Ft Lauderdale is tropical with year round blooms on foliage, 183 varieties of palm trees, deep blue skies and gorgeous pink and gold tinged clouds. Temperatures usually range 60's at night to upper 80's daytime with occasional brief dips to mid 40's when a cold front slides down from the north Summer was hot and steamy with the daily heat index (how hot it feels) in 100's, afternoon thunder & lightening and occasional monsoon-like-rains But we were comfortable with a portable air conditioner to lower humidity, staying out of the sun between 1100 and 1600 hrs,and spending several weeks in NJ, CT, NY, OR and Canada.

When in town we stay in a boat slip community on a residential canal. There are 8 furnished apartments and 9 or 10 liveaboard boats here most of the time with folks from USA, Canada, South Africa and Europe. We share a pool, outdoor kitchen, coin laundry and bathroom facilities. We enjoy occasional al fresco meals, potlucks with other liveaboards and any-excuse-parties hosted by the managers such as a banana dacquiri party when the bananas ripen in the poolside landscaping. Located near the hub of Los Olas Blvd and Riverwalk there are cafes, live music, farmers' market, shops and the beach all within a mile.

Postal service, marine supplies, fabricators, the award winning Broward County Public Library and convenient buses are within walking distance.

We attend Seven Seas Cruising Association breakfasts and potlucks to meet and talk to fellow boaters and hear their tales and tips. In November 2000 we attended a 3-day meeting with 1600 boaters for seminars, vendors and parties.

Our days are quite civilized, enjoying the Today and stockmarket shows at breakfast, a walk to the beach and stretching for Joan. She still multitasks...combining laundry day with swim and hammock time or gabbing under shade trees & poolside umbrella tables. We spend heat of day reading, computing, or napping We don't have a car so bicycle or walk for errands and outings. Friends-with-car generously include us for food shopping trips. Boatchores and errands done we enjoy sunset, grill dinner and watch news, video or DVD, or read.

To escape the steamy summer we spent several weeks with family and friends. This was an unusually cool summer in the NE, perfect for us.

Tracey met us for a weekend at Geoff's in south NJ. He works in center city Philadelphia as Senior HTML programmer for investorbroadcast.com . We visited his office and took a tour by trolley to learn-what-we-never-knew about that terrific town. Everything was neat and polished for the Republican Convention. We spent a day at the fabulous NJ State Acquarium., enjoyed south Jersey special waterice and pizza treats and a Thorne-family-traditional-Sunday of surfing sports and movies and silliness.

While kids worked their week, we stayed aboard (and sailed even) Daydreaming , the Niagra 44' our former dockmates at our old home marina in CT, Dennis and Pat just bought. We had a great visit with the staff, yard crew and friends, most of whom marvelled at news of our successful 1st-year-afloat. Another couple from the dock, Ed & Sue, were on a holiday cruise aboard their "Euphoria" and we all drove to Newport RI (1 1/2 hrs) to meet them for lunch. We had spent a fun week during their February visit in Ft Lauderdale for the Miami Boat Show.

Then Geoff came to NYC for a weekend with Tracey and friends. Staten Island Ferry provided theThorne-family- traditional-day-on-the-water.

Lunch, brunch, and sushi too with a lovely day in the medieval gardens of the Cloisters Museum completed our visit. Tracey has lived in Brooklyn since summer 1999 when she completed her MPA in Albany. She works for the City of New York, Office of Resource Development, Human Resources Administration writing grants for Welfare to Work program .

Before heading back to Florida we enjoyed dinner and a visit with George's cousin Judy and Jim and Aunt Opal. They are getting ready to retire to Oregon this fall. In mid October George and Geoff met for a football weekend and Tracey came to Ft Lauderdale for a gals weekend. They seem to be enjoying happy, busy lives.

In August we flew to Oregon for a visit with George's folks. The weather was cool and dry. Everything seemed so familiar from our 1998-99 stay.

We toured the new Silverton Gardens featuring Oregon native trees and plants and spent an overnight with cousin Ann and Bill at their beach house. We got Dad Earl up-to-speed on his computer and online for email. He caught on really fast and loves the casino games cd.

We flew to British Columbia to meet Joan's Mom Rose and drove to Calgary to see brother Steve and family. That trip through the rugged Rocky Mountains is one of the most scenic in the world...awesome. We were blessed with warm, sunny days to enjoy the pool, hot tub and gourmet al fresco meals. Jackie is a fabulous cook. Uncle Alan flew out from his Manitoba farm to visit a couple of days and to see youngest daughter Sandy and husband Harlan just back from their honeymoon. They are both engineers, Sandy is now in graduate school. To celebrate graduation in June, 20-something Sandy and 70-something Alan learned to skydive! He has always loved adventure. From childhood I remember him barnstorming in his airplane, building and racing a jetboat, sking. He and wife Dulcie still teach kids from local highschool to ski, quite a feat on the flat prairies. They take groups south to USA to nearest slopes and work 1-on-1 until every kid learns to "have fun getting down the hill".

It IS OFFICIAL, G is a licensed captain US Coast Guard Merchant Marine Operator of uninspected inshore vessels and authorized to engage in commercial assistance towing. He took the course and test in July. His license is encased in acrylic and mounted on the main salon bulkhead behind the tv. He says I can call him "sir" ...unh huh. Captn G works on his chores list 9-5 every day The nice thing about living in a small boating community is that when you don't know what you are doing, someone else does

Our biggest project this year was a stainless steel the stern arch. G installed down lights, gps, wind machine to "feed" batteries, and the dinghy now rides high on the davit block system. It works like a charm. He mastered splicing and made many beautiful spliced eyes. For weeks people stopped by on the dock and by dinghy to watch his progress He spends hours pouring over websites, magazines and catalogs filled with latest hi tech sat-nav and mini-radar-gizmos. Only he knows what "sugar plums" dance in his head and he isn't talking.

The canvas crew installed the extra panels in the shadetree awnings to cover the gaps at the mast where sun and rain get through, mainsail cover, a vinyl "door" panel for companionway, and sea bunk lee cloths on port settee.

The cabinetmaker built a teak "box-in-box" pull out shelf unit we designed to hold computer supplies, exterior zip, cd burner, printer and other stuff

The existing nav table was modified to a counter with a leaf to pull up for a larger workspace. Also had new starboard stern seats fitted to arch rail and teak cockpit grate installed.

The pump system G installed to drain the oil, leaked, and he learned there was a recall for revisions. The good news, the factory is here in town (Ft Lauderdale is so handy for getting boat stuff done). So he pedalled his trusty bike the many miles to the facory, had the work done and was back within 3 hours. Fortunately he had installed it mounted on a board and secured an extra loop on the hoses, a trick he has learned because there is NEVER a flat surface to afix anything to a hull, so he spent minimal time hanging upside down in the 100+ degree rear deck locker putting everything back together...in fact I didn't hear any !@#$% boat talk ...of course I was below reading in the cabin with the Cruisairconditioner on hi.

G also got to play in super-goop while sealing ports and through deck boltholes This stuff is always a challenge. The tube squirts sealant to all-the-wrong-places. A 30 minute job requires 1/2 a day to clean up, with mineral spirits. Shirts and shorts are left with permanent hard shiny splotches. Skin rejuvenates in time. We replaced the end caps on the staysail traveller that were cracked from sun damage and found out those pretty teak strips on the headcover (cabin ceiling) hide all manner of through-bolts Boy, those Cabo Rico guys did a great job in planning them out...for 6'ers I'm too short to reach the nut AND turn ratchett so I get to muscle the giant screwdriver in place on deck outside and watch to see the goop squish out that means we have sealed the bolthole.

Alegria was pampered with a beauty-spa-day. Divers scrubbed the bottom and replaced the sacrificial zincs that protect metal parts from electrolysis. Then a fellow came by to clean the hull. First an acid wash to remove rust and other stains from 18 months in tea colored water and power rinse then left to cure (dry). Next rubbing compound and conditioners and wax are mixed (again depending on hull condition) and sponged on and power scrubbed. Finally polish is rubbed on and power buffed. Wow she looks brand new and shiny. G was so tired from all his supervising, at dinnertime, while our chicken & zucchini grilled, he collapsed on a chair with a tall beer to tell everyone about his hard day.

Life is not all work. We enjoyed a great evening of music by Nesto Torres, a Berkly Music School (Boston) graduate flutist with a unique latino/jazz style. J bought his 1st cd "Morning Ride" in 1990 he has "played" her through many days of cooking and cleaning over the years. Folks here love jazz, J loves flute, it was a near sell out concert and everyone was "dancing in their seat". The Broward County Center for the Performing Arts is a beautiful state-of-the-art facility with 2 venues one for large productions (Phantom of the Opera is coming in Nov) and the smaller concert hall. Located on the New River and surrounded by exotic gardens it is a favorite srtolling area too.

Nice thing about this lifestyle, you keep running into people you have met "out there" cruising . There are boats leaving and new folks arriving every few weeks. Most are just like us...learning as we go...trying to stay in shape, but struggling, because after all this time our body and our fat are really good friends . Of course there is the resident skinny mini...who power eats breads, cheese, pastry and chocolate bars to maintain her weight. Also 50- something she STILL wears Victoria's Secret undies & bikinis under sheer pareos and skimpy sundresses...and says sometimes she just "forgets to eat" . I've forgotten my address and phone number, my husband's mother's maiden name and keys, but i've never forgotten to eat. For exercise she rides a bike occasionally, has lived aboard 3-4 years, cruising the Caribbean with then-new-husband and his buddy, but knows nothing about running the engine or sails or navigation or boat maintenance. I'm told. she is a good cook.

Occasionally J sharpens her infamous red pencil for proof reading the monthly SSCA "Commodores Bulletin" , letters submitted by cruisers and liveaboards world wide. This year J had 2 articles published. One in the July 2000 Bulletin about our stops on ICW trip and one in the November Pilots Point CT Marina newsletter about courage to cruise...How to Leave the Dock or Joys of Criuising Long Island Sound.

With cooler weather J began polishing topsides and stainless and next will be sanding & varnishing the bright work (teak) again?

Soon "snowbird" and Canadian boats will arrive and the canals will fill with boats for the season. Then we will start looking for a weather window to head to southern Bahamas...Exumas, Eleuthra.and morre advenures to share with you