CLOGS (cruisers living on land)

We have been in our new home in Florida now for 4 weeks. The weather has been delightful..60's at night and high 70's-80's daytime. No humidity. We have turned off the air conditioner for the last week and turned on the pool heater. Water temps average about 85' which is great when you get out in air temps of high 70's.
Peter has been playing golf 1-2 times a week and Jane has only been out 3 times. Having not played since last March and getting use to new clubs, her inconsistency in hits is greater than the sum of 18 holes. It's back to the driving range! Starting to hate this game of FLOG (golf spelled backwards).
We had a very successful Halloween party with 20 guests, including 3 newly met couples on our street.
Little Pretzel is getting use to the house but we limit our trips out to 1 time a day so she doesn't develop an anxiety disorder!!!! She loves sitting out on the lanai in the sun. So do we...watching the golfers on hole #1 of the golf course.
Today Jane went to the Tampa Hard Rock Casino to dabble in the slot machines. The first one, charging .05 went through a $20 bill in less than 2 minutes!!!!! OMG she did not understand the buttons. It looked to be a very long day sitting out, waiting for the other 3 girlfriends still playing on their $20. So...she drew out another $5, switched around on machines and had $57 by lunch time. The trick is to quit while ahead. Unfortunately after lunch, the casino had her number and made sure they regained their money back. All was lost in another hour. So Jane bought a candy bar, sat out watching the others, feeling sorry for herself. Will she go again??? Maybe!
We will be back in Franklin, MA in 2 weeks for Thanksgiving. Hope it doesn't snow!

Winter in Florida

We left Kinvara on Oct. 7th for haul out and headed to Franklin, MA to finish packing our belongings. Thursday morning at 3AM found us on the road to Florida with Pretzel, our 13 yr old mini daschound. This marked our final move to our new house in Florida. Kinvara is on the hard for the winter so we can enjoy our new house & golf this winter. We will be investigating east coast marinas and make plans to bring Kinvara South in the fall of 2009. Florida weather is delightful now. Joined the "snowbirds" and bought a golf cart today. At least we can contribute to saving our environment by using an electric car around the community. We will post a picture when it arrives.

Galway Hooker

August 2008 found us in Kinvara, Ireland. We weren't sailing our own "Kinvara" but watching the traditional Galway sailing boats, "Galway hookers". Each year in August there is a traditional boat festival featuring races between the different sizes of boats. We stayed for 33 days in Kinvara, Peter's home town, and it rained all but 5 days. This year the festival was rained out. The race took place the Tuesday after. It was an awesome sight. Some of these boats were for fishing but the larger ones transported turf across Galway Bay. Our rented house was in the far left of the picture, facing Kinvara bay and Dunguire Castle.

Summer 2006

Once we retired from teaching in June we basically moved aboard to get used to the boating lifestyle. We sailed around Narragansett Bay, Block Island, and Cuttyhunk. The most exciting trip was out to Nantucket for the Fourth of July. We left the marina at 6PM motoring to third beach off Newport. By the time we arrived it was dark and we had to anchor for the first time!! Glad to wake up still in the same location. Arrived in Vineyard Haven the next afternoon after a beautiful sail with the family and 2 dogs. The next days weather predicted heavy weather starting afternoon so we left Vineyard Haven early in the morning. Forecasting wrong again!!!! The wind picked up just out of the harbor and gusted to 40 knots with 4-6 foot waves. This was our family's first long trip (30 miles off Cape Cod) with kids and 2 dogs. It was a long ride but we made it safely. The weekend was a wash out with gusting wind and torrential rainfall!

We had company on and off to visit us and our boat. The most memorably was when Jane's Dad was on board for an hour or so. He was impressed and relieved to see that we could sail safely. This was his last time to be on board but his spirit still guides us on our sails.

The Beginning

We purchased our boat in the fall of 2005. While getting everything ready for spring delivery, we went to a week's live aboard sailing school in Ft. Lauderdale, FL so Jane could learn boat systems and basic maneuvers. In April of 2006 Peter helped deliver our boat from Hingham, MA to Portsmouth, RI. The name, Kinvara, is a small town on Galway Bay, Ireland. Peter was born and raised there before coming to the US. We travel back often to visit family and friends.