We Made it to San Diego

Well, it took a week all told, but we made it to our boat.  We’ve been busy, busy, busy since we arrived.

Today we finished unpacking and stowing all our stuff.  We had to take out everything the previous owners left, throw out what we didn’t want and find places for all our clothing, electronics, linens, etc.  We’re quite amazed at all the space on board.  We actually have lots of storage space that is empty at the moment. 

We’ve been having lots of issues getting a working phone and internet service.  The reception around here is horrible.  We’ve been told that it is due mostly to the military that is nearby.  I guess they block of lot of the signals.  Apparently, the locals complain about it all the time.  We have a temporary cell phone, but we’re paying 10 cents a minute.  We got wifi service for $20 a month, but its not too reliable.  Not reliable enough to use the Magic Jack (which gives us free local and long distance phone service), and that stinks.

Archie (one of the cats) is loving it here.  He’s out on deck in the sunshine most of the time.  He hasn’t jumped off yet, but I’m a little worried he’ll slip and fall in.  I don’t know if he’d be able to make his own way back on the dock or not, as they are quite high.  So, whenever we leave, we put him below and lock in him, just in case.

The weather here is gorgeous.  Its been around 24 everyday except for one.  We’re in short sleeves most of the time.

Our bed is the most comfortable we’ve ever slept in.  Its so cozy in bed that we want to crawl into it all the time.  There’s one of those space age Swedish foam mattresses on it, and its very, very large.  We have about 7 pillows on it and a nice TV at the foot.  Its wonderful.

We’ve been able to cook on the propane stove and on the bar-b-que.  We think we’ll be buying a new bar-b-que right away as this one is old and doesn’t work too well.  The stove is also a challenge as we’re not able to adjust the flame.  Everything cooks on high!  You know what that means – we’re burning everything.  Hopefully we can just get it serviced, cause marine stoves are very expensive.

We’re not crazy about this marina.  Most of the slips are rented by boat brokers so there aren’t many people around.  We were looking forward to enjoying the boating community, so we’ve been shopping around for another one.  We think we found one we like and we’ll probably be moving there shortly.

We’re commissioned a captain to teach us everything.  And I mean everything.  He’ll be going over everything on the boat and explaining what it all is and how to maintain it.  We’ll be making a map of the boat detailing where everything is, cause we don’t want to be searching for things when we need them.  He’s going to take us shopping for gear.  We’ll be emptying out the water tanks and re-filling them, about 5 times, he says.  Also pumping out the waste tanks.  He’s going to teach us how to maintain the motor, etc. etc.  We probably won’t be going sailing for a week or so.  We’re going to spend a lot of money on this guy, but he’s going to prepare us for everything.

We’ve still got lots to do to get her pretty.  We’ve changed some of the rigging and have someone working on the graphics for her new name (In the Vortex).  Apparently, you can’t just change the name of a boat.  There’s a whole ritual we have to follow as well as getting rid of everything on board with the old name.  We’ll be doing it all later, but not yet.  We need to clean her up, polish her, etc.  We’re also going to probably change the carpets and upholstery.  But we’re going to try doing it ourselves.

We’ve been sleeping like babies, and its time to go get comfortable for the night. 

So far, so good.  This is the life!!