Update: October 10, 2009

Regards from the North:

We closed on “Wind Dust” (Nauticat 44) September 22 and we have been busy getting her ready to go south. As with all boats, there’s always unexpected issues and maintenance items to deal with. From the looks of things, we hope to be underway from Rock Hall, Maryland (across the bay from Baltimore) by the end of first week of November (Burrrrrrr). This will give us a few weeks living aboard and getting used to “Wind Dust” before moving south at a quick leisurely pace. There’s just something wrong with that terminology, isn’t there? Well, considering what happened to us in August, we will take it all day long and be damned happy we are making progress.  We are posting a few new pictures of “Wind Dust” sporting her new bottom job.  Some of the work we are having done before we leave:  new heavy duty paint job on the bottom; new AGM batteries throughout; additional refrigeration added; Max Prop reconditioned; cutlass bearing replaced; stuffing box replaced; generator serviced with the raw water pump, heat exchanger and belts; same drill for the main engine; propane system tested and solenoid replaced; canvas work re-stitched; ground tackle inspected and additional anchors added to the arsenal. Bottom line, a big sucking sound coming from our bank account. Oh well, our friends tell us it’s just money, but to us, it may be back to work sooner than we planned or getting by with little less creature comforts and that’s ok. “The main thing, is to keep the main thing, the main thing”. My dad told me that saying many years ago and as silly as it sounds, there’s a lot of truth to the saying, especially when your to-do list is longer and bigger than the old brain can handle.