As we were set to leave on this Thursday our Wed. was super busy. All our projects lately meant that I needed to clean the boat thoroughly before we could depart the next day. I have filled each hanging locker in the kids cabins with packaged food and they were complaining they needed more space to store clothes and books and games. So last week a friend and I visited Ikea to get all sorts of storage shelves and stacking drawers to add more room for food and games to each cabin. These all needed to be lashed down. My idea of beautiful has really changed. Great decorating means it fits, it is in order, and helps me stow things in a hurry. Mid morning my dear friend Patsy, that I met here, stopped by to help me install a creative shelf structure she came up with to stack all my # 10 food storage cans right in my galley. Making use of valuable vertical space I can now stack 21 cans on my counter with out any of them being in my way!

Since Norm and the men were taking the boat over to the boat yard to install our new solar panels I decided to make one more run to the Books Inc., a final jaunt to the pharmacy, a quick stop in at Costco, and have a few other unexpected adventures in San Fransisco with Jaeden before our journey the next morning.

We were so happy to have our dear friend Ben from Victoria with us and honored to have Ron sailing with us for a short time.By nine in the evening we were all seated at the salon settee going over the mornings itinerary. I admit I did not sleep well last night but was alert and excited to start in the morning. We had few of our dear friends see us off in the morning bearing gifts and treats for our journey and it felt sad to be leaving the calm harbour of Alemeda.
A couple hours out the seas were a bit rough and mom and several of the kids snuggled down for naps. Ron was great at teaching us all kinds of tricks only he would know about this ship. He has sailed her many times in the past. Around 3:00 we were anchored in Half Moon Bay for the night. As I was preparing dinner I realized this was just the beginning of many more days and nights at sea but most of them would not end in a safe harbour.