One month to go...

the bon voyage party is a month from today (that means my mom just turned 60 today, happy bday mom). We still have some crucial things left to do to YOLO before we set sail. Currently she's still named Blue Tomorrow, so any readers that have artistic talent to share, please let us know if you wanna help repaint her stern. Also, we still have not made any headway on the solar panel installation or wiring. The charge controller is still on its way from china. This will probably be the most difficult retrofit all around but i'm looking forward to getting it done! I just got an email saying our refrigerator was shipped today so it should arrive soon. Solar powered refrigerator = a lifetime of cold beer! Also gotta install that bad boy when it arrives too.

We've also gotta provision this baby to the gills with food, clothes (both warm, cold, and wet weather), blankets, booze, fishing gear, books, spare parts, extra sails, tools, charts, laptops, toiletries, and all kinds of other random stuff... So much to do and buy in so little time!

I hope everyone can make it to the party! Venue might change but the date will stay the same... Either it's going to be at Pikes Bay Marina (as mentioned below in an older post) OR it will be in Superior, WI (adjacent to Duluth) at the Duluth Power Squadron dock. The DPS dock is about 1:20 closer to the cities than Bayfield and it will provide a place for people to camp out right at the boat. So come prepared to camp if we get to use the DPS dock!

Dipping the rails!

Heading south for the winter!

Plans have unexpectedly changed. In a moment of fury with Red Wing Aero I quit my job 2 months too early. The cruising budget has been badly bruised, however this may have been a blessing in disguise. We have moved the departure date up to September 26th and the Bon Voyage Bash to Saturday sept. 25th! Nothing would make our departure happier than having all our friends and family there to see us off in style. If we are blessed with a good weather window Sunday morning we shallst head east to across Lake superior. The route has finally been decided upon, and a map will soon be posted on this blog.

Bon Voyage Party
Pikes Bay marina bayfield, WI
Saturday September 25th
Please come and see us off!

... just around the corner

It's been a few months now since the last blog entry, so my sincerest apologies to all 4 of our loyal followers. A lot has happened over the course of this summer. Namely, we learned how to sail.

Throughout this summer so far, we've been having a blast aboard our bristol exploring as much of the Apostle Islands as possible in our allotted free time from work. We've made a few additions and retrofits to our s/v including a rad GPS, an extra potable water bladder, rewired a few things, installed our cushions, bimini top, and dodger, fixed a few leaks in our dinghy, and destroyed and replaced our jib sail. AND, what I'm really excited about... I've got two 100W solar panels still in the box downstairs in my living room eagerly waiting to be installed atop our bimini! Our sailboat is getting a little greener!

We recently suffered a minor financial setback (i'm sure most of you know about that) but it looks like we'll still have enough flow to make it happen on time or even a month sooner! Originally we'd hoped to be flowing with the mississippi by nov 1st, but plans are changing a tad. Perhaps an October 1 departure instead??? stay tuned.

also, note the new bottom paint!!