"Meerkat" Heading South Friday 02-29-08!

We have our departure date - manana!

The weatherman is calling for a little more wind than we want on Saturday afternoon and evening, so we are heading out a day early. We are all anxious to get going, so would rather leave early than sit here until Sunday or Monday.

For those of you who live in Ventura and want to watch us leave, our docklines will be untied between 8 and 8:30 (in the morning). YAHOO!

I will be updating the blog everytime I have internet, so this will be the best way to see what we are up to and where we are!

Adios from the crew of "Meerkat", Jim, Heather, Stan, Tim & Pam!

Surf's Up in Ventura!

Yesterday we had HUGE, and we mean huge surf on our West facing beach! The surge was sending all of our boats all over the place & smacking into the docks. The water in the harbor was brown and full of debris. We had a 3-4 knot current ripping past the boats - it was pretty amazing! The entrance was UGLY! So, of course half the neighborhood was on the beach looking, gaping and taking pictures. Here are a few of mine... We were glad this was not our departure day!

Goodbyes...

Now we are starting to say our goodbyes...

Last Thursday night we said our tearful goodbye to Bob & Nancy, who were flying to New Jersey for their daughter's wedding. Well, due to the major winter storm back East, their flight was cancelled, so they never left. Now we will have to say goodbye to them again...

We had dinner with my ex-boss and his wife last week too. Said our goodbye to them, but I have to go by the office this week, so will say another to him.

We said lots of goodbyes at our party! Some were more of an "ok, see you, thanks for coming", because it didn't really seem like we were leaving. Now that I think back, I should have said better goodbyes to my family and cousins that live far away. Oh well, I know I will see them again!

Last night we took Kim, Barbara & Emma to dinner. Emma made us wonderful brownies (yum - thanks Emma!) and drew this great picture for us.

The Art of Provisioning

It's amazing the amount of food you need to have for five people for four weeks. Thank goodness Pinky and the Meerkats don't eat...

The organizing has been going on for weeks, but I think I am almost there!

This area used to hold my clothes. Lists tell how much we have and where everything is. There is nothing worse than knowing you have something, but not remembering where it is...

But wait, there's more!
This doesn't even include the paper products, baking supplies, coffee beans, spices, snacks and fresh stuff!

Vons, Trader Joe's and The 99 Cent Store all love me...

Open Boat ~ Bon Voyage Dock Party!

What a beautiful day in Ventura Harbor yesterday!
We had our Open Boat ~ Bon Voyage party on G Dock.
Lots and lots of wonderful friends, neighbors and family joined us!Heather (me) and my super creative sister, Elizabeth




Stav and my lovely cousin, Delaina



Our wonderful friend, Margi with me
Long term (29 years!) terrific friends Alex & Dana!





Dave (worked with him since 1993!), Marcy and their fun grandkids, Gabriela, Luke & Daniel
Even longer term (41 years) best friend growing up, Jennifer, Dana and me








Jennifer's very animated daughter, Lauren and our sweet niece, Evann




Me with two of my favorite neighbors, Jim & Lucy!



And our favorite Friday night yoga & wine pals, Jennifer, Dan (oh Danny Boy) & Marsha
Margi and Jim


Sweet nieces, Caitlin and Evann with their wonderful dad, John





Two of our incredible crew, Tim (Timay) and his wife, Pam (Spamela)!




We had a wonderful afternoon and evening!
Thanks to all who made the drive, found the time and joined us.
We LOVED it!

The Story of Pinky

I'm sure you are all wondering who Pinky is and why we are so excited he is joining us on our sail South...

It all started when a co-worker, Dan told me that Rose Marie and Rosemary Clooney were the same person.

Not true Dan.

Per Wikipedia, Rose Marie is:
"Rose Marie (born August 15, 1923) is an actress who had a career as a child star under the name Baby Rose Marie, but is best known for her adult role as Sally Rogers on The Dick Van Dyke Show".

Per Wikipedia, Rosemary Clooney is:
"Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was a popular American singer and actress. She was most popular singing traditional pop music in the 1940s and 1950s with songs like "Come On-a My House". She was the mother of actor Miguel Ferrer, aunt of actor George Clooney, and the sister to former television personality Nick Clooney".

I showed him this info, but he was still adament they were one and the same.

So I swiped his rubber pig from The Hartford Insurance Company and held it for ransom. $52,018,975.87 in ransom, which he never paid.

Unfortunately I don't have a copy of the cut & paste ransom note, but I do have some copies of the daily ransom reminders that Dan would find on his desk...






I kept hoping to find that brown bag of cash in my office, but no such luck.
So I dressed up as Pinky on Halloween 2006.




Not a pretty site...






Still no $52 mil and change a year later, so after Dan had eye surgery and broke several bones in his foot, I dressed up as him for Halloween 2007...
Still no $52 mil and change in January 2008...
I came in to work on one of my last days to find Pinky with his bags packed ready to go sailing! Since Dan didn't cough up the ransom, he is "allowing" Pinky to go with us.

Photos of Pinky's sailing adventures to follow!

I Shop...

And make lists. I shop and I make lists. That is what I do now.
We will have five people on the boat for the trip South, which means a lot of food. A lot of food and a lot of toilet paper. So I shop. And I make lists to make sure I don't forget something, like food or toilet paper.

We also take stuff off of the boat. Things we won't need on the trip down, such as a crockpot and sewing machine. They can ride down in the car. This helps me find space to put the things I buy and helps with the weight - remember we are a catamaran, not a submarine...

Today I shop for our "open boat / bon voyage" party on Saturday. And yes, I have a list of what to buy.

Oregon Cram Course

I had a wonderful week in Eugene, Oregon with the "Discover Mortgage / Adams Family Team", learning what I will be doing for a living in La Paz. Tony picked me up at the airport and took me to their beautiful home on Marcola Road (which I remembered from all the times we drove to Bob & Carol's house). I had my own "home" to stay in - their deluxe 36' motorhome parked inside a huge garage! I arrived in the dark, so was quite amazed to look out the next morning to snow on the ground!

I spent the week at their office, listening, learning and asking questions. What a great group of people! Thank you all for your time, expertise and friendliness! Special thanks to Tony & Ellen for their wonderful hospitality - and nice meeting you, Phillip the goat!

Then the trip home...
My 4 pm flight was cancelled, so I was able to "get on" the 6:15 pm flight, which actually left at 8:00 pm, meaning my connecting flight out of San Francisco at 9:00 pm was now not going to work (gave up on the idea of flying into Santa Barbara to visit Margi)... but that's ok, because my 9:00 pm flight had been delayed until 11:30 pm (which now means getting into LAX at 1:00 am Saturday morning - no thanks!), so found a 10:30 pm completely full flight that I was able to sneak on. So that meant getting into LAX at midnight, quickly finding my luggage & Jim as he made his first drive through and getting home at 1:30 am. All's well that ends well, I guess...

I am Unemployed!

From "Follow Your Dreams", a book by Cheryl Caldwell

Yesterday was my last day at work! Thanks to everyone there for making it such a nice week ~ the lunches and flowers were great! Thanks to Korina for the special books (the little one is hilarious and where the photo came from) and wonderful lunch! Michelle, I will treasure the Junior Mints.

A special thanks to Dan for "allowing" Pinky to go on our adventures with us! More about Pinky later... he is still trying to adjust to being on the boat and away from Dan's windowsill...

I don't think it has "hit" me yet... I did the same job for over seven and a half years, and had another three years put in prior. It might sink in on Monday morning!

I am off to Eugene, Oregon tomorrow to meet with Tony and Ellen of Discover Mortgage and am looking forward to spending the week with them!