Ramblings

Well, we are at it again. Tomorrow we are renting another car (Enterprise loves us right now!) and heading up to Virginia. My sister is getting married this weekend at my parents house and we are heading up early to help with preparations.

We are also on the hunt for a "new" car. We have scoured craigslist for the last three days and found the best possible cars available and will likely spend an entire day test driving cars. While this is a dream for Brad, this is not even close to my idea of fun. But, this is the first logical step in moving back to land life and we are eager to have transportation again - especially down here in middle of nowhere Dataw. Unfortunately the used car pool is slim down here in the sticks, so we are looking in the Norfolk area where we can cast a wider net.

We are excited for the weekend festivities, but sad to be leaving our little floating home bubble again. Being so secluded down here has been great for the past week - we have watched many movies. discussed our future at length and just generally spent time together. And now that the threat of jobs looms before us, I am coming to appreciate this time even more. Not many people I know get to spend so much time with their spouses and I consider myself extremely lucky to have this time and this relationship with mine. There is something so comforting about just sitting quietly together, sitting in the cockpit enjoying the evening, or even taking the dog for a walk in the evenings. I am dreading the time when we get caught up in life again and rarely have time to even carry on a conversation. But that makes this time together that much more precious.

This sailing life has brought us so many wonderful experiences and it will always be nice to reflect back on these times and to use them to inspire us to do it again!

Transmission Woes

Well, looks like we are going to have to replace the transmission. After having a mechanic take a look at it, he told us there was nothing he could do. The yard has been great with giving us suggestions and letting us know how much and how long this whole process will take. But, it was Brad who did the most research and finally found an alternative to the expensive transmission replacement. He located a guy (one of only three on the entire east coast) who rebuilds marine transmissions and has done extensive work with our brand of transmission.

We soon realized this process was going to take a couple of weeks and after sweating it out in the sweltering heat for two days, we knew that was not an option. So, we decided to rent a car and head up for our "Friends and Family Tour" a bit early. This way, we could enjoy air conditioning and also visit people we hadn't seen since before our Bahamas trip. Visiting everyone now would mean that once we finally stopped for the summer, we would be ready to jump right in to working. So, off we went!

We had to personally deliver the transmission to the repair guy and then made the trip up to Franklin. All of us were thrilled to be in the A/C in the car, especially the fur babies and they were soon passed out in the back seat. It was an easy trip up and we were happy to once again be on dry land and in the comfort of a home. And it was great to see my parents, too. ;-)

The plans from here on out are tentative. We don't know exactly how long the transmission repair will take and we have no plans to return to the boat until she is fully ready to move again - it is just too hot. So, we are playing each day by ear and we will return to the boat once we are either done with visiting everyone or the transmission is fixed - whichever comes first.

In the meantime, we are completely enjoying the comforts of land life and are looking forward to catching up with everyone along the way! We are going to be making stops in Franklin, Baltimore, DC, Richmond, and Corolla - if you are on the way, give us a shout; we would love to see everyone!!