Summer is Ending

We are here in Annapolis on our mooring ball that we rented for the month of September while we took a road trip to visit family and friends. We had a wonderful trip. Very relaxing. Some of the trees in Tenn. and MO were already turning probably due to the dry weather this year. We rented a Ford Focus and it got 35 mpg!!! What a treat. I am looking forward to the manufacturers doing even better in the coming years. Maybe by the time we buy our next car it will be up to 50mpg. We returned a bit earlier than planned as we didn't want to overstay our welcome with our wonderful friends and were concerned about Spunky being left alone. Fellow cruisers on the next door mooring called us to say the winds had reached 40 mph and the rain was so bad they could not see our boat but all was well and we were still attached when the weather passed.

We are now working on a few projects that must be completed before we leave in late Oct. We replaced our shower sump and drain first and now are working on our freezer which is refusing to turn on. Today it is blustery and raining and we are waiting for a call from the manufacturer of our freezer with suggestions on trouble shooting. Once the wind settles down and John finds a ladder to borrow he will put the new blades on our wind generator. I will be applying Restore/Refinish on our interior teak.

We had the Annapolis Harbor Boatyard clean and paint the bottom, replace the steering cables, find and repair the leak in the rudder post, install a new VHF antenna and LED anchor light, service/repair our outboard and install a new water maker which will make our life easier this winter. No more hauling 6 gal. jugs from shore to boat in the dinghy. We also sent our chart plotter off for repair and have met a guy who will take a look at the SSB antenna to see why we do not receive a very loud signal.

We are now making our provisions list which we will begin shopping for once the freezer is back on line.

The summer has been great although a bit on the warm side even for me. We got to see all of our kids and grandkids and many friends. We were able to meet new friends who are also cruisers and planning on heading south after the boat show. We are awaiting our scheduling meeting on Sept. 28 and may start work the 29th or 30th.

John has one last medical procedure to get through and then we will be done with docs until next summer.

We are excited about our winter trip and will keep you all informed about our progress south.

Hope your summer has been a good one.

Elyse and John