I've decided that this week I'm going to take a break from all of the boat issues we're having currently & go back about 5 months ago to a trip we took with my family: Mom, Dad, Sister, Brother in Law - Colin, & Niece - Ayla, to Belize!

Until we get our own YouTube channel, (which I'll have to see if there will be any demand for or if I'll be able to figure out just how to create one), I've decided to put the 6 channels of sailing vlogs that we watch on a regular basis.

Waaah! Waaah! Waaah! Tears of frustration are abounding in our household right now.

Yay! We fixed the roller-furling by replacing the broken line with a brand new one.

I’ve been wanting to do a post like this for a while… I want to say how lucky I am to have the husband I do. Matt has been pretty damn awesome as my partner in this dream! -Which I hope becomes his own dream too.

What is a tabernacle? -You might ask. It's a device that allows us to motor under the bridge at our harbor. Is it kind of a pain? Yes. But are we lucky to have a slip at all even if we have to deal with this? Absolutely!!!

So now another obstacle, we had a Tsunami over the weekend! Everyone is fine & I don't think anyone's boat was damaged badly. We are all so lucky. Feeling for those in Tonga who aren't as fortunate.

It's April and we have just bought the boat, named her, stayed on her, started cleaning her up a little and then, of course, we want to go sailing!

This is to say we've been on our boat a lot in the last several months. We've been either sailing or fixing something.

OMG! I have been trying to post this for the last 2 months but life has been pretty busy! On April 8th we bought this 1984 Catalina 30 in the Santa Cruz Harbor & couldn't be happier!

Where do I even start?! This seems a bit overwhelming but it will just get more so if I put it off any longer. I guess I'll start with the present & go backwards.

No sailing last week. My husband was too busy. And while I think I could actually sail the boat on my own, there is no way I am willing to try & back the boat into the water.

So happy we were finally able to sail again on Thursday. We tried the week before but there was absolutely no wind when we got down to the harbor with our boat. Just a bunch of fog.

We've been checking off items on this list little by little. #s 1 - 3 are done & taken care of. #4 - we've been trying. However, with the fires going on & air quality not being great we have been waiting to resume this.

First it was absolutely perfect weather & then fires hit. -Yes, they literally hit this area. We had amazing hot weather, (in the 90s like I love it), & then there was a lightening storm which started many little fires that turned into bigger fires.

We finished our ASA Coastal Cruising Class! Pretty fun class. Gave me the confidence to know we can definitely sail a keelboat. Not that I really had any doubts but nice to put it into practice.

So we've taken the first weekend in our 2 weekend class for Coastal Cruising. I did better than I thought I would! We definitely learned a lot more than we did in our Basic Keelboat class.

We went sailing last Thursday & the sailing went well. Lots of nickpicky things though to deal with as we set up & took down the boat. I can't even remember anything of significance.

We bought a boat! - The biggest thing that has happened in the last year is that we actually bought a boat. -Not our dream boat but a pretty great start.

Where to start? I got back 3 weeks ago from a two week vacation in France! It was amazing, for the most part.