Hey, everyone. You have all sure been busy posting away here while I was
incommunicado. We finally got phone service established here on our boat,
so I'm back to normal emailing. Oh, yeah...I forgot to mention...we are now
living aboard Chanteuse, escaping the cold winter up in MI (they've already
had 6 inches of snow and expect 6" nore tonight...too bad, so sad). Right
now we're in the Pamlico Sound area (some of you know where exactly...).
We're just taking life esasy for right now and staying away from going out
into the Atlantic....the weather off Cape Hatteras to Cape Fear is
frightening....45-50 knots with 20 foot waves. Not what I want my first
encounter with the Atlantic to be! We've met a bunch of lovely people,
including one Doug and Kathy King, who are great folks, interesting to talk
to, and enjoyable to be with. Have also met some friends of Michael Ortin's
(Schoonertrash) who sail in this area who are very pleasant people too.
Chopper likes living aboard except that we're always having to ask him to
move since the aft cabin has become the closet/storage area. He was a bit
put out at first that we had usurped "his" room for such mundane stuff as
the printer, clothes, and accesoroes. We are now official liveabords since
we installed the requisite blue tarp over our boom when we had a downpour
yesterday...sure makes a difference not having the rain come pouring down
the hatch. We're also shopping for a new mainsail before taking off to do
any serious cruising. Haven't decided whether we're going to go north or
south yet. Plenty of time to decide that later. For right now, we like it
here and there's lots to explore and lots of places to sail to in the
vicinity. I brought my fishing gear with me and on a warmer day will go out
to the beach to surf fish. I caught a 1.5# crappe off the dock the other
day and cooked it up for dinner. So, that's where I've been and am....good
to be back.

katy