October 2007, Part 2


Greetings from the folks aboard SV Wand’rin Star!

It’s been a while since my fingers have danced across the keyboard & I’ll quickly attempt to bring you up to date with life on SV Wand’rin Star. As mentioned in the last log, guests were expected; what a great time we had with Kate in San Diego and Bill & Masuko on the Baja Haha to Cabo San Lucas, Baja, Mexico.

On October 16 we made a quick trip to Driscoll’s Boat Yard for a “haul & hang” to have a couple thru hulls installed for the Spectra water-maker. It was a good feeling when Gary ran the water-maker and everything worked perfectly! The wind generator is still on the to-do list as we’re not really sure where we want to install it on the boat.

I continued working at West Marine and we made the most of the associate’s discount with last minute, must have (??) purchases. Working Truck Crew at the San Diego Super Store was surely different from working in Port Townsend but as always, there were great folks with whom to work.

Kate arrived in San Diego on October 20th and quickly began helping us prepare for Mexico. She was a godsend as she helped me empty every one of the food-holds on the boat, clean them, re-inventory and then re-stow all the stuff! It feels great knowing that my Excel Inventory is current and CORRECT! When we first moved aboard the boat, Gary diagrammed & labeled all the holds and I developed two inventory systems to record where items are stowed and when they need to be replaced. Most of the time, I’m pretty “Virgo” about keeping them correct & up-to-date, but some things do occasionally escape my record-keeping zeal. As we’ve lived aboard since August 2003, it was time to do a total “re-store”. I really enjoyed working along side Kate as it reminded me again of what a great young woman she’s become, I feel truly blessed. Of course her response might be, “I took vacation time to help you clean out holds?” Not really, she did enjoy seeing another aspect of life on the boat.

It wasn’t all work and no play while she was with us as we did some sightseeing, dining out, and continued our long-time habit of playing cribbage; she beat me 4 games straight and even had an almost perfect hand of 28! Guess she had a good teacher. Her visit coincided with the wild fires in southern California and that impacted on our plans, but she & I were able to spend a day at the world-famous San Diego Zoo. It was really strange being so close to the fires, yet not affected by them (except for ash on the boat.) The fires definitely are hard to imagine and are so devastating to those affected.

Gary had to go up the mast and Kate decided she wanted to try it too, so up she went and said it was “cool, ‘til I looked down!” She finally got out on our boat for an afternoon sail on the bay and a quick spin in the kayak while she was visiting. Bill & Jean on MV Dream Warrior gave us a Champagne Going Away Party the evening before Kate left and we all had an pleasurable time. They were great neighbors and we wish them continued good health.

Two days after Kate left, Bill & Masuko arrived from Bainbridge Island to go on the Baja Ha-ha with us. We spent a whirlwind couple of days getting last minute (really last minute!!!) projects done, completing fresh food provisioning and saying good-by to favorite haunts in San Diego. There was a Kick off Party for the Ha-ha at West Marine where we devoured some good Mexican food, got our Ha-Ha goodie bag, and mingled with most of the folks we’d be heading down the coast with October 29. Our tales of the Baja Ha-ha are in the next chapter of the log, so I’ll close for now and hope you’ve enjoyed reading about getting ready for our “Southern Journey.”

Fondly,
Dorothy, Gary & Murray the Boat Cat!

Quote of the Month

”You’ll never go anywhere if the getting there isn’t fun!” ~ Matt on SV Farah Anne

© Copyright 2007
Last updated on September 2, 2008