Home..wherever that is...

We've been busy these last couple of months. I flew to Texas from the Bahamas, for a visit, and while I was there, Paul took the boat back to the States where I flew to join him again. It's good to be back.

We are hanging out in Annapolis doing loads of boat chores. One of those chores is buying/repairing sails. While Paul was singlehanding, the jib and mainsail ripped (on two separate occasions). We went for estimates on fixing both and the costs were CRAZY (everything is expensive in Annapolis) so we went to Bacons (a used boat parts mecca) and ended up buying a brand new mainsail! The person who owned the sail had never used it, and so we were the recipients of this good luck. We do have to do a few modifications on the sail, which UK Sails will be doing ($$$), but all in all...a good deal! As far as the jib is concerned????? .....we'll just have to see. We will be heading up to Bacons again to look at jibs, and right now we have the genoa on so that will get us to Canada. We also are replacing the lexan windows on the hard dodger. We ordered a rebuild for our water pump, sent off the SSB for repair work, replaced belts on the engine etc. etc. etc. Annapolis is a great place to do stuff on the boat because everything is here, albeit expensive, availability and convenience is great.

The other plus for hanging out in Annapolis is seeing some of our friends. We stayed two winter/springs here while saving money for the trip to Europe. We met some great friends, and we've been able to visit them and it's been awesome. Claire and Frank......superb food, superb company, and Kimberly and Jim....the greatest most giving friends! We've also met a great couple who are new to the cruising lifestyle....Sarah and Frederick....welcome to the club!

Paul and I are headed up to Canada for a few years while I obtain my Canadian citizenship. It will be the first time in eight years that we'll be living on land for an extended time. We are scared and excited. We will be living near family which is just sooooooo cool, but our whole relationship has been on a boat, cruising and seeing different places. It's definitely going to take getting used to, but we are up for the challenge and change. There are so many things we want to do while on land.....spend time with family and friends, buy or build a house and barn, fix up Quintana, maybe build a catamaran, grow a garden..just do and share many new experiences together. It's really just a new phase of life...we've taken a new road and we'll see what's down it. Can't wait!

Cheers,
Christine and Paul