Holidays and Hellos

We're back in the states until the end of December........Thanksgiving, football, turkey, and gifts (at least for the boat). Since we are in the USA far less than before since we are now FULLY retired from work, everything we want to buy for the boat is compressed into a few weeks of frenzied on-line shopping. Fast internet and a credit card are a dangerous combination.

Turkey!

And this holiday season, the boat is getting quite a bit..........solar panels (and the accompanying electronic backbone), a repaired AIS, new cushion fabric (Kirstin's next project), and a variety of odds and ends that we've depleted across the past 6 months.  Our big job in Wisconsin (our repair supply depot) will be figuring out how this huge pile of spare parts fits into two duffle bags. When we return to Antigua, its a bottom job and $400 per gallon anti-fouling paint (gulp).

The UPS driver hates us

These trips back always involve trying to remember where our clothes are..........Naples Florida is 75 degrees; Omro Wisconsin might be -10 degrees. We both have nightmares of landing in Milwaukee in December wearing flip-flops and a tank top.

Getting off the boat in Antigua was emotional and logistically challenging. We've woken up there every day since May.........Tom has only been in the USA 2 weeks in the past 13 months. Arranging for L'ORIENT's boat-sitter and marina slip was difficult with the recent hurricanes destroying a lot of the marinas in the Northeast Caribbean.

Seeing family across the holidays is fun, and we hope not to gain all the weight back that we painstakingly lost in Bonaire by going to our 90 degree/no AC gym for 4 months straight. So far, tollhouse cookies are hitting us hard in Naples.