On the hard in Deltaville

White Pepper has been taken out of the water for the winter and placed on stands at the Deltaville Boatyard. For land lubbers this is called 'on the hard.' We have never winterized a boat before. It was a sad and laborious process. Jan and I took six days. We would work a bit and then be morose. The picture is of Jan repairing the mainsail. At least the weather has been glorious-crisp, dry, sunny, and mostly calm.

Daughter and son-in-law, Kristi and Pat Robinson came for the weekend of Columbus Day. We all went to the Deltaville Seafood and Art Festival. It was quite elaborate with numerous artists, vendors, and a tasty buffet lunch. In addition the Deltaville museum has a nice sculpture garden. It is a little unusual in that all of the sculptures are large waterfowl and all done by the same artist. There were also colonial period re-en-actors and two llamas for the kids. It was a good effort for such a small town.

The big day will be Thursday, 10-16-08, when we fly out of Norfolk for Texas. That will be the end of a wonderful voyage of 10 months. When one journey stops another begins. We will try to get jobs in the Coastal Bend area. If we can save up enough money to refit the boat, we will cruise again--maybe in May of '09.

I want to thank all of the faithful readers of this blog. The comments and positive feedback have been wonderful. It has been a joy to pass along our adventures. I do plan to post to the blog occasionally between now and May. I may want to reminisces or pass along some longer posts about the characters we met along the way. So stay tuned.