It’s a boat. All boats are collections of incomplete projects. Here are a few of the big ones we mostly finished on Dory.

Since Dory became our full time home, we wanted some conveniences that weren’t so important when we were just using her as a vacation home. So despite rumors that we had taken early retirement, we actually started a career in boat plumbing! Here are some of the projects of the past couple of weeks, with most of the dirty work being done by Bill and our friend Seth (aka Roy D.), while Sue dodged flying parts and liquids, kept us in food and clean clothes, moved stuff from place to place to get it out of the way of the plumbing work, took care of the dog, and finally gave up and went to see her sister in Connecticut. Read the rest of this entry »

Shortly after we arrived back in the US, Bill’s brother David came to visit (and loan us a car). Our friend Seth invited us to a “welcome home” dinner together with Gord and Suzanne, who had dropped anchor near us while returning to Ontario from a cruise in the Bahamas. (Gord and Suzanne also had us aboard their sailboat Camelot II the previous day for some delicious home made pizza and key lime pie.

Below: David and Seth finish up some task or another before dinner.

 A couple of weeks after our return, our son Bill joined us, and we drove to North Carolina to visit family and for the wedding of David’s son, Chris.

To break the trip a bit, we made a brief stop in Amsterdam. We were just a bit too early for the tulips, but we did see some cheese being made.

 

At about 6pm on the evening we were to leave Saudi, the airline called to confirm that we were scheduled for that night’s flight.  We said we were, and reminded the clerk that we had reservations for our dog, Sandy. The airline clerk said he didn’t show that as a confirmed reservation, and it would have to be worked out with the cargo office — which was closed for the day.

Of course, this led to ranting and raving, but the matter was resolved by our travel agent, although we wound up paying almost double what we’d been told it would cost. It was “take it or leave it” at the airport, so we paid, and hoped to get a refund after we got back (scilicet, “fat chance”).