Sailing and other summer activities really put a crimp in working on the boat but still we plod along. It is nice to get out on the water and enjoy one of life's simple pleasures, Sailing! Another year's racing goes to Mallory. She beat me in every race we competed against each other and came in Second in Class in The Hook race and First in the 100-Miler.

As discussed before having safe, dependable water is very important to us. We looked that the cost of making water verses other ways of getting water. Chicago city water is around $0.02/gallon. Making water's operating cost is under $0.08/gallon. Buying water can range from a few cents a gallon to $1.00 per gallon and can vary wildly in quality and how safe it is. For us, having clean, safe, easily made, reliable water is worth a lot more than the cost.

A lot of people have discussed with us and worried about piracy when we go sailing. We've been reading a lot of articles and an interesting book (Dangerous Waters) on the topic. Jim Cromwell, the guy who has written the definitive book on world cruising routes, just wrote an article on avoiding piracy by choosing a safer route. He chose to go around South Africa to avoid going through the Red Sea and Suez Canal. This is our belief exactly.

It seems that most piracy happens in Indonesia/Philippines, and Red Sea, and extremely impoverished countries. If we avoid these places, we avoid most of the problem.

We still worry about it and expect that our boat will get broken into, but that could happen right here in Montrose Harbor. We will make efforts to secure the boat and simplify the contents. The people we have talked to that have done a lot of distance blue water cruising say theft is going to happen. This is, however, a wildly different than the issue than piracy because most of the time thieves brake into your boat when you are not there.

Ultimately, we both are looking forward to visiting places where the people would never think of attacking us or stealing stuff from our boat.

Enjoy sailing and more later.