Back at Minnesott Beach

By March 10 we had been back in our home marina at Wayfarers Cove for four days.  When we arrived it was raining and cold.  Luckily the wind didn't start to howl until that afternoon. That night there were gale force winds and the water in the marina went way down with the sustained south winds.  A few boats ended up high and dry but luckily our slip was deep enough to keep us afloat.

The mornings were very cold with ice on the decks at times. Oh why did we leave The Bahamas!! In the afternoon it would warm up, however, and we could work comfortably as we clean Pioneer and take our equipment and belongings off her.  We were at Minnesott for Judy's birthday on March 15th.  We spent that evening at the home of Dick and Judy Giddings, in Dover, NC.  It was a fun party and Judy got to speak with our cruising friends that were still in the Bahamas. Dick hosts an evening Doo-Dah net on his ham/SSB radio.  His broadcasts are a part of our lives all winter!

Judy Giddings prepares the steak for the birthday party

While at Minnesott we also got to spend some time with friends Perry and Susan, s/v Grace.  Grace is also a Cabo Rico 38 and was in the marina on the hard getting some work done, which gave us many opportunities to visit with Perry and Susan.

Perry and Susan leave Minnesott after giving Grace a shine and a new bottom job

When we were not socializing, we were working on Pioneer, giving her a Spring cleaning and some polish to her brass. It didn't take long to have her shining again.  It also helped that we had two ideal days on which to touch up the exterior teak, and several cold days on which to do the interior teak.

Judy cleans Pioneer's hull - a labour of love (she is really crazy, man!)

Nothing like a little polish on the brass to make a girl feel good!

After several weeks, we headed back to Canada to visit family and friends.  Good news, Judy has another grandchild!  Kelly gave birth to #3, a boy, Regan.  Congratulations Kelly!

Our Spring visit to Canada was busy as usual.  We spent most of our time in Lethbridge, with Judy taking a few weeks to visit her mum on Salt Spring Island. Ron got a chance to see all three of his children. Unfortunately, Judy was not so lucky.  All in all, it was a good trip home.  We got a lot accomplished and we will be back there in September to take care of some medical matters.

From left to right: Jocelyn (Ron's daughter), Aaron (Ron's son), Evelyn (Ron's mom) and Liz (Aaron's special friend)

It is early June and we are now back on Pioneer, water aerobics classes have started, and we are partially moved back aboard, although Pioneer is still being shown to potential buyers.  Our camera has taken a turn for the worse, so we'll be repairing or replacing before we add more photos to totallyfloats.com.

We cleaned up Pioneer, moved her into a larger and better slip, listed her with a broker, took all our belongings off her and put them into storage and then headed back to Canada for a visit with family.

Our goal in selling Pioneer is to move to a larger boat.  We have been looking at 42 foot boats, Pioneer is 38 feet. We are also prepared to sail her again this winter if she does not sell this summer. We love her, trust her and know her systems well.  We also don't want to give up a cruising season!

Just before leaving Minnesott for our '08-'09 cruising adventure, we had some enjoyable and fun activities to keep us occupied right up to our leaving date (November 9th).  Had we known the conditions under which we would be sailing we would have postponed for at least a few more weeks, either that or left a week earlier than we did.  More on that later.

As part of our leaving ritual, we put our "wheels" in storage for the 6 months that we will be away. Perry and Susan have kindly allowed us to park our car at their place for the North Carolina winter.

Judy gives the Mazda a last inspection before saying farewell

Parties are also part of the leaving ritual. For this departure we managed to fit in two great parties with very different themes - one an election party, the other a birthday party.

Democrats rejoice at the election party

The election party was a "democrat only" function at Rex and Carol's.  Since we were wannabe Democrats, we got an invite.  We were very pleased with the result and feel that the US has made a  wise choice in its next administration.

The new President elect - good choice, America!

The next party was a happy birthday celebration for Shirley (La Coquette) and Dick (Rusty Rudder).  The party was at the home of Dick and Debbie - a beautiful house that they have just built and are almost finished.  It was our last chance to say goodbye to many of our Minnesott friends.  Fortunately we were able to include Conrad and Sally from "Its About Time". They pulled into Wayfarers for a few days to wait with us for a weather window south.

Dick and Debbie with Conrad and Sally at the birthday bash

Finally Sunday, November 9th arrived and with it the long awaited weather window.  We departed Wayfarers with a goodbye from Susan and Perry.  Perry headed out on another boat headed to the BVI while Susan was left to wave at the dock. 

Perry heads out to the BVI's

Susan gets to stay behind as the rest of us head out on our adventures