Friday, December 31, 2010

A Year in Review...

Rasmus doing what she does best.
2010 has been a BIG and wonderful year for us.  Here are just some of the highlights:
  • We got our boat into the best DIY boat yard in Chicago (Rentner Marine) and did a TON of work along side them.
  • We learned a bunch of lessons.
  • We met Walt Genske who proved to be a HUGE asset during our refit process. We are forever grateful for him!
  • We got our first sponsor in Moosejaw (go on, click on it - I dare you.  They are experts at French kissing)!
  • I got pooped on by our boat.  Pretty nasty.
  • We put in a brand new engine! Thank you Rentner!
  • In the midst of all this, we planned a wedding!
  • ...we then GOT MARRIED!
  • We got rid of all of our stuff and moved out of our apartment and onto our boat.
  • We quit our jobs!
  • We were thrown a wonderful Bon Voyage party at the Yacht Club - thanks again to Lisa and Julie!
  • We quietly said goodbye to Chicago and "got off the dock"!
  • We encountered our first (and currently worst) storm to date on day 3 of our trip.
  • We sailed across Lake Michigan, down Lake Huron and across Lake Erie....phew!
  • We traversed the Erie Canal with winter hot (or rather, cold) on our trail...
  • We had several mishaps, including taking on water, engine trouble, and hitting a rock.  All of which colossally sucked - but the lessons learned were equally colossal.
  • We met some incredible people (mostly thanks to this blog!) who have become forever friends.  Too many to list - but you know who you are!
  • We had our first guests aboard and learned that our aft cabin makes having guests a piece of cake.  Absolutely love it.
  • We endured two gales on the Atlantic - both consisting of winds in the 30-35 knot range with seas from 8-12 feet and our boat handled them no problemo.  We, on the other hand, were a little exhausted.  More lessons were learned.
  • We travelled the entire AICW and ran aground once.
  • We made it to warm weather and managed to escape getting snowed on! 
We are so grateful for this past year and are looking very forward to the year ahead.  I cannot even imagine in my wildest dreams what it has in store for us!   We are bigger, faster and stronger than before and we just can't wait to see where 2011 will lead us!

We wish everyone a happy, healthy New Year filled with love!

3 comments:

Mid-Life Cruising! said...

It will be hard to top your past year with taking off and getting married, but we know ya'll will! We look forward to hearing about it. Best wishes for the new year!

Neophyte Cruiser said...

"We are all here for a spell; get all the good laughs you can"...Will Rogers
You're both well on your way to another memorable year...

Skylark said...

Wow, that really is some year. Looking forward to seeing what lies ahead. Keep it up and thanks for the great blog.

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