It has been over 2 years since I have posted a log - egad! The first year of that was spent living and working in St. Thomas and St. John. Te Oigo was happily anchored or moored in Great Cruz Bay for most of that time. Bruce and I worked for Calypso Catamarans and I also worked doing Magic Milk Sand Art - which I loved. I worked at the Ritz-Carlton in St. Thomas, and happily rode the ferry over and back to do so. It was a wonderfully creative and rewarding job.

Last April, we kept seeing reports of hail and tornadoes in the south. We also kept getting emails from our "Real" employer asking us to be prepared to possibly get deployed to work as insurance adjusters. On Wednesday April 20th, while at work in St. T, I got the call to work. We were to report to work in Dallas, TX on Friday morning at 7 a.m. We had 42 hours to get the boat from St. John to St. Thomas, get all sails stripped, solar panels off, everything put away, clothes and kitty packed and hop a $1600 flight. Good thing this work pays well cause I had to beg the credit card company to expand my limit in order to get off island. Te Oigo got put on the hard at a boat yard and we hit Wal-Mart in Dallas to buy "grown people" clothes and shoes. We've been here ever since with a brief 6 week break for the birth of our grandson, Mikey. Will we ever see our lovely Te Oigo again?

We are hoping to be released in short order and after a little bit of stateside visiting - we are Island Bound! Can't wait to get back to the boat. Just wondering if she will give us the cold-shoulder or welcome us back. Gonna get her bottom scrubbed and painted and then head down the string of pearls, leisurely making our way and then spend the hurricane season in the Golfo de Cariaco, Venezuela. We are truly looking forward to it. Gonna hang out around Medregal Village and explore the whole area (staying away from the piratical areas) but plan to explore Los Roques, Isla Tortuga, Blanquilla and all the other lovely places as well as the neat little villages of the Golfo. We are encouraging others to come with us and may already have a few enlistments. Would love to have you join us!!

So - hopefully our year of being CLODS is concluding and we can go back to our real lives on the good ship Te Oigo.