On Saturday morning, we’ll be loading up WaveDancer, a fabulous 34-foot Hunter sailboat that we’re chartering for an entire week from San Juan Sailing in Bellingham, Washington. I’m super excited because we chartered this boat last year… and on the final day of our charter, I completed my bareboat certification. In addition, we celebrated our six year wedding anniversary on this magical boat.
 
This year, we’ll be celebrating seven years and I won’t have to worry about taking a written or practical exam at the end of our trip! Although, Rich would like me to get my coastal navigation certification, which happily is just a written test. I enjoy charting and doing the math so I shouldn’t have a problem earning this certification.
 
Meanwhile, for the past few weeks, we’ve been accumulating food, clothing, sailing gear, and miscellaneous stuff to take – including CDs for our listening pleasure, trivia game to play at night, passports (in case we drift into Canadian waters), stacks of magazines, video camera, digital camera, GPS, emergency radio, our favorite snacks (including a box of macaroni and cheese), two bottles of wine, and a large feather quilt for warm on chilly nights.
 
I’ll be snapping lots of pictures and have stories to tell in late September… stay tuned!