Ocean Race. The sailboat next to me was painted a bright pink. The crew is all women, hence the pink.

We spent a couple of days of hard work preparing Nokomis to be trucked up to Superior, WI. The mast had to come down and get wrapped. All the stays and shrouds were removed and labeled and stored below. Paul ground off the heads of the bolts holding the bow-sprit in place - it was too high for the regulations. Which means all the lifelines also had to come off. It was wonderful working on Nokomis, but very sad to leave her again. We are very excited to see her in Superior.

We were able to watch Nokomis being off-loaded from Tracer, very interesting to watch. There were several boats, three of them sailboats. Nokomis was the smallest, but the engineer from Tracer said our boat was the best boat. I asked if he told that to all the owners and he laughed, saying he is a sailor and thought that ours was the best built. And we had to recharge the battery banks so we spent some time motoring around West Palm Beach harbor. So nice to be at the wheel again. It felt like coming home.

Paul and I met up with Nokomis today. What a reunion! Paul was all busy and work. I needed a weepy moment. She handled the ride well, just as messy down below as we left her, but no destruction. I was so afraid the boom being down below would start jumping around and tear up the woodwork. We do have a problem on the deck. They must have had scrap metal on Tracer at some point because Nokomis has a zillion little rusty spots. Not sure how well they will clean up. Plus she has a salty marinade caked on her everywhere, but that will rinse off.