Well, she (the boat) finally has a new name, "Big Sky." The departure date is nearing and our excitement (and nerves) are building. We're wrapping up our careers, which doesn't come without emotion as we've poured our hearts, souls and energy into creating them for the last (combined) 65! years. Excel spreadsheets are a God-send, so we don't have to keep the details stored in our heads. Lists of items to pack, sell, give away; lists of "to do" from dentist visits, first aid courses, to researching the best medical plans; lists of financial tasks from international banking access, insurance to [View Full Entry]

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The adventure is nearing. After months of searching the internet, traveling to various coastal cities, we found the perfect boat in Finland. It's a 515 Nauticat (currently in dry dock at the Nauticat yard in Turku, just outside Helsinki). Now, we wait until the Baltic Sea thaws, then we set sail! The boat sale was official September 15th, 2006. [View Full Entry]

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Thanks Jan, for introducing us to the "blog" as this may be the very communication tool that will keep Con and me connected with family and friends when we set sail. We're working on a "private access" website that will hold certain aspects of our adventure, but for the day-to-day journaling, we believe the blog is (as Con would say) "the cat's ass!" Step one: buy the boat. Next weekend, we'll head into the Boston area, which will represent our third trip away, to check out boats. We've seen hundreds of boats on the intranet, but just a few dozen with [View Full Entry]

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