We had a wonderful send-off today, March 10, at San Diego Yacht Club with about 150 good friends and family.  In addition to marking the beginning of our big adventure, yesterday was our 38th wedding anniversary, which is fitting as we've been dreaming of cruising aboard our own yacht since the day we were engaged (see November 1 post).  

Between the beautiful San Diego day and the many dear friends and beloved family who came to see us off, we realized just how much we are leaving behind as we begin our adventure.  We'll make new friends along our way, but our roots are here in San Diego.  Life's opportunities always seem to have some cost, and today was a reminder that it won't be possible to pick up the phone and arrange a lunch or dinner, plan an afternoon sail or a round of golf whenever we want.  To make all of this easier for Deb and me, I asked the Yacht Club staff help me bar the doors and nobody was allowed to leave without a promise to join us aboard Moonshadow for a portion of our cruise.

Another anticipated trade-off for pursuing our dream was the impact of cruising for our sweet 12 year old yellow lab Casey.

She's a water dog and has always loved being aboard Legacy, but Moonshadow would have presented big obstacles for Casey with her high freeboard and steep ladders.

But I speak in past tense because today my brother Steve and his wife Wendy offered to keep Casey at their Escondido Ranch.  Casey absolutely loves their "boys" (golden retrievers) Spencer and Andy and running with them through the acres of tangerines in the orchard.  It will be very hard to say goodbye, but we are just delighted that Casey will be in dog-heaven-on-earth.  And, of course, there's always Skype so we can talk to Casey!

Since our return from Florida. where we found Moonshadow, life has been a blur of racing to meet the March 14 deadline, when the movers come to lock away our life's possessions until we return years from now.  What to keep, what to sell, what to toss; packing (this would have been impossible without Deb's sisters, Jill and Robyn - angles sent from heaven!!); getting our lives as paperless as possible; finding a mail forwarding agent; notifying our life's business contacts of our change of address; scheduling to do our taxes; dealing with Realtors, termite repairs, fixing dozens of house inspector issues... whew!  I think driving to Florida will be a vacation compared to the last two weeks.  But WAIT! I just paid $93 to fill the truck's gas tank...