Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Today, November 1st,  turns out to be a big day for John and Deb.

First, it marks the 38th anniversary of our engagement.  Our engagement resulted in part from a plan to sail around the world, that (it was agreed) wouldn't be too well received by certain parents if we were un-married... solution? easy: Let's get married!!!

It also marks the official beginning of our "third third", as Deb likes to call our retirement.  Deb gave her retirement notice to Pacific Life and after several weeks, a replacement was found to run the San Diego Region.  Deb's last day of working was to fall on November first, but Deb did a little tweaking and officially left on Friday, October 28th.

What do you do when waiting for your house and boat to sell so you can commence your dream cruise?

When we bought Legacy, her decks were a mess, with cracks everywhere.  Soon after our return from the 91 Day Yacht Club, we had them painted with Awlgrip, an expensive two part epoxy paint.  The result was fantastic for the first couple of years, but unfortunately the paint under this new coat was then around 30 years old, brittle, and not adhering well.  After a few years the cracks reappeared.  

Wondering about how extensive a DIY deck repaint might be, John decided to kill a few hours with a scraper and see what was under all that paint.  Thirty minutes later it looked like this would be a piece of cake...


Two hours later, John realized he'd bit off a rather big piece of work....




 Days of scraping, grinding, sanding, fiberglassing, sanding, filling, sanding, filling, sanding later the primer coat was applied and ready for non-skid



Non skid is silicone sand sprinkled through a jar with holes drilled in the screw on cap onto wet paint applied to the deck with a perimeter of masking tape.  Here, the non-skid is applied and the tape is removed.


When finished the entire deck will have three coats of paint over the non-skid and glossy perimeters, as in the photo below.  Here, you can also see our son Scott scraping 40 years of paint off the next section of deck on the bow.



Sunday, October 9, 2011

Sunrise en route from Catalina to San Diego, 2011 following the SDYC Stag Cruise


Big news!  Deb's last day of work will be October 28th 2011.  That's three Mondays away!  


We've finalized our first year cruising itinerary options.  The three choices seem to roughly shake out like this:

  • Cruise a few months on the east coast, sail to the Med via Bermuda and the Azores; summer in the Med; re-cross the Atlantic via the Canaries for winter in the Caribbean, then on to Panama and the Pacific
  • Head for the Caribbean immediately; return to the East Coast for the Summer, then on to Panama and the Pacific; catch the Med later
  • Spend the winter, spring and ??? living in San Diego waiting for the $#@&** house to sell.
Sigh.......

Monday, August 8, 2011

We've talked about it, dreamt about it, stratigized, threatened to do it, promised to do it and now, well, we did it. We've counted our money. We've listed our house and boat for sale. John retired. Deb announced to her employer her intention to retire February 1, 2012.

Where to find us soon:
Between 23.5 North and 23.5 South


Our plans are loosely as follows: 

  • Buy a cruising boat. 
  • Head for the tropics. 
  • Apply sunscreen.