Finally!!

"Honey, do you suppose anyone still goes for a look at our blog?"







(Our last look at Sojourner)









This piece is for those folks who followed our blog when it was active. I've been feeling pretty low about my lack of participation lately.........for quite a while now actually. And we really have no excuse.



But, before we get into that, did any of you get the short Summer this year? Whew! I know we did. Good Grief! It's Christmas already!!! Where does the time go??





I thought about doing updates often actually, but then I'd get a call to go whitewater rafting, or fishing, or for a bike ride, or we'd be at a weekend party on a riverbank somewhere. There was family camping and party camping and a few nights in motels. A couple of trips to the Oregon coast, (one of them this fantastic 4th of July with neighbors on the beach). It just kept going and going and going.



Claudia has been working as a visiting nurse all this time and, once again, I'm amazed at how much she can get done in a day. And all the while, she's been creating an awesome new kitchen for us. Wait til you see it!! Pictures will follow when the job is finished.




We got to hear The Devil Makes Three in concert again, and our daughter Kristen got accepted into nursing school tool IT WAS A GREAT SUMMER!

In fact, I was regularly heard making statements like "Wow! It just doesn't get any better than this."



(Notice the pool table. This group knows how to camp out!!)



We hope you all had a great summer too! Lately now, in the mornings especially, I've noticed the thermometer in the 30's. Uggggghhhhh! Time for us to head South.

Oh! And we sold Sojourner!! Thanks to Mike and Shelly, our brokers in La Paz, a fellow from Switzerland bought himself a sweet sailor at a real good price. Our bank account took a nice little bump in September after it was all said and done. So now we have no boat to go to.

Many of you will remember that we had talked about buying Ballena, the Sea of Cortez veteran owned by our friend Dario. And we probably would have a year ago, but before we left La Paz last Spring, Claudia and I actually talked through what we felt we really had to have in our new floating home. A private, comfortable cabin, separate from ours, for the folks who want to visit went high on our list. But, sadly, Ballena would not provide that. So the search for a new and improved Sojourner began.

You'd probably think, as we did, that with the economy in the tank, there must be boats by the gazillion on the market. By distressed owners, like us just a few weeks ago, just crying and dying to sell. What fun this will be!! Woo Hoo!!

We talked with Mike and Shelly of course, and with George in San Francisco who had sold us Sojourner, and I looked through literally hundreds of boats online, only to be frustrated by the lack of decent boats for sale. We were completely taken back by the lack of possibilities in our price range. We drove 350 miles to the Bay area and spent two nights in motels to look at two boats that turned out to be a waste of time.

Then we found the boat of our dreams. In Florida.........OK, we'll just pay the shipping to the West coast. Umm, $15000 or so should do it. Long story short, we tried to make that work for almost two months until, in November, we finally learned that it was definitely NOT going to happen..(We are so lucky)

Damn! Back to square one. OK, a new search brought up 346 boats. Narrowed that down to 5. Four of them are in the Northwest, so let's just make a trip. Portland and Seattle, here we come. We ended up looking at three boats which C and I both thought were boats that we'd love to own. But only one proved worthy, a 39' Freedom. That's all I'll give you for now, as we don't want to jinx the deal which still needs a good survey and an acceptable sea trial.

There are a couple of things though, that we can tell you at this point. First, as we are not willing to sail the Pacific coast in Winter, we can be found here in Grants Pass for the entire, whole, long, cold, season. Brrrrr. And second, if you are reading this, there will be a place for you to come visit us in the Sea of Cortez in about a year.

So there it is. We will keep you in the loop if you click on this site occaisionally, as we will update as things progress.

For now, we wish you all the very best. Enjoy the Holidays, and keep your fingers crossed.

Emrick & Claudia