The Last Blog Entry

10.27.2010

I’ve struggling for over a month on how to end this blog. Should the last entry contain useful lists for future cruisers? Perhaps a record of things we brought and never used. Like the toilet seat the Captain cursed at a hundred times when trying to reach needed storage in the lazzerette.

I maintain that the concept was a great idea. The seat fits well on top of a cat litter pail and provides the approximate height of a toilet. Ok, in retrospect if both Andrew and I were stricken with food poisoning or ‘direrhea’ emergency, finding the parts and assembling the utility would be awkward and most likely after the fact.

One of my followers asked me to write about an average day. We don’t have average days like those one might encounters when going to work at the same time, to the same place, at the same desk for over a decade.

We have morning procedures, (i.e. maintenance, weather and water level checks), daily personal preferences,(i.e. Andrew getting up to see the sun rise, or us watching the sunset, with or without others cruisers, generally with a beverage in hand to toast the moon).

Of course, life onboard has everyday challenges. The biggest, from my perspective, is waking up naturally on my own schedule. This is impossible endeavor at anchorages because to shove off the anchor is drawn up and the chain is let into the rode locker which is behind our bed. It sounds similar to a band of ghosts rattling their chains is an old black and white movie, only louder.

Marinas tend to have early morning talkers. If you’re there with buddy boats the planners congregate under our stateroom porthole to converse about their cruising plans. Regardless of the mooring, every morning my first impolite knock into consciousness comes from Tut.

Tut gets up early, with the Captain, and eats breakfast. Then he returns to bed to carry out his first duty of the day- to wake me up. He does this dastardly deed by meowing frantically while standing very close to my ears. If I don’t immediately come out of rem sleep he begins tapping my head with the extended claws of his right paw. Once he struck my eye lid which quickly conditioned me to wake up with the first head tap.

Tut is not the type of feline to shriek his responsibilities. However, he can be bought off with a good petting. The first step in the purchase is to make eye contact. Looking directly at him while stroking his head, has a comforting effect on him. Once he lies down I can shut my eyes and rub his belly. Five minutes latter we’re both drifting off.

Planning is another daily activity I dread. How far should we travel today? What should we eat for dinner? What movie should we watch if we can’t get TV reception? Who has the cheapest fuel in the area? What will I blog about?

Today, 12/31/2010 is the last day of the year and I still haven’t written an ending to the blog. Maybe it is because we never stopped cruising? We’re still chasing the sun and avoiding the cold weather.

We spent a month in Orange Beach Alabama, which I loved. Then we made our way across the gulf which I hate. We’re now docked in Fort Myers Beach, Florida for the next 4 weeks. The weather icon is in his swim trunks and the temperature on our aft deck is 80.7 degrees.

My 2011 goal is to figure out where I want to live. The choices are: on water, on land, or a combination of both. A combination of both is the favorite.

Tonight after the ball falls and we sing Auld Lang Syne we’ll toast you all and wish you many happy adventures in 2011.

END OF BLOG