An Update

If anyone is still reading...

We officially sold Last Paradise. She is sitting in a boatyard in North Carolina awaiting her new family to take her to amazing new places.


It won't surprise anyone who knows us to know that the same day we closed on the sale of Last Paradise, we bought a *new* boat up in Michigan!! I know, we can't sit still! We are now the proud owners of an S2 9.2C. This will be a perfect boat for us to play on this summer (in Michigan) its 30' so will fit the 3 of us perfectly for short term cruising.

So far, John loves the boat- at least when we are going 'motor sailing' which is his preferred way of sailing. By far, the favorite part of the boat is the 'dat-woom' (bathroom in JohnSpeak) which has a bathtub! Yes, I know. A tub on a sailboat? It is very small but I can see how it would come in handy for laundry or small children.

By the way, the new boat is named WAKA... more on that later.

XOX

Back Aboard

Well folks, we made it! We are back on board Last Paradise, or as John says "PooDooIce" (its really the cutest thing!)

Driving for two days with a two-year-old can be a challenge, but since we've been doing long car trips all of John's life he is an old pro at it now. He was a champion- we only had to resort to watching 'Bee Movie' once! We managed to find NPR stations the whole way too, lucky for us! I have an old friend from when we lived in Florida who is living in Louisville, KY taking care of his ageing father. We managed to get in touch of him and he (finally) got to meet John! We stayed over night there and then had a leisurely morning in the hotel. There was a pool, but it was closed for repairs, shucks, John would've loved a swim!

We pulled into Holt, Alabama where LP has been docked at the Eagle Cove Marina last evening, in the pouring rain. As luck would have it, the batteries were nearly dead. Jeff found the engine key and went to try to start it up to charge the batteries, but the starting battery was dead as well. DOH! Luckily we have a battery charger and 110 system on board so Jeff got out some extension cords and plugged us into shore power. Things would have been fine if it had not been so overcast and rainy for the last 2 months- we have 4 solar panels to keep the batteries at least a bit charged!

About 2 months ago, Jeff came down here to check on things and to set off some 'bug bombs'. We were a little squeamish after finding some dead roaches in our car trunk- we really did not want an infestation! The bombs let off a sort of powdery mist- the poison I guess. Well, for some reason mildew decided to grow on this powder, so Jeff and I spent about an hour wiping down all of the wood with vinegar (especially in John's room!) Lesson learned I suppose- but whenever you leave a boat for an extended period of time you can be sure that there will be a few surprises when you come home! We managed to get cleaned up and I made cheese omelette's for dinner, we didn't have much else! John fell asleep like a champ, I think he was excited to see his 'own' bed. After all of this

Even will all of the little hiccups in getting back aboard, watching John react to things was tremendously rewarding. He spent a lot of time in his little 'toy area' and even discovered the potty (he pooped in it right away!!!) Watching him remember everything was pretty cool, and listening to him be able to communicate so much of it was awesome! Jeff is running errands and John is taking a good nap now, leaving me some quiet time to process all of this newness.

Oh, and by the way... we seem to have brought the cold weather south with us- its in the 50's here today! BRRRR.