Ok, yes, we have not been posting much. As is everyone this time of year, we have been busy, and things are going well.

Here we are with San Diego in the background:

Here is a summary of our recent travels… Last month we took Kosmos to Dana Point twice for some warranty work. Both times up and back the ride was smooth and pleasant.

The first visit to Dana Point was for some general work. Of course, we have a funny story. Due to a scheduling confusion with the slips, the first night on the first of our Dana Point visits we wound up anchoring out in Dana Point Harbor. We were amazed at how calm it was and how little we rocked. The next morning we noticed it was drizzling a little. Christi put on the full rain gear for going out to prepare to pull up anchor. As we traveled to our slip, the rain seemed to have stopped, so Christi took the rain gear back off. At the exact moment it was time for Christi to jump off the boat to tie Kosmos to the slip, the sky opened up and it began to pour down. Needless to say, by the time the boat was fully tied up and ready to be left, we were both soaked completely through to the bone. So much for thinking it never rains much in Southern California.

Here we are departing early in the morning.

The second visit to Dana Point was to have some specific work done to the windows. Our friends from Taiwan were in town to do the work themselves (see May 20, 2006 post). It was nice to see them again. So, here comes the next funny story… when Eric and our friend, Derek, were preparing to pull out of the slip and head back to San Diego, the factory workers came up to the boat and were waving frantically. Eric and Derek thought our Taiwanese friends were just giving them an enthusiastic send off and waved back. But in reality, our Taiwanese friends were trying to stop Kosmos from leaving because there was one more thing that needed to be done! Fortunately, Eric and Derek realized something was up and stopped pulling out. Good thing, or else we would have taken Kosmos to Dana Point three times last month!

We saw some dolphins on the way back, they lined up quite nicely.

Here is Eric returning to San Diego at sunset.

Since mid-November we haven’t been able to use the boat much. In addition to the usual holiday festivities that keep all of us busy from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, we had two extra special out of town family celebrations: our oldest nephew graduated from college (which makes us feel very old) and Christi’s brother got married.

We did do a quick San Diego bay cruise with our older nephews, which was quite fun:

This week we tried to find some whales with our friend, Tai, but no luck. Whale migration season officially began on December 26th, so we hope to see some whales soon. We’ll let you know if we do.

The big plan: We set a time window for when we are going to depart from San Diego for full time cruising: April 8th through the 15th, 2007. We will not leave on Friday the 13th, that is just too spooky. The departure will start with a big passage: San Diego to Nuka Hiva (Marquesas, French Polynesia, South Pacific). This is going to be about 2900 nautical miles. We expect it will take about 19 days or so.

Exciting times ahead, stay tuned.