We're trying to get out of here!

Geez, leaving sure is hard! I'm sure I've said this before, but this is hard work!! Just finishing those last-minute projects and getting everything settled takes a long time. We've been so busy this last week checking those items off of the list. Yesterday was a VERY productive day….Michael worked with Brad Johnson from Sojourn Marine and got the 2nd Inverter installed, the Jerry cans strapped down to some HUGE pieces of teak compliments of our very good friend Tom Holladay, the dive compressor attached to the deck - that thing isn't going anywhere!! We have most of the loose stuff put away inside the boat, just a couple boxes of stuff (mostly my cookbooks) that we're scratching our heads on where to put. Our plan is still to take off early Tuesday morning approx 2-4am and head over to Catalina. We'd like to spend Thanksgiving in Catalina with Chad & his girlfriend's family. We may have a stowaway on board, but that plan may change, we'll find out at the end of the weekend. We have checked most of the stuff off of the 'must be done before we leave' list, although we ran into a little problem with the generator yesterday….grrrrr!! We're working on it today though and I'm confident it'll work out fine.

Santa Ana's are a blowing now and have been off and on all week. It's nice and warm….just a bit windy. The weatherman says that they should stop tomorrow.

So what's remaining….
1. Finalizing the Coast Chandlery arrangements while we're away. Casey, our manager, is learning very quickly and Michael has been trying to help him anyway he can. This includes handling all of those outstanding items we haven't dealt with in the last couple months. Michael's Dad has picked up the back end of the business very well and we're confident leaving it in his hands.
2. CalFed still hasn't come through with the forged check from Rene's stolen purse episode, so we can't close the account until that happens. This might be left over to take care of next year when we return for the summer.
3. Figuring out what's wrong with the generator.
4. Last minute provisioning
5. Rene hasn't returned Sue Chenoweth's book that was lent to her
6. Strapping down everything else on deck & below that we haven't managed to get tied down yet: scuba tanks, dock cart, boarding ladder, etc.

We're being encouraged by our friends Scott & Liz who are in Mazatlan. Every day we receive an e-mail letting us know they're thinking of us! We can't wait to get down there to see them. Mike, Hutch, & Betsy on our buddy-boat, Dolphin, are also working very hard to leave. They are moving onto the boat today and should be ready to leave with us, with any luck.

I'll write more later….Rene & Michael