The countdown has really begun. As of today it is 3 months & 26 days until the official retirement day of May 12, 2010.

Seventeen years ago I met my husband, Will. His pick-up line to me was that he was going to have a 40' sailboat & sail the world & no one was going to stop him!! He didn't have to convince me! I was ready! From the very first time we met, we started to talk about diving, sailing & traveling & discovered that we had a lot of common interests & goals. Needless to say, we have been together all this time & have been doing a countdown to 2010 when he would retire & we could actually realize our common dreams.

We have traveled to Mexico several times since we met & keep going down the west coast. We are currently on our last day of our Mexico holiday by land. We are staying in a little hotel in La Cruz, on a hillside overlooking Banderas Bay. As we were looking out into the bay we saw a boat that looked like Precious Metal, but were uncertain if it was Pam because we thought she was leaving the day before. Just as we were watching, I heard Pam on Precious Metal saying adios to all the people in the area. She was setting her sails to head over to Yalapa for tonight & then making her way to Zihuatanejo. We bid her farewell with the promise to meet up with her sometime in the near future with our own Shaman One.

When we arrive back home we will get back to work & continue with the outfitting for offshore sailing. Since we bought Shaman One in 1997 we have been gradually replacing & reinforcing for our offshore sailing. Most things are installed & ready except for the things that we deliberately waited until now before installing because some of the items we didn't need for sailing around the Gulf Islands of British Columbia.

On one hand it seems like the time has just been dragging by to get to the magical date of retirement, but now looking back, I think, where has all the time gone? The next few months will now fly by quickly as we get the last things done before we cast off into our lifelong dreams.