Just boarded last flight for business...

Heading back to BOS. My last business trip for a year. Yesterday the nice folks at the Admirals club in ORD upgraded my seat to First because they liked our plans! Email from the yard says the boat lauches this afternoon.

Zusammen to splash at the end of the week?

Marty is telling me that we're shooting for the end of the week.  George is working on the rudder and I dropped the dinghy off last night at the yard so they can measure the lifting points for the davits.  Fingers crossed - lots of work yet to go....

Beach House

We love the beach house! It is so nice to have a smaller space to live in. Cleaning is quick and easy, and we don't have many belongings here, so life altogether is pretty simple. Although the kids do still have their video games, most days we go to the beach after school. Three more weeks though and its moving time again! I have to somehow whittle down our belongings even further. Even though I think they're already meager, what we have will not fit on the boat.

The Rudder....

George C. has agreed to rebuild our rudder himself.  A full service Broker for sure!  The folks a Niemiec will be cutting it and cleaning up the post and flags and George will pull it all together.

It's a good thing we're living on the beach or I would be in a panic that it's June 7 and the boat isn't close to ready...

Oh oh...

All has been going so smoothly, that it should have been no surprise that something would go wrong. John had a crew lined up to race the Figawi Memorial Day weekend. We had paid the money, and made plans to make team tshirts, when the call came from the boat yard. "Your rudder was full of gallons of sea water and needs to be replaced." UGG. Its not easy to find a 1988 Pearson rudder that no one is using. The only solution is to get a mold made of the old one and re-create it. Obviously this will not be done in the week we have left until the Figawi. Sad. On the other hand though, better to find this out now, than when we're sailing down the coast!

Renters!

It has been a crazy whirlwind.  April 27th, a family called our Realtor, asking to rent our house for the year, starting on May 9th. They agreed to all our terms, but by the time papers had been signed, we had 9 days to completely unfurnish our house and find somewhere to live for two months. We found a beach house in Marshfield, that is absolutely ideal. A great in-between place for us. The moving trucks came last Saturday and we moved all our furniture into a storage facility.

We have told all teachers and schools, and everyone has been very supportive. MES has provided me with lots of curriculum, which is fantastic, as I won't have to buy too much. I plan on being in contact with school next year, as much as possible, and the teachers and principal seem to be on board with it all.

The family renting our house are very nice, and have three children. The situation couldn't have been better. Although rushed, it has worked out well. In July we will move onto the boat, and the next part of our adventure will start. 

Stress

Stress…we've had two serious parties looking to rent our house. We decided on one, and were ready to sign a contract, and they changed their minds. Now we are hoping to keep the other people, but we haven't heard from them. It’s a mental game, worrying that they've found something else, or are they just trying to get the deal done too?

We've told lots of people about the trip now. Some people (not many) respond with admiration and excitement, thinking it’s the best idea in the world. Most people are incredulous and wonder how we will teach our children, how we will all get along, how will we be safe, and how we will stand living in a small space for a year, especially with no TV!