Continuing preparation of "Every Day" Part 9

Progress continues for the wedding plans. We have the place (CCYC), the dress, the person to officiate, the food, the cake, the flowers, and will fill in the remainder between now and then. Thanks to everyone that has offered to help us. We are not going to get a photographer and ask if people could take pictures for us it would be great (Digital preferred). We will have some disposable cameras around on the tables but we know some of you have really nice cameras and know how to use them. We are excited and are sure that it will be a great day for everyone.

On to the boat preparations, we are still struggling on what satellite communications we want to put on the boat. Several of the satellite TV suppliers have high speed internet at very reasonable prices. What we are trying to figure out is what equipment would work to match up with these services and what equipment we will need when we have to switch to a European satellite provider. We are probably going to get a Globalstar satellite phone for emergencies or if the satellite dish goes down and this will also be in our ditch bag.

We have also been working to log our usage of all sorts of things on the boat. Our water usage is 20 gallons per day for the two of us plus whatever we end up using to wash down the decks. This is very consistent with published estimates. Our power usage appears to be less than we expected but our summer has been very cold summer as we all know. We are still going to spend a day or two in the next couple of weeks and log the power consumption of each and every piece of equipment on the boat. One question we still have is what size generator we want to replace our aging 12.5 kW generator or if at all.

We are however getting much better at operating the equipment on the boat and getting more comfortable living aboard. This winter we will be working to get our Ham Radio license and get a modem for our Single Side Band radio. Rob's getting more proficient at operating a motorized dingy being this is new to him but still dangerous by Mallory's accounting. We know better how to maintain the proper chemistry for safe water and not smelly head tank. We are creating a list of spare parts and a list of what we want to bring with us and are developing maintenance schedules for all the equipment.

As we are writing this, we are traveling to L.A. for an advanced cruising seminar put on by Bob Bitchin of Lats and Atts. We are going to learn about safety at sea, provisioning for passages, communications, firearms, passage planning, weather and sources of weather, boat handling and docking, and many other topics. We are hoping that it will be a primer for this winter's research.

Thanks again for everyone's interest and support on our preparations and journey.