Itchy Feet

Monday the van goes into the shop to get the vacuum pump replaced. Once it's fixed I'll be able to haul the sailboat down to the Gulf of Mexico. It won't be long now before my lovely wife and I will be able to continue our sailing adventures. We'll most likely go for a day sail as a shake down cruise before heading out on an extended journey.

Back in November we had to pull out for my lovely wife to have dental work done. Now we are at square one again. We could drive a couple hundred miles down the coast and launch where we pulled out. Instead, we'll launch from the same place we did last fall. It's not about the destination, but the journey. There are some great places we wouldn't mind seeing again, plus we can see things we missed last time.

While it has been nice to spend time with dad in his retirement park, I'm not ready for a retirement park.

Lessons learned from our last trip should help with the next leg of our journey. We were in pretty good shape after almost a month on the water. Our boat is small, but having a lot of food storage was a huge advantage. It was nice to be able to keep on sailing rather than hunting around for more provisions. The smart phone with Google Maps, Active Captain, charts, and an Internet hot spot was a huge help. Never mind all the books I downloaded to read on it.

That doesn't mean there aren't a few little things we could change. We'll leave some gear behind and add other things. My cabin screen will be replaced with a finer no see 'em screen. I'm also packing more and stronger bug repellents -along with more anti-inch cream. It's the little things sometimes . . .

I'm a big believer in lists. Once something is written down my mind is free to think of other things. I've a to do list, equipment list, and a provisions list. One of the “to do” things is some of that boring business stuff like keeping the bills paid. Most of my bills have been either eliminated or put on automatic payments. However, there are a few pesky things that need personal attention. Would you believe that in this day and age there are still things that need to be paid by check? Yes, I sometimes write paper checks -like some kind of barbarian.

Soon enough we'll be back on the water.

-Sixbears