The waterdogs leaped into the Eel River, soaked the car, leaped into the ocean at Klamath, soaked the car, leaped into the ocean at Brookings, and did not wreck the motel, but close to it. All in one day. They are well named for their love for the water - any water. We think it will be a training problem on the sailboat as they used to howl when close to shore, and the anchor down, in the Bayliner: "swim, we want to swim, dammit, let us out,we want to swim". And Robert would yell, "shut up" and try to maneuver the boat so either Linda or I could jump overboard and pull lines to shore. The dogs would be close to howling, crew trying to hear directions and the skipper alternately yelling at the dogs or the crew - it was all joy. Crew getting crabby, lines all over the beach and the skipper wondering why the hell he was not getting any responses. The dogs, finally let loose, would scramble to the rails and create great splashes, swim to shore and race about while the crew, who had very firmly shut the hell up, were trying to to set the shorelines in the sand, against the wind. Yes, I think we will have to do some training - whether crew or dogs, it remains to be seen.

The Insanity continues

Clearing out the boat means moving things to the locker. Then other stuff saved to go on the boat, in the locker gets moved on. There are more trips back and forth than can be counted. Then we look at it with helplessness and wonder why we want it. The giant frying pan and pressure cooker are going back to the locker: if I have to cook that much food for anyone, I am not having any fun. Then there is the search for things we thought we had packed for the boat that are probably in the storage locker in Az. Everything gets moved to San Diego in the fall, all in one place when we can again look helpless at each other and wonder why we saved all that stuff. Notice I didn't say crap.
We are taking a short break for some family problems in Oregon and then back to do more sorting on the next week. And then we haul to do a bottom job, and more maintenance. Oh joy.
Sometime in June, we will go out the Gate and turn right, probably sneak into a cove somewhere, anchor out and sleep for a couple days.
Pictures to be added soon. Email is problematic but we manage every once in while.

Aboard at the Motel 6

Too much stuff on the bunks and surprise, surprise: we left the heat of the desert and the Bay area is suffering a heat wave. This is doable, after the dessication of the dry heat - it is understandable how all those civilizations in the desert got lost. They dried up and blew away. I had to have my tv fix at a motel as cruising tv is not always doable. My husband and I have to learn to talk to each other again and eat meals like regular people. Do regular people sit at dining tables and not on the floor in front of the tv, Hawaiian style?
Our schedule is wafty - i.e. up in the air due to managing care concerns for parents, but tentatively, after the luxurious break of the Motel 6, we may be heading north for another break to see to my mother's 90th birthday. And then back to install the toys on the boat: new navigation system, new refrigerations sytem, pick up the new dinghy and engine, new generator, throw more money at West Marine, measure for the backup steering - an expensive Hydrovane.
And then throw more money at a boatyard. Fix some fairing lumps on the hull and generally make lists and feel as if we have come home to the water.
Cruisers, when they write of their experiences, talk of leaving friends and then gloss over that part by telling of the new ones they have met. The bittersweetness of leaving land held friends is helped by knowing that they might, want, and will possibly join us at different parts of our wandering. They had better.