Nov. 26 HAPPY THANKSGIVING

We were more than ready for a nice break. We really do have much to be thankful for! This was the 5th year the VFW Ladies Auxiliary put on a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. There were about 120 people...20 of them our new cruising or expat friends. The history of the holiday, along with Obama's Thanksgiving proclamation, and leading prayers were welcome.
We've been dealing with the reality that we've been using many more amps than we've been replacing with our current charging system. We nursed our three lead acid house batteries back to health, and bought a new starter battery. We have been revamping our charging system...hence going over our wiring and changing quite a bit to make it a more simple/user friendly system that we'll understand. Changing from AGM to lead acid has also been a learning adventure. Our friend Rick has been very patient helping us through this and teaching us once again what sometimes doesn't sink in the first time. Getting down to the nitty gritty cell health using a refractometer is just one more item to be stored in the 'ol brain.
We hope all our family and friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving....you are in our thoughts!
The picture is taken from the yacht club resturant of the anchorage...just the section where Infini's moored

Nov. 13 HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY MATT!!

Special family events still tug at our heart strings when we know we're not able to be there to share in person. Modern communication tools have made such a big improvement for the cruiser...but we're still adjusting to the fact our family thrives and flourishes without our physical presence. Perhaps it's because we're still working on major projects and have not yet departed on our long awaited passages, expected early 2010. So, Happy Birthday, Matt, and enjoy a wonderful, safe, healthy, and challenging year full of joy and satisfaction! We're thinking of you and send our love your way....and yes we need a current picture of you without your dreads!

Nov. 1, 2009

We're back at the Balboa Yacht Club after spending the night at Contadora where the only other boat anchored was a friend we had met in Cartegena! Paul has been to Costa Rica and down to Peru in the last year. He has a fast catamaran.....some folks move around a lot....others like us take our time! Paul was one of the three single handers (all bald!) we did our one night of 'clubbing' with. It was good to see him at Contadora and swap stories. As to Infini,we've installed an aluminum 'rain frame' around two of our solar panels that will work as a rain catcher. The rain awning we use now over the foredeck can only be used when the dinghy isn't stored there, so this can be used anytime. We've still got a work list, but things are coming along...Michael has a dentist appointment to get his permanent crown put in; Sue will get an MRI of her knee, which is feeling a bit better but the stability/strength isn't there. She misses swinging from the rigging. We need to sew the leech of the roller furling jib as the sacrificial cover needs restitching from sun exposure. We'll get some advice on our engine driven refrigeration unit which is a bit low on freon and has moisture in the system. We've not been running it much lately, and it hasn't been really inspected/gone thru since we put it in over 4yrs. ago. The weather has been wonderfully pleasant....cool nights with partly sunny days and occasional rain.