JANUARY 2000 SATURDAY, JANUARY 1, 2000 Wow, and new century. Doesn’t seem any different yet. I’m feeling better. I can at least sleep now. But today David is not feeling well. I think he is getting the flu. So I go out for a long walk on the beach while he stays in and sleeps. Also called Sheila to see what’s happening in Seattle. Not very exciting for the first day of the year. SUNDAY, JANUARY 2, 2000 Well David is really sick. We went to Sambos for breakfast and he had to send his bacon back twice and it still was not very good. It was a pretty weak breakfast. I went swimming for the first time since my injections. Almost back to my old self. Swam 60 laps today almost pain free. I feel like I have a new lease life with this back. We drove a car down to Ventura and reserved a slip for tomorrow. MONDAY, JANUARY 3rd, 2000 Today we packed up and put away all loose items for we are heading back to Ventura Isle Marina. It was a nice warm sunny day to motor back to our old home. So we said good-bye to our friends at the marina and headed southeast.  Once we got settled back in we drove back to Ventura to get my car. David still is pretty sick from the flu so we took it easy the rest of the day. TUESDAY, JANUARY 4th to SUNDAY, JANUARY 9th, 2000 David is recovering from the flu and I have kept busy working on boat projects. I designed and sewed 3 different wench covers, a cover for the offshore lift raft, the propane grill and one for the back stairs, which also have teak steps.  The empty slips next to us have a variety of old dock parts floating it. There is one that is rather large that I use to spread out all my sewing projects on.  I set to work on one of the covers for the v-berth, that was a big undertaking to make it fit just right. David spent the rest of the week in bed with the flu resting and reading. Once in while he would get up to try doing some chores. MONDAY, JANUARY 10th to WEDNESDAY JANUARY 12th, 2000 We Drove to Palm Springs today to take a little break from the boat life. As we drove Through the L.A. area to get there we could not believe how polluted it was all the way to Palm Springs. On the way there we passed the giant Windmill electricity-generating field.  That was quit a site for there were hundreds of huge windmills. Once we arrived in Palm Springs it was so hazy or polluted that we couldn’t see the mountains.  We walked around town and explored what there was of the town’s main drag. Having never been there before and not knowing anything about this area we were not aware that it had hundred of golf courses and that is the main reason people go to Palm Springs, there really wasn’t a whole lot of other things going on while we were there.  So we checked in to our room and relaxed. Not having Internet access on the boat, we plugged into to start some research we had wanted to do. Tuesday we got up and worked out in the wait room and then hung out by the swimming pool the rest of the day.  Wednesday we decided to go to Joshua Tree National Park since it was only a 45-minute drive from Palm Springs. We drove through several little towns along the way, Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree town. They are out in the middle of the Mojave and Colorado Desert. It is a very barren place and no one has grass on their lawns. Lot of Joshua trees growing everywhere. We fin ally enter the park. The park is comprised of granitic rocks and thousands of Joshua trees and the Mojave and Colorado deserts. We did get out to explore the trees and rocks for a close up view and a little stretch of the legs rock climbing. Then we made a quick loop through the park to head home. It was a good four-hour drive from here. Traffic in the L.A. area was pitiful, but not as pitiful and disgusting as the pollution that we observed. They call it smog, but I call it life sucking, stinking pollution. It was like a thick fog over the whole city that we drove through for over tow and half-hours. There were mountains that we could barely make out the outlines of and I’m sure there were some we couldn’t see at all. It didn’t seem to dissipate until we got just north of Burbank. Well it was good to get back to the boat and see Dewey. THURSDAY, JANUARY 13th to MONDAY, JANUARY 24th, 20000 We made a trip down to San Diego visiting a few marinas along the way to see if any of them had room for us to move to. We didn’t have much luck finding a spot. In San Diego we got our mail forwarding service established with Mail Call. We were able to get set up with a box for the next year and this guy had cruised for 10 years, so he knows what we will be going through to get our mail. Glad that’s done.    We tried to visit our insurance agent, but he was out for the day.  We visited Down Wind Marine store to look for a few more items that we need.  We also went to a water maker store to research water makers for our boat.  Back in Venture we spent the next few days working on boat projects. We finally found a web page software and I got started on that. I spent several long days glued to the computer. Just like I was back at work again, but this time it was fun. One day we started going through everything on the boat. We took all removable items off the boat and laid them out on the dock. We started going through all the items, clothes, books, etc. We had way too much stuff and certainly don’t need our winter clothes and coats anymore.  So we decided that we would fill my car up with all the stuff we don’t need any more and make a trip back to Seattle. On Saturday David started working on the outboard motor, sanding the old paint off the propeller and working on the motor. I worked on the outboard cover. We had painted it white and I started painting the petroglphy designs on the cover to match the ones on our hull. I also painted the name FRANCIS on the cover. We also put the name on the dinghy and drew on the turtle petroglphy. We have heard that the main thing that gets stolen in the south pacific is your dingy and motor, so we wanted to make it as distinct as possible.  Won’t be any question that ours belongs to this boat. We’ve been making more trips to West Marine to finish up buying some gear while they are having a sale. We had to order parts for the toilet, one new portal window and a cruising medical pack, which we will probably need with me around.  I’m also putting together an excel spread sheet for a complete inventory of all the equipment and food and misc. things on the boat and a business card for us to use with all our important boat information on it. We have heard that this comes in handy when checking into foreign ports. This will help us know what we have and what we need before we jump off. On Sunday our young surfer boy neighbor had us over for lunch on his boat.  He is a true California surfer boy. Goes surfing in the morning and waits tables at night. TUESDAY, JANUARY 25th to MONDAY, JANUARY 31st The Drive back to Seattle begins. We left Ventura Tuesday morning in the pouring rain. We decided to zoom over to I-5 and stick to it until we got to Seattle. The drive was fairly flat and boring until we got to the Mount Shasta area. It was so cloudy that we couldn’t see the giant mountain, but the lake and surrounding area was beautiful. It was pretty amazing to travel through all the different ecco systems in one day.  We drove until we couldn’t stand it. So after 13 hours of driving we landed in Eugene, Oregon. The next morning we drove to Portland and did a little tax-free shopping at West Marine.  Back in the car and back to Seattle. We drove straight to Bellevue Community College to see Carolyn and then check on my diploma, which I still don’t have.  The rest of the week was spent visiting friends, family and taking care of taxes, putting things in storage and doctor appointments.  We met with the guy who runs the goals.com web page to see if he would sponsor out web site. Looks like it will work out.