. . . . .And A Happy New Year! ! ! !

SHIP'S LOG:

Well, it was a wonderful Christmas. A white one, too! Visiting my sisters', the local Paper ran a story about a family that was living on their boat in Newport Harbor. They do this year round, on a trawler, based in Newport Shipyard during the winter, and off on a mooring once the weather warms. It must be a pretty good size trawler as there are two kids under 10, two teenagers, at least one dog, plus the parents. I can see living aboard south of the frost line, but up here during the winter sounds just a bit too crazy. After all, last week we got hit with 20+ inches of snow and the temp has been in the low 20's. Tough to get much in the way of a tan these days!

I am do for my weekly check of ABISHAG. I went down just before Christmas and she seemed just fine. It was a bit of a chore getting to her though. The gate to her dock was closed and secured. It was not much of a deterrent, a couple of barrel bolts and a cable tie, but it was enough to dissuade a casual visitor. It took no real time to get in and removed the electronics, check the bilges, re-secure the tarp and clear some of the accumulated snow. I even tried to pay off a part of the yard bill, but the office was closed so that will have to wait.

There is no movement on the sale of the boat and/or the condo. The "hot potential buyer" up and disappeared like - as the warden in the "Shawshank Redemption" says - like "a fart in the breeze," so we are waiting again. It is disappointing that no one took advantage of "two real good bargains" to make someone happy for Christmas. Ah, such is life.

My list for Spring Projects is growing. The absolutely necessary ones remain the same, but the upgrades and improvements grow by leaps and bounds. It happens every year like this and most rarely get done. Still it is nice to dream. Working on the boat in the spring, despite all the grousing, is actually quite enjoyable. It makes every moment actually sailing so much better knowing what it cost in sweat-equity to make it possible. I just hope that in some way such will be the case this spring.