To our usenet friends on Christmas Day:

Well, our faithful contractor has been beavering away while we were off
the boat having surgery and rehab, and, sad to say, it's impossible to
convey via pictures alone, how marvelous the boat looked when we
stepped aboard Friday night. Nearly everything below is refinished,
along with the vast majority of what was taken down having now been
replaced (after refinishing); the major project accomplishment was the
workshop, of which more, anon. Topsides have the last bits of re-do on
the non-skid, and it all looks Bristol (top-quality, for the
non-sailors in the list). But that's not all...

These marvelous folks had prepared a Christmas surprise for us, doing
the last bits of varnishing in the afternoon. They'd left a light on
for us, so we could see to get in, but it wasn't very bright (see
below). This is what we found when we stepped aboard:

http://tinyurl.com/9gboy

And this, in the workroom:

http://tinyurl.com/8ct48

We've not taken down the Christmas display to see the full effect of
the workroom; you'll have to surf our December portion of the refit
photos (http://justpickone.org/skip/gallery/, and click on M46Projects)
to see what else is happening. However, we've given each other a week
on the boat to work for Christmas, including using our new Clamptite to
redo the head plumbing (and other hoses, too), restoring both heads
(bathrooms for the non-sailors), redoing electronics and designing
enclosures, windlass replacement, and generally trying to get a head
start on the list of remaining things to do (still two pages of items,
lots!) before we actually come here for the last time (just before we
leave!).

Santa brought Lydia some cutlery and a stainless steel insulated coffee
press, the better not to break under way, nor use any electricity to
get hot or stay hot. He brought Skip a new 55# Delta anchor for the
bow, replacing the stolen 45# CQR. Lydia has been measuring the chains
for marking, as well as swapping ends to the un-corroded part for
attachment, while Skip has been installing new shutoff valves and
plumbing.

So, here we are, relaxing just a bit before digging back into our
projects.

http://tinyurl.com/8s54g

Contractors and visitors/tourists arrive tomorrow, so we should be very
busy. Any in the St. Pete area are welcome to come visit if you'd
like; otherwise, we wish to all our family and friends scattered around
the world the very best in this season and the coming year.

L8R

Love from Skip and Lydia

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her

"And then again, when you sit at the helm of your little ship on a
clear
night, and gaze at the countless stars overhead, and realize that you
are
quite alone on a great, wide sea, it is apt to occur to you that in the
general scheme of things you are merely an insignificant speck on the
surface of the ocean; and are not nearly so important or as
self-sufficient
as you thought you were. Which is an exceedingly wholesome thought,
and one
that may effect a permanent change in your deportment that will be
greatly
appreciated by your friends."- James S. Pitkin

Glad to see you're still pursuing your dream, Skip. All the Fieros
gone? I haven't been following the newsgroup lately and haven't seen
much of what you are doing. I'm in Florida on the other coast just
south of Jacksonville. If I get a west coast cruise going to St Pete --
and I might -- I will try and find you and Lydia.
Otherwise, suffice it to say that I might be getting a 28 foot sailboat
up north to see if I enjoy it as much as you do. Then who knows?? I do
plan on being at the Alabama Swap Meet this year, as usual.

Fred Clarke

From: "Mr Potatohead"

Glad to see you're still pursuing your dream, Skip. All the Fieros
gone? I haven't been following the newsgroup lately and haven't seen
much of what you are doing. I'm in Florida on the other coast just
south of Jacksonville. If I get a west coast cruise going to St Pete --
and I might -- I will try and find you and Lydia.
Otherwise, suffice it to say that I might be getting a 28 foot sailboat
up north to see if I enjoy it as much as you do. Then who knows?? I do
plan on being at the Alabama Swap Meet this year, as usual.

Fred Clarke



Hiya, Tater!!

Nice to see you in atl.general - what'd you do, google me?

Yes, we're actively pursuing; my rehab is going well, I'm going back to
the boat on 2-15 for a couple weeks to flog the slaves and get some
dedicated work in, hoping that the remainder when Lydia and I actually
step aboard will only be the hoped-for 30 days of tying up the loose
ends before splash and seatrials before making the dash to the Bahamas
to meet the tax-shelter (no sales tax paid) rules of being out of the
state in 20 days or less.

My two remaining Fieros are still for sale; for the gory details you
can go to gafiero.com and look for "2 for sale" in the forum, or to
Fiero.nl and the for-sale forum there. However, they're both daily
driven, the van being reserved for boatyard transport and hauling
duties.

That's because we aren't in St. Pete, and aside from the smallish time
we hope to have to devote to the end, we won't be there very long once
we head down. Aside from local bay-running to shake out the stuff
which was done, and wait for the weather window for the Stream
crossing, we'll not be in the water. We're still in the tiny cottage
(under 300SF) which has proven a great training ground for us, with our
never having lived together before I moved here in early October. The
boat will be less space for any given function of what we have at the
cottage, but has more separable spaces to allow us to get away from
each other if needed (too much togetherness is one of the major reasons
intended full-time, rest-of-their-lives cruises fail), and, due to our
having done custom berth cushions which duplicate Tempur-Pedic
mattresses, it's actually a lot more comfortable than "home" here in
the mountains.

So, we're very close, in terms of the time from when we started, and
the end is in sight, though we don't yet have any certainty of when it
will be. Need to sell the Fieros, and while we'd prefer to have two
cars right up to the end, if it came to that, we'd sell both of them
before we left. The van we expect to sell in St. Pete, or failing
that, give it to either our uncle (the one essentially responsible for
our being together) or one of the kids (4 from each of our first
marriages).

Y'all come see us some time; likely we'll have gone by the time of the
swap meet - which I think I saw Ed saying was perhaps going to be
called something else this year?

L8R

Skip and Lydia

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her

"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely
nothing-half so much worth doing as simply messing,
messing-about-in-boats; messing about in boats-or *with* boats.
In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter,
that's the charm of it.
Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never
get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to
do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."

From: "Wired_and_Tired"

Hey Skip, if you're heading in the direction of Paradise Island I can
recommend a good restaurant for you and the Mrs. Mention my name and you
might get a free desert. That or you might get tossed out on your butt.

But hey, you sound like an adventurous guy.



That's me :{))

Yes, Paradise will be one of our stops, I'm sure. The bridge is even tall
enough to let our mast under it. Likely we'll anchor out of the way of the
seaplane and dinghy in - is this restaurant waterside, or somehow near the
casino?

Looking forward to the rec.

L8R

Skip, off to the surgeon for another followup tomorrow AM

--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

Hi Skip,

Let me echo the sentiment that it's good to hear you are still going
after it all.

I'v actually got WiFi internet access for the next 2 days here on the
boat (for the first time in over a year) while we are hauled out at the
Balboa Yacht Club in Panama repainting the bottom, etc..


Just to bring you up to date,

We had a great time in the Sea of Cortez and the gold coast of Mexico,
then headed down the coast and holed up at Bahia del Sol, El Salvadore
for a few months while we did some inland traveling in Central America.
After that, we continued south to enjoy Costa Rica and the islands on
the Pacific side of Panama (absolutely fantastic snorkeling!).

Next week, we'll be off to enjoy the Perlas Islands for a few weeks,
then we'll make tracks for Ecuador where we will again park the boat for
a month or so to do some more inland traveling. From there, the plan is
to turn right to the Galapagos and continue on to the S. Pacific. After
that who knows?

Fair winds & all that,

Dan Best,
S/V Tricia Jean (Tayana 37 #192)

p.s.
On Cristmas day this year, we arrived here at the canal. - db

Hi, Dan, and group,

How nice to hear from you again, and even better, how you've been doing...

"Dan Best" redacted to prevent spammers wrote in message
...
Hi Skip,

Let me echo the sentiment that it's good to hear you are still going after
it all.

I'v actually got WiFi internet access for the next 2 days here on the boat
(for the first time in over a year) while we are hauled out at the Balboa
Yacht Club in Panama repainting the bottom, etc..

Cool beans. Are you reading this directly, or over googlegroups or some
such? I'm still wrestling with how to get usenet when I'm surfing
somebody's wifi.

On that subject, I'm hoping to nail down my modus for that this weekend.
You probably haven't seen the threads on the subject, but I'm going to
either cave and use a cat5 from the nav to the NEMA box with one of them,
or, if I can work out the technical bugs as several correspondents have
suggested I should be able to do, just power up the two of them in the box.

I'm going with a Senao 2611DB3 deluxe as a bridge, connected with a pigtail
to an 8.5dBi omni stick. If I'm successful, I'll also have a second one as
an AP, pigtailed with a 4" cat5 XO cable to the bridge, and another pigtail,
this time to a 5.5 dBi omni duck, so that I (and likely any others in the
harbor) can see it seamlessly with my laptop, whether below or on deck.
Reports from all over suggest there's lots of access all over the caribbean,
where we expect to be for the foreseeable future.

That will not only be my internet access, but either through softphone, the
software that makes my laptop into a phone, or backfed, if I can figure it
out, through my Vonage "modem", my telephone service...

Just to bring you up to date,

We had a great time in the Sea of Cortez and the gold coast of Mexico,
then headed down the coast and holed up at Bahia del Sol, El Salvadore for
a few months while we did some inland traveling in Central America. After
that, we continued south to enjoy Costa Rica and the islands on the
Pacific side of Panama (absolutely fantastic snorkeling!).

Next week, we'll be off to enjoy the Perlas Islands for a few weeks, then
we'll make tracks for Ecuador where we will again park the boat for a
month or so to do some more inland traveling. From there, the plan is to
turn right to the Galapagos and continue on to the S. Pacific. After that
who knows?

Fair winds & all that,

Dan Best,
S/V Tricia Jean (Tayana 37 #192)

p.s.
On Cristmas day this year, we arrived here at the canal. - db

We *may* (very small likelihood, I'd say) get to the Pacific side. More
likely is a circumnav of the Caribbean, once we've tired of the
Wind/Lee-wards and Antilles chains.

FWIW, do you have a traveling - either sailmail, winlink, or some
internet-access-type permanent address? I recommend gmail, to which I've
switched, as it allows not only web based but POP/SMTP email, my rabidly
preferred (to webmail) email and news mode. Of course, it's not much use
when you're in the middle of the sea, but anywhere, whether wifi or internet
café, you have internet access, it's great.

More FWIW, any who'd like an invitation for gmail to beta it, as I did for
many months before converting, drop me a line at gmail and I'll send you
one.

Nice to hear from you again...

L8R

Skip
--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

From: "Mr Potatohead"

Glad to see you're still pursuing your dream, Skip. All the Fieros
gone? I haven't been following the newsgroup lately and haven't seen
much of what you are doing. I'm in Florida on the other coast just
south of Jacksonville. If I get a west coast cruise going to St Pete --
and I might -- I will try and find you and Lydia.
Otherwise, suffice it to say that I might be getting a 28 foot sailboat
up north to see if I enjoy it as much as you do. Then who knows?? I do
plan on being at the Alabama Swap Meet this year, as usual.

Fred Clarke



Hiya, Tater!!

Nice to see you in atl.general - what'd you do, google me?

Yes, we're actively pursuing; my rehab is going well, I'm going back to
the boat on 2-15 for a couple weeks to flog the slaves and get some
dedicated work in, hoping that the remainder when Lydia and I actually
step aboard will only be the hoped-for 30 days of tying up the loose
ends before splash and seatrials before making the dash to the Bahamas
to meet the tax-shelter (no sales tax paid) rules of being out of the
state in 20 days or less.

My two remaining Fieros are still for sale; for the gory details you
can go to gafiero.com and look for "2 for sale" in the forum, or to
Fiero.nl and the for-sale forum there. However, they're both daily
driven, the van being reserved for boatyard transport and hauling
duties.

That's because we aren't in St. Pete, and aside from the smallish time
we hope to have to devote to the end, we won't be there very long once
we head down. Aside from local bay-running to shake out the stuff
which was done, and wait for the weather window for the Stream
crossing, we'll not be in the water. We're still in the tiny cottage
(under 300SF) which has proven a great training ground for us, with our
never having lived together before I moved here in early October. The
boat will be less space for any given function of what we have at the
cottage, but has more separable spaces to allow us to get away from
each other if needed (too much togetherness is one of the major reasons
intended full-time, rest-of-their-lives cruises fail), and, due to our
having done custom berth cushions which duplicate Tempur-Pedic
mattresses, it's actually a lot more comfortable than "home" here in
the mountains.

So, we're very close, in terms of the time from when we started, and
the end is in sight, though we don't yet have any certainty of when it
will be. Need to sell the Fieros, and while we'd prefer to have two
cars right up to the end, if it came to that, we'd sell both of them
before we left. The van we expect to sell in St. Pete, or failing
that, give it to either our uncle (the one essentially responsible for
our being together) or one of the kids (4 from each of our first
marriages).

Y'all come see us some time; likely we'll have gone by the time of the
swap meet - which I think I saw Ed saying was perhaps going to be
called something else this year?

L8R

Skip and Lydia

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her

"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely
nothing-half so much worth doing as simply messing,
messing-about-in-boats; messing about in boats-or *with* boats.
In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter,
that's the charm of it.
Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never
get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to
do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."

In article .com,
"Skip Gundlach" wrote:

My two remaining Fieros are still for sale;

I keep on finding reasons I like your style. Tried out a Fiero the first
day they arrived. Wish it'd had a trunk, though.

We're still in the tiny cottage (under 300SF) which has proven a
great training ground for us,

I'll say!

Having followed your saga since Lydia's first cruise and it's so great
seeing everything come together. Look forward to following your exploits
for years.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

Hi, Jere, and group!

"Jere Lull" wrote in message
...
In article .com,
"Skip Gundlach" wrote:

My two remaining Fieros are still for sale;

I keep on finding reasons I like your style. Tried out a Fiero the first
day they arrived. Wish it'd had a trunk, though.

Hey! They *HAVE* a trunk. I can fit 5 full paper grocery sacks on the
bottom, and 8 plastic ones on the top, or, more than I care to spend on food
in a trip! in that trunk :{)) They even made custom luggage, designed to
fit that space exactly, back then.


We're still in the tiny cottage (under 300SF) which has proven a
great training ground for us,

I'll say!

:{)) At that, every given space has more room than on the boat - but the
boat has separate cabins, and an upper level (on deck/in the cockpit) which
will allow us to get away from each other more effectively than the boat.
Still, we had never lived together before I moved in 14 weeks ago, so it's
been a very good shakedown.

Having followed your saga since Lydia's first cruise and it's so great
seeing everything come together. Look forward to following your exploits
for years.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

Thanks so much for the warm sentiments, and your prior helpfulnesses. When's
your next trip? Perhaps we'll see you down there...

L8R

Skip and Lydia


--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain