Why we should not own cars

March 21st

After trying for six months to get together with my friend Debbie who is now working in Jersey City, we finally had arranged to meet her for drinks after work. It is pouring when John and I go to the Liberty Grill, but it is great to see Debbie and catch up on all the news. It is still pouring when we leave, a real downpour wrecking havoc with people's umbrellas. Fortunately we parked in a garage near the restaurant and we don't get too wet walking to the car. On our way home, there is some "local flooding" in an intersection, but cars are going through. We attempt to follow but the car dies in the middle of the intersection and we have to push it out. Some wonderful person stops and helps us get the car into a parking space. Whoever you are - thank you so much. We take a cab home and leave the car for another drier day.

March 22nd

We get up early to go get the car because the space we had pushed the car into was clearly marked, "No Parking 7AM - 7PM". We drive the truck to the car, but of course the car still will not start. So we have it towed back to the marina. It is still kind of wet out and I really do not like to drive the truck so I send email to my colleagues, Car drowned, working at home.

March 23rd - The fun begins

The car still won't start so I reluctantly agree to drive the truck to work, forty miles on the NJ Turnpike and Garden State Parkway. This commute is the absolute worst aspect of living aboard. As I drive over the bridge on the turnpike extension the truck starts to slow down so it will only go about 45. I keep going merging in to the car lanes on the turnpike. The truck continues to slow down, so much so that I start to drive on the shoulder. I see a sign that says that the service area is only two miles away. I pray that the truck will make it, it is now going 15. My prayers are not answered. It stops and refuses to move. I call John with the cell phone. He rents a car and I have the truck towed to Perth Amboy, wherever the tow truck people want to take it. They agree to take a look at it and let us know how much it was going to cost to fix our tweleve year old truck that we only need for another three weeks.

March 24th - Another day, another tow truck

The clutch is gone on the truck and its going to cost $900 to fix it. After looking up the book value, we decide to go for it. The car finally starts, but its making a horrible sound, so we have it towed to a garage nearby. They can't look at it until Monday, but we still have the rental.

March 26th

Some bearing in the engine is bad on the car. The mechanic suggests that we call the insurance company. This is not a good sign. So we file a claim with our insurance company and wait for them to tell us what to do next.

March 27th

The truck is fixed! We finally own a working vehicle again!

April 2nd - My last day of work for a year

I do have to drive the truck on the turnpike again, but it behaves this time.

April 3rd

The insurance adjuster and the mechanic agree that the car needs a new engine. The mechanic orders one from Mazda and lets us know it will take at least four days to arrive. He is going to take the old engine out now and hopefully we can pick up the car next week. This is really cutting it close. Our original plan had been to leave the car at my parents' house and sell the truck. We need to be out of the marina by April 15th. We may end up keeping the truck too!

Other stuff we've been doing

We went to the opera with my parents, disproving John's theory that boat shoes are always appropriate when you live aboard.

We had a lovely Bon Voyage party with my family at my parents' house. My brother and his family came down from Albany. It was good to see everyone. I hope that we are able to see them a few times during our voyages.

We took the shrink-wrap off and put the sails on. This took several trips to the storage unit and we tried to reassemble all the pieces of the lazy jacks. We also had the boat short-hauled for a power wash and new zincs. We got the dinghy out of storage and John reassembled it and fixed the worst of the leaks.

We had an Open Boat to give people tours of the boat before we take off. John's brother and sister and their respective families came up and the beloved grandchildren came down. Several of our colleagues from work stopped by.

We still have not figured out how we are going to keep our web site up to date while we are traveling. We have successfully read our mail at some internet cafes, but we were not able to update the web pages. Our current plan involves visiting Kinkos frequently.

Still waiting to go

We took the dock box to a friend's dock for temporary storage and put the TV back in the storage unit. We fueled up the boat and now have a jerry jug of diesel lashed to the stanchions. We look like such cruisers J . Everyone in the marina seems to know that our departure is imminent and is stopping by to wish us well.

We made a zillion more trips to the storage unit before converging on items that we need and can fit on the boat. This is a tough problem as we need warm clothes for the first few weeks as we make our way south, but will definitely need the summer clothes by the time we are back by here again. Since we only have heat when we have shore power, we are planning on staying in marinas until it is warm enough in the evening for us to sleep without heat. We plan on going south until we get warm, then turning around. We should be back here in about six weeks. I wonder if the marina restaurant will be done by then - signs point to no.

We also went to the Cirque du Soleil, which was very exciting. Everything that we absolutely needed to get done before we go, is done and John is definitely ready to go. He has about as much patience as our three year old grandson, Patrick. The car is still in the shop and the weather today, Thursday April 12th, is crummy. Sailors have a superstition about leaving on a Friday, add that to my vague concern about Friday the 13th and it looks like Saturday is the day to go. Our phone will be turned off tomorrow so this may be the last chance that we have to update the web site for a while.

My parents came down for lunch on Tuesday. Here they are with the skyline in the background. What a view we have!