This will be our first official announcement that we have sold the boat and are looking for a replacement that has a lot less teak to take care of and is a bit bigger.  The plan is to have the boat in Florida and to use as a live-a-board condo and a movable platform on which to have fun exploring Florida and the Caribbean areas.  The main criteria are for it to have two heads and staterooms, to be seaworthy, have lots of water storage, plenty of at anchor power options (like genset, solar and wind) so we can stay at anchor for weeks at a time.  Some we have looked at have water makers and that would be a worthy item to have as well.  Right now the Pearson 424 and 422 look good but the Morgan 44 is also a good candidate as well.   Most of these boats were built in the 1980′s so age is a factor but price is the dominate factor.

I have resumed my study of Technician and General Class of ham radio licensce and expect to take the tests before mid-December.  I only need the Technician level but while I am there will take the General exam as well.  Ont the practice tests I am in the high 80′s or 90′s for the Technician and mid-70′s for the General exams.  The General licensce test has been made much harder than it was a couple of years ago.  I want to have a HF Ham Radio on board the boat so I can send / receive Faxes as well as communicate via text to get valuable weather and to be able to patch into phone lines in the USA.  We will probably not have a smart phone when we go offshore so I need to be able to get the same type of info via the Ham radio.

I have closed the blog of our sailing adventures with Inspiration.  Facebook and this blog will survive and I hope to update the blog much more often.  Thanks for reading.  Have great holidays.  Moore later………

A has his own computer and I noticed it had no virus  scanner so I undertook to add one and check the machine as well.  Admin had a password and after some calling and time I logged in and added everything then did the scan – no viruses.  Later A & I went for a bike ride down to the school.  School was in session so we could not go to the playground but we had a good jaunt just the same.  It was a good day.

This morning I am contemplating whether to mow the lake level part of the property one more time or to put on the vacuum fitting on the mower deck and fire up the vacuum motor.  I still have not decided what to do but I will probably pull the vacuum outside and fire up the engine so I am not disappointed when I really need it in a few days.

I have whiled away the from the time I arose to now cruising around Facebook.  I had a chat with an old colleague from Holland who is now living in the south of France.  In France they get telephone, TV, Internet all for 34 Euros per month and that includes free local and long distance to most countries around the world.  I pay way more than that just for Internet.  Bummer – I am going to have to cut back on my connectivity some time soon.  That may mean the smartphone has to go and we will have to share a cellular phone too.

I drove to Detroit to interview with a company called Integral Blue for some part time work in the ITS industry, well actually any wireless type work would do, and it seemed like some work would be forthcoming.  I would like to average about 10 hours per week and have a lot of that be home based.  I priced myself to be attractive for this type of arrangement.  We shall see.  Moore later……….

Later in the evening I met a guy, by the name of Larry, at the dock with a Bayliner 36.  The interior was large, sumptuous  and nicely arranged for two people.   He was interesting to talk with.  He does some chartering and sometimes needs crew so I told him to count me in for some of the future trips.

SAM did some Cetol work that needed to be finished.  Tomorrow we put on a coat of clear and we should be finished for a while.

While we were at home I helped replace part of the roof at the church in between rainstorms and the group of guys had a good time eating the meals the ladies prepared.  We got caught up on the bills and mowed the lawn because the lower level needed it pretty badly.  Also cleaned some the areas of the lower building and organized some of the back part as well.  I made a couple of plates for the boat out of teak so that the chain rode would not abraid the caprail teak brightwork.

We are still planning on pulling the boat near the end of October if we still have her.  Some guy in Washington state has been showing interest.  If it does not sell we are pulling her from the market as I feel the price is too low right now and the interest has not been overwhelming at that price and going lower is out of the question.  Moore later!

With all the high temperatures came a two week dry spell and a big thunderstorm that produced very high microburst winds that knocked the top out of one of our biggest Oak trees in the back yard. I’ll have to get the chainsaw running but I think I will wait until the cooler days of this fall to cut it up – too many mosquitoes and Deer Flies down there right now. Yep, I am wimping out on this deal.

Speaking of the chainsaw, it is a very old one from the 70′s that has seen a lot of wood cut. The chain is still sharp and it cuts pretty straight that way. I suppose some day I will have to get a new one but I will miss old yellow when that happens. I am not sure I can even get parts but a quick internet search says there are still parts out there for a price.

I ay a little thanks for WordPress Draft function. It just saved my bacon when I accidentally closed this session. When I reopened it here was the complete thread. Yea….. Well, it is time to make coffee and get moving. Moore later.

While they were here the grandson’s and I went kayaking but mostly stayed in front of the airconditioner that could not keep up with the heat.  We all had our smartphones to play with.  Yesterday late we went to Delt Church Park in Lagrange County to play disc golf.  It was hot and a frustrating course – too hot for me so I went back to the car after the 5th hole.  It was an interesting park and was full of Amish having a gathering. I posted some pictures of facebook.