Christmas in Far Away Places

We had a fairly quiet Christmas Day. We did a nice "Sunday Breakfast", and spent the morning playing with making gifts for each other. Dave finally got around to mounting two of the black pearls we got in Tuamotus on a necklace. He first practiced on a slightly flawed pearl that we traded a box of wine for. Then he did the really fine one we bought in the Gambiers.

My 'Nice' Pearl Necklace and My 'Everyday' Pearl Necklace
Note Flaw at Bottom of Pearl
And I'm working on an iron-on logo for Soggy Paws.

CSY 44 Walkthrough Line Drawing for T-Shirt
Our friends across the dock were away with family, but Richard down the dock organized a mid-day dock party with chili.

Christmas Day on C Dock
I contributed a big pot of my best chili recipe (courtesy of Larry Rutledge of s/v Brisa del Mar, lo these many years ago).

Late in the afternoon, we got cleaned up and drove across the island to Dave's friend's house for Christmas Dinner with them. We had a some good food and enjoyed watching Mark's pet turtle do laps around the yard.

Mr T
This turtle is an African Spurred Tortoise, and it's nearly the size of a Galapagos Tortoise. Friend of theirs got Mr T when he was small, but when he grew bigger, they couldn't keep him in an apartment, and Mark and Bing inherited him. He lives in their back yard, and they have 'turtle bars' to keep him out of the house. He's so big it would knock over furniture if it were allowed to roam inside. Dave tried to stop him moving forward (so he could take a picture), and Mr T just kept right on trucking, no matter how hard Dave pushed back.

Merry Christmas!

We are sitting here in sunny Honolulu, and it's 80 degrees and doesn't feel much like Christmas. We are missing our families and that little nip in the air today!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, wherever you are!

Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hau'oli Makahiki Hou
(Merry Christmas and Happy New Year)

Getting Ready for 2011

If you've landed here looking for Sherry & Dave's blog about sailing around the world on s/v Soggy Paws, you're in the right place.

I'm trying to consolidate my blogs into one, so have started a new one with no date in the title. I have successfully merged all posts from 2006 to 2009 here, and am working on 2010.

Christmas Presents!

Well, after a long voyage (Maryland to Florida to Hawaii) our new Frigoboat units have arrived. Great experience with H2OLogistics in shipping big stuff from anywhere in the US to Hawaii.

No Lunar Eclipse in Honolulu

Bummer. We didn't get to see the eclipse last night. It's been overcast and rainy here in Pearl Harbor for the last 3 days. We have a front and a low kind of stalled over us. One day it rained so hard and so much that there was a Flash Flood Watch.

Gloomy Skies Over the Marina
I am ready for some sunshine!! (However, at least it is still 78 degrees here)

Back in Hawaii

After a very busy last week in Florida... wrapping up our affairs... a couple more doctor visits... a few more social visits... a few maintenance items on the rental properties... paperwork associated with the accident... etc etc, we fled chilly Florida for a very warm and inviting Hawaii.

Welcome to Hawaii Sign at Honolulu Airport
The cold front the last week were there was a nice reminder of how good we've got it. In Melbourne it was in the low 30's and even driving south to Miami, it was still awfully cold for this Florida girl.

It was a looooong flight back... we got up at 4:30am for a 7am flight from Miami airport, and then went via stops in Orlando, Chicago, and LA, before landing in Honolulu about 8:30pm (it was a cheap flight!). That's about 20 hours of traveling. But nice to have stops in between so we could stretch our legs. Chicago had been a mess from the big front passing through a couple of days earlier, and we were worried it would snarl us up too. But by the time we got there, it was fine.

Sunrise in Miami on the Plane
John from Nakia, to whom Mike and Sue on Infini had passed our car to when they left, picked us up curbside at the Baggage Claim area, so we didn't need to mess with anything else. All our luggage made it. Nothing broken or missing. And we weighed in as usual at 49.9 lbs with 4 bags full of 'stuff' (plus sent a couple of shipments from Florida to Hawaii via USPS and freight).

The weather in Honolulu is just gorgeous! About 78-80 during the day and 68-70 at night. Perfect working and sleeping temps. And we have a new dock neighbor living aboard for the winter right next to us. So we don't feel quite so isolated out at the end of the dock (with all our cruising friends 20 minutes away in the downtown marinas). Our new neighbors are retired like us, and spend most of the year in their RV, and then come visit their boat in Hawaii for 3 months in the wintertime. They bring their lawn chairs out on the dock for sunset and are very sociable, so we've actually been stopping boat work 'early' to have a sunset happy hour and socialize.

Dave Wrecks the Kia

First, the important part: It wasn't his fault and he's just fine.


Dave was only 2 blocks from Cousin Bryan's house in Largo FL, when some distracted woman pulled right out off the side of the road into him, as he was passing by. She hit him hard enough that it rolled our poor little Kia on its side, and slid about 20 feet.

Fortunately, Dave had his seatbelt on, and he was fine. He had to kick his way out the front window, though, because both doors were jammed. Worrying about fire...

He ended up with a few cuts on his shins, from crawling out, but that was the worst of his injuries.


The lady who hit him admitted responsibility immediately and is covered by good insurance, so they are handling the whole thing. We got a rental car for the rest of our stay, courtesy of State Farm. She was the one who took these awesome pictures of Dave's car, and emailed them to us.

We were talking about buying a better car next year anyway--we spend so much time in the car when we're back visiting, that it's worth it to move up on car class for a little more added comfort (cruise control, smoother ride, noise reduction, etc). So we already have one thing on our "To Do" list for next fall...

I got my Driver's License Renewed!!

I'd been dreading the whole process... sure that I'd take my whole stack of paperwork in, wait in line for hours, and then find I was lacking something. A friend told me it took 3 visits to get his done.

But what a nice surprise. Only a 2 minute wait (Indian Harbor Beach DMV Office), pleasant guy, only needed half of the paper I brought with me, passed the eye test, picture taken, new license in hand--done in 10 minutes. "Only" $53 (ouch!)

Lousy picture, though. I didn't really expect to complete the process in only one visit, so didn't bother looking in the mirror. Next thing I knew, I was in front of the camera. Another typical DL mug shot, but this time with my hair messed up--and it's good til 2018!!

I also now have "Safe Driver" on my driver's license (no driving=no tickets).