After 2 years on land... wow, has it been that long!

Slowly getting reacclimatized to life on land has been a painful process. We now have 15 monthly bills, two cars, a house and three kids in high school. If you had told me that this would be the case three years ago I would have called you mad.

How did this happen?... I'm not really sure. We may have succumbed to peer pressure or maybe the kids just wanted a normal life (they regret it now though), or maybe being human we just wanted what we didn't have. I think it was simply the 3 year itch... I curse my humanness.

Having come to my senses though Odessa is beginning her second major refit... in preparation for a new adventure. When we purchased Odessa we did the mechanical refit and now I'm doing her pretty stuff and more livability luxuries.

We spent a few days this month cleaning her up and offloading all of the stuff that you collect while traveling... she's looking really swanky. But the paint is very old and she's in need of some updates.

I think that one year will be long enough to get everything done... that depends on how crazy we go. Looking at all of the luxury multi million dollar yachts of today, there are some really cool styling updates that we can do.

An indoor shower - for the girls.
Air conditioning when at a dock - for the girls.
Hot water - for everyone.
Steps down the transom - I'll miss the slide but we'll be able to land fish more easily.
Custom paint job - now she's going to be load with big graphics.
New hatches all round
New Bimini
New Dodger
New cushions everywhere

The schedule is to launch Odessa next spring, do some sailing around the US east coast, and then run down to St Maarten in the fall.

Now the difficult work begins again... shedding all of the stuff we've collected living on land, rebuilding freelance work, and the most difficult is escaping all of the trappings of living in a modern society.

Wish us luck... wait, didn't we do this once before!