Well, one of the things on the list is – update blog!   As you can perhaps see we have ignored our blog for quite sometime.  We bought the boat, enjoyed sailing Lake Pepin for several years and now we are preparing for our departure to sail the Great Lakes, Erie Canal, Hudson River, East Coast and the Caribbean.  Check out “The Plan” to see our route.

As you can imagine, there is a lot of preparation and planning that goes into such journey and we have been in full blown planning mode for several months now. 

There are things to buy – top on our list was new electronics, a comfortable mattress, solar panels and wind generator, safety equipment, charts, cruising guides, spare parts and boat bits and fun things like a stand up paddle board. 

There are projects to complete – sewing projects (new dodger and bimini), installing new electronics, general boat cleaning and maintenance, configuring storage, going through volumes of stuff that needs storage, address health/vaccination issues prior to departure and all the regulatory issues such as passports, global entry, boat documentation, FCC license, boat and health insurance and the like. 

We have to remember in between all the planning and projects to stop and have fun!  Sail a little, socialize a little and generally relax. 

More to come as we get closer to our planned departure!