Voila...the boat is winter ready..and we now can enjoy talking walks in the woods, raking leaves, and working on boat and house projects...



The captain is curently looking into Companies that sandblast boats in order to get estimates...

And when the appeal of the sea gets too strong, we can always read about other sailors' adventures. One event that is going to keep us focused on the Internet will be the sailboat race LA ROUTE DU RHUM ...Solo from Saint-Malo, France to Guadeloupe..The only time we actually witnessed an ocean sailboat race was in Antigua...and it was exciting! Now, in the Route du Rhum, the distance is much greater and not at a great time of the year to cross the Atlantic...In the last race (2006), it was done in 7 days....wow! We relate to these challenges so much better now that we have had our "little" stunt in the North Atlantic!!!

One should not forget that all routes lead to Rum....

It is that time of the year again: mid-october and Thanksgiving. Yes, the sun is still warm, the air perfumed with the scent of leaves, and it is for us somewhat hard to believe that there will be a winter...but we know better.










On a beautiful warm day, we unfold the huge tarp in our driveways and sew sturdy attachments of nylon...luckily, there is much less wind where the boat is currently (Kingston Marina, on the Catarqui river) than at Portsmouth Harbour which lies pretty open to winds from all directions! Nevertheless, the tarp should remain on the boat and let as little snow as possible infiltrate underneath...

The final steps ....

On Friday, a beautiful fall day, we learned that we could haul out our boat at Kingston Marine. This is a small shipyard, which offered us the opportunity to sandblast our bottom in the coming Spring. La Buena Vida needs it! It has been more than 12 years she got her bottom done.

And yes, a new paint job above the waterline would look good on her too.

We still feel more "at home" on board, than in our house. But this is just a question of time - the temperatures are dropping steadily, the fire place is going most evenings. Yes, we are moving towards winter.

We had 2 great years on board of our boat; it feels like a dream.

But after we are settled, and LBV put away for the winter, we will start to make new travel plans. We already have an invitation to go to Italy next summer - Uwe's birthday! We will not miss this one! But will have to bridge our time until then with other adventures.